Shanghai River Cruise

This morning the group rolled out of bed at different times, said our goodbyes to Larry, and gradually shook off the effects of our celebrations last night. At around 11:30, a team of us went back to the knock-off market to get some (hopefully) Beats headphones. After devising a legitimate reconnaissance, strategy, and bargaining plan, we set out around the complex. We emerged successful, nabbing 10 pairs for under $40 each. Authentic or not, these things sound great. We celebrated with some authentic Chinese Papa John's and then returned to our hostel to plan our evening activities.

At about 6:15, we left once more for the Bund district near Pu Dong to go on a river cruise on the Huangpu River. We got to People's Square as it was lighting up and sang for the crowd of curious locals who were intrigued by 15 white kids in the middle of Shanghai. Yesterday we were asked if we were a basketball team; that's significantly better than descriptions we've received before!

With the local onlookers growing, we decided to earn our strange, new-found publicity and sang a few songs for them... just as some Chinese cops drove through the large throng of people gathering around us. After we finished singing the cops approached us and kindly (though it didn't look like it) asked Wayne to have us sing on the sides rather than in the middle of the pass-way next time.

We then headed toward the river and found a steamship that we could take on a cruise of the river. The boat was beautiful and inevitably some of the guys (me) thought back to Crystal. The cruise was an hour long and we were continually amazed by the lights of Shanghai. None of our cameras needed the flash on because the city glowed as clear as day. The office windows of the tallest and widest buildings turn into the biggest electronic billboards I'd ever seen, animated and continually changing. The boat churned through the river and we got to witness the beautiful downtown from almost every angle. 

We got back just in time to enjoy the newly restored wi-fi, catch up on email, blog (well, just me) and catch up on scores from our favorite teams back home.

We'll catch you soon!