Cruising China

The crowning event to Paul's banner year was the "exotic" trip that he qualified for.  He has qualified for some pretty spectacular trips before, but this is the first time in 37 years that he qualified for the "exotic" destination...a cruise from Shanghai to Tokyo, including Shanghai, Tianjin, & Beijing in China; Jeju & Busan in Korea; & Hiroshima, Miyajima, & Tokyo in Japan!

So I'm gonna break it down...we flew into Shanghai & drove to our hotel with a perfect view of The Pearl Tower on The Bund.  We enjoyed a buffet reception with the local cuisine & went straight to bed to try & catch up from our 12 hour flight...we missed a whole day with the time change, flying across time zones.

The next morning we took a taxi with friends to Old Town Shanghai & the ancient Yu Gardens to look around & see some of the ancient culture...

We took a little shopping adventure & I watched my friends (who are expert hagglers) score some great "designer" bags.  I scored a fun little Lois Vuitton tote & a cute little Tori Burch clutch - the other girls ended up with matching Guccis...about an hour later, they let us out of their "back room" - it was intense!

That afternoon we checked in on board the ship & The Pearl Tower was right across the river!

The Bund at night is stunning with the skyline all lit up!

After dinner we attended ERA, a Chinese acrobat show...it was spectacular!

That next morning we headed north up the Yellow Sea towards Tianjin & Beijing.  Two sea days & one massage later, we docked at the Port of Tianjin with a 3 hour bus ride into Beijing.  We visited Tianamen Square, The Forbidden City, had lunch at a jade factory, then drove through the crazy traffic to a section of the Great Wall where we quickly hiked up several hundred steps to get a magnificent view of The Wall.  

It was National Day & Tianamen Square was pretty crowded with people celebrating their country...

The Forbidden City is right across the street from Tianamen Square.  It was equally crowded...

The section of The Wall we visited, Juyongguan, wasn't nearly as crowded as Badaling is, & being there later in the afternoon, we pretty much had this section to ourselves!  Awesome!  Paul climbed a lot higher than I did...

But I kept myself busy while I waited for him to climb to the top & back...I was fascinated by these little locks that you can purchase to "lock your secrets up" for safe keeping.  I wondered what secrets each lock held?

...of course, I couldn't resist doing this because I still can...

Unfortunately, the traffic going back to the ship stretched our 3 hour bus ride into a 5 hour ordeal, getting us back too late for dinner & totally exhausted!

The next day was pouring rain, but we braved the weather for a tour of Tianjin which included a fabulous museum, an equally fabulous lunch, a quick shopping stop in old town, & the Shi Family Mansion (kind of a mini Forbidden City).  We were pretty soaked & glad to get back to the ship to dry out...

Paul really wanted to take one of these life size vases home with him...

Or this ginormous jade cabbage...

These dumplings were divine...

The Peking Duck was a bit too gamey for me & then I noticed what was left on the plate...his profile!

We left China that evening & enjoyed another full sea day as we sailed to Korea.  The weather on board was nice so we relaxed on deck & I finished reading a book I've been trying to read for a year!  I ended up reading 3 books on this trip!  The down time was nice, but we hit the shores of Korea running...