Qibao

A few weekends ago, the weather was nice so we took the subway out of Shanghai city center with the Divins to a part of town called Qibao.  It is an ancient water town that really could be beautiful if it hadn't been over run with Chinese tourists throwing liter and spitting everywhere and tons of cheap touristy crap to buy.  We had a good time though despite all of these things.

We tried to enjoy some street food, jiaozi (pot stickers) but they were terrible!  So we had a few noodles and moved on.  I later had a street pork bun and it was so delish so that made up for it.

We ran into this street vendor pet store.  I thought it was really funny.  You could buy a rabbit or some frogs just right there on the street!  I thought about buying a goldfish but didn't know if it would make it home with me.

You could even buy a squirrel or maybe it was a chipmunk, not sure.

The ancient canals were still really beautiful, with their graceful bridges and small boats.  You could hire a boat driver to drive you through but we skipped it.

Josh buying a coconut drink on the street.

Kelly and I 

Joel and Josh

Joel and I

 We went to the museum that is famous there, it is a museum for miniatures.  It wasn't very big (which I guess is fitting) but it was actually pretty cool.  There were tons of mini chinese items, tea pot and little furniture.  It was totally worth the 5 rmb to get in.

After the miniatures museum we hit up the cricket museum.  It was weird.  It had little dead crickets who had been champion fighters.  I guess I should mention that in China, crickets are raised and trained to be fighters.  Strange.  Anyway, the museum was sort of a flop, but the boys were happy at this point because we had bought them some beer to carry around.

Joel in front of the crickets.

We bought some really good sichuan peanuts and peppers that are dried and the soaked in spicy oil.  Not for the faint of heart but we loved them.

We really enjoyed our day in Qibao but mostly it was just nice to get out and explore.  Shanghai has so many wonderful things to see and do, which is the main reason we love this city so much!