We got to sleep in a little bit (maybe 30 minutes) before another buffet breakfast and getting back on the bus. The drive from Hangzhou to Shanghai was rainy, but as usual, the scenery was lovely. There were a few times that we saw the stereotypical Chinese farmer in the conical hat (not just on this drive), but I wasn't able to get a picture of any of them. The rain started clearing up as we closed in on Shanghai.
Shanghai is the business and financial center of China. As the modern city that Shanghai is (as compared to the more traditional Beijing, the center of government), it did have the obligatory giant ferris wheel. There's apparently another one mounted on the roof of a shopping center, but we didn't see that one.
Lots of traditional and modern buildings interspersed with each other. As in Beijing and the other major cities in China, housing is in short supply. Our guide, George, said he rents a single room with no bathroom. I don't recall how much he pays for it, but for not having bathroom facilities available to him in the building, he's paying way too much by my thinking. He said it's not so bad. There's a public bathroom within half a mile. I think I'll pass on moving to Shanghai, but visiting again? It's a distinct possibility.
Our first stop was the Bund, otherwise known as the boardwalk in the US or the malecon in many Latin countries. In front of the Bund, they had lovely topiary in the median.
The Shanghai Bund goes along the Huangpu River with many buildings housing brokerage and trading houses. The area is known as the equivalent of Wall Street in New York. The scenery was lovely walking along the Bund during the day, but it's breathtaking at night, so I'll only give one shot just yet.
After walking the Bund, we walked a few blocks away to the City God Temple Bazaar. This was yet another shopping center, housed in traditional buildings. After walking the Bund and to the Bazaar, I was ready for some sitting time. I walked through a few aisles and took some pictures. Then I found a McDonald's on a corner with one seat open at a counter where a bunch of young adults were sitting just reviewing the phones. I chose that opportunity to join them and act their age while Chrissy did some more window shopping. I'm not sure why the traffic lights were still functioning. The roads were closed to vehicle traffic while we were there.
After hanging out there for a while, we headed to the port for a night cruise on the river. Many people said you could see the lights from the Bund, so they opted to not pay the extra for the night cruise, deciding to just hang out on the Bund and look at the lights. I don't think we would have enjoyed the lights nearly as much on the Bund as we did on the river itself. Mostly because I'm still having some issues with balance and such, but also because the idea and price were excellent, we opted to take advantage of the VIP section of the ship. It came with outdoor/deck or lounge seating (instead of standing on the deck) and included a bottle of beer or water and a box of Chinese pretzels per person. The pretzels reminded me more of crispy grissini breadsticks than pretzels, but they were delicious. I think the cost of this was something like $5 per person. I highly recommend taking the cruise with the VIP room. It was hard to choose what to post, so there are a lot of pix and videos. Just FYI, most of the still shots that are actually well focused were taken by Chrissy.
For some reason, Blogger isn't allowing me to upload videos. I hate loading them to YouTube and then embedding them here, but that's apparently my only option right now. Hope that glitch gets fixed soon. Hope it's not "operator error" and actually a glitch that will get fixed.
After the cruise, we headed to the hotel we would be staying in for the next two nights. This time, it was a Howard Johnson. Very upscale as compared to the same chain in the US.
Once we got settled in and had supper, Chrissy went out with some of the younger people on the trip with us. I had a quiet evening to myself, but still didn't have the energy to pull out the computer, ergo the delay getting these posts finished.
The next morning, we headed to the museum. Chrissy had a headache and didn't feel well, so she did the sitting on the benches and in the coffee shop this time, though I had my own sits time, too. Most of the other kids on the trip slept in and just met us at the next stop. I do love a museum, and this one was no different. I ended up having to rush through a couple of exhibits and missed a few, so a second viewing wouldn't be out of the question. The museum covered everything from the history of Chinese money, to traditional clothing for various regions, to weaponry and navigation, ceramics, imperial seals and furnishings, and so many other things. Here are just a few shots.
After the museum, we headed to the train station to ride the MagLev. Magnetic levitation trains are known for their speed, but this one is supposed to be the fastest one in the world. It only runs at top speeds during rush hour, so we were there for the afternoon rush. It was really awesome. When the trains going opposite ways passed by each other (on separate tracks, of course), the momentary disturbance in pressure was startling! I took some video to show how fast the scenery was going past, but the reflection on the glass ruined the effect. They display the speed over the doors separating the cars. Chrissy still wasn't feeling well.
After the train, we all headed to an underground flea market type of place. It wasn't on our itinerary. George said it also didn't have a name because it is supposedly a true black market. As George was fond of saying, the government watches with one eye closed. At the market, Chrissy got some glasses for super cheap and a pair of Adidas sneakers. I found a folding video drone for about a quarter of what we were looking at in the US. The had an entire section of tailors for making various types of clothing. George said a tailor-made suit runs approximately $100. He didn't know how much women's clothes were.
By this time, I was feeling worn out, and instead of getting better as the day went on, Chrissy was just going downhill. By now, she's running a pretty serious fever, just based on the feel of her skin when I hugged her. We didn't get any pictures in here, but it looked like a normal flea market. Apparently, there were some other folks on the trip who had been feeling poorly on and off during the trip, and some of them offered some remedies for her to use. When we got back to the hotel, Chrissy just went straight to bed. She was feeling a little better in the morning, but she was still dragging when we went to the airport, and she slept through most of the flight home. After a few days, she felt better, though.
As I said before, this trip is definitely worth the price, but be aware that the pace is grueling, and there will be many hard sales presentations. But for $399 per person for air fare, accommodations, transportation, and some of the attractions, it was worth it.
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