Giant Chinese ox taking a dip in the Lake. 

Dan and Alex taking in the view. 

Walking around the Lake we stumbled on a few of these groups of older Chinese. Here, they're playing traditional Chinese music. Dunno if they do this every Saturday, or if it's cause of the holiday. 

Statue of a past regional ruler in Hangzhou. Not to up on my Hangzhou history, but I believe there's imperial history here. Not sure if it was the capital of all of China at some point, or just a smaller kingdom. In any case, this dude's a badass. 

Pretty temple and gardens on Hangzhou's West Lake.  

Hangzhou's West Lake 

Alex, Dan and I made a day trip out to the city of Hangzhou, about 2 hrs from Shanghai. Hangzhou is considered one of Chinest prettiest cities, and it's West Lake is famous. It was a wonderful day on the Lake.  

This is taken from right out front of our hotel. Doesn't this building, the new JW Marriott Hotel, remind you of the tower from Lord of the Rings, or was it just us? Dan and I had a beer on the 38th floor lounge. What a view! 

For the bird lovers. Sorry we couldn't get a better shot. In Chinese traditional painting, images of birds symbolize strength and aggressiveness, while streams and mountains are passive symbols. Or something like that.  

Again, lookin pissed and stompin on people. 

Some art from the Shanghai Art Museum, considered one of the finest in China (which isn't saying much). Yes, we actually went to a museum. There were many similar pieces, with demons getting stomped on. We loved 'em. 

An ad we saw in Shanghai. I swear, we could make a fortune in China just correcting all the mis-spelled English you see everywhere. (For those not up on fashion, the shirt should read "Abercrombie and Fitch," not "Titch") 

And another night shot on Nanjing Rd. Down a ways and on the right is a store where Alex bought a "going-out" shirt for only 4 bucks US. The shirt kinda feels like plastic, but it looked good and he's still got it, so great bargain! 

Here's pretty much the same shot of Nanjing Rd, this time taken at night. I love the Asian love of crazy neon lights, but that's just me. 

Another shot of Nanjing Rd. Our hotel was a couple streets down to the left from this street, but we largerly stayed away from it since it's a strenous experience. It'll be interesting to see if it's this packed when our program visits Shanghai next month. Remember, we were there during the October National holidays, when all of China is travelling and partying. 

This is Nanjing Road in Shanghai, one of the city's most famous streets and tourist spots, as you can see from the crowds. I probably don't need to go into much detail explaining how crazy it is. Nanjing Rd is one of two major shopping streets in Shanghai, but this caters more to Chinese than Westerners. 

After eating dinner we visited an art gallery in the same building. It had some weird stuff like this Disney painting with Mao. I'll leave figuring out the symbolism to the real art critics out there. 

Me, Alex and Dan at M on the Bund, with Pudong district skyline in background (if you can make it out). 

Another shot of the Bund, this time from M on the Bund. The Bund is known as Asia's most famous street. The old European buildings you see are where the financial district was located in colonial times, and before it moved across the river. 

This is the Bund, with M on the Bund restaurant in the foreground. The shot is taken from a bar/restaurant on top of the next building over.  

Here's the same skyline taken at night. This is as good of a pic I could get my camera to take. This is taken from a famous restaurant, called "M on the Bund." If you happened to read the recent NY Times article or eating in Shanghai, it was mentioned for having the best view in town.  

Shanghai pics! Here's a shot of the famous skyline of the Pudong business district, taken from a restaurant on top the Bund. The Bund is a street bordering the river on the older side of the river. European style buildings border it. What's amazing is the skyline that you see here was completely non-existant 10 years ago. We saw this at the urban planning museum in Shanghai. Amazing how fast they develop the cities here.