This posting is for Saturday June 4 and Sunday June 5.
This weekend is the Dragon Boat Festival and Monday is the National day of celebration for the festival. Most businesses and the governments are closed Monday, but most retail stores appear to be open.
On Saturday our group went to visit the village of Xitang. The drive there took about 1.5 hours. This is a water village and it is so quaint and charming, but you would never think so when you first arrive, as our bus was only one of a hundred other tourist buses there. The village is a major tourist spot, and millions of Chinese visit it, especially on this holiday weekend. It was raining, but in spite of this we had a great time and got to see this beautiful villiage. Also, this is the town where they shot the movie Mission Impossible 3 with Tom Cruise. You will find some very interesting photos of the town.
The next day, Sunday, a student, Cassie, took us via the Metro to Meilan Lake to see the Dragon Boat Festival and parade. We ate lunch there, watched the parade, saw the dragon boats, and took many pictures. We were also the object of many photographers, who wanted pictures of our group with the dragon boat people. We accomodated them. Then we walked around the town a little and saw more festivities.
Next we took the subway to the Boshan campus of Shanghai University. This is the main campus of Shanghai University. It is very big and very beautiful. There was a lake, and the campus was like a park, with beautiful flowers and landscaping. Very wide plazas and the buildings appeared fairly new. You will see a picture of the library, and we went inside. After we toured the campus we went to a restaurant and had a dinner where we barbequed our food on a grill at the table. After dinner we went to a game room like Dave and Busters and the young ones played a few games. After that we took the Metro home. This was a very exhausting day.
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| Typical canal in the water village of Xitang |
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| Vendors selling food in one of the many street stalls. |
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| Canal scene in Xitang |
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| Close up of fisherman and gondola in Xitang canal |
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| Parade of many gondolas. Tourists, including us, take a gondola ride that last about 20 - 30 minutes. |
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| Two fisherman with large black birds on their boats. The birds catch the fish, but cant swallow them because they have rings around their necks. |
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| Lone fisherman who uses net to catch fish |
This is the next day, Sunday, at the Dragon Boat Festival at Meilan Lake
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| Parade celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival |
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| Festivities at Meilan Lane during Dragon Boat Festival |
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| The Dragon Boats on the water |
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| Photo of me and one of the Dragon Boat sailors |
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| Sign on the grass, telling people to stay off the shy smiling grass |
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| Me with two youngsters who love to be around westerners |
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| After we left the Festival, we went to see the main campus of Shanghai University. It is absolutley beautiful. Big lake, park like setting with many flowers, wide plazas and millions of bikes. This is a photo of the Library |
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| When we walked outside the campus, this was a shopping and dining area. We ate dinner in one of the restaurants on the top right |
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