We've been off this past week for Chinese New Year. In addition to listening to the NON-STOP fireworks (yes, I am serious, it's still going on), we actually found time to unwind and do the things we normally don't have a chance to do. We spent Friday at Century Park with Tony's colleage Ina. Ina, her husband Rainer and their son, Rene are from Germany and we're exploring the city together. Century Park is located on the Pudong side of Shanghai. Pudong is the newer side of Shanghai. Up until about 15 years ago, it was farmland. Century Park sits on 347 acres and has a lot to offer. There are boat and bicycle rentals, mini-golf and an amusement park. Admission to the park is 10 RMB per person (about 1.25 USD) and you can stay until the park closes.
It's great that Rene is about the same age as Matthew and they get along well. Rene doesn't speak a lot of English. Matthew doesn't speak any German. The universal act of playing together doesn't require a lot of speaking. Just the signal- "Let's play and get into a lot of trouble!". The kids spent some time by the lake and fed the fish. It was more like tormenting the fish than feeding. We didn't have any fish food but the kids improvised by pulling down branches off the trees and tied grass to it. The fish were taking the bait and it was nice just to watch them hanging out together.
