Shanghai

3rd March 2014. We entered China with a little trepidation and many preconceived ideas. In fact we woke up outside the huge new Cruise Terminal as we had arrived overnight.

Although on the same latitude as Alexandria Egypt, it was FREEZING; no wonder the Chinese don’t worry about global warming because it hasn’t reached here yet.

Getting off the ship through the terminal only reinforced any of our preconceptions, as each turn had a smiling lady firmly pointing the way to go, a multitude of cameras monitored every step we took down the empty echoing corridors, we were full body scanned, and unsmiling men with oversized uniforms and dark glasses watched every move we made until finally we arrived at the front door and were greeted by our smiling guide. ViVi holding up a sign for us.

ViVi’s English just happened to be better than mine. (although I can pronounce my h’s). ViVi, like every other person on the planet was addicted to her iPhone and spent a large majority of her free time messaging her friends, that is, the one’s she did not talk to during the day as she seemed to know a large percentage of Shanghai’s 8.8 million inhabitants.

Our tour was through the “Old City” and we never got to the “New” financial part in the photo above which was just fields until about 20 years ago. Yes, China is changing that fast, and the quality of the buildings and infrastructure even in the “Old City” is excellent. You can tell a lot from the quality of new buildings, the Chinese (like the Victorians) are building for the future, not the present.

So, clutching our toilet paper and hand cleanser, (which we had been told we would need) we sat back in our chauffeur driven, black window tinted limo with our guide in the front and travelled the hour into Shanghai along the motor way.

As with everywhere else, the Brits once had a lot to say with this part of the world (along with French and Americans) and to be honest screwed the Chinese something rotten after first Opium wars treaty in 1842 in fact it was not until the Communist Party (started here in Shanghai in the 1920’s) entered the city after WW II in 1949 that Shanghai was returned to China.

It was in fact the British who introduced Opium to China and forced them to buy the stuff. By the time of the Second opium Wars, 10% of the population of China was addicted. (We have been having a series of lectures on board about drugs…fascinating)

Back to the plot, with ViVi we spent a highly enjoyable day in the busy city of Shanghai. We saw the Jade Buddha Temple (picture above,is NOT the Jade Buddha, no Photos!) The temple itself was destroyed in the 1911 revolution and then re-built in 1921.

We also saw the Yuyuan Gardens. A large famous 16th Century gardens right in the heart of the old city.

We also went to a Tang styled teahouse and yes, did the tourist thing, had loads of different flavoured teas and were suckered into buying some. (No.2 Ginseng Oolong Tea for Health Care and prolong life balance and Ying-Yang.)

Also we walked along the Bund (the waterfront) by the river, and went to a silk factory, and managed NOT to buy a silk carpet..how would we get it in the cabin??

After an excellent 8 course Chinese lunch and wandering through the French quarter we had to return to the ship and still had not scratched the surface of this safe, modern, lively, un-crowded, cosmopolitan, and clean but still thoroughly Chinese city. We didn’t need the toilet paper……

Postscript, one of the best bits of the day was leaving the port…pulling out in the dark and then trying to avoid all the full cargo craft coming down stream and the empty craft going up stream. None of which wanted to give way..to port OR starboard. Lots of whistles, shouting and flashing lights etc…the Captain must have been having Siamese Kittens!  But that’s another story….