Day 13: Shanghai
Tony was kind enough to give us a lie in....9am, i`ll take it!
We got back on the bus and headed to an area called the “Bund.” It is on the west side of the river and is full of colonial architecture as this is where most of Shanghai’s foreign population lived; whereas the other side is now littered with futuristic skyscrapers. It used to be regarded as the Wall Street of the city; we also went in to view the lobby of the old HSBC building which is the second largest original bank headquarters building in the world, only to be beaten by the Bank of Scotland building (didn’t know that, will need to check when we get home!)
After the visit to the Bund, we went to a floating restaurant for lunch before embarking on the optional tours of the day. The first was a visit to the Jinmao tower where we could go up in a lift to the 88th floor in only 45seconds; we didn’t feel like we were moving but our ears kept popping! The views from the top were fantastic and looking down into the atrium gave you a sense of how high we were.
After the tower visit, we got back on the bus to the Maglev train; the train is the fastest in the world and travels at 431km/hr through magnetic levitation. This means it is not on tracks but levitates above the ground. The train goes back and forth to the airport so is primarily used by businessmen as it takes 7 minutes to travel the 31km to the airport! It takes 3 minutes to get to top speed, maintaining it for only 1 minute, before slowing down for the next 3 minutes. There is only 1 train per day which reaches top speed, the others only go at a mere 350km/hr. It cost the Chinese government 1.3billion US Dollars to build and will apparently take 200 years to recoup the money spent! It was great fun though as we felt like someone had just pressed fast-forward; the best bit was when we passed another train as it sounded like a bomb had just gone off (thankfully we were warned before!)
After the train ride to the airport and back, we went to the Yu gardens and bazaar. The gardens were built in the Ming-era by the governor, Pan Yunduan, as a gift for his father. They occupy an area of 2 hectares and include the 4 elements: rocks, water, plants and architecture, with water being the most important. There are lots of rocks which have holes in them; apparently the holier, wrinklier and skinnnier they are, the better! (they must like nuns in china....) We spent an hour walking round the garden before going to the bazaar to shop. Neither of us were particularly bothered about shopping, we did buy tea, but we wanted an ice-cream! This was no ordinary ice-cream either.....well the ice-cream was, but the process to get it wasn’t. It’s a bit difficult to explain but basically the guy serving it could flip the cone, take out the ice-cream, pretend to put it in your face and then do the same all over again until you give up! I have a video that explains it all.....
After dinner, we went on our last tour together; a trip up the Huangpu River. The river flows through the centre of Shanghai and separates the city into Pudong, meaning “east of the Huangpu” and Puxi, “west of the Huangpu.” It was a 50 minute cruise which allowed us to see the city at night; everything is lit up, there is nowhere without neon lights!
It was beautiful to see at night, albeit a little chilly! After the tour, Tony took us back to the hotel for the last time. Everyone was a bit emotional as we had been “Tony`s Family” for the last 2 weeks. We made lots of friends and it looks like we need to plan a trip to Australia and New Zealand now!
We headed to breakfast before meeting up with the group; it was nice to have waffles and something a bit more “normal,” well normal for us anyway. Today was going to be jam-packed as this was our one and only full day in Shanghai.
Shanghai is now one of Asia`s most influential cities and is generally regarded as a modern metropolis. It is a blend of European-style buildings as well as Asian, as it was the most important trading port in Asia and was subject to many different occupations. For example, the British were in control of the port due to the Opium War back in the 1800`s; this is also when the Treaty of Nanking was signed to hand over Hong Kong to the British. The city feels much more cosmopolitan than the other cities we have visited in China so far.
Steven, our guide, met us at the hotel so he could take us to our first stop, a silk factory. On the way there, he explained about the silk worm and how they can get over 1200 metres from just one cocoon. He also explained that cocooons are white in China whereas they are yellow throughout the rest of the world. Apparently silk was discovered by mistake one day; an emperors wife was sitting in the garden having tea when one of the cocoons felt into her tea. Obviously the worm died, but she stirred the tea to try and get it out, before realising that a fabric of sorts had appeared. After this, the Chinese discovered silk and it was made popular in Europe by Julius Caesar, apparently wearing silk pjs at a party! Our guide for the next few hours, Amy, walked us through the factory, explaining that single cocoons are used for fabric whereas twin cocoons are used for the inside of a duvet. We got to see a few of the women at work before we were then ushered to shop so we could give back to the Chinese economy. Just to let you know, the dead silk worms are not wasted....they are fried and eaten as they are a great source of protein!
We got back on the bus and headed to an area called the “Bund.” It is on the west side of the river and is full of colonial architecture as this is where most of Shanghai’s foreign population lived; whereas the other side is now littered with futuristic skyscrapers. It used to be regarded as the Wall Street of the city; we also went in to view the lobby of the old HSBC building which is the second largest original bank headquarters building in the world, only to be beaten by the Bank of Scotland building (didn’t know that, will need to check when we get home!)
After the visit to the Bund, we went to a floating restaurant for lunch before embarking on the optional tours of the day. The first was a visit to the Jinmao tower where we could go up in a lift to the 88th floor in only 45seconds; we didn’t feel like we were moving but our ears kept popping! The views from the top were fantastic and looking down into the atrium gave you a sense of how high we were.
After the tower visit, we got back on the bus to the Maglev train; the train is the fastest in the world and travels at 431km/hr through magnetic levitation. This means it is not on tracks but levitates above the ground. The train goes back and forth to the airport so is primarily used by businessmen as it takes 7 minutes to travel the 31km to the airport! It takes 3 minutes to get to top speed, maintaining it for only 1 minute, before slowing down for the next 3 minutes. There is only 1 train per day which reaches top speed, the others only go at a mere 350km/hr. It cost the Chinese government 1.3billion US Dollars to build and will apparently take 200 years to recoup the money spent! It was great fun though as we felt like someone had just pressed fast-forward; the best bit was when we passed another train as it sounded like a bomb had just gone off (thankfully we were warned before!)
After the train ride to the airport and back, we went to the Yu gardens and bazaar. The gardens were built in the Ming-era by the governor, Pan Yunduan, as a gift for his father. They occupy an area of 2 hectares and include the 4 elements: rocks, water, plants and architecture, with water being the most important. There are lots of rocks which have holes in them; apparently the holier, wrinklier and skinnnier they are, the better! (they must like nuns in china....) We spent an hour walking round the garden before going to the bazaar to shop. Neither of us were particularly bothered about shopping, we did buy tea, but we wanted an ice-cream! This was no ordinary ice-cream either.....well the ice-cream was, but the process to get it wasn’t. It’s a bit difficult to explain but basically the guy serving it could flip the cone, take out the ice-cream, pretend to put it in your face and then do the same all over again until you give up! I have a video that explains it all.....
We met the group outside Starbucks, a nice easy landmark to find, then headed for the farewell dinner. We went to a fish restaurant which was a great treat as we were inland most of the tour and didn’t have too many opportunities to have any seafood. I had some lovely prawns and white fish served in a sweet and sour sauce, delicious!
After dinner, we went on our last tour together; a trip up the Huangpu River. The river flows through the centre of Shanghai and separates the city into Pudong, meaning “east of the Huangpu” and Puxi, “west of the Huangpu.” It was a 50 minute cruise which allowed us to see the city at night; everything is lit up, there is nowhere without neon lights!
It was beautiful to see at night, albeit a little chilly! After the tour, Tony took us back to the hotel for the last time. Everyone was a bit emotional as we had been “Tony`s Family” for the last 2 weeks. We made lots of friends and it looks like we need to plan a trip to Australia and New Zealand now!
Thankfully our holiday isn’t quite finished yet....just the China part of it!
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