A/N: Early update plus monster chapter. Location of today's leg is rather significant to me – I've been to this city five times in my life. All the Chinese in this leg and in the previous leg are written in pin yin form – so you can figure out what it sounds like.

On a completely unrelated note, I am beginning school this Thursday (yay!) and hopefully it will be great! Three more years of undergrad to go! Less time to write though – I am 293847 types of busy during the academic year. Oh well, can't stay at home and do nothing all day. However this development shouldn't hamper the updating of this story unless if it's exam (probably not, I want to finish this story before that period)/midterm week – but I will let you know a week in advance if there's no update on the next week. On another note, I may add one or two more legs than I originally planned.

Thanks for sticking around! There's at least six or seven more legs left in this and it's going to get more and more intense. Reviews are always appreciated and cherished! (Hint, hint, nudge, nudge!)


The Amazing Race: Friends Edition (6th Leg) – "This game is dangerous!" - Ross

M/|\C

"So, what does it say?" Monica asked her husband after they had walked several feet away from the mat. Both were still quite dazed after being hit with the news that their ordeal wasn't finished, quite yet.

Chandler ripped open the yellow and black envelope with a sigh. "Hop on a plane and travel to one of the world's largest global cities – Shanghai. Your next clue will be waiting for you at The Bund (Wài tān; 外滩) in front of one of Shanghai's most luxurious buildings – the HSBC (Xiāng gǎng Shàng hǎi huì fēng Yín háng Yǒu xiàn gōng sī; 香港上海滙豐銀行有限公司) Building. You must take public transportation once you enter Shanghai. It is recommended that you exchange some of your American dollars for renminbi to purchase Metro cards. Twenty-five dollars have been provided for this leg of the race. Good luck!"

"Something tells me we better stick with the twins during this leg," Monica mused thoughtfully.

"Why is that?" Chandler asked his wife, while flipping through the bills that had been provided.

"They did mention that they did grow up in Shanghai," Monica sighed, "Aren't they lucky!"

"Well, Shanghai has changed dramatically within the past decade, so I think they are going to be as confused as we are," Chandler speculated.

"So, how are we supposed to get a taxi in the middle of the countryside?" Monica posed a more urgent problem.

"Hm... They've got to have a telephone somewhere in the farm house – we could phone for a taxi," Chandler replied thoughtfully.

"That's smart! Let's go!"

Monica and Chandler ran back the way they came, alongside the river. They passed the ducks Roadblock, where they saw Ross and Rachel, and a few other teams still hard at work at their herding task, and eventually half a kilometre later, they found a bridge that they could cross. A good ten minutes later, they found themselves at the farmer's house, where the farmer's wife opened the door.

"How can I help you?" she asked, in slightly accented English.

"Could we use your phone to get a taxi?" Monica replied with her question.

"Oh sure, I can do it for you. Where are you guys heading off to?"

"The International Airport," Chandler replied this time.

"Okay, I will be back!"

A young toddler ran over to the front door, shortly after the farmer's wife had left to telephone for a taxi. He was dark-haired – like most Chinese kids – and had chubby cheeks. He squealed with excitement when he saw Monica and Chandler and ran over to them.

"Aw... He's so cute!" Monica whispered to Chandler.

"Ni hao!" Chandler greeted the little boy.

"Ni hao!" he chattered back.

"Hello!" Monica smiled at the little boy.

"Hi!" he replied back.

"Wang Ji Fei, nǐ zài zuò shén me ne?" The farmer's wife came back from her telephone call. (Wang Ji Fei, what are you doing?)

"Mā ma, bái rén, bái rén!" The little boy exclaimed to his mother, who looked a little embarrassed. (Mama, white people, white people!)

"White people, huh?" Chandler grinned at the little boy's exclamations. Harry and Patrick's tutoring had allowed him to understand some of the Mandarin being spoken.

"Oh don't mind him – he's just being silly!" His mother replied back, "Your taxi will be here in ten minutes."

"Oh thank you," Monica smiled back gratefully, "Don't worry about it, kids are kids! How old is he?"

"Wang Ji Fei?" She hugged her son close to her, "How old are you, Wang Ji Fei?"

The little boy held up six fingers, "Liù suì!" (Six years old!)

"What's that in English?" His mother asked him.

"Six! Six!" He exclaimed.

"He knows some English?" Chandler asked.

"Yes, I think it's important that they learn English – it's like the international language," she replied back, "Plus my husband grew up in America and decided to come back to run his grandfather's farm here – which he inherited later."

"Oh that's interesting – and explains his English!" Chandler exclaimed.

"Yes, I studied a little bit of English at school. You must be hungry from all that racing! I will go get some food for you. Wang Ji Fei, nǐ wán chéng nǐ de shù xué ma?" (Wang Ji Fei, did you finish your math?)

Wang Ji Fei replied with a negative answer and ran off to do his homework. His mom disappeared back into the house before Monica and Chandler could protest her hospitality. She returned with a bag of large cooked dumplings and handed it to them. "You can eat these on your trip – pork and some veggies inside!"

"Thank you very much!" Chandler and Monica replied as they took the bag of food from their hostess.

"Oh look, your taxi is here!" She exclaimed, pointing to the green and yellow car that was driving towards the front of their house.

"Goodbye and thank you!"

Monica and Chandler dashed off towards their taxi with one last final wave at the farmer's wife.

H/|\P ~ P/|\J

"We are going to Shanghai! We are going to Shanghai!" Harry and Patrick jumped up and down in joy, while holding hands after reading the contents of their clue, "We are going to Shanghai!"

"Okay, we know! We know! Now we need to get there!" Joey looked at the brothers with exasperation.

"Well, we can't exactly do anything right now; we are waiting for our taxis!" Phoebe replied to her partner.

"Yeah, they said fifteen minutes. Thank goodness Patty had the good idea to ask Mr. Wang for his cell." Harry exclaimed.

"Yeah, you did order two taxis, right?" Phoebe asked.

"Oh yeah," Harry grinned.

"Hm... Harry, Shanghai has two airports – y'know and we can go through any of them since this is a domestic flight," Patrick mused.

"Yeah, but we are going to the Bund. I reckon that it doesn't really matter which airport – just the earliest time would do," Harry replied back, "Even though I do think the Pudong airport is closer."

"I guess so," Patrick nodded, after thinking about it for a moment.

"What is the Bund?" Joey asked the twins curiously.

"One of the most popular tourist attractions to see in Shanghai – it's an area of buildings of grandeur and people often go sight-seeing there at night to look at the skyline of the opposite side of the Huang Pu river – Pudong." Harry explained.

"Yeah, Pudong is like the financial district – kinda like Shanghai's version of Manhattan!" Patrick added his two cents in.

"Sounds interesting!" Phoebe replied back, "I can't wait to see it!"

"Me too, Phoebs, me too!" Patrick exclaimed.

"Oh look, here's our taxis, five minutes early!" Harry exclaimed.

"Let's go, guys!" Joey shouldered his backpack and all of them headed off to their respective green and yellow taxis.

R/|\R

"Well, we are finally caught up now!" Rachel exclaimed to Ross at the gate, while waiting for the 4 PM departure of their China Eastern plane.

"Yeah, but now everyone is literally in the same boat now!" Ross exclaimed, gesturing towards the rest of the waiting area of their gate.

"You mean the same plane," Rachel quipped, her good humour returning ever since they realized that they've made up enough ground to rectify their previous plane error.

Ross sighed, and looked around. His sister and her husband were sitting in a corner, chatting with Harry and Patrick as well as Phoebe and Joey in an animated conversation of God knows what. Simon and Roger and Meredith and Kenneth sat nearby – Roger, Meredith and Kenneth were having an interesting discussion on space exploration. Arlene and Yvonne were busy napping and Natasha and Trevor were huddled on chairs as far away from the rest of the competitors.

"It's kinda weird to be not sitting with our friends," Rachel remarked.

"Yeah, it is," Ross sighed, "It's just that we are often behind them more than with them."

"Yeah," Rachel smiled, "And back home, we couldn't get them to leave us alone enough!"

"I know!" Ross grinned, "Well, since we are alone, how about a little something before the flight?"

"Okay, Geller, we could sneak into the washroom facilities over there!" Rachel winked.

"Lead the way, Ms. Green!" Ross grinned.

Halfway through the way to the washroom, they were stopped by a question.

"Hey Ross, we need you to settle this question – is it pterosaur that flew or plesiosaur?" Patrick interrupted, with a small smirk on his face.

Rachel groaned in frustration when she saw her boyfriend walk over to the group and became engaged in a discussion of dinosaurs – involving the mechanisms of dinosaur flight which Harry's inner biologist was immensely curious about. Rachel had to sigh helplessly when she remembered Ross's answer to Phoebe's question of whether or not he would give up sex or dinosaurs.

/|\

At around 7 PM CST, the plane touched down on the runway at Pudong International Airport. The sky outside was growing darker and darker as the occupants of the plane were seeing more and more lights as the plane moved closer to the terminals. Everyone on the plane had fallen asleep during the flight – some later than others, but the pure exhaustion of running the race without a break eventually got to them. Monica, whose mind had been constantly on the race, was the first to stir, and realize that they had landed. She nudged her husband.

"What is it, honey?" Chandler mumbled sleepily.

"I think we are here. Let's get up and get our bags." Monica replied back, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Yeah," Chandler woke immediately after hearing that they had arrived. When the plane was docking, Chandler got up from his aisle seat and removed all their bags – handing the bag containing their passports and his wife's bag to Monica. Monica shouldered the big pack, while attaching the other pack around her waist.

Around the couple, other passengers had begun retrieving their articles and heading towards the exit, which were what Chandler and Monica were doing now. Ross woke up when he heard the increased murmur of voices on the plane, and he shouldered his girlfriend, who merely responded by turning her head to the other side.

"Rachel, sleepy time is over!" Ross whispered into her ear.

"Five more minutes, mom, five more," was her reply – which Ross made a face in response.

"Rachel, we are in Shanghai! And time's ticking!"

Rachel shot up, "Where, what?"

"Shanghai?" Ross looked amused.

"Oh right, what are we waiting for?" Rachel got up, moved from her seat to the aisle and got ready.

Harry stirred after hearing Ross's attempts to wake up his sleeping girlfriend. He tapped his brother none-too-lightly on the shoulders and retrieved his own pack as well as his brother's and their fanny pack. Patrick got up immediately and took his pack wordlessly from his brother.

"Damn it! I wanted to be awake when we landed!" Patrick groaned.

"Yeah, me too – savour the first glance of our first city!" Harry sighed, "Let's go!"

Monica and Chandler, Ross and Rachel and Harry and Patrick had managed to leave the plane before most of the passengers had gotten their baggage from the overhead compartments. Simon and Roger, Phoebe and Joey, Meredith and Kenneth, Natasha and Trevor were forced to navigate their way through the throngs of people that had appeared in the aisles, while Yvonne and Arlene slept blissfully through the commotion.

Phoebe and Joey were able to duck and weave in the aislefuls of Chinese tourists while Simon and Roger got through with a little pushing, and some polite excuses.

As this was a domestic flight, there were no customs to pass through and everyone soon found themselves with the same problem: where do we go now?

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"Finally, a computer!" Harry exclaimed, when Chandler, Monica and the twins were huddled around a desktop lying somewhere at the Pudong airport.

"Very glad that we are working together, this leg," Patrick sighed, "We can do all the language crap, and you guys can do all the logistics!"

"Yeah, I need your reading skills – I can't read any of this!" Chandler exclaimed when the computer booted up, revealing that it was a Windows XP computer with Chinese settings.

"Oh, you don't need to read, just click on that Internet Explorer thing – you know the one with the blue E!" Harry replied helpfully.

"Alright, then, I am not that stupid," Chandler remarked, "What site do I go on? Google?"

"Replace the com with the hk. The American version is filtered out I think," Patrick replied back.

"Hk?" Monica mused.

"Hong Kong," Harry explained.

"I see, so I should type in how to get to the Bund using the metro?" Chandler asked.

"Let's try finding a metro map!" Harry exclaimed, "Just type in Shanghai metro!"

"Oh my fucking god! The Chinese have been flipping busy during the decade we weren't here!" Patrick exclaimed when a map depicting a myriad of colourful metro lines appeared on the screen.

"How many colours are there? More than ten," Harry mused.

"Okay, now that we are done with all the oohing and ahing, can we please move on to the more important part?" Chandler replied half jokingly and seriously.

"We need to haul our asses to East Nanjing Road," Patrick said thoughtfully, "That's where Wai tan should be."

"Yeah, you are right," Harry said, "We can ask someone on the way there."

"So Pudong airport is connected to East Nanjing Road via the Green line," Monica observed the map.

"Good, we don't have to make any changes," Patrick smiled, "I suggest we go exchange some money, get the metro cards and get the hell out of here."

"Good plan, let's move!" Monica was already moving towards the currency exchange that was nearby.

P/|\J

"It sure is crowded here!" Joey exclaimed, while clinging onto one of the poles, when the train began to slow down upon approaching another platform.

Phoebe and Joey had immediately gone to the currency exchange to obtain some Chinese renminbi and had gotten onto the metro without consulting anything or one at the airport. They had acquired their card, and had asked the seller how to get to the Bund. She had replied with a name of the station, but Phoebe and Joey had forgotten which stop it was.

"Oh shit, we should have written it down!" Phoebe groaned in despair.

"I know, it's either East or West Nanjing road!" Joey looked bewilderedly at the subway map.

"It definitely wasn't People's Square," Phoebe observed the stop between East and West Nanjing Road on the electronic map located above the doors of the subway.

"Definitely not," Joey amended.

"Well, let's do rock, paper and scissors, if you win, we go west, and if I win, we go east," Phoebe suggested.

"Okay!"

"Xià yí zhàn shì Nanjing dōng lù, zài zhè li, nǐ kě yǐ zhuǎn dào 10 hào xiàn. The next stop is East Nanjing Road. Here you can transfer to Line ten."

"Oh crap, we are running out of time, Phoebs!" Joey looked very worried.

"Rock, paper scissors!"

Joey had a rock. Phoebe had a rock.

"Shit!" Phoebe swore.

"Again, again!" Joey exclaimed.

"Rock, paper scissors!"

Phoebe had the paper. So did Joey.

"Aw, crap!" Joey frowned.

The subway slowed down at the platform of East Nanjing Road. People jostled their way through the large crowd in the subway to exit to the platform while a new surge of travellers pushed through.

"Argh, too much people, Phoebs!" Joey groaned.

"Hurry, let's do it again!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Rock, paper scissors!"

Joey had a rock. Phoebe scrunched his rock instantly with paper.

"So we get off here?" Joey asked.

"Yeah!" The two of them rushed to the rapidly closing doors while manoeuvring around the crowded train.

"Damn it!" Phoebe swore when the doors closed on them before they could manage to get out.

"Rock, paper, scissors – why have you failed me so?" Joey cried out so dramatically that several passengers turned to stare oddly at him.

R/|\R

"Excuse me, but do you know how to get to the Bund?" Ross asked a suit-wearing Chinese man lounging around in the airport.

The man shook his head.

"Gah! Isn't there someone who knows where we are supposed to be going?" Rachel asked with exasperation.

"Evidently, not," Ross sighed, "Excuse me, but do you know how to get to the Bund?" He directed this question to a nicely suited lady who also shook her head and ran off.

"This is ridiculous!" Rachel threw her arms up in the air.

"I know!" Ross groaned.

"Why didn't we follow Chandler or Monica or someone else?" Rachel sighed.

"I don't know!" Ross seethed in frustration, "Excuse me, but could you give me directions to the Bund?" Ross stopped an older looking man who was walking hurriedly towards the metro.

The man also shook his head with a puzzled expression on his face, before walking off.

"Damn it!" Rachel swore.

"What's the Bund called in Chinese?" Ross asked his girlfriend, who was getting very frustrated.

"Wai Tan, I think – from how Harry and Patrick were pronouncing it earlier at Chengdu," Rachel replied back.

"Okay," Ross stopped another person, "Excuse me, but do you know Wai tan?"

"This place!" Rachel held out their clue, and pointed to all the Chinese.

"Oh, I see," The man said in broken English, "I go there now!"

"Can we follow you?" Rachel inquired.

"Yes, yes. You follow me. I take you to that building."

Ross and Rachel gratefully followed their saviour out of the airport and into the hustle and bustle of the underground world, below.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"Welcome, to chaos!" Patrick quipped on the subway, as mobs of people went in and out of the subway car at each stop.

"Wow, I never knew so many people could be crammed into one subway car!" Chandler looked around. He, Monica and the twins were grabbing on the handles provided on the bars above the long five-to-six capacity chairs that were coloured green to match the colour scheme of the overall train.

"Yeah, many people," Harry remarked, "Too many for my comfort!"

"Well, we are at Dong Chang Road," Monica looked at the electronic map located above the door in front of her.

"Twuo more stops left to go!" Chandler observed, "And then we can get out of the sardine can."

"Xià yí zhàn shì Lu jia zui. The next stop is Lu jia zui."

"Getting closer," Patrick said, "We are almost there – I can almost see the skyline with my eyes."

"That's a new analogy," Chandler quipped.

"Oh shut up," Patrick groaned.

"So wait, there's two skylines that Shanghai is renowned for?" Monica asked.

"Yeah, the one we will be admiring from afar today is Pudong, and the side we are standing on is Puxi." Patrick explained.

"Dong is East – we are getting off at Nanjing Dong Lu. Xi is west. And the Pu refers to the HuangPu river. And lu is road," Harry explained.

"Oh my god. Everything makes sense now!" Chandler exclaimed.

"If the Chinese people are anything, they are definitely logical," Harry replied back.

"Sometimes," Patrick deadpanned to his brother, "I do wonder if you are Chinese."

"Oh, shut up, Patty, you shouldn't be talking!" Harry replied indignantly, "As a scientist, I am a very logical person!"

"Oh, so we basically crossed the river since the airport is in Pudong?" Monica asked another question.

"Yeah, there are multiple tunnels connecting the two sides!" Patrick replied.

"Xià yí zhàn shì Nanjing dōng lù, zài zhè li, nǐ kě yǐ zhuǎn dào 10 hào xiàn. The next stop is East Nanjing Road. Here you can transfer to Line ten."

"Oh, there's our stop," Monica grinned.

"Yeah, let's get off!" Harry exclaimed when the subway stopped at a crowded station, and the four of them manoeuvred their way out of the crowd and onto the even more densely packed crowd on the platform.

P/|\J

"So this is People's Square?" Phoebe exclaimed while looking bewilderingly at the enormous masses of people that were coming and going on the platform. The rapid chatter of Mandarin could be heard all around them.

"Good thing they have those railing things," Joey nodded to the glass separating people from the tracks.

"Yeah, there are so many people!" Phoebe observed, "When is the next train coming? I can't believe we didn't get off that last stop in time!"

"I know. And Rock-Paper-Scissors was right!" Joey exclaimed, "That last guy we just asked said so!"

"Oh trust me, those games are always right," Phoebe replied with a knowing grin.

"Oh, I hear rumbling. Is that thunder?" Joey looked up.

"No, Joey –" But the rest of Phoebe's voice was cut off when the train going eastbound arrived in front of them.

The two of them determinedly entered the train, with the rest of the crowd swarming around them.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"Oh dear god! Is it hot?" Harry complained as soon as the four of them had exited the metro station and onto the busy street of East Nanjing road.

"It's not hot. It's the humidity!" Chandler exclaimed, "The humidity is so high that it's like walking into an ocean!"

"But it's really nice here!" Monica changed the topic, "Look at all those stores, and lights!"

"Yup, one of the busier streets of Shanghai – heck I don't recognize this place anymore!" Patrick sighed while looking up and down the brightly lit buildings adorning the darkness of the sky.

"It reminds of me of home – like Times Square!" Monica mused, "So busy and all the lights!"

"So, where are we going?" Chandler asked the twins.

"Oh we have to go a little east, this road leads to the Bund," Harry consulted his little map that he found earlier at the ticket counter.

"Oh wow, look at all these restaurants, and every single one of them is full!" Patrick glimpsed at the various restaurants that they passed by, "Makes you appreciate exactly how many people live in Shanghai."

"Yeah, so how long is this road?" Monica asked.

"I reckon five minutes more," Harry looked at his watch.

"I need to get a fan!" Patrick sighed, "But I will wait!"

"Yeah, you better, we don't want to fall too behind. I mean everyone is on an even playing field again," Harry retorted back.

"Yeah, we have some serious business," Chandler replied knowingly

"Oh definitely, to try and finish this leg as fast as our legs will allow us to," Patrick sighed, "Trust me, I've never moved so much in my life!"

"I can imagine. I mean, you sit at a computer all day," Harry quipped.

"So do I," Chandler grimaced.

"And you are no better," Patrick retorted back, "You, my dear brother, sit in front of a microscope all day."

"That is so not true!" Harry huffed, "I certainly do more than that! You just push buttons on Microsoft Excel and that tax program you use."

"Hey, don't you go insulting my computer programs – and last time I checked, you were using Excel to analyze your data sets!" Patrick exclaimed.

"Um guys, I think we just reached the end of the road," Monica tapped Harry's shoulder, "And the view is quite beautiful."

P/|\J

"You don't think we lost too much time on that mistake, Phoebs?" Joey asked his partner as they walked along the gorgeously lit architecture of the Bund.

"No, but I just can't stop staring at these buildings!" Phoebe grinned, "Some of them look like castles!"

"You don't think so?" Joey asked again.

"No, at most five minutes," Phoebe replied back, "Oh look, is that the clue-box, right here?"

Joey squinted, "Maybe, it's rather shadowy."

"Oh come on, who the hell puts a box in here? It totally clashes with the decor!" Phoebe continued her leisurely pace of walking to the clue-box. They started hearing familiar voices behind them that caused both Phoebe and Joey to quicken up their pace.

"Look it is Phoebe and Joey!" Harry's voice punctuated the air.

"I see the box!" Monica exclaimed, pointing to a small dark object against the brightly illuminated stone of the neo-classic style building.

"Charge!" Chandler cried out and began running towards the clue-box. Monica, Patrick and Harry sprinted to catch up.

"Attack!" Harry shouted enthusiastically after he had started to chase after Chandler.

"Get them!" Patrick shouted.

"Aghhh!" Joey yelled when he saw them all running full speed towards him and Phoebe.

The six of them nearly collided with the box set out against the stone wall of the colossal HSBC building.

"Woah, woah, woah! What in the blazes is going on here?" Simon's voice was heard from behind the three teams.

"Yeah, we have a dearth of sanity, right here!" Roger quipped.

"Well, we were just casually walking to the clue-box," Phoebe began to explain. She took out one of the envelopes from the box, as did Chandler and Patrick. Roger leaned over to pick one up too.

"And then suddenly – " Joey explained further.

"We were under attack!" Phoebe exclaimed, "By those guys!"

"Hey, don't look at us!" Patrick retorted.

"Yeah, we are very innocent, civil people," Harry deadpanned.

"What are we waiting for?" Chandler stared pointedly at the clue envelope in his hands.

"Oh right," Harry grinned.

Four different rips were heard as the clue-envelopes were opened.

"Intersection," Monica read over Chandler's shoulders.

"Again?" Harry looked surprised.

"And it's a Roadblock," Phoebe exclaimed, "Please determine which team member is going to participate in the Roadblock and pick another person from another team to perform the Intersection component before looking at the contents of the Roadblock."

"It's my turn," Chandler retorted, "Who's ready to play ball?"

"Oh, I want to!" Harry exclaimed.

"Yeah, Harry you do it, I will do the next Roadblock," Patrick agreed quickly. Patrick knew he sucked at ball-games.

"Want to pair up, Chandler?" Harry asked.

"Are you sure, Chandler, you aren't that great," Monica rolled her eyes at her husband.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mon," Chandler quipped.

"We don't even know what you guys are doing!" Patrick exclaimed.

"And I guess that leaves me and you Joey," Roger grinned.

"Alright, so what's the Roadblock?" Joey asked.

"Hey guys!" Rachel's voice was heard.

"Xie, xie – for taking us to the building, man!" Ross thanked the random stranger that had led them to their destination.

"No problem," the man walked off.

"What's up?" Rachel asked the four teams.

"Um... the clue – we all gotta go, see ya!" The four teams shuffled off to an intersection so that they could cross the road towards the Huangpu River.

"What was that?" Ross asked his girlfriend.

"I dunno, they know something we don't know," Rachel sighed as she picked up a clue. She ripped it open.

"Aw crap," Ross groaned.

"We need to wait for another team to arrive! That sucks!" Rachel frowned.

"Bummer!" Ross sat down on the floor beside the clue-box.

"That's why they were so awkward!" Rachel groaned.

"We were the odd people out!" Ross sighed.

"And how come they are always the first bunch of people to get anywhere?" Rachel wondered to Ross.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P ~ R/|\S ~ P/|\J

"Oh wow," Harry grinned win he saw four blue coloured ping-pong tables set out on the walkway right beside the Huangpu River. Behind the tables, there was a magnificent view of the Pudong skyline. The only thing preventing people from walking off the large gray tiles to the river below was a metal railing.

There were people already playing at the tables, and there was a large crowd containing a mixture of tourists and Chinese nationals crowding around the players, either sitting on plastic chairs of all colours and shapes or standing. Spontaneous cheers and bursts of applause erupted whenever the players hit the ball, and chatter could be heard. Paper lanterns were strung on the metal railings, hung on the lamp-posts and set on the floor to further illuminate the play area.

"Never imagined playing ping-pong like this!" Chandler exclaimed, "With a nice view, huge Chinese audience, and a river barely a few feet away."

"And in this heat! Thank god for the breeze of the river!" Roger observed.

"Ooh, what's that rocket-shaped building over there? The one with all the pretty lights!" Monica pointed across the river.

"Oh that's Oriental Pearl Tower – it's one of the tallest towers in Asia!" Patrick explained, "And that tall skyscraper over there is the – oh I forgot –"

"Tsk, that's the Jin Mao building – it's partially a hotel, and has the world's longest laundry chute," Harry quipped.

"And how do you know all this?" Chandler looked at Harry with a puzzled expression.

"Hey, you can't blame someone for wanting to know all about their birthplace!" Harry retorted for the benefit of his brother. He then whispered in Chandler's ear, "Oh, I enjoy reading sites about random facts that no-one needs to know!"

"Time well spent," Chandler nodded knowingly.

"Hey guys, what about that building that looks like a handle?" Simon asked, pointing to a tall building that had a gap at the top of the building.

"Oh, it's for airplanes to fly through," Chandler deadpanned, "To prevent 9-11."

"Haha," Harry retorted, "I actually don't know about that building!"

"Guys, we are ready for you," Two Chinese men, roughly as old as Harry and Patrick walked over to Chandler and Harry.

"And we are ready for you," A young Chinese girl, who didn't look like she was over twenty and a teenage boy beamed at Joey and Roger.

"So we are having a doubles match, and you guys will need to score ten points against us in order to get your next clue – got it?" One of the guys explained in flawless English.

"And warning you, we are good!" The girl replied with a grin, tossing her dyed brown hair over her shoulder.

"Wow, she's hot!" Joey whispered to Roger after looking at the girl up and down, "Great breasts, nice figure!"

"Well, I wouldn't know," Roger replied back, "But she is cute. Not my type, obviously."

"Let's get this show, on the road!" Harry picked up one of the ping-pong paddles that were left on the table, and slapped the paddle against his palms.

"Yeah," Chandler grinned, "Let's show them how it's done!"

"Prepare to get your asses kicked!" One of the guys across from Harry and Chandler smirked arrogantly as he picked up the paddle.

"Think he's a hotshot, eh?" Harry asked Chandler.

"Oh yeah, we will show him how Americans play ping-pong!" Chandler smiled back.

"Let's play!"

When everyone had stood at their respective spots, the crowd around them began to cheer loudly, chanting some names and calling out "Jia you, jia you!".

"You think these guys are pros?" Harry asked Chandler.

"No worries, we can do this," Chandler returned back.

"And what on earth does Jia you mean?" Chandler asked Harry curiously.

"Literally, add oil, but it's to cheer you on!" Harry explained.

"Okay, let's play!" One of the guys tossed his white ping-pong ball in the air and smacked it diagonally to Harry, who smacked it easily back.

Ping!

The ball went to the other guy, who slammed it back to Chandler with rigorous energy. Harry looked worried but sighed in relief when Chandler skilfully sent it back at a deft angle.

Pong!

The guy had to do an awkward jump to catch Chandler's ball. The crowd went wild when the guy's ball failed to clear the net.

"One for us!" Harry cheered, "You are good!"

"Thanks man," Chandler grinned.

At Roger's and Joey's table, things weren't going all that well. Roger was reasonably proficient at the sport and Joey was too, but young boy and girl were whipping their asses.

"Damn it!" Joey slammed down his paddle when the ball bounced past his shoulders, "And that girl is distracting!"

"They weren't kidding when they said they were good!" Roger groaned.

"And that's like 3-0," Joey sighed.

"Don't worry man, we have as many tries as we like!" Roger explained.

"Your ball, man!" Joey nudged his partner when the girl began to serve again.

Roger had to run when the ball ricocheted off the corner of the table and was barely able to smack it back. The ball went over the net and bounced. The youth ran to catch the ball but missed.

"Our first point!" Joey almost cried out in happiness.

"I know, it feels so good!" Roger grinned.

Monica, Phoebe, Simon and Patrick were sitting on some plastic chairs that had been provided – squat fold-up chairs that were colourfully painted with white dots all over them.

"Wow, Chandler is good!" Phoebe exclaimed, "Oh my god! It's like watching sex! And Harry is good too! Oh my god!"

"Hey, that's my husband you are talking about!" Monica replied back, "But seriously, I didn't know he could play like this!"

"No, that's not fair; Chandler and Harry are both taken!" Phoebe groaned, "It's like watching nature in action!"

"Phoebs, that is nature in action," Roger remarked dryly.

"This needs to be video-taped, it's beautiful!" Phoebe exclaimed when Harry smacked the ball with a spin, making it land at the side of the table.

"Well, it's only going to be seen by several million people all around the world," Patrick quipped.

"Oh my god, this is so turning me on!" Monica stared at the players.

"They are good," Roger quipped, "So good that we aren't even paying attention to the other table!"

"I mean, look at that serve, that height!" Patrick exclaimed when Chandler smacked the ping-pong ball with his racket again. It soared high, but returned to land on the opponents' side of the table.

"And that crowd! It goes crazy whenever either of them hit the ball!" Phoebe observed.

"Well, ping-pong is only the national sport of China," Patrick grinned.

"Is it really?" Monica asked him.

"I don't know," Patrick shrugged, "It should be!"

R/|\R

"Guys! There you are!" Rachel cried in joy when she saw Kenneth and Meredith come running towards the clue-box.

"We made such a huge mistake!" Meredith sighed, "I only hope we aren't last!"

"No, you guys are sixth, and we need you to do the intersection," Ross explained.

"Okay," Kenneth tore open the envelope, "Meredith, this one is for you."

"Yay! Ping-pong!" Meredith smiled when she looked at the additional details, "You or Ross?"

"Ross today," Rachel grinned.

"Now, let's get our asses across that street! We've got some Chinese ping-pong champions to challenge!" Ross yelled.

"Honey, a little quieter please," Rachel pulled at her boyfriend's sleeve, after several pedestrians gave Ross an odd look.

J/|\P ~ R/|\S

"Joey! You should have gotten that one at least!" Roger exclaimed when the ping-pong ball hit the table on Joey's side and flew off into the distance.

"I am sorry, man! That girl is so distracting!" Joey could not stop ogling the girl in front of him.

"Come on! We've only accumulated three points!" Roger sighed, before smacking the ball across the table to his young male opponent. He looked at Joey in exasperation when he realized that Joey's attention was directed to the girl's figure.

"Cannot stop staring!" Joey exclaimed. "Damn it!" He swore when the ping pong ball missed his paddle again and bounced onto the tiles. The crowd cheered wildly.

"Look away!" Roger suggested, "She isn't even that hot!"

"Oh yes she is. And I can't look away!" Joey groaned.

Roger smacked the ball back across the table with an efficient whack.

Ping!

The ball came soaring back to Joey, who was about to reach for the orange blur. But at that moment, the girl bent down slightly, and Joey found himself temporarily distracted by her cleavage that her tank top exposed by her motion.

Pong!

Roger groaned again in frustration when the ball struck the table and bounced again on the tiles. The crowd went into another cheering frenzy. "Jia you! Jia you!"

"We are going to be here forever!" Roger exclaimed, while banging his paddle on the table.

"Well, sorry for being a straight guy!" Joey frowned in frustration.

"Here, why don't we trade places, so you don't need to return her balls," Roger suggested.

Joey giggled immaturely at Roger's statement before nodding. Roger rolled his eyes as he switched places with his partner.

The ball came flying back to Joey and he smacked it across the table.

Ping!

The guy returned Joey's smack, which Roger then ran over to return. His shot landed on the corner of the table and the girl tripped over to get it. She missed.

"Fourth point for us!" Joey exclaimed.

"Now we are getting somewhere!" Roger's sour mood was beginning to lift.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"Wow, that ball flew into the fucking river!" Harry exclaimed.

Chandler had returned one of the guy's serve with an interesting spin that caused the ball to hit the table at a small angle to the horizontal and fly straight through the bars of the metal railings where it plopped into the river below. The crowd had cheered appreciatively at Chandler's final smack.

"Well, I am not getting it," Chandler quipped back to Harry.

"Neither am I! But seriously, no littering!" Harry joked back.

"Haha, that was what? Point number nine?" Chandler asked seriously.

"Yeah, we are almost there!" Harry exclaimed.

"That's good!" Chandler fired off his serve.

This time they got a few rallies in before Harry smashed the ball down at his opponents with much force. The ball bounced high at the middle of the table and both opponents reached for it simultaneously. They both missed. The crowd went wild.

"We are done!" Harry cried out.

"And that's how it's done!" Chandler exclaimed.

"Oh wow, it feels so unreal with all these people cheering. I swear, the crowd has grown bigger!" Harry observed the large masses of people that had gathered by the two ping-pong tables in use. People were all standing up or sitting down on plastic chairs, talking, cheering and chanting.

"You are right. There were half as many people earlier," Chandler noted, "So this is what it's like to be a celebrity!" He quipped back to Harry.

"Oh yeah. One-night-fame! Awesome!"

"Good game guys," both men from the other side of the table walked over to Chandler and Harry, "Totally underestimated you guys. You guys are good!"

"Thanks," Chandler and Harry looked bashful.

"And here's your next clue. We need to have a rematch someday!" One of the guys exclaimed.

"Yeah, we could!" Harry smiled, "Now let's go on with the race! Time's a wasting!"

"Good luck and goodbye!"

Harry and Chandler ran back to their respective partners.

R/|\R

"Hey guys!" Rachel yelled out to Monica, Patrick, Phoebe and Simon.

"Hey, you finally arrived!" Phoebe exclaimed, "We were worried!"

"Yeah, Meredith and Kenneth finally showed up. I was afraid that no one was going to come!" Rachel exclaimed back.

"Wow, look at all those people!" Kenneth gestured to the large crowd, "And they all want to watch some night-ping pong!"

"Mon! We can go now!" Chandler ran towards his wife, a yellow envelope clutched in his fingers.

"Yeah, Patrick! Onto the next phase of the race!" Harry ran behind Chandler.

"Alright," Patrick grinned, "See y'all later!"

"Ditto!" The four people waved to their friends and ran off.

"Wow you guys missed some awesome ping-pong!" Simon exclaimed.

"What awesome ping-pong?" Rachel asked.

"Harry and Chandler! They were amazing! You should have heard the crowds!" Simon explained.

"Chandler? Good at ping-pong? Are you trying to pull a fast one on me?" Rachel looked bemused.

"I think he's been keeping his skills under wraps. Monica looked so surprised when he started to play!" Phoebe supplemented.

"Oh wow. He sucked whenever I played with him!" Rachel replied back.

"Same here!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"So Ross and Meredith are having a go?" Simon asked, watching Ross and Meredith talk to a pair of young women who were going to be their opponents.

"Yeah, Ross is okay at it," Rachel informed.

"Meredith is pretty good," Kenneth grinned, "We have a ping-pong table at home that she plays with."

"So how's Joey and Roger doing?" Rachel asked.

"Not good. Five points now," Phoebe sighed.

"What? But Joey is good!" Rachel held out her arms in disbelief.

"Watch him play. Note the girl across from him," Phoebe sighed. Rachel watched them play.

"Oh my god! He's practically drooling over her!" Rachel exclaimed, "Poor Joey – he can't resist the women!" She had to smile when Joey missed another ball, clearly distracted by the woman in front of him.

"Thank god that Roger isn't straight!" Phoebe grinned.

"Damn straight!" Roger exclaimed.

"Damn hot women!" Phoebe bashed her fist into her other palm.

"Oh look, Ross and Meredith are playing now!" Rachel pointed to another ping-pong table beside the one that Joey and Roger were playing at.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"Make your way on foot to The Bund hotel (金外滩宾馆), which is located on 525 Guangdong Road. Your next clue will be located at the front desk. First come, first served." Harry read the clue.

"What does first come, first served mean?" Monica asked the rest.

"No clue, but I have a feeling that it's a good idea to get to that hotel, pronto!" Patrick exclaimed.

"Well, how the hell do we get there?" Chandler asked.

"The map?" Patrick pulled out a ball of paper.

"Oh that's too slow, Patty, we should make use of this vast resource we have here!" Harry exclaimed.

"What resource?" Chandler asked him sceptically.

"The people, duh!" Harry walked away to pursue a well-dressed Chinese gentlemen. "Duì bù qǐ, xiān sheng, jīn Wài tān Bīn guǎn zài nǎ lǐ ma?" (Excuse me, sir, where is the Bund Hotel?"

"Jīn Wài tān Bīn guǎn?" The man stopped to think. (The Bund hotel?)

"Zài Guangdong lu shang!" Harry added. (It's on Guangdong Road!)

"Guò mǎ lù. Zǒu nà gè fāng xiàng. Ní huì kàn dào Guǎngdōng lù de biāo zhì!" (Cross the road. Continue that way, and eventually you will see the sign for Guangdong Road.)

"Xiè xie nǐ!" Harry ran back to his companions.

"So, I take it we should cross the street," Patrick glanced across the congested street, towards the side with all the brilliantly lit buildings.

"Oh yeah, let's get moving guys," Harry replied.

The group crossed the street at the nearest intersection and walked briskly in the direction indicated by the man that Harry had asked. Monica and Chandler as well as the twins took time now and then to admire the sights around them, enjoying the play of the artificial yellowish, whitish and even orangish lights against the natural darkness of the night sky.

Despite the lateness of the hour, mobs of tourists and the Shanghainese flocked the streets, taking pictures, walking and talking, sitting on benches or admiring the view across the river. The busy night-life of Shanghai reminded Monica and Chandler of the craziness of Time Square back in New York City.

"It's like another world here," Harry remarked, "I remember coming here, fascinated by the architecture and lighting when I was a kid – and it still somehow retains its atmosphere twenty years later!"

"Yeah, they fixed up some of the buildings and the view across the river has improved from what I remember," Patrick grinned, "There used to be nothing spectacular there."

"Welcome to progress," Chandler quipped, while lightly holding his wife's hand, "Honestly, despite the heat it reminds me of home."

"You guys came from New York City, if I remember correctly," Harry scratched his head.

"Yeah, where do you guys hail from?" Monica asked curiously.

"Chicago, actually, but I got an interesting job offer from NYU recently," Harry remarked.

"Really?" Chandler replied with a question.

"Oh yeah, they liked some of the work that I've done and they want me to be an assistant professor and researcher in some neuroscience stuff," Harry grinned, "Still considering it though – I would hate to leave Patty."

"What about your girlfriend?" Monica asked curiously.

"She doesn't have a preference. She's actually doing medical school stuff right now, so she's living away from Chicago." Harry explained, "So it's my decision."

"And Chandler?" Monica turned to her husband.

"Yeah, Mon?"

"When were you so good at ping-pong?" Monica asked Chandler sternly.

"I was always good!" Chandler defended himself.

"No, you weren't. You sucked! You should have seen Phoebe's face!" Monica exclaimed.

"Guess you will see her face on next season of the Amazing Race. Her expression was priceless!" Patrick chortled.

"Really, this I got to see!" Harry grinned.

"Oh look, Guangdong Road!" Chandler pointed at a green sign at the next intersection.

"Nice," Harry replied, "We turn here, and look for what's that number?"

"Five-hundred and twenty-five," Monica reminded him.

"Right," Harry smiled back.

R/|\R ~ M/|\K

"When they meant champions, they really did mean champions!" Ross exclaimed after ten intense minutes of ping-pong to his partner.

"Oh yeah, if we were keeping score for both sides, it will probably be like – " Meredith returned a rally with a light swing – her arm was getting a bit sore.

Ping!

The ball went flying to Ross, who swatted at it like how he would swat a fly. The ball sailed just short of his paddle and into the crowd of people who burst into cheering.

"Make that 16 – 2," Ross replied glumly.

"Well, that's two more closer to ten," Meredith replied positively as she smacked another ping-pong ball across the table.

Pong!

"We will be here forever!" Ross groaned.

"Pessimist!" Meredith accused, "You definitely need a better attitude!"

"Well, not everyone is optimistic!" Ross retorted back, and smacked the ping-pong ball that came over to his side with unusual force. The ball flew over the net, smacked the table on the side and sailed just shy of one of their opponents' paddles.

"Three!" Meredith screamed with glee as the crowd erupted into more cheers.

"Well it's a good thing that the crowd is supporting all the teams," Ross observed.

"Watch out!" Meredith shouted to his partner. The ping-pong ball smacked Ross on the cheek and bounced back onto the table.

"Ow! Damn it! This game is dangerous!" Ross placed his hand to his stinging cheek.

"Pay more attention!" Meredith grinned, "It isn't rocket science here!"

"The hell it isn't!" Ross retorted back and smacked the next ping-pong ball that came flying from his end with ire.

Ping!

The ball sailed past their opponents and onto the floor.

"That's four!" Meredith shouted gleefully.

"Should be, my cheek paid for that!" Ross mumbled darkly to himself.

P/|\J ~ R/|\S

"Phoebs, let's go!" Joey shouted to his partner while waving his yellow envelope.

"About time guys!" Roger quipped, "The Ping-Pong all-stars left twenty minutes ago!"

"Well, not everyone has hidden innate talents involving ping-pong," Joey remarked darkly.

"Oh hurry up and open that thing! I just spotted Arlene, Yvonne, Trevor and Natasha coming across the street!" Phoebe pushed.

"Okay, we have to get to the Bund hotel!" Simon read from his partner's opened clue.

"Hm... Guangdong Road! I saw it somewhere!" Phoebe pulled out a folded up map from her fanny pack. She unfolded the paper and located the Bund. She looked around the streets close to East Nanjing Road. "Ah, it's here!" She pointed to a road that was a relatively short distance from the metro that they had emerged from.

"Beautiful, let's get marching," Roger grinned, "Let's cross the street over there!"

The group of them jogged slowly to the next intersection, where they quickly walked across the street, which was a riot of horn honking due to the traffic. Phoebe determined the direction that they needed to go from the map, and they all picked up the pace – hoping to catch up with their competitors, while swerving around people to avoid them.

"I wish we didn't have to run through this," Simon remarked to his partner, "We could spend hours walking here, and a boat ride around the two banks seems like a pretty good idea!"

"Yeah Simon, we could come here for our honeymoon. A cruise around the river would be divine – get some wind going." Roger replied back.

"And we could take pictures!" Phoebe grinned, "It's so nice here!"

"Yeah, plenty of hot girls, lots of lights, fancy buildings..." Joey looked around.

"Sounds like home, Joey," Phoebe derived from Joey's statement.

"Damn, I miss New York so much!" Joey groaned, "I haven't had sex in..."

"Joey, the last time you had sex was within the last seventy-two hours," Phoebe retorted back.

"Oh right, big bathtubs," Joey smiled back, "I haven't been away from New York this long, ever! I am homesick!"

"Me too, but we are only halfway through, Joey. Plus we will be back home in no time!" Phoebe soothed.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

The two teams sprinted into the hotel, which was a tall tan building with a colour scheme that matched the buildings at the Bund. They ran through the entrance way, weaving between the people who were entering and leaving and soon found themselves at the concierge desk, which was brown, with a black marble top. Chairs and tables were set out on a red-yellow swirly patterned carpet. Harry and Chandler almost crashed into the red sofas on their way over to the counter.

Several people were there, dealing with their hotel issues and Chandler noticed the yellow and red flag. He grabbed Monica and dragged her towards the center of the counter, where a woman dressed in a light yellow dress presided. Harry and Patrick followed suit.

"Um..." Chandler managed. "Do you have something for us?" He showed her one of the yellow clue envelopes.

"Yeah. First, you sign up on this sheet. It determines your departure time tomorrow," the woman pulled out a piece of hotel paper with timeslots like so: 9:30 – three spaces, 10:00 – two spaces and 10:30 – three spaces.

Monica picked up the pen and elegantly wrote her name and Chandler's name down on the first 9:30 spot. Harry took the pen from Monica and scrawled his name and his brother's down on the slot beneath Monica and Chandler's.

"Oh and these are your hotel keys for tonight. Breakfast is served tomorrow at the dining room over there," she stopped to point, "Enjoy your stay!"

"Oh wow, hotel rooms! This is the life!" Harry grinned at his brother.

"Hell yeah." Patrick high-fived his brother.

"Do you guys want to get some dinner?" Chandler asked the twins.

"Yeah, we should eat out! Shanghai-food, baby!" Harry beamed ecstatically.

"Then, let's go eat before we head to our rooms, what do you think?" Monica suggested, while rearranging a pillow arrangement on one of the sofas.

"Good idea – there were plenty of restaurants on the way here."

The four of them headed off to find a restaurant.

P/|\J ~ S/|\R

When Phoebe, Joey, Roger and Simon reached the Bund hotel, it quickly turned into a footrace. Phoebe and Joey dashed through the doors with ease, but their competitors were just as fast and desperate. Simon found the way to the concierge area, and all three of them chased after him. In the room, Phoebe almost knocked over a chair, while Roger almost tripped over one of the chair legs while the other hotel clients looked baffled at the desperate looks of the four foreigners. Simon, much to Phoebe's later dismay, reached the desk first and signed his name on the sheet.

"Yo, Roge, we are leaving on the first boat tomorrow!" He exclaimed.

"Damn it!" Phoebe swore when she looked at the sign-up sheet, "We are on Boat number two!"

"Shit!" Joey frowned, "By a few seconds too!"

"Why are Monica and Chandler always number one?" Phoebe pointed to the top of the list.

"Sure beats me!" Joey shrugged, "Hey, are those hotel keys in your hand?"

"Yeah, we have a hotel room tonight!" Phoebe exclaimed, "Let's go check it out!"

"Alright, Phoebs!" Joey grinned and the two of them went to go look for an elevator.

"Um... Roger, where is this boat taking us to tomorrow?" Simon asked, after plopping down on one of the red couches.

"I have no idea!" Roger sighed, "The sign-up sheet just tells us to meet at the entrance of the hotel at that time and more information will be revealed later!"

"What do you want to do now? It's almost ten o'clock!" Simon looked at his watch, "Pity about Joey and Phoebe, but we could take any bit of a lead that we can."

"Yeah, hey, do you want to walk around the Bund, slowly this time?" Roger suggested, "After all, we are here!"

"True," Simon thought for a moment, "Let's go!"

R/|\R ~ M/|\K

Ross and Rachel dashed frantically along the street of Guangdong Road. Ross and Meredith had finished their game of ping-pong ten minutes after the last two teams had arrived at the detour, and all four teams knew that there wasn't much of a time-gap between 5th place and last place.

"Are... we... almost... there... yet?" Rachel asked her boyfriend, panting between her words.

"You see that tan building over there? I think this is it!" Ross exclaimed, his aching legs pounding the pavement.

"I... am... exhausted!" Rachel managed.

"I know, I know! But Meredith and Kenneth are hot on our tails and who knows what's going to happen at the hotel!" Ross exclaimed.

The pair ran through a red light, to reach the hotel on the other side. Not that it mattered anyways – people in Shanghai cross at any light since cars don't always obey the rules.

Ross flung open the door of the hotel for Rachel to run through, and he followed her. Rachel ran into the concierge area, managed to slow her momentum before she did any damage to the furniture and headed towards the yellow and red flag, marking the next location.

"Hi there, you got anything for us?" Rachel asked the woman.

"Yeah, sign your name here," the lady pushed a piece of paper towards them.

"Monica, Chandler, Harry, Patrick, Simon, Roger, Phoebe and Joey," Rachel read out the names before scribbling her name and Ross's in the next available blank.

"Ten o'clock, Ross! That's our departure time! Meredith and Kenneth are going to be on the last boat!" Rachel gave her boyfriend a high-five.

Moments later, Meredith came running onto the red and yellow carpet. She weaved her way through the furniture before stopping at the desk, panting heavily.

"Oh no, we are on the last boat, daddy!" She cried out to her father, who just entered the area.

"That's alright, we aren't dead last," Kenneth sighed, "And we get a hotel room. I am pooped!"

"Yeah, I could use some sleep!" Meredith rubbed her aching arms and legs slowly.

"Let's go check out the room!" Kenneth turned to look for an elevator – his daughter followed suit.

"I kinda feel bad for them. They ran all the way here too!" Rachel whispered to her boyfriend on the couch.

"Yeah, what's our plan?" Ross replied back to Rachel.

"As much as I want to sleep, I really want to go back and explore those streets! Did you see all the shops?" Rachel almost overflowed with her enthusiasm.

"Did I ever!" Ross replied dryly.

"Let's go then!" Rachel found new energy – she couldn't wait to go shopping!

Ross dejectedly walked behind his enthusiastic girlfriend. He wanted nothing more than to sleep on the hotel bed that was calling his name.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"Wow, they actually have translations here!" Chandler exclaimed when picking up one of the menus that their waiter had left at the center of the table.

"Unless if you want Halogen burned meat with bamboo shoots, I suggest you stay away from the English," Patrick quipped.

"Where's that? Sounds delicious!" Chandler joked back, "Oh here's the Fuck a Spring Chicken!"

"You are serious right?" Harry asked, while trying his hardest to hold back a laugh.

"Oh no, it's on page five," Chandler looked amused, "I think you guys better order unless if you want things like the palace explodes the shrimp boil and some black mushrooms rape."

Monica, Patrick and Harry ended up laughing into their hands.

"Oh dear god, you got to love Chinglish," Patrick managed between bursts of laughter.

"Holy cow, this is the funniest thing I've seen all day!" Harry grinned.

"So what are we going to eat?" Monica asked, "I certainly don't want the black mushrooms rape. Sounds like drugs!"

"Hm... since our Chinese reading skills suck, let's look at the pictures, Patty?" Harry suggested.

"Okay. Oh cool, they have that duck here! I want some!" Patrick exclaimed.

"And let's get some steamed bean sprouts with those mushrooms – that tastes so good!" Harry grinned.

"And we must have the stir-fried nian-gao!" Patrick smiled when he came across a picture on the menu.

"What's that?" Monica looked curiously at the picture that Patrick was pointing at.

"Oh, it's translated as year cakes, but the white stuff is the made out of rice, and stir-fried with veggies and meat. It's traditionally a Shanghainese dish, you see," Harry explained.

"Cool, Shanghainese dish?" Chandler asked.

"Yeah, different parts of China eat different stuff. You will find Shanghainese food to be a little bit on the not spicy, sweeter side of the spectrum, and it's awesome!" Patrick flipped through the menu.

"Since we are on the topic of Shanghainese food – we could get some sweet-and-sour ribs," Harry mused.

"Oh yeah, definitely," Patrick grinned.

"I think that's enough, if you count the rice and the four dishes – especially the duck since it comes in three different forms – the one with pancake, the one with pure duck and the duck soup." Harry counted.

"Yeah, and if you want dessert, we could just walk by that McDonalds that we saw earlier. Saves a lot of money!" Patrick exclaimed.

"Let's order then!" Monica interjected, "I am starving!"

P/|\J

"Oh boy, oh boy!" Joey smiled happily as he bounced on his hotel bed, "This is so comfortable!"

Phoebe and Joey had been surprised to find that their hotel room was really spacious, with a white and brown theme.

"I know!" Phoebe grinned. She and Joey had finished taking their much-needed showers and they were feeling so much better.

"This is kinda like a pit stop!" Joey made a shrewd observation, "It's like Phil is giving us a chance to catch our breaths!"

"Yeah, he is humane!" Phoebe grinned happily, "I just realized something..."

"What?" Joey looked questioningly at his friend.

"We haven't had dinner yet!"

"My god! Really?" Joey exclaimed bewilderingly, "I am hungry now!"

"What do you want to eat?" Phoebe asked, "Chinese food?"

"Well, considering that we are in China... Hey there was that McDonalds we saw earlier!" Joey exclaimed.

"We come all the way here and you want to eat at McDonalds?" Phoebe shot Joey an exasperated look.

"Hell yeah. I miss New York!" Joey sighed.

"Alright, let's go to McDonalds!" Phoebe conceded, and the two of them headed back out their hotel room.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"That was good!" Chandler exclaimed, after pushing his bowl and plate away.

"Yeah, it was!" Monica grinned, "That sweet and sour pork – it's like a new flavour all together!"

"That's because it's not that red stuff that gets used in white Asian places," Harry explained, "And heck, it was good – just like how my mom makes it!"

"Think it's a special combination of soy sauce and sugar," Patrick replied thoughtfully, "We are splitting the bill?"

"Oh yeah, definitely," Monica nodded, when the waiter dropped a black folder containing the receipt at their table.

Both teams scrutinized the bill and paid off their share. "What are we going to do with that leftover duck?" Chandler enquired, pointing to the plate that was half filled with duck meat.

"Oh dear god. I can't eat another bite," Patrick moaned.

"And we can't take it with us, obviously. Oily duck in take-out box isn't a conventional race around the world thing," Harry quipped.

"Seems like such a waste!" Monica sighed.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it, heck why don't we just take it with us as a midnight snack!" Harry suggested.

"Fine, what are we doing now?" Chandler enquired, after Harry waved at the waiter and told him to fetch a take-out box.

"One night in Shanghai, heck I want to go back to the Bund, man!" Patrick replied.

"Yeah, all those pretty lights!" Monica grinned, "Even though we do have to get up tomorrow."

"Hm... sleep or sight-see?" Chandler asked with a joking tone in his voice.

"No-brainer right there!" Harry quipped, "Let's go see the sights!"

Patrick scooped the duck into the white Styrofoam container with his pair of wooden tan coloured chopsticks and the four of them departed the restaurant.

P/|\J

"Amazing on how they just show you a menu and you point to what you want!" Joey exclaimed, while taking a handful of fries and stuffing them in his mouth, "Oh how I missed fries!"

"Yeah, well, it's not like we can speak any Chinese!" Phoebe replied back, while helping herself to a chicken nugget, "Hm... these aren't quite the same as back home."

"You are right!" Joey took one of Phoebe's nuggets and stuffed it in his mouth, "This is not breast meat!"

"Really? It's some other part of the chicken then!" Phoebe reasoned.

"Probably," Joey shrugged, while opening the box of his second Big Mac, "Do you have any idea how heavenly this feels right now? I can almost imagine that we are in New York!"

"Minus the Mandarin everywhere," Phoebe observed.

"I am so tired," Joey changed onto a different avenue of conversation, "I can't even think straight anymore. I don't even want a third Big Mac!"

"Really?" Phoebe asked her partner sceptically, "Joey Tribbiani – too tired to eat?"

"What?"Joey exclaimed.

"It's abnormal!" Phoebe looked critically at Joey.

"Well, this is an abnormal situation!" Joey replied back, "And I am so sleeping after this!"

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"So here we are, the Bund!" Harry grinned, when the group strolled up to the familiar stretch of buildings.

"Oh yeah, hasn't lost its awe!" Chandler replied back, "You guys want to cross the road and walk on the breezy side?"

"Good idea!" Monica exclaimed back, "It's almost midnight and it's still so humid!"

"Yeah, my t-shirt is sticking to my skin," Patrick pulled at his sticky shirt.

The two teams crossed the road which had significantly less cars than when everyone was doing the Roadblock. There were still a large amount of tourists out, but the number had slightly diminished.

"Oh my god! Hey guys!" Roger waved happily to the four approaching people.

"Wow, you guys are out here too!" Harry exclaimed, "Nice!"

"What's that in your hand?" Simon asked, pointing to the white bag.

"Leftover Peking duck!" Patrick replied back.

"What's the difference between Peking and Beijing? They are like used so interchangeably," Roger asked.

"Nothing. Peking is what Beijing was formerly called," Harry explained.

"How fascinating! Can we have that duck? We are starving!" Simon's stomach made a large rumble.

"Yes, please take it!" Patrick shoved the box into Simon's hands.

"Thanks guys," Simon opened the bag, and looked at the contents in the box.

"Do we have any tissues? We can use those as utensils," Roger suggested to his partner.

"Oh yeah, let's sit down and eat!" Simon replied back.

All six of them sat down on the concrete blocks located beside the grey tiles that decorated the path on the Puxi coast. Simon and Roger ate their meat hungrily, not caring that their hands were getting a bit on the oily side. Monica and Chandler found themselves holding hands, and looking at the Pudong coast, while stealing glances at each other. They both grinned when they caught each other in the act, smiling like newlyweds. Harry and Patrick were staring directly opposite the river too, both their minds wandering around nostalgia lane.

"This is like our second honeymoon," Monica whispered to her husband, "Everything is so nice... so romantic, except those people over there," Monica pointed to the other two teams.

"Haha, we don't come as part as the romantic package?" Harry quipped.

"Not romantic enough for you guys?" Patrick chimed in, a large smile etched on his face.

"The jokes, for one thing," Monica retorted back, "Not to mention the interruptions!"

"And two engaged guys eating Peking duck with their hands, very romantic," Chandler smiled, "Yeah, we should come back here, sans other people."

"Well, you are here for free, so we come in a package!" Patrick smiled.

"Wish my girlfriend was here," Harry sighed, "We would walk around, holding hands, bargaining for cheap goodies in Shanghainese, and go on a boat ride."

"Shanghainese?" Chandler raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, what's that?" Roger asked.

"Dialect of Shanghai," Patrick explained, "If you want things here at rock-bottom prices, speak Shanghainese and look Shanghainese."

"Oh yeah, definitely," Harry grinned, "The elite in Shanghai speak the dialect."

"Ooh boat rides!" Simon exclaimed when he saw a brightly lit boat cruise the river, "We should go on one, like, now!"

"Race tomorrow!" Roger retorted back.

"One night only!" Harry exclaimed, "Plus, it's not expensive!"

"You are right. We are stuck in this nice, foreign country..." Chandler trailed off.

"Might as well make the use of every opportunity!" Patrick chimed in.

"Oh kay! Let's go then! The sooner we get on the boat, the sooner we sleep!" Monica marched them all off to the nearest tour boat dock.

R/|\R

"Rachel! Can't we go back yet? It's almost midnight!" Ross exclaimed, after Rachel pulled him into what was probably the twentieth shop along the busy East Nanjing Road.

"Just one more shop, please!" Rachel, who was clutching bags of cheap Chinese things that she liked, was busy looking at another rack of clothes.

"But you said that like ten shops ago!" Ross groaned.

"And I can't believe you aren't shopping – some of these things are so cheap," Rachel exclaimed.

"Well, they are after all knock-offs of the real thing," Ross sighed, "Didn't you see the prices of brand name stuff – they were in the thousands of renminbi!"

"Yeah," Rachel replied back, focusing more on the rack of clothes in front of her.

"And we are going to run out of money, honey, if you keep spending it!" Ross groaned again.

"Well, we can always start selling the crap that you collect after today's hotel stay!" Rachel retorted back.

Ross sighed, and followed Rachel back out the store, only to have her walk into the one beside that.

"This is going to be one long night," Ross thought, as Rachel disappeared under another pile of various coloured clothing.

H/|\P ~ R/|\S

"Now, this is the life," Roger remarked to his partner, their hair blowing in the wind generated by the movement of the cruise boat in the Huangpu River.

"Definitely," Harry eavesdropped on their conversation. He was standing beside Roger, at the open front of the boat.

"Attempt at romantic night here, Harry!" Simon groaned exasperatingly, one arm encircling his partner's waist.

"That's what Monica and Chandler said the last time I tried to speak with them!" Patrick interjected, "They snuck away somehow when I wasn't looking."

"Yeah, you guys need to be chaperoned!" Harry grinned mischievously, "Keeping things rated E for everyone, y'know!"

Roger and Simon gave each other exasperated looks. "Well, in that case," Roger said, after sharing a few significant looks with his significant other. They began to kiss and make-out on the deck of the boat.

"Okay, we did not need to see that!" Patrick was starting to look a little green. And it definitely was not from sea-sickness.

"C'mon, Patty – it's obvious that we are not needed here!" Harry groaned, "Let's look for the other couple."

"Agreed," Patrick concurred, peeling his eyes away from the front of the deck. Roger and Simon looked like they were going to drop all caution to the wind and have sex right there and then. The twins hurriedly fled back to the inside of the boat.

"Aha, works like a charm!" Simon smirked back to his partner, after breaking apart from their intense kiss.

"No duh, now where were we?" Roger asked.

"Oh I know," Simon leaned in to give his partner another kiss.

M/|\C

"Wow, we finally gave those twins the slip," Chandler grinned at his wife on top of the boat. The couple had found a ladder leading up to the top deck of the boat, which was actually a small oval shaped thing on top of the two floors of cabins. There were large comfortable cushioned seats that they could sit on.

"Yeah, it does get kind of annoying after awhile," Monica sighed, "I mean, we need alone time!"

"Poor Roger and Simon," Chandler smiled, "Wonder how they are going to get rid of the twins."

"Boat ride was a good idea," Monica looked around the two coasts, the old-fashioned buildings of The Bund on one side and the marvels of modern architecture on the other. Colourful lights adorned both views.

"Apparently it's 37 degrees out here," Chandler pointed to a tall building with a display featuring red Chinese characters moving and displaying the temperature at the top. "Really hot," Chandler remarked.

"Well, that's not the only thing that's hot around here," Monica grinned mischievously at her husband.

"Oh definitely," Chandler leaned closer to his wife to kiss her, "Do you think we could do it here?"

"Tsk, Chandler – in public?" Monica waggled her eyebrows at her husband.

"Well, I've got a condom here," Chandler went through the contents of his bag, before pulling out a packet.

"Hm..." Monica sat and contemplated her future course of action.

"Well, we did it in the Eiffel Tower, on the hot deserts of Egypt, a castle at St. Petersburg, several airport and airplane lavatories..." Chandler started listing.

"Oh to the heck with it, let's do" it!" Monica jumped her very surprised husband.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P ~ R/|\S ~ P/|\J ~ R/|\R

"That was so not a rated E for everyone boat ride!" Patrick exclaimed during breakfast the next day, "It was so not!"

"I know!" Harry remarked back with horror, while helping himself to a deep fried dough stick, "Some images were not meant to be seen!"

"Well, who told you to come up there?" Chandler retorted back, "The hatch on the ceiling was closed for a reason!"

"Yeah, it would help if you taped a note saying – roof occupied!" Patrick suggested, while scooping out some congee from a large bowl, complete with preserved duck egg, green onion and bits of meat.

"And Monica, you may want to keep it down a bit," Roger joined the conversation, "We could hear you screaming two decks down!"

Monica blushed.

"Fortunately, most people thought it was someone calling out for their kid," Harry replied back.

"How fortunate," Monica replied dryly. Chandler rolled his eyes.

"Wow, your night sounds so interesting," Phoebe exclaimed, over her green onion pancake, "We just went to McDonalds."

"I wish I went to McDonalds," Ross groaned, "That was over thirty stores that we went to! I am surprised we could fit all the stuff in our bags!"

"Well, I was also carrying all the bags, Ross, so you got off lucky!" Rachel retorted indignantly back.

"And I am exhausted," Roger sighed, "As much fun the cruise was, it was probably not the best decision."

"Yeah, we are tired and money supplies are dwindling," Patrick agreed, his fingers idly playing with the clean white tablecloth that covered their table.

"Oh crap, it's almost 9:30, we better go!" Harry looked at his watch.

The twins, Monica and Chandler and Simon and Roger stuffed the last bite of their breakfast into their mouths, set down their utensils and left hurriedly out of the breakfast room.

"Damn, they sounded like they had a good night!" Ross exclaimed, "Although I can't believe they did it on a boat – outside!"

"Yeah," Joey replied back, "I knida wish we went on a cruise."

"You were tired, remember?" Phoebe reminded Joey.

"Oh right," Joey replied back.

"Amazing on how the lack of sleep impairs one's judgement," Rachel quipped.

M/|\C ~ R/|\S ~ H/|\P

The six of them were greeted by a man dressed in one of the hotel employee outfits at the front entrance. The man took their hotel keys and scrutinized them carefully before handing them their next clue. He then gave them a good-bye and a good luck. Chandler ripped open his envelope, in which he found two tickets to a ferry that would take them across the Huangpu River to the other side at 9:50, and their next clue.

"Cross the Huangpu river, by ferry to the other side to Pudong. Walk to the Oriental Pearl Tower, where you will find your next clue at the bottom of the tower. Good luck." Monica read over Chandler's shoulder.

"Twenty minutes to get to the ferry! Let's go!" Patrick and his brother were already out the door. Monica, Chandler, Roger and Simon chased after them. The twins jogged leisurely down Guangdong road followed by the other two teams, into the rush hour crowd of people heading off to work and tourists taking a leisurely morning walk down the streets of Puxi. Chandler was glad that he had spent time before the race exercising so that he could keep up without tiring too much – despite the lack of sleep.

Minutes later, they had arrived at the Bund. The six crossed the road, and ran off in the opposite direction away from East Nanjing road to find the ferry dock indicated by the tickets. Harry and Patrick stopped to ask several people to make sure they were heading off in the right direction.

At 9:45, the six of them found the dock, and boarded the ferry, along with other tourists who wanted to take water transportation instead of the metro.

"See, we ended up on the boat anyways," Chandler observed, thinking about last night's adventures on the river.

"Yeah, but the view isn't as pretty," Patrick sighed, "No lights, no darkness – everyone heading off to work. Reminds me about my job back home."

"I miss my job," Harry stated, "I love it. Looking at neurons and figuring out how they work – while contributing new knowledge to help others."

"Me too," Roger replied, "I love programming games – and testing them out!"

"Damn, you are a game designer?" Patrick asked, "I envy you. I don't miss my job – doing corporate accounting is rather mundane!"

"Yup, work for Blizzard," Roger smiled, "Helped out with WOW, and the other Warcraft games!"

"Wow!" Harry grinned, "You've got to hook me up with some games!"

"Sure, but I can't tell you much about what I am designing now – it's a secret!" Roger sighed, "Not even Simon knows."

"I love my job too. Even though my violin skills are deteriorating everyday that we are here!" Simon frowned a little.

"Yeah, I miss cooking!" Monica added.

"I surely don't miss my job. I don't cook, perform music, contribute to science, design awesome video games, nor do I look at corporate accounts!" Chandler added his sigh.

"Oh trust me, it's incredibly boring," Patrick reassured, "You aren't missing out on much."

"Oh look, we are moving!" Harry exclaimed as their small boat (much smaller than yesterday's night cruise) took off.

R/|\R ~ P/|\J

"Wow, it's been a while since we were stuck on the same boat," Rachel remarked to Joey, Phoebe and her boyfriend on the ferry – outside on the deck. The cold air-conditioning in the cabin had proven to be too much for the four of them.

"Yeah," Phoebe replied back.

"Only Mon and Chandler are missing," Joey sighed, "But they are really fast!"

"Mrs. Efficiency," Ross mumbled glumly about his sister, "Chandler, Harry and Patrick are ridiculously efficient as well, despite all their jokes."

"Oh, don't look so glum," Rachel reprimanded Ross, "We should be happy that we are on the second boat, and that we have this opportunity to see the world for free!"

"That is so true!" Phoebe exclaimed, "I love this race! Thank you Phil!" Phoebe waved at one of the nearby cameramen who were always with them during the race.

"What do you think we are doing across the river?" Rachel asked.

The rest shrugged.

M/|\C ~ R/|\S ~ H/|\P

As soon as the boat docked at the other side of the Huangpu River, the six of them ran out of the boat, onto the wooden dock. They soon hit the Riverside Promenade – which was like the Puxi walkway on the other side. Instead of the large gray stone tiles on the ground, the tiles here were small and gray, while red tiles outlined large rectangles.

There was no need to ask for directions, since the Oriental Pearl tower could be seen from miles away. Monica took note of the neatly manicured grass and hedges along the pathway, and admired the red, yellow and orange flowerbeds that were organized along the path. Harry and Patrick were stealing glances from across the river, to admire the Puxi side.

All six of them jogged slowly down the promenade, looking for a street that would lead them closer towards the distinctive pink and silver tower.

They turned when they hit an intersection that led them further into Pudong by crossing another busy street, filled with taxis, cars and motorcycles. Exhaust and noise filled the air around the busy city streets.

Minutes later, they found themselves at the entrance of the Oriental Pearl Tower. Roger reached the clue-box standing in the crowds of tourists lining up to get tickets in order to enter the building. He opened up the box and took out a clue. Monica and Patrick joined him, while Harry, Simon and Chandler paused to catch their breaths, fanning their t-shirts, already made sticky by the humidity.

"Detour," Simon took out the familiar yellow paper.

"Detour, Sequence it or Dive it," Patrick read breathlessly, before handing the card over to his brother who continued reading.

"Sequence it – make your way to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Head off to the Wild Spectrum of Life exhibit and finish building a DNA model. Dive it – make your way to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. Both members will put on dive-suits to search for five jewels buried underneath the bottom of the tank in the Deep Ocean Zone. Note: Only two teams may work the task at the same time." Harry finished reading on behalf of Patrick.

"Woah, they both sound very intense," Roger exclaimed.

"We call Dive it!" Monica called out and started to drag Chandler towards the direction of the Aquarium which could be seen from the Oriental Tower.

"Us too!" Harry exclaimed, "The Aquarium is just over there anyways!"

The twins ran to catch up with Monica and Chandler who were heading out of the crowded entrance area of the Pearl Oriental Tower and onto West Yin Cheng Road, where the Aquarium was located at the next intersection.

"Damn it!" Simon exclaimed, "We better haul our butts over to that Science and Tech Museum!"

"Don't worry Simon, there was a stop called the Science and Technology Museum on the metro on the way over to East Nanjing Road yesterday!" Roger reassured him.

"You are right!" Simon exclaimed, "And the metro is just across the street! Let's go!"

The couple left the crowded entrance area as well, and crossed the street when the light turned green. They descended into the steps of Lu Jia Zui station, walked through the halls decorated with Chinese advertisements shown on screens, swiped their cards and entered the subway system.

R/|\R ~ P/|\J

"Wow, look at all the people here!" Joey exclaimed when the four of them entered the busy surroundings of the Pearl Oriental Tower.

"And this isn't even inside!" Ross remarked, "Oh, the clue-box is over there!" Ross pointed in the middle of the crowd.

Rachel and Phoebe got to the box first, and retrieved their respective clues.

"On the count of three?" Phoebe asked Rachel.

"Yeah," Rachel grinned back at Phoebe.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Rip!"

They both ripped their envelopes at the same time, while Ross and Joey surveyed the scene in front of them and shrugged.

"Women!" Joey exclaimed.

"Don't get them at all!" Ross sighed.

"Detour!" Phoebe shouted.

"We will probably all have to do Sequence it," Rachel sighed, "The other teams get dibs."

Ross walked over and read the clue. "Oh DNA, that's not too bad – let's go Rach!"

"But I wanted to dive in a tank full of sea life!" Phoebe sighed, "That would be a once in a lifetime experience!"

"Phoebs, do you really want to dive in a tank with sharks and stuff?" Joey thought for a moment.

"Now that I think about it, no!" Phoebe shook her head rigorously.

"Let's go, we can't just dilly-dawdle all day!" Rachel was already running towards the metro on the other side.

"Wait for me, Rach!" Ross ran after his girlfriend.

Phoebe and Joey nodded to each other and scrambled after their friends.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"Holy, moly, hell – those are two huge-ass tanks!" Patrick exclaimed when the two teams found themselves at the Deep Ocean Zone area of the Aquarium.

"Beautiful," Harry exclaimed when an enormous shark cruised by.

"Scary!" Chandler remarked, "Wasn't that a Great White that just passed?"

Harry looked at the passing shark, and then thought for a minute. "Oh dear god, I think you may be right."

Patrick exclaimed, "Don't you dare chicken out on me now Harry Zhang! Don't you dare!"

"I am not a chicken," Harry frowned at his brother.

"Neither am I," Monica grinned at the swimming marine life, "Can't wait!"

"I might be one," Chandler replied, while making chicken noises and flapping his arms around.

"We are ready for you!" A young man dressed in a blue Aquarium t-shirt indicated to the pair of teams.

Monica elbowed her husband, "We are going in, whether you like it, or not!"

"Oh dear lord, I am going to be in the same tank as carnivorous sharks!" The thought just entered Patrick's mind.

"Who's the chicken now?" Harry quipped back.

The four of them were led into an equipment room nearby, and were helped into custom made diving suits that had been made for them for the race. The suits were dark, the flippers a dark blue, a mask and a tank containing a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen were strapped on their backs by several other employees wearing the same blue t-shirt.

"Okay guys, I know there's some very scary stuff in that tank, but everything has been fed – so they won't eat you. Just move slowly, no sudden aggressive movements, don't panic, and you should be fine." A woman dressing up Patrick reassured the lot of them.

"And there aren't any great white sharks," the young man who led them in grinned, "These are less dangerous carnivores."

"When you guys find the jewels – they are fake, by the way – surface and place your jewels in a sack that has been attached to the glass of the aquarium. The sacks have your names on them, so don't put it in the wrong bag. Plus, we will be supervising you guys so no foul play, okay?" The young guy dressing up Chandler added.

"And don't worry about the air supply – there should be more than enough for this task."

"Okay guys, you are set!" A man led the four of them upstairs, where the top of the tank could be seen. An assortment of sea-life greeted them, and Chandler found himself taking the first step into the entirely different world beneath him. Monica followed after her husband and plunged in – heading towards the bottom.

Harry and Patrick leapt into the water together, and into the dark waters below. They both headed towards the bottom of the artificial small portion of the ocean. The shark that they had been talking about earlier – the Great White look-alike brushed against Harry, which caused him to almost have a heart attack. An enormous manta ray happily drifted beside Patrick, swishing its tail about.

Near Chandler, as he began his slow decent to the bottom, being mindful about slow non-aggressive movements was an enormous sea turtle – probably as large as his torso, maybe bigger – Chandler thought to himself. A smaller shark darted in front of him, which forced him to stay still for that second. His wife had already descended to the bottom, her hands raking through the different coloured pebbles that served as the bottom, being mindful of the seaweed and various coloured sea anemones. A small manta ray, slightly larger than Monica's hand hovered nearby, acting as if it curious to why she was digging at the depths of its ocean home.

Chandler soon found himself at the bottom, near several large rocks at the centre of the tank. He quickly raked through the piles of colourful sediment, and grinned when a school of small fish swam by. It was surreal, that he was surrounded by exotic sea animals, in Shanghai. It might as well be a dream. He systematically made his way from the base of an enormous gray and white rock and moved outwards.

Harry and Patrick had both reached the bottom and swam towards opposite corners. None of them wanted to be looking in the same spot as the other. The giant sea turtle had taken a liking to Harry, and was following him where ever he went. "I have a friend," Harry thought to himself, "Nice!" He and the turtle swam off towards the inner most corner and he started his scavenger hunt from there, avoiding the delicate looking sponges and coral near the side.

Patrick trailed his hand lazily in the sediment; he didn't even know what the jewels they were supposed to be looking for looked like. "This is so unreal," he thought, "Corporate accountant digging through the bottom of an ocean. Crazy! Wonder what all my co-workers would think after this stunt!" He raked through sediment to find more sediment. Fortunately, the layer at the bottom was not thick.

Monica had started from the centre of one side of the tank, and she held her breath when the big huge brown shark with a white belly zoomed by. A rather fearsome sight, she thought. Just then, her fingers touched something smooth with clearly defined edges, unlike the round pebbles and sediment that she had been handling previously. The jewel was clear and transparent, like a diamond. She memorized the location where she had stopped her search and swam off to her husband.

Chandler saw the jewel and gave her the thumbs up, so she prompted kicked hard and propelled herself back out the tank. At the surface, she took off her wet goggles and searched the bags. She finally found a blue bag with her name and Chandler's on it, and she deposited her find in the sack. She quickly dove down again, after donning her eyewear, to see Harry making the journey back up. She grinned when she saw the sea turtle follow him.

R/|\R ~ P/|\J ~ R/|\S

Ross, Phoebe, Joey and Rachel exited the metro to emerge into an area shaded by a curved glass structure. A magnificent courtyard greeted their eyes, made up of geometric shapes. The ground was concrete but black lines defined squares. Many metres away, another glass structure, similar to the one they were under stood. They quickly realized that the concrete they stood on was in the shape of a perfect circle, surrounded by manicured grass rather like an island, with four bridges that connected the concrete circle to more concrete that outlined a green square containing a grey and black circle. The bridges bisected the square perfectly.

The concrete also formed another square – so it was basically a large gray square, with a green grass square and a circle. Trees were planted evenly around the perimeter of the square, leaving gaps at the mid area of the square, leading to more pathways or a set of stairs that led the two teams up to the museum. The museum was a large glass affair; a large curved modern building that could easily be part of some sci-fi movie. An enormous glass sphere stood at the centre of the front of the building, the slanted ceiling had a hole large enough to expose the top of the globe.

The four of them found themselves running up several flights of stairs, and on large stretches of concrete before they entered the museum itself. The climb left them panting at the top, and they entered by showing their clues in lieu of a ticket. Following the colourful signs, the two teams were able to locate their way to the exhibit mentioned on the clue, where they found Simon and Roger hard at work, assembling half of a DNA double helix.

"Hey guys!" Phoebe greeted the couple.

"Hey Phoebs, hey Ross, hey Rach and hey Joey!" The couple greeted back, while still concentrating on the task in front of them.

"Okay guys," one of the supervisors of the task called them, "Pick a DNA model to work on – assemble the other half basically – following the guide that has been left out."

"Alright!" Rachel and Ross took the model to the left of Roger and Simon, while Phoebe and Joey took the one to the right.

"Wow, this is half the DNA," Ross exclaimed.

"So what do we do?" Rachel asked her boyfriend, "I don't know anything about DNA!"

"Okay," Ross replied, "Basically there are four bases in DNA."

"Bases?" Rachel asked in confusion.

"Do you see the coloured block in here?" Ross pointed to red, green, blue and yellow blocks at the end of a stick and purple twistable material connected each stick at 90 degree angles to form half a DNA ladder.

"Yeah," Rachel nodded.

"Those are bases. According to the legend here, the short red block is thymine, the long yellow block is adenine, the long blue block is guanine and the tiny green block is cytosine." Ross explained.

Rachel looked bemused, "And..."

"So basically," Ross picked up a blue guanine and placed it beside the tiny green cytosine on the model and snapped them together, "Cytosine goes with guanine and adenine goes with thymine."

"Oh!" Rachel grinned, "So we put the green with blue and the yellow with red. What the hell do these bases do anyways?"

Ross snapped a black stick onto the guanine that he had just attached. "Oh it's the alphabet of genes. They code for stuff, like your eye-colour."

"I see," Rachel looked at the blocks dubiously, "These four blocks are the key to life?"

"Essentially, yes," Ross nodded, while attaching an adenine to thymine. Rachel passed him a black stick.

At the other table, Phoebe and Joey were standing and looking bemusedly at their DNA ladder.

"Okay, so what I know," Phoebe began, "Red is adenine, yellow is thymine, green is cytosine and blue is guanine. Red goes with yellow and blue goes with green." She began to methodically snap blue pieces onto green, green pieces on to blue, yellow pieces onto red and visa versa.

"I don't understand, Phoebs," Joey looked at his friend with confusion written all over his face.

"Okay, you know what, just snap the black sticks onto the blocks I put on; can you do that?" Phoebe asked, while rapidly assembling the bases.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Joey collected a handful of black rods and snapped them in place as Phoebe finished pairing up the bases.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

Chandler dove up from the tank carefully, mindful of the predators that swam in the tank with him. He found the bag with their team's names written on them and he deposited a red jewel into the bag. It turned out that all the jewels looked kind of different. He stuffed his gloved fingers in the bag and counted four jewels. He removed his hand and dove back down to the centre where he was working at. Harry and Patrick were also methodically searching their corners; Chandler wasn't quite sure how far the twins were along in the detour – he and Monica had been working as fast as possible, knowing that this detour required efficiency and a bit of luck.

Patrick systematically worked through his corner. He had managed to find three jewels so far, while Harry had found a measly one. He sighed, as well as he could with the SCUBA mask on. He dug and dug and dug again, finding more rocks and pebbles and dust. A small shark swam from behind him and curiously butted his arm with his head, before zooming off to the other end of the aquarium.

Harry, working his way in his lonely corner found his hand hitting something with defined edges. Triumphantly, he grasped the last jewel, one that was purple – rather like an amethyst and quickly swam over to his brother. He tapped Patrick on the shoulder and showed him the jewel. They high-fived and surfaced the sea water together. Harry dropped his treasure into the sack; Patrick took the bag off the glass. Harry took off his mask and helped his brother with his. Patrick handed his bag of jewels to the nearby supervisor who counted the shiny rocks in his hand. "Congratulations guys. You have completed the search. Come out of there and we will help you out of your suits."

Patrick and Harry followed the beaming supervisor back into the room and were helped out of their dripping suits.

Chandler groaned when he saw the twins leave the tank; he knew that they were done now. He quickened his searching pace, without sacrificing care and dug frantically into the sediment, hoping that the last jewel will come out. Just then, he felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned around to face Monica who had an amber coloured jewel in her hand. He gave her another thumbs up and the pair of them surfaced.

Monica dropped her amber jewel into the bag and Chandler detached the cloth from the wall. He swam over to a woman, who was supervising the task in SCUBA gear and handed her the bag. She stuck her hand in and counted the contents before giving them the nod. She helped them out of their masks.

"Wow, that was..." Chandler started.

"Amazing," Monica completed her husband's sentence.

"As the British would say; bloody fantastic!" Chandler exclaimed.

"Glad you guys liked it. We came up with the idea for the detour," the diver grinned.

"Really? I thought Phil did," Monica said.

She grinned, "No, Phil asked us if we would like to host a detour."

"Nice, good idea." Chandler smiled.

When they re-entered the equipment room, Harry and Patrick were still tangled up in their wetsuits. The other employees helped them remove the wet material from their bodies before giving them the next clue.

"Wow, intense detour," Harry exclaimed when they all exited the building.

"Yeah, what does the clue say?" Chandler asked Monica, who was in the process o"f ripping the envelope.

"Better be the pit-stop. I am fucking exhausted!" Patrick wiped his forehead with his hand.

"And your dreams are about to come true," Monica quipped, "Travel to the pit-stop which is located at Xin Tian Di, wherever that is. The mat will be found at the First Communist Party Hall, followed by lots of Chinese! (第一个共产主义的宴会厅)."

"Yay!" Patrick cheered, "Let's head back to the metro, I think we should be able to get there by subway."

"Yeah, let's go!"

The twins and Monica and Chandler headed out of the museum, to bump into Meredith and Kenneth, who were now entering.

"We can do the detour here, right?" Kenneth asked the two teams heading out.

"Yeah, we just finished; good luck guys!" Harry waved to them before they ran out of the building.

R/|\R ~ P/|\J ~ S/|\R

An intense DNA building race was commencing in the exhibit, as Joey, Phoebe, Simon, Roger, Ross and Rachel scrambled to finish their ladders as fast as they could. There were at least five hundred base pair matches that they all had to do. Phoebe and Joey had somehow managed to catch up with Simon and Roger, and Ross and Rachel weren't far behind.

All teams were silent, as they quickly did their task as fast and precise as they could. The room wasn't silent though. A bunch of curious onlookers were watching the three teams assemble the ladders. Chatter and the clicking of the pieces as they went in were the noises that surrounded the teams. Roger grinned when he snapped the last base of their DNA, while Simon snapped on the last black rod. Together, they quickly assembled the twisty purple pieces into one long purple piece that was almost two metres long and quickly attached the black rods onto the purple pieces.

Joey and Phoebe had also snapped on the last piece – an adenine resting together with a thymine. Joey snapped on the black rod, and the two of them dealt with the purple pieces together. Ross and Rachel were working frantically to finish.

At that moment, Trevor, Natasha, Arlene and Yvonne came running into the exhibit, eager to join the detour. The supervisor directed them to their work stations, and they quietly began to work as well – scrutinizing the pieces that were laid out in front of them.

Simon quickly called over one of the supervisors who examined their work with a critical eye. She nodded to them after a few minutes and handed them their next clue.

Roger tore it open and the two of them stared at the next paper.

"Taxis are still out right?" Simon asked his partner.

"I think so, they did mention that all transportation in Shanghai must be public transportation as in buses and subways." Roger sighed, "Taxis are more personal."

"True, let's head off to the metro, it shouldn't be too hard to find. Heck even I heard about Xintiandi somewhere!" Simon exclaimed.

"Let's go!"

Two minutes later, Joey and Phoebe called another supervisor to scrutinize their work. Halfway through, she shook her head. "There's something wrong."

"Damn it!" Joey swore, and Phoebe went back to check the bases. Joey did too, since he finally understood the significance of the different colours. Red went with yellow, yellow went with red, green went with blue and blue went with green. The mantra repeated itself over and over again in his head.

"Phoebe you put a red with a green!" Joey pointed out to the error halfway down.

"O shit! You are right!" Phoebe snapped off the offending base and replaced it with the correct nucleotide.

"And that blue over there is wrong – should be a yellow!" Joey pointed to another mistake at the end of the DNA ladder.

"Oh my god. I am so tired, Joey." Phoebe groaned, "No wonder I am making mistakes!"

Joey quickly fixed all of Phoebe's mistakes. Meanwhile at Ross and Rachel's table, they had finished assembling their DNA. Ross waved another supervisor over. The man walked over to their table and scrutinized their work carefully.

"Hao, you may have your next clue."

"Xie, xie!" Rachel replied back before ripping the envelope.

"Pit stop, a woohoo!" Ross yelled, before grabbing Rachel's hand and exiting the exhibit room.

Phoebe and Joey got another supervisor, and he looked at their base pairs rather slowly but carefully. Phoebe was getting a little impatient but held her tongue. He finally gave them a nod and presented their next clue. Phoebe ripped the envelope with her suppressed frustration and looked at the contents.

"Back to the subway," she whispered to Joey, who nodded. The pair of them exited the room, leaving unbearable tension between Arlene, Yvonne, Natasha and Trevor who were all fighting to be not last.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"So how are we doing this again?" Chandler asked the twins while they were on the Line 2 subway.

"Getting off at the next stop – East Nanjing Road – transfer to Line 10." Patrick pointed to a metro map in his hand.

"Ah, and there's Xintiandi station," Monica remarked, looking at the faded puple-ish coloured line.

"Oh yeah, pretty simple," Chandler grinned.

"Fighting for first place again, aren't we?" Harry smirked at the couple.

"Yeah," Monica grinned.

"You should let us win – you guys won at least thrice!" Patrick exclaimed.

"But I like winning!" Monica smiled slyly at the twins.

"Yeah, the woman likes winning!" Chandler added.

"Fair and square – we will work for it!" Patrick replied back.

"Xià yí zhàn shì Nanjing dōng lù, zài zhè li, nǐ kě yǐ zhuǎn dào 10 hào xiàn. The next stop is East Nanjing Road. Here you can transfer to Line ten."

"Well here we are!" Harry remarked as all four of them exited onto the East Nanjing Road platform. All four of them headed up the stairs, and followed the light purple arrows that directed them to the Line 10 metro line. They found themselves descending another two flights of stairs a minute or two later.

"This one!" Harry pointed to the side where Xintiandi was still lit up on the ceiling. On all the platforms on the Shanghai metro system, there is an electronic map at the top, attached to the ceiling that indicates with lights the next stops the subway will make.

"Yup," Chandler looked up, "It's definitely the right side!"

"I won't lead you guys astray!" Patrick grinned, "I never get lost!"

"Well, I know someone who said that once," Chandler quipped.

"Me too, and guess what condition they ended up in?" Harry continued the joke.

"Let me guess! Lost?" Monica grinned.

"It was a very sad day. Famous last words, indeed," Harry dead-panned.

"Oh shut up!" Patrick groaned.

Chandler interjected, "So what? You have never gotten lost before, Patrick?"

"And if he says yes – he's a liar!" Harry added.

But before Patrick could defend his honour, the subway had arrived in front of them. This line had fewer passengers than Line 2.

P/|\J ~ R/|\R ~ R/|\S

"Damn it, we really did screw up big time!" Roger remarked to Simon on the subway. The train had just passed Lu Jia Zui and was heading towards East Nanjing Road.

"Yeah, if we spoke a little faster, we could have done the other detour," Simon groaned, "They were practically two stops closer to the pit stop!"

"Practically? You mean they are two stops closer!" Roger replied back.

"Oh too late to moan and groan now," Phoebe interjected.

"True," Roger sighed, "The might-have-beens!"

"We could've been first too!" Simon mused, "Now we are fighting for third place."

"Hey at least we aren't fighting for last place!" Joey interrupted.

"Who the hell wants to fight for last place? You mean fighting not to be last!" Ross added.

"What the man said!" Joey pointed to Ross.

"Xià yí zhàn shì Nanjing dōng lù, zài zhè li, nǐ kě yǐ zhuǎn dào 10 hào xiàn. The next stop is East Nanjing Road. Here you can transfer to Line ten."

"And we get off here," Rachel remarked for the benefit of the other teams.

"Oh we know," Joey sighed, "We have interesting experiences with East Nanjing Road."

"That's right," Phoebe remarked, remembering how they had missed the stop yesterday, costing them precious minutes.

The train slowed as it approached the platform. The doors opened and all three teams made their way through the noon crowd.

"Damn, it's almost lunchtime!" Joey looked at his watch.

"No time! No time!" Phoebe ran after Ross and Rachel and Simon and Roger who were running up the stairs, weaving through the bunch of people.

Joey sighed, and ran to catch up with the rest of them.

M/|\C ~ H/|\P

"These old houses are really cool!" Chandler remarked to Monica as they ran through the alleyways of the old Shikumen style houses.

"No time! No time!" Monica yelled, as they ran neck to neck with Harry and Patrick. Everyone was panting, and the hot midday sun with the almost suffocating humidity was doing no wonders for anyone.

Eventually they turned onto a corner and ran along a gray sidewalk, where tall white-barked trees grew. A dark brick building with red lines made by red bricks soon came into view. All four saw Phil, waiting with a Chinese woman dressed in a red silk dress at the mat. They all put on a burst of speed.

The building behind Phil – the site of the First National Communist Party Congress – had four black wooden doors surrounded by a frame of tan coloured stone and a red engraving that featured an arch at the top of the doors. Harry made a desperate lunge at the last second and landed at Phil's feet. Patrick, then Monica and Chandler made their way onto the mat. Harry picked himself up and all three looked up at Phil.

"Welcome to Shanghai, China," The woman did a little curtsy to the two teams.

They all nodded politely back, and thanked the woman.

"This isn't a triple leg, isn't it?" Harry quipped to Phil.

"It could be," Phil grinned mischievously.

"You couldn't be that cruel," Monica was still breathing deeply from the run throughout Xintiandi.

"Fortunately, this is the end of the double-leg," Phil grinned, "Harry and Patrick, Monica and Chandler, you guys are teams' number one and two. Congratulations."

"Alright!" Harry and Patrick jumped up and down in joy while Monica and Chandler merely smiled at each other and shared a quick kiss.

"For coming in first place, Harry and Patrick, you guys win a SCUBA Adventure trip at the Great Barrier Reef. Also you will be able to see Sydney Australia as well. Congratulations."

"Hurray!" The twins gleefully smiled and gave each other a hug.

"Tough, wasn't it?" Phil asked them.

"Oh yeah, we are so tired. And we didn't sleep until two yesterday," Harry groaned.

"We went on a little boat ride, you see," Chandler tried to explain.

"Around the Huangpu River," Patrick grinned.

"Yeah, it was very interesting," Chandler explained further.

"And the sights were once in a lifetime," Harry added, while giving Monica and Chandler a very significant look that spoke a thousand words.

"We will never forget it!" Monica caught the Harry's drift.

"Definitely not," Chandler placed his arm around Monica's waist.

"Neither can we!" Patrick added his bit in.

"Oh dear god," Harry exclaimed, "And we also went out for dinner."

"That was pretty good. I am surprised that we are even here. The other teams had loads more sleep than we did," Monica explained.

"Well, you guys sound like you had a hell of a time," Phil grinned back at them, "And you guys still did well. I have some good news for all of you."

"Yeah?" Harry inquired.

"You twelve hour break has been extended to an eighteen hour break. And this lady over here has graciously allowed us to use her house for all the teams to live in for the next eighteen hours. Her house is one of the fixed up alleyway houses known as Shikumen – literally stone gate – and is a traditional Shanghainese style house." Phil explained.

"Oh cool!" Patrick exclaimed.

"And one more thing, Harry and Patrick, how does it feel to win on your home soil?"

"Exhilarating," Patrick grinned.

"Marvellous, simply marvellous," Harry replied in an English accent.

R/|\R ~ P/|\J ~ S/|\R

The three teams ran through the alleyways, looking for the indicated building that would serve as the location of the pit-stop. They were all breathing hard and panting, but they pressed forward, determined to reach the end of this very strenuous double leg. They were all together, since they figured that it's better to stick together than to be three separately lost teams.

"My god, that's Phil!" Rachel called out to her boyfriend. They hit the gas and accelerated their pace to a full-out sprint when they saw their target standing on the mat in front of a black and red brick building.

"Whew," Roger added a little more speed to his run, but Ross and Rachel were very far ahead. Phoebe and Joey had found some hidden reserve of energy and pushed forward to catch up with the couple.

Ross and Rachel nearly collided with Phil in their sprint, but managed to slow down before that could happen. Phoebe and Joey hit the mat a few seconds later, and a very tired Simon and Roger walked the last few steps to the mat.

"Welcome to Shanghai, China," The red-dressed woman greeted them.

"Thank... you... so... much..." Roger breathed out the syllables. Everyone else gave their thanks as well, in a faster manner.

"Ross and Rachel, Phoebe and Joey and Simon and Roger, you guys are teams number three, four and five – respectively. Congratulations. This leg was tough, but you guys all did it! So how was it?"

"Exhausting," Roger sighed, "Especially the last bit – kept making mistakes on the DNA!"

"Yeah," Ross agreed, "Thank god for Rachel, she had to correct my base pairs!"

"No problem," Rachel rubbed her boyfriend's arm.

"And we went on that boat ride yesterday. I don't regret it, but we would've been much less tired," Roger sighed.

"Yeah, the sights were fantastic!" Simon grinned.

"Shanghai is beautiful, but it's too hot and humid for me," Rachel commented, "Too crowded too – even for a New Yorker!"

"Yeah, we made a few mistakes today," Roger sighed, "But with some sleep, I hope we can bring our game back."

"I have good news for you guys, you will have a six hour bonus on top of the twelve hours of rest." Phil interjected.

"Really? Phil you are awesome!" Rachel gave Phil a huge hug.

"Yeah!" Phoebe and Joey joined in.

"Enjoy your rest guys," Phil grinned after giving them a map to figure out where their rest house was going to be.

To Be Continued – Please REVIEW :) Kudos for reading all of this chapter - it's a long one XD.