…….

On our second day in Shanghai we woke up too early and headed out to the tour company, boarded a bus and went for a two-day trip to Hangzhou City.

This is a beautiful lake town with the most amazing scenery. We went to the silk factory and spent too much money, hehe: silk sheets are worth it.

We went to The West Lake, The Pearl on Earth. This is a beautiful lake with many little Islands and these lovely arching bridges. We went on a short boat ride to one of the Islands and walked around the park.

We went to this one special temple of blessings. You choose which fortune you want told – wealth, love, work, education etc – and then one of the monks will interpret your fortune for you. I chose Education for ToddlerJi and hers was described as the very best fortune that you can get. He said she would be amazingly smart and have a job that would support the entire family.

Cool!

I did job and had a very positive fortune. Li also did job and it said that he would not succeed unless he started his own business. Hmm.

Then there was the temple/park where the water is amazingly pure and clear. The monk show found the spring found the opening in a dream having to do with a tiger or something.

We also went to this very deep cave that had those stagimite thingies and was cooolllddd. We unfortunately only had time for the short tour, which brought us through the beginning of the cave and brought us back on a scary train. The long tour includes a boat ride in total darkness.

It was really neat.

Ji was so so ok about being bustled in and out of the bus about 6 times a day. She was basically fine as long as we weren’t on the bus: she found it very boring.

I enjoyed it.