It’s hard to believe how quickly three weeks passed by. It seems like we were just talking about Beijing and here we are finishing up in Shanghai.

To get to Shanghai, we would have once again navigated an airport and an airline. While we’re always up for an adventure, I must say that I didn’t miss the stress of getting to Shanghai.

Shanghai, China’s largest city, is well known for its combination of history and modernization. The many skyscrapers light up the skyline at night with their glowing lights, but day or night the skyline is quite impressive. At the same time, the waterfront area known as “The Bund” offers a delightful contrast with its historical buildings, many dating back to the 1800’s with some art deco architecture to admire.

There are also many great international restaurants to tempt your taste buds, and for shoppers, you can find shops for just about every luxury and non-luxury brand you could want.

We had planned a day trip to visit to the beautiful cities of Suzhou and Tongli. There are so many quaint places to visit and we were looking forward to seeing them. Some of the many highlights are the beautiful UNESCO gardens, the Pagoda on Tiger Hill and the Tongli Ancient Town.

I happen to know someone who lives in Suzhou and was hoping that we might be able to meet while we were there. Sorry Marta, it was going to be a surprise.

Our last meals were just as tasty as first ones. I can’t say enough about how much fun we’ve had trying the different recipes and tasting real, freshly made Chinese food. Our past experience has always been Americanized versions of the foods and there really has been no comparison. Our final meal was Kung Pao Chicken.

Our flight home would have been direct from Shanghai to Toronto. As the flight was scheduled for just over thirteen hours, we were counting on snoozing a little bit; since when we returned to Toronto there would be another couple hours of getting home via shuttle – but that was not to be.

We’ve had fun on our little staycation. We hope you’ve enjoyed the ‘highlights of the highlights’ that we would have shared. Hopefully, the next time we’ll be talking about someplace we are actually visiting.

Wei Wei says: