Museums and Tea Parties

I meet two different types of people today, and they could not have been more polar opposite. At the Starbucks this morning for the Venti, I meet a charming grandfather and his one and half year old grand daughter. The grandfather was teaching his progeny some English. They could tell I was the sort of chap who would be up for a rousing game of Peek-A Boo, and it was on. Lucky for me the rules for Chinese Peek-A-Boo do not differ all that much from the American version, give or take the appropriate language used at the moment of surprise. I think you know who won, but to her credit she was a worthy opponent. It was great fun, as the grandfather spent some time going over my map of Shanghai, and gave me some ideas of sites to see. It was wonderful, I hope they are there tomorrow.

My first day on the subway went well. The only down side of the subways here is that each stop does not have a big sign telling you the name of the station. They announce it in English, but it's hard to hear. I only had to go three stops, so I just counted the stops.

Today I was going to the Shanghai Museum, which is in People's Park, and I believe is considered to be the center of Shanghai. If you ask me they need to rename this park to "The Place Where Young People Pretend to be Interested in Young and Then Ask You to go to a Tea Ceremony Park" I guess that would be hard to fit on a sign. I had read about this in one of my travel books. Friendly young people feign interest, then invite you to what will end up being an outrageously over priced cup of tea. At first I didn't do the math when the three teenagers just walked right up and started a friendly conversation. Then I started getting compliments, hmmm, I know I'm good looking, but good looking and funny, somethings up. Sure enough, "Hey do you want to go with us to a tea ceremony?", ding, ding, ding; what do we have for our guests for playing. After coming out of the Shanghai Museum, once again, two lovely young ladies, asking a bunch of questions, compliments, then a suggestion for Tea, See Ya! The next guy was alone, and wanted to tell me about how much he liked Kobe Bryant, I didn't even stick around for the compliment (which I now regret). If the grandfather invites me out for tea tomorrow I will be heart broken.

The Shanghai Museum was very good. I really liked the Jade sculptures, and the paintings on scroll paper. It is hard to keep track of all the dynasties though, Jin, Song, Zaing, Ming, to name just a few. The Chinese have been carving Jade for around 8,000 years. As you can imagine, they are quite good at it.

		No idea why this man appears to be standing on a baby, unless he thought it would enhance his overall fierceness, which is always a good path to take.

Posted 3:41 PM, Tuesday the 28th, Shanghai time.