Shanghai

Ni hao!

Acrobats1

3 terrific nights in Shanghai.  We arrived late in the day due to plane delays and rain in Beijing but made up for it on the Maglev (magnetic train) at 300 kmh.  7 minutes for 30 km!  A short cab ride and there we are, right by the river, a corner room, overlooking the Russian Consulate with the river behind and the Bund.  Not only that, we were treated to a light show.  We wondered what all the crowd was about on the Bund.  Now we know.  On  weekends (every weekend night?) the building light up as in Hong Kong.  Even better as the air quality was better so you didn't have to look through as much smog.  Sailing along the river, in addition to the barges and the tourist dinner boats were advertising ferries.  The ferries were outfitted with Jumbotron sized advertisements.  On a building on the Pudong (opposite) shore was a high rise office tower with movies projected on the side.  Probably 20 stories high (the picture that is, the building was higher).  Just below us was a monument to the People's Heroes (this is a Communist Country after all).  At the base of the monument was another light show intersperced with the words "Welcome to Shanghai".  We felt welcomed!  After dinner we found a convenience store, some wine, some pop and water.  When we asked for a second bag the answer was "No".  No reason, oh well.

On the fourth we woke up to a drizzling rain so, after breakfast we took the short shuttle to Nanjing Street, one of the shopping streets in town, this one with a Pedestrian Mall.  Not a bad thing to do on a drizzly day.  A few (more) purchases later then we walked back down the Mall to the Bund.  Offers to buy Rolex watches, postcards, toys, everything.  Oh, Cheryl's got quite the story of the young Chinese woman going into the washroom to be confronted by a western (non-squatter) toilet.  She stood on the toilet, and looked over the partition at Cheryl then used the toilet as though it were an Asian one. 

Yesterday was a busy day.  Up at 5:30 to catch a tour, we were the first ones on the bus at 7:45 for a 1 1/2 hour ride out to Suzhuan famous for its gardens.  The first garden, called the Humble Administrator's Garden, was far from humble.  It was several acres of water and rocks and pavillions with photo ops everywhere.  There were a few flowers in evidence but mostly it was your typical Zen Garden.  Cheryl took lots of pictures.  I have a feeling we'll be designing a Zen Garden in our backyard this summer.  Somewhere to put our Terracotta Soldiers I guess.

The tour also took us for a very nice lunch all Chinese, but we were assured there was no donkey or dogs on the menu.  A stop at Silk Factory No. 1.  I now can boast that I am the owner of a pair of silk pyjamas.  We continued on the Zhou Zhiang (and I know I spelt that wrong).  It's a water village, so the tour included a boat ride through the canals.  For 30 yuan more, gathered from the 7 passengers, we were also entertained by the woman, our oarsperson, singing some local songs.