28th February – Shanghai

28th February – Shanghai

Well, what a revelation Shanghai has been. After a whistle stop tour of the city it is quite clear that if the vibrancy is continued throughout the country then we are almost certainly looking at the world's next super power.

But I'll start at the most obvious place – the beginning. China is 3,705,407 square miles, slightly smaller than the USA and the population as at July 2008 was 1,330,044,605. Shanghai itself has a population of 23,000,000 which makes it China's largest city. It is also one of China's youngest. Prior to the First Opium War Shanghai was a walled city of less than 300,000 but as part of the Treaty of Nanking at the end of the war, Western merchants were granted permission to trade and lease land on the west bank of the Huangpu. As a self-governing city not under the authority of Peking or any other foreign capital Shanghai became the wildest city on earth, famed for its luxurious and flamboyant lifestyle where every form of vice flourished, the name even entered the English language as a verb meaning “to kidnap”. Coming more up to date, when referring to China's overall national performance, what is most frequently considered best, biggest, most modern, efficient or productive invariably is found in Shanghai.



It was indeed a very early start as we reported to our meeting place at 7 am. The journey to our first stop exposed us to the reality of China's growth as we drove through the port area filled with 1000s of containers ready to be loaded onto ships. We passed by rows and rows of new cars and everywhere was a hive of industry. Traffic was very heavy and our coach driver, in common with everyone else, just seemed to weave from lane to lane with very little road discipline. Lots of motorbikes, scooters and electric bikes as well as cars of all sizes. The road at one point resembled spaghetti junction on a bad day as aerial roadways crossed from all sides. I would simply hate to drive here, although I suppose its not too bad if you know where you are going. Mixed in between the more modern buildings were what we would describe as estates of small houses. An effort to make the area more pleasant had been made by the planting of trees down every street. We understand the government would like to pull them down but firstly they are a part of 'old' Shanghai and secondly they would have to rehouse the inhabitants and, despite, the wealth of China, they claim it would be too expensive. As we neared the city centre the skyscrapers appeared out of the mist – not pollution we decided, definitely mist – and what a sight they were. Not clinical which we thought they might be, but all architecturally interesting and big. We past the usual KFC, Starbucks, McDonalds, etc and certainly saw western shops such as M & S (would have loved to have gone in), Tesco, Zara, Gap, etc. Everything did look a little grey but then it was misty and bitterly cold and I would think that in a month or so's time as flowers and trees come into bloom the city will take on a different aspect. Temperature wise it was about 4 degrees centigrade which is 38 degrees cooler than the day in Saturday that the Sydneysiders now refer to as 'The Saturday' (hot even by their standards). We understand that in the summer the temperature is around 38 degrees centigrade.

We were supposed to visit a Children's Palace but this was cancelled and replaced by a visit to a kindergarten for artistically gifted children. It was interesting to note that all the windows of this remarkably clean school were open so the children could be exposed to the air, although they were wearing bodywarmers. The playground looked well equipped as did the classrooms, one of which was decorated with pictures of Winnie the Pooh. A girl aged about 5 played a short piece of music on the piano which was very good, but she was so little her feet didn't touch the ground. From here we were taken to a Silk Museum and Factory Shop where it was obvious that they wanted us to buy top grade silk items, all at a top grade price. I did think about buying a duvet cover but decided not to when they quoted approximately £158. Some people on the tour did buy duvets and again we were tempted, especially when we saw the silk being made to fill it. But again, although not horrendously expensive we realised how difficult it would be to transport home and didn't bother. We were then taken for lunch in the Shanghai Grand Theatre. If you tell them you are vegetarian you are simply presented with a plate of cooked uninspiring vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, cucumber. I realise that this may be simply because they were just catering for people off cruise-ships rather than someone eating in an ordinary restaurant; we will just have to see. In the middle of the table was a large Lazy Susan on which dishes, initially cold, and then hot, were put out and people just helped themselves. Chopsticks were set out, but don't worry the table was also set with knives and forks. Along with the different dishes were more vegetables including Pak Choi, which we have never tried, looked awful and those who did eat it said it was overcooked. The restaurant was on the 8th floor and we took the opportunity to go onto the balcony to take photos.

Toilets – I know some people are worried about these and you have every reason to do so. No, seriously so far on this trip everywhere we have been in Asia we have had the choice of western toilets or squats. Only once did we have to take the toilet paper into the toilet otherwise they are just like back home with soap dispensers, proper wash basins and dryers; although the latter is sometimes not there. I think it does depend on where you are visiting; one of the trips went to a small village and they only had squat toilets.

After lunch we were taken to Shanghai Museum where we could have happily stayed all day. With 13 galleries to look at we decided on the Ancient Bronze Gallery which covered the period from th 18th Century B.C. til the 3rd Century B.C., the Furniture Gallery mainly Ming and the Sculpture Gallery, which I think was my favourite. We then went to the Yu Garden which is classical Chinese gardening architecture now under State preservation. It was built during the reign of Ming Emperor (I keep thinking of Flash Gordon when I type the word Ming) Jiajing (1559) as the private garden of Pan Yunduan, an administration commissioner of Sichuan Province. The highlight of the garden is the “Naturally-Hollowed-Jade” Boulder. Interesting as they were, once again I expect they would be magnificent as the flowers and trees bloom.
To get to the Garden we had to walk through a Bazaar which was more like an area of several streets with shops selling anything from 'tat' to silk, to electronic goods. We would have liked to have had time to browse but it is the type of place that if you get lost it could take a while to find you way out.

Our final stop was to the Jade Buddha Temple where we were fortunate to arrive in time for Afternoon Prayers(!) and were privileged to stand and watch the monks at prayer. By now it was bitterly cold and we had been on the go from 8 am, (actually getting up at 6 am) and I suppose we didn't do the place justice. Most of us just wanted to get back to the ship, which we did at about 5.45 pm so as I said, a very long day. We were so tired that we went back to the cabin almost immediately after dinner, but then so did just about everyone else; as we walked to the lifts there was hardly a soul to be seen and that' s in a ship of 2,600 people.