Shanghai    January 18th, 2010    Page 5



We are about to leave on our marathon plane trip home. To be honest, I’m almost looking forward to it. We’ll have enough time to watch all three Lord of the Rings movies in a row, and I plan on doing exactly that.

The second half of the trip has been less about sightseeing and more about observing and experiencing culture. The few exceptions might include the Terra Cotta Army in Xian (8,000 life sized warrior statues buried with an emperor for defense in the afterlife) and the Shanghai World Financial Center

(which at 1,600 feet is the tallest building in China and currently third in the world).

We’ve had other unique experiences. We’ve been to several indoor and outdoor markets, and I’ve gotten pretty good at bargaining. The trick is to express interest in an item, and then say “No thank you,” and walk out of the shop after discussing the price for a few moments. Go back thirty seconds later and the price will have dropped to about 10 to

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