Our China Adventure (Day 3571 - 9/4/19)

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Stephen shows how many apartment buildings there are outside the window. He says that the breakfast buffet at the hotel was great and they over 150 options available. Stephen is not sure what they're doing today because he hasn't read the itinerary, but Mallory has read it. Stephen says that their China adventure starts today!

They started the tour and they heard that it would be drizzling while they are in Shanghai. They didn't bring any umbrellas, so Mal is currently covering the vlog camera with her hoodie. Stephen says that they will probably buy some umbrellas at a convenience store later. The tour guide told them that Shanghai is old, but a lot of the city is fairly new. The east side of Shanghai was built up during the last 2 decades. That side contains the Shanghai Center which is the tallest building in China and the 2nd tallest building in the world. Stephen then says that he forgot the name of the building (Shanghai World Financial Center) next to it, but it looks like a bottle opener. The west side has European architecture that dates back to over 20 years ago. Stephen says that it's really expensive to live here.

Next, they go to the Jade Buddha Temple which is named after the large white jade statue of Buddha inside the temple. Stephen mentions that the Buddha was completely carved from 1 piece of white jade. They weren't able to film the statue, so Stephen inserted an image he found on Google. Stephen described the statue as giant and ornate. The white jade Buddha statue was surrounded by 666 other small Buddha statues. Stephen says that the number "666" might be alarming to people in Western culture since "666" is associated with the devil or heavy metal music. But, in Eastern culture it has a good meaning. The temple first opened in 1886 and most of it was rebuilt in the last 5 years. So, not much of the original temple remains. Stephen says that the temple is beautiful and that it's full of activity with a couple of monks walking around.

Back at the hotel room, Stephen says that they started the tour at 9:00 AM and now it's noon. The tour guide told them that he was going to do a walking tour around the hotel explaining some things and recommending places to eat. They might join the tour in order to find a place to have lunch. Stephen talks about how the Jade Buddha Temple was cool, but that it was disappointing that they weren't allowed to film the highlight which was the statue. Then, he mentions that the tour group is having a meeting at 5:00 PM.

They are having lunch at a restaurant called Bab!. They both ordered a set meal of dumplings; pork culet; and a soup containing tofu, mushrooms, leafy greens, and eggs. Mal mentions that she really loves dumplings. They return to their hotel room and Stephen talked about how lunch costed 33 won per person ($4.50 per person) which was a good price considering the large amount of food they got. Stephen says that you're not expected to tip in China, so they didn't. After eating, he says that they went looking around in a few shops. Stephen says that the price of goods is equivalent to goods in the U.S., but the food is cheaper here. They also bought an umbrella because they're going to need in while in Shanghai. Additionally, they stopped by a Lawson's which is a convenience store that also exists in Japan. Stephen got a salted caramel Pepsi. He tries it and really likes it. He says that it has a salted caramel aftertaste and salted caramel is one of his favorite flavors. Mal tries it and likes it as well since the salted caramel flavor is not overpowering. Stephen says that the leopard print label on the bottle is kind of weird though because it's not what he thinks of when thinking about salted caramel. Then, he talks about how they released Pepsi Black while they were in Japan in April. Stephen also had tried some and really liked the strong overpowering Cola flavor.

Stephen says that the tour guide gave talked about some interesting information, but he can't record every second of it because of his limited SD cards. So, he will just be summarizing it on the vlog. He asks viewers to be understanding that he may remember things wrong and to feel free to correct him in the comments. The tour guide talked about religions in China because they were at a temple. About 10% of the population is religious with the man religions being Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity (Catholic), and Islam. Religious freedom is a part of China's constitution. One part of the constitution says that a person can't have any religious ties if they are a member of a communist party or if they want to be a governmental official. Stephen says that it might be because they don't want any religious influence affecting a government official's decision-making.

They are going to relax in their hotel room until the orientation at 5:00 PM where they will learn stuff about the upcoming trip. The orientation gives them a chance to interact with other people in their tour group. Stephen says that they will be having the same tour guide for the entirety of the trip. They will be taking flights domestically to get to Beijing and Xi'an. They took a nap until orientation time. After orientation, there was dinner that was served family-style. There was so much food and they kept bringing in more food to the point where there was no more room on the lazy Susan. They had to take away some food to make room for more food. Stephen says that he felt bad because there was still so much food left by the end of the meal. There were 9 people from the tour group at their table out of a group of 25. Stephen mentions that the size of the group was about the same size as the tour group they had on their trip to Greece. Gate 1 is a global company, so there were people from different places in their group. For example, there was a Russian couple at their table who now live in Miami Beach. There was also couples from other countries as well.

Stephen talks about how more than half of the people in their tour group have been on more than one Gate 1 tours. He mentions that this is Mark and Rhonda's 6th time going on a tour with Gate 1. There was a couple who has been on 10 tours. Stephen says that it gives your a feeling of faith in the company when people are willing to use it 10 times. They learned that they are leaving to go to Suzhou at 8:00 AM tomorrow and riding a boat in the canals through the city. It is a canal city, so Stephen calls it the "Venice of China". Also, they will seeing a garden and having lunch. Then, he talks about how he's jet lagged and they took a nap immediately after lunch. Stephen had to force himself to get up and go to the orientation. He hopes that his body adjusts to the new time zone quickly. Stephen says "Let's meet back tomorrow, shall we?" and Mal interjects to add "and eat dumplings!". They both agree that they could eat dumplings every day.