1.36 billion people in China......

....and it felt like they were all out with us as we toured Shanghai!  It was exhausting every single time we left the hotel.  Crowds of people on the sidewalks, packed metro stations, super crowded markets! Everywhere you turned, crowds of people.  It's our fault, we chose to travel in China during National Day, or Golden Week! Seriously, pure craziness!

I'll admit, this soured my view of Shanghai, and I honestly couldn't wait to leave.   The architecture of Shanghai was amazing though!  In the downtown area, there are some amazingly tall buildings, and at night, with the lights on, they were beautiful!

We all noticed a huge difference in cultures between Japan and China.  Even though Tokyo is one of the most densely populated cities, with 38 million residents, they had such respect for one another that everything flowed smoothly and felt quiet.  When we arrived in Shanghai, they people were much louder, a lot pushier, and the environment a lot dirtier.  People rushed onto trains, pushing others out of the way to get a seat--no allowing others to get off before you get on.  It just seemed so chaotic and unacceptable to us to see this!

We were also constantly looked at and stopped, for the 4 boys grabbed a lot of attention! In China, although there has been a slight easing on the 1 child per family policy, we are a strange phenomenon! We couldn't barely stop to take a picture of the boys, for as soon as we did, there were others doing the same.   The boys are fairly tolerable of this, other than Noah, who really doesn't like to be touched by people, so I usually have to rescue him pretty quick!

We left Shanghai through an incredibly crowded train station, and arrived in Beijing to the thick cover of smog.  You couldn't see the tops of buildings and you could taste the pollution in your mouth!  At this point, I really was ready to ask Todd to just get us out of this country!   

But, we stuck it out, a colder weather front approached that night, and cleared the air!  We visited the Great Wall of China, at Mutianyu, and it was amazing! The crowds had died right off, and the wall had almost no one there!  The sky was a clear blue, and the Wall was far more beautiful, rugged, fantastic than we could have imagined!  

So, in the end, I think China will have been worth the visit, and I would recommend it to anyone, but its not a place I would rush to for a relaxing weekend!