Semolina Pilchard

The landing was fairly smooth, but Mochi could never quite feel at ease with the way the jaunt seemed to drop out of the sky. The Earth beneath them had zoomed in to view from their lower space vantage point with the inky black surroundings suddenly becoming a landscape below and blue skies around them. Shanghai's many tall buildings stood like a forest on the horizon from the vantage point of the landing pad of the jauntport.

JoJo and Karly were impatient and didn't feel like waiting for one of the landrockets, so it was decided that since the omnishuttle would probably get them to downtown in about the same time they should go that route. Since they were travelling light, with just their backpacks and handbags, they wouldn't have luggage hassles.

The omnishuttles moved on a long track and came at regular intervals, and would take them directly to the city center. Mochi enjoyed looking at the trees and the rivers which ran parallel to the omnishuttle tracks and began to daydream about her prior trips to Shanghai. These had been with her parents, as she had never gone on a mini jaunt-trip with her friends before.

The omnishuttle pulled them closer and closer to their destination.

"Where should we eat?" asked JoJo. "Should we try the outdoor carts?"

"That's what I was thinking," agreed Mochi. The outdoor Dim Sum Carts had delictibles every bit as good as some of the finer Dim Sum Emporiums, and there was the added benefit of being able to sit outside among the plazas and the buildings and the rivers which were like moats around the tall buildings. There had been an architectural renaissance in the past 50 years, with some of both the tallest and most beautiful buildings being found in Shanghai. The downtown area put New Chicago's downtown to shame, with the latter being full of concrete fortresses which stood in sharp contrast to the gleaming glass structures of Shanghai.