(My Mom’s birthday; she would have been 104.)
In the afternoon, we visited the old part of Shanghai including a very crowded market area where it was hard to keep up with our guide and we had been warned to guard our valuables from ever-present pickpoockets. There were no incidents, but I became a little claustrophobic pushing my way through such a huge crowd. It reminded me of the enormous press of people in the market square in Morocco. But the buildings provided many photo opportunities. The crowd continued into the 16th century Yan Yuan Garden, in the style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with huge walls of pitted stone,carved dragons, teahouses, pavilions and carp ponds. Again, many pictures.
Our day ended (finally; I was exhausted!) with a visit to the Jade Buddha Temple, founded in 1881 and, as usual, carved and painted everywhere. The main attraction, a 10 foot high statue of Lord Buddha carved from a single piece of white Burmese jade, was impressive, but no pictures, please. And the ubiquitous gift shops were in every area of the temple – up and down many steps, narrow for Asian feet.
I was so tired when we returned to the ship – immigration again, as though leaving China – that I had a vodka on the rocks (from the supply of Ketel One in my suite) and went right to bed – no shower, no shave, no dinner.
Stay tuned.
We docked at 4 AM along an unpronouncable river in the heart of Shanghai but the sun rose right over the length of the river so I got great shots. Traffic on the river was heavy at 5 o’clock when I got on deck and when it was still dark outside, many little boats gliding silently by, big bugs on the dark water. I wondered where they were all going and what they were carrying.
Apparently true to others’ exeriences with Chinese officialdom, immigration procedures were changed several times but ultimately we had to go before hard-faced Chinese women officers and have our passports examined and stamped just like entering any other foreign country. The whole procedure added about 10 minutes and a long circuitous walk to going ashore.
My tour, called Highlights of Shanghai, was very long and I was very tired – a lot of walking and seemingly endless steps up and down. First we went to The Bund, an area along the river where many pre-1937 (because that’s the date of the beginning of the invasion by the Japanese0 buildings were erected, forming what was then the Wall Street of Shanghai. Now it’s mostlly a prominade along the riverfront with Shanghai’s incredible modern skyscrapers prominently obvious as a backdrop. We visited them, too, in the New Economic Zone, on Pudong Island, which before 1990 was only farm land and rice paddies. Now it’s one skyscraper after another, some great looking and some not – one building sports Ionic columns up 50 storeys – but all impressive and distinctive, one looking at its top like a giant bottle opener. Most unforgetable is the Oriental Pearl Radio and TV tower, oddly futuristic with mirrored magenta glass balls at several levels. It looks like something left over from the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, except updated and huge. We went up in a very fast, but very smooth, elevator, in the 88-storey Jin Mao building, the second tallest in China, where from the observation lounge all of Shanghai is spread dramatically out to the horizon, making it believable that the population here is 23 million. Very impressive, indeed. Baseball caps at the top cost $35.00. Despite wanting to add to my collection, I passed.
Lunch at the Jin Jang Hotel was a Chinese gourmet affair, many courses, with many Chinese delicacies served at round tables on huge glass lazy Susans. It was in this hotel, old but beautifully appointed, that the 1972 Sino-American joint communique was signed by Chairman Mao and President Nixon. Chopsticks again. The sticks of ginger and the peanuts were especially slippery and hard to control with any grace.
In the afternoon, we visited the old part of Shanghai including a very crowded market area where it was hard to keep up with our guide and we had been warned to guard our valuables from ever-present pickpoockets. There were no incidents, but I became a little claustrophobic pushing my way through such a huge crowd. It reminded me of the enormous press of people in the market square in Morocco. But the buildings provided many photo opportunities. The crowd continued into the 16th century Yan Yuan Garden, in the style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with huge walls of pitted stone,carved dragons, teahouses, pavilions and carp ponds. Again, many pictures.
Our day ended (finally; I was exhausted!) with a visit to the Jade Buddha Temple, founded in 1881 and, as usual, carved and painted everywhere. The main attraction, a 10 foot high statue of Lord Buddha carved from a single piece of white Burmese jade, was impressive, but no pictures, please. And the ubiquitous gift shops were in every area of the temple – up and down many steps, narrow for Asian feet.
I was so tired when we returned to the ship – immigration again, as though leaving China – that I had a vodka on the rocks (from the supply of Ketel One in my suite) and went right to bed – no shower, no shave, no dinner.
Stay tuned.
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