15 January 2008: Shanghai Museum

Early this morning, Brent and Ryan flew out to Tokyo. They are visiting a friend there, and we will meet back with them in Hong Kong.
Chris and I started the day having a look through the Shanghai Museum. It's quite large, and the locals are very proud of their world-class museum. There were many displays of ancient sculpture, ancient silk artworks, wooden masks, lots of pottery / ceramics, and a curious display documenting the history of currency in China.
The museum was quite well presented, with many displays. There were possibly too many displays to look at in one day. I felt quite drained after looking though the displays, but was glad we spent most of the morning looking through the museum.
We grabbed a bite to eat, at Megabite, which is a food court. You have to buy a smartcard, and pay for food from the food court using the card! It was a little strange. The food we chose was very good, and was cooked right in front of us! I was very impressed. I even managed to try some sweet black rice pudding, which I was surprised I liked!
We then headed over to the markets, buying some more scrolls. We have so many now, that I can't remember what they all mean. I am going to have to get Ryan or Marita to translate them for me when I get back to Australia. Chris and I also bought a ceramic bull, which has some characters on it, but we have no idea what it means. Perhaps "good luck"? Everything around here seems to mean good luck!
Chris and I headed home, and had a quiet evening, packing our things. Tomorrow we are going to visit Jiaxing. One of our suppliers from work agreed to show us around the factory while we are visiting, so I wanted to make sure we were packed and ready to go in the morning.