The Racine's in China: China

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well we have been here 6 months already. At this rate, 5 years will fly by! We are truly enjoying the adventure. Daniel is settling in a little bit. It is not a daily complaint anymore. If you ask him, he still doesn't want to be here, but at least he is not complaining as much. Baby steps!

Jennifer came for a visit from January 16 to February 1. We showed her all over the city. The first day we went to the Coat Market. She was hoping to have a coat made, but due to the Chinese New Year the market would be closed and would not reopen until after Jennifer left. So no coat - maybe next time.

We went out to Daniel's school for a Chinese New Years celebration. They put on a whole program that was wonderful. The entire program was performed by the Middle School - it was equal to a professional performance.

During the show they did a Karate demonstration

Middle School students performing a Lion Dance.

Middle School students performing a Dragon Dance

Part of the Dragon Dance.

Jennifer and I went to the Pearl Tower. When you see pictures of Shanghai, you usually see pictures of the Pearl Tower. That is the most famous building. We went up to the 83 floor. Unfortunately it was not the clearest day, but we still could see the city. Under the tower they have a Shanghai History Museum.

We are standing on a circular walkway that goes all
around. It was freezing when we were walking
to the Pearl Tower. That is the Pearl Tower in
the background.

Inside the Pearl Tower - decorated for Chinese New Years (It was New Years
Eve when we went here). Notice the woman in red in the background, the workers
were all dressed in this type outfit.

View from the top. Unfortunately it was not a clear day. This is looking
over to Puxi side of the city, where Randy works. The Tower is in
Pudong, where we live. Actually we can see the Tower from our
apartment office window. It is about 20 minute drive from our apartment.

This is interesting to anyone who has seen Mission Impossible 3 (not the new
one). Part of it was filmed in Shanghai. The building to the right is the
bank that Tom Cruise swung from and the building next to it, left, is the
one he landed on and almost slid off (or used to model the studio version of :).
The other part of the movie was
filmed in Xitang - will talk about that in another blog!

The tall building is actually the tallest building in Shanghai. It has 105 floors.
It is called Shanghai World Financial Center or as westerners call it, "The
Bottle Opener". Originally it was suppose to be round on top, but then in the last
minute they changed it because the round was too much like the rising
sun, which is the symbol for Japan. To the right you can just see 2 cranes above
the building. That is actually another building that is being built and will
be taller than the Bottle Opener. I think they said it is going to be somewhere
between 120-140 floors!

The picture shows where we are standing at
350 meters (1148 feet).

The bottom circle of the Tower has a glass walkway that you can stand on.
Jennifer and I would not actually go out on it, we stood on the edge and took
this picture!