Ashore In Shanghai

    Shanghai is the one of the 3 largest cities in the world, the other 2 being Mexico and a future place where we will stop – Tokyo! It is located on the Yangtze River but far inland from a coastal location. In fact the city is on a tributary about 25 miles from the main river. Although we entered the channel early in the morning, we were not along side until 10 am. We were held off the dock until exactly 10 am at a new cruise terminal. We docked about an hour away from the city as this ship is too large to get much further upstream. The river is very busy with a steady stream of barges shuttling up and down.

 
Our passports and visas were already checked before we landed and except for the checking of everything again, disembarkation was slow but not delayed. Our tour headed out around 11:30 and we did not return to the ship until 7:30 last night. Our tour included only 3 stops. The hour drive to our first stop gave us a good look at the city. There are thousands of high rise buildings of all types. Shanghai is an important gateway to China and many international companies have all build beautiful buildings here in the last few years. They also have a local festival to plant trees and the city is quite green despite all the buildings. They are also preserving many of the old areas so you get high rise buildings next to 2 or 3 story dwelling that date back a hundred years. The city is very clean for the number of people living there. Yesterday was the start of a 3 day holiday so the city was more crowded than it would normally be on a Sunday.

Juinmaro Tower

View From The Top

     Our first stop was the Juinmaro Tower, currently the tallest building in Shanghai. We went up to the observation deck on the 88^th floor. Needless to say the view was spectacular! They are building a higher structure next to it. From there you get the 360 degree view of the city. The centre of the building is “missing” so that you can look down at the lobby! It was a very quick trip up to the top! The day was a bit smoggy (as is usual in a big city) and shooting through the glass hampered the photos.

Looking Down

    The second stop was the Yuyuan Gardens built about 400 years ago while the city was just being developed. Today it is the middle the old city centre. It was a classic Ming Garden featuring more than 30 halls and pavilions with the typical use of rocks, water, trees, etc. It was a very nice quiet spot.

The last stop was actually in the same location as the gardens. We had opted for this tour because it gave us about 4 hours of free time in the old city area or”Old Street”. It was filled with shops

Yuyuan Gardens

and eateries and people. We needed s quick bit so we went to a”recommended” restaurant. We ordered 2 separate dishes and that was an adventure in itself. Because of the time (mid afternoon) we could not order from the entire menu. It was basically dim sum. As expected the waitress spoke as much English as I do Chinese (Sounds like YEE HA which means “hello”) . We pointed to the 2 items we wanted (they use pictures). We never got our spring rolls and the Dim Sum order was not exactly what we ordered. So much for customer satisfaction.   We could have had a much greater variety at a much lower price if we had eaten where the “locals” eat – on the street. However we did enjoy the experience of eating with a young Chinese man and his son who was at the same table (and shared our tea?)

Shopping District

     After that we walked around the area, trying to find the river which has a beautiful park. However it was like the Amazing Race. Maps that don't show the streets, foreign names (in English) and not being able to find which way to go. Eventually we knew the direction but did not have enough time to get to the river and back before our transport was leaving. We would have been eliminated on this leg of the race!

      We arrived back by 7:30 in time for a truly spectacular Chinese Acrobat show with 5 young “very flexible” women. A very graceful and spellbinding show. We did manage to get to the dining room on time but because of the late sailing (midnight) and long tours, it was 'open seating' and the 2 other couples did not make it back from their tours until later. Dinner was one of the best tasting meals we have had.

Today was a typical sea day, rumba, line dancing, tea and talk with friends, a rumba lesson, art auction and then afternoon tea. I sat with a Texan who wanted to know what to do at afternoon tea. How do you answer that. My answer of course was drink the tea! Tonight is line dancing night and we arrive in Nagasaki tomorrow. We will be touring on our own.