Day 6: No More Bok Choy

One of Xian's antique markets

Daoist monk

Inside the Temple of the 8 Immortals

Xian's Drum Tower

Day 6 and our remaining time in Xian was pretty limited. We had only the morning to ourselves, before we had to rejoin the group for a flight to Shanghai. Some of the more ambitious members of our group used the free time to rent bicycles and ride around atop the city walls. We opted for a more relaxing morning at the Temple of the Eight Immortals, a Daoist temple a short distance outside of the walled city. Our cab driver dropped us as close to the temple as he could, but that still required us to walk through a thriving "antiques" market where much haggling ensued. Shawn, for reasons known only to him was trying to ask a saleswoman about the tiny three-legged stool she was using, so for the rest of the gauntlet, vendors, one and all, were popping out of their seats and trying to sell them to us. Passing up the porta-stools, we could have also bought fake money or paper goods (as I first saw last year in Bangkok) to burn in the temple's large braziers in order to pass them along to those who have departed this earth. The temple itself was redolent of incense and featured some of the most colorful murals and icons I've ever come across in a place of worship. Bicycle, Schmicycle...I was glad we had opted for the temple.

But soon, it was time to board our flight on China Eastern Airline to Shanghai. Of all the places we visited, Shanghai is by far the most cosmopolitan, with more dazzling skyscrapers, a more multi-cultural populace and therefore, thank the multi-hued Daoist gods, way more dining options than we had encountered up until then. It is not that I don't like Chinese food....every single day...three meals a day (!!!), it is just that it felt like every single meal I had eaten for the past five days was an unvarying combination of rice, steamed vegetables and bok choy (and occasionally a small plate of corn niblets, which I think they gave me solely for the purpose of mocking the vegetarian trying to pick up niblets with chopsticks). Shortly after checking into our hotel in Shanghai, we followed Michael's recommendation and headed to an upscale shopping and dining complex, known as Xintiandi which featured restaurants from all over the world. It was an embarrassment of riches...we could have Mexican, German, Sushi, so many choices. We opted for Italian at a place called Pizza Marzano and I don't know if it was the absence of bok choy, but I swear that I had the best veggie lasagna I have ever tasted in my life. Only a couple of hours in and Shanghai had already scored major points in my book.