Back in Shanghai!

Well, we're back from our whirlwind trip to the middle of China. Apparently it was very untouristy of us to go there, but who cares...some of the stuff we saw was pretty amazing. We saw the Yellow Crane Tower, Guqin Terrace, Guiyuan Buddhist Temple, Hubei Provincial Musuem (which boasted some impressive exhibits), Hubu night market, and we tried to see the East Lake and Mo Hill, but it was too rainy and miserable by the time we got there on our last day.

Day 1:

We got up early, leaving the hostel around 8am to see some sights! On the way to the Yellow Crane Tower we stopped and tried some snacks. Some were fabulous, others were not. I'm becoming a fan of fried bananas though, if that gives you any kind of clue. Finally we got to the tower and started our wanderings. It was a little strange because we were the only waiguo (foreign) tourists, everyone else was Chinese, go figure. They thought we were pretty funny, I think they were wondering why we had traveled to Wuhan of all the places in China. I'll let the tower speak for itself.

After seeing the tower and it's accompanying sites, we crossed the Yangtze and tried to make our way to the famous Guiyuan Temple, stopping along the way to see the Guqin Terrace.

And that pretty much ended day one. By the time we finished there, we were exhausted and retired to the hostel for some sleep before another busy day!

Day 2: Day two saw pouring rain and plummeting temperatures. It came in handy that one of the main sites we wanted to see was the Hubei Provincial Museum (a newish museum that specializes in the history of the Hubei Province).

bronze.

celadon.

really cool drum.

really big bell.

REALLY big bell.

traditional performance with big bells.

That basically took up our entire day, however we made time to go to Hubu Snack Alley and try many things. It's usually a 50/50 shot with the snack stalls...sometimes its the best thing you've ever eaten and sometimes it makes you never want to eat again. The other funny thing is that you actually have to make it a point to ask whether what you are about to eat is sweet or savory, because everything kind of looks the same.

Day 3: 

Sadly, day three was even wetter than the day before, but we were determined to see the East Lake and Mo Hill. So we took the bus the hostel recommended, but I think we got off at the wrong stop. We ended up walking across the bridge to the middle of the lake. You must remember that this is in the middle of what could feasibly be called a thunder storm. Needless to say, we didn't see much. We hailed down the first bus we saw, got out at the top and got back on the opposite bus. 

And then we traveled home. It was a long journey. Ugh. I'm tired now and have a ton of work to do!!!