So Long Shanghai! (Joe's Birthday)

With our last weekend in China, we headed into the city to celebrate Joe's birthday early. We went to the fake markets one last time to replace the wallet that I had lost/was taken on the subway a couple of weeks ago. We picked up our last Chinese knockoffs and then went to dinner. We decided to go to recreate one of our favorite meals in China, the duck we had in Beijing. The famous restaurant we went to with our moms had a location right by the fake markets, so we couldn't resist. The duck wasn't quite as good or fresh as it was in Beijing, but we still really enjoyed the meal and even remembered to take a picture this time! You are given the duck meat, sauce, cucumbers, scallions and pancakes all separately and basically get to make your own mini duck taco which is delicious!

 After dinner, we went into the heart of Shanghai to go up to the tallest observatory in the world, the top of the World Financial Center, or "bottle opener building" as it is known because it looks just like a big bottle opener. We went up to the 100th floor, which is at the very top of the square opening and is a glass walkway so you can see down to the people below you and you can see the whole city, including the lit up boats along the river, the Pearl Tower and old English area called the Bund across the river. We really enjoyed going up there, though it was hard to get good pictures due to all of the bright lights on the buildings.

The building we went up!

This model was in the bottom of the building so you can see where you are situated before you go up.

All of the sides had glass panels on the floors so you could see down too.. it freaked me out at first!

Contemplating life 1500 feet above the ground

A new skyscraper that they are building right next to the building we were in, they were welding up there at 8pm!

Pearl Tower with rainbow lights

Glass panels in the floor of the top deck so you could see the people below

Amazing view of an amazing city!

Once we were back on ground level, we headed across the river to our hostel in Shanghai for the night. The room was great and had a loft with the bed which was cool, though we had some obnoxious tourists next to us who forced us to nag them to turn off their music late into the night. In the morning, we went back to one of our favorite areas for brunch at an all day pancake place that we've wanted to go to and both got "big breakfasts" which included 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, bacon, sausage and ham all for less than $10! One of the things we'll miss about China is just how cheap everything is! We then made one final stop at the DVD store (where every DVD is $2) to pick up some last minute souvenirs and did the hour and a half trip back to campus for the last time! We now have 2 days until our flight leaves for Chicago (as I write this, it is 47 hours until departure, not that I'm counting)!