Chillin' in Shanghai

I have been in Shanghai for 4 days now and things are good. The city is bustling with activity as part of the celebration of the Chinese New Year which was January 29. Most Chinese have the week off to celebrate the New Year. One of the traditions of the Chinese New Year is to use fireworks to celebrate. So on Wednesday, the night before the the fifth day of the Chinese New Year celebration which is called Po Woo, the Chinese light off fireworks for good luck. Now I have seen a fair share of firework shows in my lifetime but this celebration takes the cake. The best way to describe it is as follows: Think of the best fireworks show that you have seen, add muscle enhancing drugs, throw in non-regulated fireworks and mix-in a popluation of 17 million citizens of Shanghai who weren't allowed to light fireworks until this year, wow!

Other than that I have been pretty much just hanging out with my friends. I think the two most important questions of day have been "what do you want to eat?" and "what dvd do you want to watch?" Tough decisions especially since my friend has 400+ DVDs and going out to eat requires venturing out in near freezing weather. [ Cold weather makes Edwin unhappy ]

A couple of notes about Shanghai and China. The money is called a Yuan, or a RMB or a Kuai (pronounce -> Kwa-why ) The current exchange rate is about 8 RMB to $1 which makes it relatively inexpensive to live here. For example a bottle of beer at the market costs about 4 RMB or $.50 and a cab ride averages about 10 - 15 RMB or $2. Of course if you go out to a club or bar a beer costs about 40 RMB or so I have heard. Also, if you visit China, you should exchange your money here because the exchange rate is better than most places and although the number of English speaking Chinese has increased since my last visit two years ago, it can still be challenging getting around without a basic knowledge of the language. With that said, I would recommend a visit to Shanghai because it's a city on the rise ...

That's all I have to say about that, I have to get back to watching season 8 of South Park ...

---

Next stop: Hong Kong - 2/5

On deck: Ha noi, Vietnam - 2/9