Here's a report on our recent trip to Shanghai. This time only 3 weeks ex post facto.
Day 1 Nov 3
We
always leave early for the airport. You never know if there will be unexpected traffic, trouble parking, or other unpreventable delays. Then there are also the preventable delays that sometimes happen anyway. We've
experienced a few of those as well. This trip we arrived early with plenty of spare time. During the check in process, we had to show our China entry visas. That's when we discovered that one of the visas was affixed to an old passport that recently expired and was replaced. A visa attached to an old passport is still valid, but the old passport was at home, not with us. The agent said she could put us on the following day's flight, but we had hotel and tour deposits we would lose if we arrived a day late for our already short visit. For a few panicked minutes we debated if there was time to go back for the old passport and decided to try. I stayed at the airport while Janet drove home for the document. She shrewdly enlisted our grandson Austin to go to our house and find the passport, after which he drove it to a meeting point near the tollway exit. Janet made the turnaround and got back to the airport as fast as she safely could. She notified me when she was parked and the kind ticket agent began the check in process, completing it barely minutes before the cutoff. We made it through security and arrived at the gate halfway into boarding. We were relieved to be in our seats. The rest of the flight was uneventful but long.
We landed in Shanghai and got smoothly through
immigration and customs. It was comforting to find our late checked bag made it to China with us. A
Shangri-La hotel representative met us in the arrivals area and took us to the car. It was a very comfortable black sedan car. The ride
to the hotel took about 45 minutes. We checked in to our room and found it had a nice
view of the
Oriental Pearl Tower. We went to the club lounge for
drinks and dinner then returned to the room to turn in early.
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| Room at the Shangri-La |
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| Shangri-La |
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| Shangri-La |
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| Oriental Pearl Tower from hotel room window |
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| Shanghai World Financial Center and Jin Mao Tower |
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| Illuminated building from hotel window |
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| Evening Pearl Tower from hotel |
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| Snacks in the Horizon Club |
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| Horizon Club |
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| Horizon Club fruits |
Day 2 Nov 5
We slept well in a comfortable bed. Around 6:45 we woke up and got ready to go
to breakfast. Our table was by a window and had a nice view of
the Bund. After breakfast
we returned to our room until it was time to meet our tour guide in the lobby.
Our first tour stop was the
Jing’an temple. It is
an ancient Buddhist temple situated in the middle of a busy commercial
district. The temple has 4 Buddhas, one on each of the 4 sides with a large
courtyard in the center. Worshippers in the courtyard buy incense sticks and
bow 3 times in each direction with the lit incense
held between their palms.
Then they toss the sticks into an incense burner. We walked through the courtyard and then
visited each of the Buddhas. Our guide Ruby told us the story of each of the
Buddhas. We also saw the huge temple drum and bell.
Our driver picked us up near the temple and drove us to
the old French Concession area. We walked around this neighborhood that once
was occupied by affluent families in houses that had a stone rectangular arch
at the entrance, known as stone gate houses. These houses eventually came to be
occupied by multiple families that lived there in poor conditions. Now most of
the stone gate houses are gone and the area has been redeveloped into a restaurant
and shopping district.
Next we drove to the Bird and Flower market and walked
the aisles between the many vendors of birds, flowers, fish, and most of all
crickets. You can buy a large cricket in a jar to take home filling your
house a peaceful(?) chirping sound. Of interest were the several cats that were
perched at some of the vendor booths as if they were guarding the wares.
From the bird market we took a short walk through the
Yuyuan Bazaar with many intersecting streets of shops and
street food vendors
and came to the entrance of the Yu Garden.
Yu Garden is a
classic Chinese garden with water, plants, buildings, covered walkways, and rock
formations. We walked all around the garden and enjoyed its beauty while our
guide pointed out specific items of interest like the dragon wall and the jade
stone rock.
After Yu Garden we walked through Shanghai Chinatown and
did some shopping. Janet found a nice china teacup and I bought 2 hats. Our
driver picked us up in Chinatown and took us to the Bund where we walked along
the river promenade and had nice views of the old western style buildings on
one side of the river and the futuristic skyscrapers across the river in
Pudong. Then we got back in the car to ride to the other side of the river
where we said goodbye to our driver near the Oriental Pearl Tower. Our guide
took us on the short walk from there back to our hotel.
It was mid afternoon when we got back so we decided to
head out on our own to see if we could visit the Pearl Tower observation floor.
We found there was a 2 hour wait to visit the tower so instead we walked to the
Shanghai World Financial Center building and visited the observation floors
there. The SWFC building has a rectangular hole at the top, and the highest
observation floor has a glass floor that looks down through the hole. We had
some nice panoramic views of Shanghai and enjoyed the sunset from the top.
After having a fun picture taken in a green screen booth, we made our way down
and back to the hotel in time for drinks and dinner in the club lounge. We
adjusted a little more to the time change and so were able to stay awake a bit
longer.
Day 3 Nov 6
I got up early (5:30) and showered while Janet made her
chai tea. The day started out clear and we enjoyed watching the sunrise from
our hotel window. We had breakfast in the club again at a nice window table,
then returned to the room to get ready for the day's tour.
We met Ruby in the lobby and got into the car for the 1
hour ride to Zhujiajiao Watertown. Traffic wasn’t too bad but our driver was
constantly weaving between the left and right lanes to pass slower traffic. We
arrived at the Watertown and walked around with our guide Ruby. The watertown
has a network of canals between groups of buildings with stone footbridges
occasionally giving access to the opposite side. Ruby mentioned a few facts about
the watertown history but mainly just guided us along the narrow streets
bordered on both sides by shops. There were many shops offering food items
ranging from something called
Stinky Tofu, to what looked like smoked pigs
feet. I sampled a crunchy rice snack that tasted like Rice Krispies. We did
some shopping in the Watertown since that seemed to be the main purpose for
being there other than taking pictures of the charming canals and buildings.
After a couple of hours of walking around we returned to our car and driver and
made the trip back to Shanghai. Traffic was heavier on the return trip and it
took a little longer. We got dropped off at the hotel door this time and said
goodbye to our driver Kola and guide Ruby. We stayed in the hotel room till a little
after sunset, then walked to the ferry terminal a short way from the hotel. For 2 RMB (30¢) we rode a ferry to the other side of the river. We walked along the
other side until we found the river cruise operator recommended by the
concierge. We bought our tickets and stood in line waiting to board. There was
a group of Chinese ladies in front of us and they asked if they could take
pictures with Janet, so Janet posed for several photos and selfies with them.
We boarded the boat and grabbed a space along the railing
on the top deck. We had a nice view of the Bund side for the first half of the cruise and of the
Pudong side on the return half. After the cruise we walked back to the ferry
terminal and ferried back to the hotel side. Again a group of young Chinese girls wanted pictures with Janet. We walked back to the hotel and
had dinner in the
Yi Café.
Day 4 Nov 7
We had breakfast in the Horizon club again. I tried the
eggs Benedict. Janet's eggs were under cooked and they forgot to bring her
crepes. Everything got corrected though. After breakfast we returned to the room
to pack. We weren't leaving until 12:30 so there was plenty of time. About noon
we checked out and had a hotel car drive us to the Shanghai Maglev Train
station. The Maglev train is a high speed train that travels 300 km/h and gets
to the airport in 8 minutes. It was an exciting ride. Walking through the airport we saw a child playing in front of a large augmented reality screen. After we checked our bags and got our boarding passes we went back to try it. We couldn't get it to work but another young boy came over and it worked for him. We checked in for our
flight and got through security with a couple of hiccups since we both forgot
we had umbrellas in our carry on that were supposed to be removed for the
X-ray. We went to the Star Alliance lounge to relax until boarding time then
went to the gate. Take off occurred without delay even though it was foggy. It was another long flight home but our economy plus bulkhead seats allowed us adequate comfort.
Our impressions of Shanghai were that it is an interesting modern city with preserved references back to older times. We were happy to have booked a guided tour, but we felt comfortable enough there to strike out on our own. That was a contrast to our experience in Beijing. We did not experience the traffic problems of Beijing either. We feel like we experienced a fascinating fragment of what Shanghai has to offer and are glad we went. We would likely return if an opportune airfare presents itself.
Day 4 Pictures
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| Maglev train |
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| Maglev Train |
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| Airport augmented reality game |
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| Airport augmented reality |
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