Renaissance Shanghai Yuyuan Htl

For the next few entries my parents will be taking over my blog to tell about our trip together from a slightly different perspective. (I know you've all gotten tired of reading about things from my point of view.) I'll add in my own little comments in brackets [like this] wherever I decide to. Mom and Dad, Laura's ghost writers, agreed to write the entries for Shanghai, YangShou (near Guilin), Xi'an, and Beijing (actually it was Dad that agreed and Mom will do the proofreading). We joined up...

12:03 Shanghai: Wow, what a long day this has been!! The flight from Beijing to Shanghai was about 1:30 and uneventful. The last 25 minutes we had to circumnavigate some pretty big thunderstorms, we landed around 14:00 local time. We secured the aircraft for the night and then were driven to the hotel in the Yuyuan neighborhood in Shanghai. The ride time was about an hour and the traffic wasn't bad at all. We stayed in Shanghai for the next two nights before our departure via Asiana Airlines ...

We meet some new friends in the executive lounge at the hotel; they are a G450 crew from DC. I recruited them to go out for a sight seeing tour in Shanghai. On the agenda; The Jade Buddha Temple, People's Park, and the famous Nanjing Lu. We departed the hotel via taxi; if you haven't experienced a taxi ride in China it makes New York cabbies look like 95 year-old grandmothers!! We made the 10 km trip in about 20 min; can you guess what the fare was???? 16 CYN, which equates to about $2.36!! T...

I awoke at 03:20, for a split second I thought I was back in the airlines then I remembered I was flying a domestic China flight today and smiled :-) Other than the early wake-up call it was a great day. We were meet by Shirley our handler and a driver in a Shanghai Airlines buss that seated about 20 or so people. The 45-minute ride to the airport was very entertaining. However, most of the jokes were at my expense (for those who know me get it) as usual but I always enjoy a good laugh no ma...

Ahhhh! Our hotel in Shanghai is a year old and beautiful. We see George and O and are already feel better. I shower and collapse on the feather bed for some much needed rest. Then we are off to the tailors in the cloth market where Marty gets his first and only cashmere suit made for $130 dollars, later we find out we can get it for $80. We walk through the old part of Shanghai and are mesmerized by the sights and sounds. The smells, well let's just say, I understand why a lot of people wear ...

The evening dinner and reception was in the Quan Spa, which is supposed to be the best in the city. Each treatment room had food, sushi and sashimi, noodle and soup and Peking duck and dim sum. The sashimi was displayed on ice with blue lights under and the most succulent I had ever had ever eaten. The hotel staff brought around shooters of calamari salad and Chinese soups of guacamole and salsa and sliders made with mushroom and some kind of yummy sauce. It was an inspired selection of appet...