All Aboard!!

On Sunday we sadly departed the wonderful city of Shanghai. It was an experience, though brief, that we will not soon forget. The people, the energy, the sharp contrast between old and modern, has not been matched on any of our previous travels to China.

The day started off with our departure from the Shanghai train station, as we headed towards Nanjing in Jiangsu province. To say that our experience was "memorable" was an understatement (Shauna can attest to this). When Steve thought it would be great to ride a train in China and offered this to the travel service as part of our itinerary, little did he know that typical passengers do not haul 11 pieces of luggage (and DUVETS!) let alone 2 bags, through an extremely busy train station (and we mean busy - though not Guangdong busy). Through some "secret" tipping, we managed to board the train for our 2nd leg of the journey.

The ride from Shanghai to Nanjing was very pleasant and quick (the "D" train was express and reached a maximum speed of 200km/hr during the 2 hour ride). When we landed at the Nanjing train station, we were dropped at the furthest point of the patform away from the exit. All of us including the girls and Fontana (our guide) did what we could to haul our gear to the other end of the platform (there are no trolleys). We were then greated by a large set of stairs. Before we all broke our backs, 2 men jumped in and offered to help. The gesture was very noble, and helped us to get the bags to the waiting van, though our generous tip (in our eyes) was next greeted with a very "boisterous" negotiating session, as the 2 men, our new driver and Fontana worked things out. We threw them a few more Yuan and headed off to our Hotel. If truth be known, we would have paid any amount of money to get assistance.

Once in Nanjing, the girls had a rest in our hotel, the Ramada Plaza Nanjing - well they were supposed to. As we are only here 2 nights, we told them not to empty out their entire suitcases, but they decided to have a fashion show and it looked like the proverbial bomb had hit!!! Oh well, they had fun with their cousin while Steve and I explored the city we'd stayed in when we received Stephanie almost 5 years ago. Later, we all took a very crowded subway (new since our last visit to Nanjing) and visited the central square that was under construction in 2003. The square was beautiful and busy with weekend shoppers. We proceeded to greet Ronald at McDonalds for a much-needed "McD" fix. Even Jennifer looked forward to having a burger there!!

Nanjing ("Nan" for South, and "jing" for "capital") lies on the south bank of the Yangtze River (longest river in Asia and the 3rd largest river in the World) and is the capital of Jiangsu Province. It is known as the capital city of 6 - 10 Dynasties in China's history and has a brilliant cultural heritage. It has a population of 5 million people.

To all the Taizhou families, we wanted to let you know that we had a great time shopping last night (Sunday evening). Our guide, Jennifer and I (Jane) went to Walmart (yup, Walmart in Nanjing) and had a ball buying all kinds of things for Taizhou Centre and Institute. We found out they both needed baby clothes, diapers and formula. We had two carts overflowing and the poor check-out clerk just looked at us with these huge disbelieving eyes. 40 minutes after we lined up, one of the Walmart greeters helped us to a cab across the street!! We had such fun and got tons of clothes, as well as diapers and formula. Fontana took a picture of us in the store with our goods so we will post as soon as she sends it to us. What fun and all for a great cause - thank you to everyone who donated!