Shanghai

We stepped out of the secured area of the airport to see a Chinese man (the tallest I've ever seen) waiting for us, holding a sign with Eric's name on it. He spoke no English. The Chinese are incredibly kind people with the heart of caretakers. He right away took our luggage and ushered us outside. The driver was in a brand new dark blue BMW. The seats were so comfortable and I was so exhausted. This same driver took us anywhere we wanted to go the rest of the week. Although there was a language barrier this man showed us incredible kindness and humor. He would stay out with us until midnight and then report back to work at 8:30 the next morning. Lazy is not a word the Chinese know very well until they meet an American. :)

Walking into the hotel Sunday afternoon I saw more Westerners (as we were referred to as) in the hotel lobby than I had seen in all of Shenzhen and Xiamen. The hotel lobby was fascinating. Although you could see the age beginning to wear on the hotel as a whole, the sights were still amazing. This was Shanghai's first 5 star hotel. The floral arrangements in every area were enormously magnificent.
The staircase was lit up at night and was cool looking.

The outside of the hotel from the car on the highway.
This view is from our room on the 7th floor. The first night we had a room on the 15th floor and this view was much cooler. This highway interchange looked like a huge hotwheels toy with multi-faceted parts.

I could see this expo center from our window. The screen in the middle ran a buick commerical all day long. I didn't watch TV in the hotel but could watch wherever I went in the city.

We were now in the most densely populated city in the world. Over 18 million people.