Shanghai

We arrived in Shanghai tired and emotionally drained.  We had a 5am wake up call in Athens, 5.30am left for airport, 8.30am left Athens for Heathrow. The flight was 4 hours but with time differences we arrived at Heathrow at 10.30am to be met by Michelle and Nathan B who had come to see us and help us get through a 5 hour stopover before our flight to Shanghai. It was great to see the kids again but hard having to part knowing it would be some time before we would see them again.  However they are all well and happy and having such a great time seeing as much as they can.  Their experiences will last them a lifetime and I am very envious.

We left Heathrow at 3.30pm and after a 11.50  hour flight arrived in Shanghai at 10.00am the next day.  We flew Virgin Atlantic for this section of our travel and they were an excellent air line.  Got the full pack of give aways containing socks, eye mask, toothbrush and paste and a pen whereas Air NZ gave us nothing even on our 24 hour flight from NZ to London.  I did get a toothbrush and some paste when I asked for one but I noticed there was only a couple of brushes to give out.  Food on Virgin was also very tasty, I thought better than our big Air NZ flight but then on our flight from Shanghai to Auckland with Air NZ the food would have been the best we had.

We were met by our guide Maria (a Chinese lady of indeterminate age) who was to be our guide for the next four days and Mr (sounded like shit) who was our driver. First impressions of Shanghai driving in from the airport were that it was a very vast yet clean city. 23 million people live in Shanghai so once again like Istanbul lots of multi story apartment buildings for housing.  Our hotel, The Bund Riverside, was not as the name suggests by the Bund River but certainly not far from it and we could see it from our room on the 16th floor.

Window seat in our Hotel Room

Views from our room.  This is not The Bund River but a subsidary

After being dropped at our hotel around mid day the rest of that day was free time. We were not far from a main shopping street where there were lots of "Western" shops ie Zara, Espirit, Lacoste etc in big shopping malls.  We made our way here through side streets which is where we saw the seedier side of Shanghai. We lunched and had a look around, headed back to the hotel for a rest and then out again for our dinner. We got a couple of Chinese dishes from a restaurant in one of the malls as weren't game to try some of the more "authentic" take aways.  

Our guide arranged to pick us up in the hotel lobby at 9.30am the next morning.  As this was late for us we didn't bother setting an alarm as we were sure we would awaken hours earlier.  However we slept in until 8.45am, unheard of for Pete, so it was a quick scramble for showers and breakfast.  The day started with a tour of Yu Gardens in the Old China part of Shanghai. It is a traditional Chinese garden with many Pavilions linked by corridors and bridges over ponds.

A Pavilion in Yu Gardens

Yu Gardens

Bridge of 9 turns -evil spirits have problems with corners and therefore cannot follow you

After the gardens we were taken to a shop for a traditional tea ceremony.  We tried several teas but of course the real reason we were there was to BUY the tea and cups etc.  We did get some green tea and paid 100 yuan for it, the same amount in the shop in our hotel lobby was 30 yuan! Difference of NZ$20 as opposed to NZ$6.  Next stop was for lunch which was in a very nice restaurant and as lunches for our guided days were all included in the cost of our tour, we were bought out the food and had a choice of drinks. BUT there is always a catch.  This restaurant was right next door to (and obviously part of the business) a Pearl and Jade factory.  We were shown how freshwater and sea water pearls are grown with a couple of oysters being opened in front of us, this was interesting, but then it was onto the selling. Not only do they try to sell you something but also something for the daughters.  I said to Pete once we got out for goodness sake from now on we have no children if we're asked.  Sorry Mich and Al nothing for you. Next we were taken to the Shanghai Museum which is in a modern well set out building.  We were given a couple of hours to wander through this ourselves which was great as we could spend time at things we were interested in.  There special display  for a couple of months was "Maori" with everything on display from the Otago Museum.  By now it was raining and our next stop was a walk beside the Bund River which would have been great in fine weather but was not very pleasant in the pouring rain.  Our guide was not to be deterred though and still prattled on about this building and that building in great depth.  Pete was on the verge of telling her we had had enough when eventually she called for the driver to pick us up.

Jasmine Tea

Beautiful Ming Plate

We had a couple of hours to have our dinner and then we were being picked up at 7.30pm to be taken on a night cruise of the Bund River to see all the buildings lit up.  This is obviously "the thing to do" when in Shanghai as there were several boats doing about three trips a night.  We certainly enjoyed the evening. However it was somewhat interrupted as we ourselves experienced a little of what being famous must feel like.  We were the only Europeans on our boat and as our guide later explained a lot of the Chinese on board would be from areas that aren't freely accessible to Europeans and they would not have seen any before.  Hence we kept getting asked to be photographed with them or with their children.  If they didn't actually ask to be photographed with us they would take our photos when we were just standing looking at the sights and you could feel them watching us and talking about us.  Really weird.  

Even the boats are lit up

Shanghai by night

Our last full day in Shanghai started with an hour trip out of town to Zhujiajiao which is an ancient water town with a history of more than 1700 years. It is known as the Venice of Asia.  This was the only place where we had to use squat toilets! To start with we were shown another traditional Chinese garden but on a much smaller scale than Yu Gardens and nowhere near as impressive.  Quite ho hum. We were then taken on a walk around the town and taken to lunch.  I was a bit worried as this area was fairly "uncivilised". The restaurant was one of the better eating establishments and once again we were given a couple of dishes with no choosing by us.  The traditional pork one which was on a lot of stalls we passed was more fat than meat.  We were then let loose to wander around and meet our guide 45 minutes later.  I didn't like this area, felt uncomfortable, with shop holders trying to intice us to buy.  We made our way to the boats and got a ride back to our meeting place.  This was the best  part of the day.

Canal boat

Views of the canals

My only regret of the day was that I did not buy some of these little turtles and let them go

Our boatmen kept insisting he take our photo, he had amazing sign language skills.

The last stop of the day was at a Silk Factory where we were shown the process of harvesting and spinning silk (we had seen this at the carpet factory in Turkey). Then of course, yes you guessed it, the hard sell. The sales lady in this shop was particularly obnoxious so there was no way I was going to buy anything.  I must admit the silk duvet inners were exceptional value at NZ $120.  For our last night we decided to shout ourselves a meal at the hotel to use up the yuan we had left.  We chose the Western restaurant over the Asian one.

Shanghai was certainly somewhere different to visit, although I was more than ready to leave.  Our guide was lovely but she has obviously never been anywhere else and is so proud of Shanghai.  She needs to get out and see the rest of the world.

e.g Behind this netting is what our guide proudly told us was a golf course! More like a very small driving range.