We arrived quite late yesterday because of a very thick fog which closed the harbor for 4 hours and caused out ship to anchor out on the River at 2:00am. They finally opened the Harbor, but we were not able to get off and collect all our luggage until almost 1:30 pm. Traffic to our Peninsula Hotel was terrible! Traffic is frequently worse on the weekends because if you have a car from another district ( other then Shanghai) you cannot drive during weekdays! There are 24 million people who live here and 2.3 cars per family! License plates are extremely expensive -- up to $20,000. USD. Once you get a plate, it is yours forever. You can choose to sell it to someone else. Depending on the number of the plate, you may only drive on even days of the month or odd days...quite a system!
The weather was rainy and very foggy for most of the rest of the day but our sights were delighted with our magnificent Peninsula Hotel. It is one of the 5 nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. Our rooms overlook the river for a magnificent view and every detail of the rooms is so well thought out and designed! There are 110 volt plugs in our bedside table drawers for charging our phones, etc. Even the wall safe has electricity so you could lock up and charge your iPad! Every wall switch is labeled in English and Chinese. It is one of the most modern, yet user friendly hotels we've ever seen!
Our lovely guide, Ariel and our driver, Monk, picked us up at 5:00 pm for an early dinner at a lovely local Chinese restaurant, the Jade Garden, where we sampled a lot of different Chinese delicacies. Some were very tasty and others not so much, but we did sample lots of different things and no, I have no real idea of what everything was!
After our early dinner we went to the theater where we saw the Chinese version of Cirque du Soleil! We saw excellent magicians, acrobats, jugglers, trapeze acts, etc...
Today we woke up to some sunshine, no rain, but there is still a haze (pollution?) in the sky. Nevertheless, it was a GREAT day of touring. We started off at the Cultural Center Museum where we saw a giant replica of the city, some interesting art work and some great photos of the 1930's! This was great for Mary because the last time she was here she was about 5 years old. She has some memories of those days. She remembered riding to church in a rickshaw with her father and passing a very deep hole in the street. It scared her because she thought they might fall in! At the Cultural Museum, we found photos of two of the Catholic Churches that were here in the 1930's so we're pretty sure one of those was the church she went to with her father.
After the Cultural Center, we visited the magnificent Yu Garden. This was a garden built by a gentleman but it took 25 years to complete. He was someone who had been in the Imperial Court and was very wealthy. When he retired he began to spend all his money on his house, family and garden. (It was not wise to retain your wealth as it could be seen you were a rival to the Emperor)! So when state diplomats retired, they stayed retired and spent all their money on land and home. We had a lovely lunch in the garden at the restaurant where Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro ate when they visited Shanghai! We did the obligatory shopping (some great deals) in the huge old town Chinese markets. If you can't find it there they don't make it!
After our shopping venture, we headed off to take the 7 minute ride on the bullet train that goes to the airport. The train reaches a speed of 233 mph (431 km)! We did the round trip and had a great time!
Then, back in the car and off we went to the top of the Pearl Radio and TV tower-- a landmark of Shanghai! The highlight is a glass walkway around the top of one of the "balls" where you can see both the panoramic and the bird's eye view of the city! We did some silly photos lying down on the glass! (Can't be fearful of heights for this one!).
One last adventure of the day was our ride through the Bund Tunnel on a tram car. It goes through a long tunnel of exotic and colorful lights that are constantly changing! Quite a different experience!
Duffy is obviously better, because she kept up GREAT through a fairly long and strenuous day with lots of walking! She did a great job on her water intake, so we're very proud!
The day was topped off by a casual dinner in the Peninsula with a 6 piece orchestra and vocalist singing songs like, New York, New York, Crazy, and It's a Wonderful World! It was the perfect ending -- and we enjoyed our delicious "western style food"!
Our friend, Arlene, at dinner the Jade Garden!
At the theater!
Our lovely guide, Ariel, who speaks beautiful English!
Our driver, Monk, and Arlene!
I made a friend!
Yu Garden..
Good friends!
Our bullet train at maximum speed!
The "new" of Shanghai!
The glass walkway in the Pearl TV tower. Those are my feet!
Inside the Pearl Tower waiting to go up in the elevator.
An SAE finds his lion!
The Pearl TV Tower at night.
The view from our hotel room!
This one is for you, Grant!!
"Lost in old Shanghai"!
The Bund Tunnel!
Built in over the makeup desk in the dressing room area!
Weary travelers at the end of the day having a delicious dinner in the Peninsula with the 6 piece orchestra playing behind us!
By the way, I cannot get on Facebook to post this blog because all social media is blocked here by the government. There is no access to Facebook, Utube, Twitter, Instagrsm, etc...
So look for email blasts!
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