Day 9 - Library, First Congress, Xin Tian Di, Sunyat Sen

First thing this morning was a visit to a library which housed geanological records. We were ushered into a big room and shown a video but I didn't understand anything that was discussed so that's about all I can say. We did watch a lady doing some restoration work.

We then visited the site of the First National Congress of The Communist Party which is in Xin Tian Di. Quite an interesting place if you want to learn more about the beginnings of the Communist party as some of the captions are in English.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/site-of-first-national-congress.htm

We then went for a wander in the area which has been set up as a very trendy cosmopolitan tourist area. There certainly were a lot of westerners enjoying themselves in the cafes and restaurants. Would have been nice to have eaten lunch in this area but for some reason they took us to a restaurant in an office building nearby. After lunch we visited Sun Yat-Sen's residence before visitng Nanjing Road shopping mall. Then to a Silk Exhibition Hall which was really another place to buy things but they did demonstrate how the silk is made. It was similar to the one we visited in Guilin last year but not as good. Funny thing was that I saw the same quilt that we bought in Guilin at this place. Another early finish so everyone could rest before another official dinner to finish our tour.

The lady who seemed to be 2nd in charge and acted as the MC was the happiest looking person and always had a big smile on her face as she introduced everyone for their speech. Dad had only made one speech during the tour (on the first night) but got up tonight as it was the last night. Once again the group made it a fun night getting up as a group to sing a Chinese Revolutionary song at the end of the night.

Arriving at the hotel it was a bit sad having to say goodbye to everyone, but we had exchanged contact details during the tour and hopefully some of us will see each other again at some time in the future. I arranged for Jane to organise a day trip for dad and I and she said she may not be able to take us as her company had booked her on a group tour but we promised to keep in touch.