Shanghai -- Back to Oki!!

Our final morning in China....
We'd had breakfast and packed up all our goodies....
We'd readied our bags for the bus ride to the airport....

Time to take a few last pictures...
I realized Diane and I hadn't had our picture taken together since the first day!
We also had to take a gals pic ;0)

 

Clark decided he wanted to play photographer...
He staged and snapped these shots!

 

Rodney staged this one for Clark to take.
Clark liked that staging so well, he wanted in on it, too!

But, had one more idea for a shot!

The time had come for our journey home to begin...
Shortly before arriving at the airport, we passed an Ikea!! Sunny told us many people have a membership at Ikea which allowed them one free coffee a day. That Ikea also allowed people to hang out and sleep on the beds. So, if a member had an early flight out, they could go spend the night at Ikea and head to the airport with a free coffee!!  

All checked in and ready to go, we said good-bye to Sunny who was headed back to Beijing.
Since her home-home is Shanghai, she'd been able to have her parents come into the city and stay at the hotel with her while we were there!! I'm sure that was a nice little vacation from their 400 square foot factory worker dorm apartment! 

Even though our escort, Yuki, was traveling to Oki with us, we decided this was a good chance to grab a photo. 

 

A plane ride... 

...and a bus ride... 

... following eight (very fast and furious!) days, three cities, and over 2700 pictures, we were safely back on our quiet little island with loads of memories from this trip of a lifetime.
But, the memories could wait....
if you couldn't tell from Clark's face, the most exciting thing right now was getting home to our own beds!!!!

Shanghai -- Shanghai Night

Bottle Opener, Jin Mao Tower, and Shanghai Tower
 under an almost full moon!! 

 

 

Such a cool city night scene.....
(But, couldn't make heads nor tails of the road signs!!)

Under the Oriental Pearl taking the chill off with a Gingerbread Brulee Cappucino!!

 

A sparkling Louis Vuitton building!!! 

Bikes are a very popular mode of
transportation in the big city!! 

Waiting for the subway... 

We stopped in the copy market..
It's a bit claustrophobic when they're in your personal space-- "For you special price!" .... "What you need, Lady??.... Need bag?... Need shoes?... Need watch?" .... "For you special price!!"
And if  you show even a bit of interest in an item by asking anything about it, but decline and walk away, they can get almost ugly with you!!  

 

A wedding chapel? 

 

Best we could tell its a tailor and the sign means "customized"....

Another day done.... one China morning left.... 

Shanghai -- The Bottle Opener

The Oriental Pearl along the way to our last stop of the day.
 

Shanghai skyline towers (R to L in Chinese fashion)--
When completed in 2014, the Shanghai Tower with its 121 stories will be the tallest building in China, the second tallest in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
The Chinese name for the Jin Mao Tower translates "Golden Prosperity Building." It's 88 floors house offices and the Shanghai Grand Hyatt.
Our destination is the Shanghai World Financial Center....
aka the "Bottle Opener." 

Walk in the automatic door when the light is green, then through the next door when its light is green to enter the lobby. I do believe they were metal detectors!! Our assumption is if we'd had anything detected as suspicious, we'd have been locked in that little area!! Thankfully, we made it through with no issues.

We followed the arrows to the entrance
and bought our tickets. 

It's a very entertaining wait for the elevator!
A model of Shanghai with lights changing from day to night and back again.
Very fascinating to watch!

It was like waiting for a ride at Disneyland. From the entertainment to pass the time, to being numbered into groups and placed with your group in a roped area to wait your turn!

It finally came our turn for the elevator ride.....
The big light was on the ceiling and the little one on each wall of the elevator. The circles of light were like going through a tunnel, getting faster as we went. Rodney did NOT like it at all, but....  

...he made it!!!! Yes, all the way up to the 95th floor!!

I was really quite excited!!

From here, its an escalator ride down to the 94th floor observatory called the Sky Arena 94.
We opted out of the SkyWalk 97 and the SkyWalk100 with its glass floor!

Looking at Downtown left 

Looking at Downtown center 

Looking at Downtown right 

From the other side of the arena you can see...

...the colored roofs of the factory workers communities. 

And the vast number of apartment buildings which a large number of the 23 million Shanghai residents call home. 

Six bridges, five subways, and two tunnels connect the two sides of Shanghai across the Wong Pu River. With the size of the river, it makes sense that Shanghai is the #1 seaport.

 

We could only see a small portion of the
6700 square miles of the city. 

We decided this would probably be a good place to use the restroom (read: clean and have toilet paper and soap!) before we head out. I walk into the Ladies room and the last stall catches my eye!!
Yep, peeing in the sky above Shanghai!!!!

Well, as I'm meeting back up with Rodney, I pull out my camera and he says, "Uh-uh... I got you beat..."

And he tells me his story---
He was standing at the urinal and another man walks up to the urinal next to him. Rodney's making comments about the view. The gentleman looks at him and in his best English, "Today?.....Yesterday?..no...Last night?...... Stage?"
Rodney looks at him, "Acrobats??" "Yes! Yes!"
The guy had been at the acrobat show and recognized Rodney from being on stage!!!!!

Needless to say, Rodney's had much fun telling that story!!!

Anyway, the sky was turning to dusk, so it was time to start making our way back to the hotel for our last sleep in China.