Flooding

So I'll post more China pictures soon, but I wanted to post some pictures of the flooding at home. This May set a record for rain! Here is Utah Lake's harbor flooded.

Tongli- A Chinese Water City

This was really one of my favorite places that we went to in China. We had an adventure trying to get there, but we ended up making it and everything turned out great. 

 

These fish were crazy. If you threw food into the pond they would swarm to it.

 

Old meets new

Here are a couple more pictures from my birthday that I hadn't posted yet from the Temple and the Bund.

 This is where I was sung happy birthday to. It was a blast. Also check out this sweet pirate ship.



The next day we went to a warehouse nicknamed 3 Ladders by a friend. It has tons of old cool things. It was a really interesting place, and you had to bring a flash light to be able to explore everything.

There's also tons of interesting things to see while just walking down the streets of Shanghai, that's bound to happen in a city of 22 million people.

 Later that night we went to an old meat slaughter house that was turned into a mall. It was a really interesting building.

   One of the cooler things about Shanghai is that there are skyscrapers wherever you look, but then thrown in randomly are these really old houses in the middle of the city.

Gardens and Temples

I was able to celebrate my 22nd Birthday in China. To start the day off we went to the Ancient Garden while trying to find Yuyuan garden, which is the garden that most of the pictures are from. Then we went to visit a Buddhist Temple. Shanghai is a loud, bustling place, and so it was fun to go to these gardens and to the temple and discover a more peaceful place. It was a great birthday which was celebrated with Pizza (I was dying for an American meal for my birthday haha) and a trip to the Bund with our friends. More pictures of the Bund will be posted soon. Enjoy.

    These guys were awesome.

Xiantiandi and more

We met our friend Jerrel and went to a warehouse to go shopping. It was an interesting place. I think it was a more run down part of Shanghai so I didn't really take out my camera much, but I got a couple pics right before we went. 

That night we went with our friends to Xintiandi. 

First Real Day of China

      So after finally getting to China we went out to eat with some really great people, and it was great, but I was dying from jet lag- so the next day was when we went out to explore. Shanghai is a really interesting place, and we had some good fun shopping and wandering around.

 

This was the cutest old couple ever. I want to be like them one day.

 

 

Just in case you didn't know you were in China.

 

And I just have to throw in this last one for fun. This was the emergency evacuation plan for my hotel room. You got to love some Chinese to English translations. 

Not China

            So getting to China was an interesting experience in itself. My connecting flight was delayed and I ended up getting stuck in San Francisco alone for the day/night. Many other things went wrong, but after crying a bit and then getting things taken care of I bucked up for an adventure around the city. I asked some guy which way the ocean was and walked that way.
           Side note- when I actually did get to China and through customs no one was there to pick me up. I was alone in China, I didn't speak Chinese, and I had no idea where to go or where I was staying. About a half hour later my friends arrived (crazy metro problems), and lets just say that was one of the happiest sights that I have ever seen! I was so happy they came back for me and found me!