Safe and sound in Shanghai

After 31 hours of flying and transfering and bouncing around airports, we arrived safely in shanghai at about noon yesterday. we got to the hotel around one, and checked in took us till about 2pm. We dumped our bags, grabbed a quick shower, and set off to explore Shanghai. the first place we went to was 新天地 (xin tian di), a section of shanghai that consisted of traditional buildings that had since been renovated and converted into a fusion mall that had hugo boss, starbucks, and other very western stores in what looks like a very traditional chinese style courtyard. It differed from my last time in shanghai in that there were tons of westerners lounging around, which oddly put me in more of a cultural disconnect than when I was the only westerner around. After 新天地, we went to nanjing road, where we walked from the peoples square to the bund. We tried finding a restauraunt to eat at the bund, but didn't find anywhere that was reasonable ($50 US is completely insane for a meal, btw) and so we walked down some of the smaller alleys looking for a little neighborhood restauraunt that I typically ate at. We found a few, but one of the members of our group or another was always wierded out by something (like roast pidgeon, or that they prepared the food right next to the street so you could watch) and so we ended up stopping at a touristy japanese restaraunt on nanjing road for dinner. after that, we jumped on the subway and headed home.