The above two pictures were taken by Sean Lea, a young member of our group who’s accompanying his grandmother on a great trip filled with many memorable moments.  If I can get photos from other participants, I’ll post them, too.

We heard that within the city limits of Shanghai, the sky never cleared up, so anyone who stayed within the city didn’t see the eclipse.  The previous night, someone from the UCLA group had proposed moving our viewing site to another location westward.  I’m glad we stuck to our guns and stayed where we were, but I’d be interested in finding out what the weather was like inland.

After the excitement of the eclipse, we had lunch but couldn’t stop talking about the fact that the sky had cleared just enough and at the right moment so we could see totality – an experience I certainly won’t forget.  Following lunch, we headed for downtown Shanghai and the Shanghai Museum, which is unabashedly described as China’s biggest and best museum, shaped somewhat like an ancient Chinese cooking pot.  It’s a museum of Chinese culture, with so many historical artifacts that we couldn’t see it all in the two hours we were given to explore.

Tomorrow: more Shanghai.