03: Shanghai Tour & Night Cruise

After a pretty good nights sleep, we were down to breakfast in plenty of time before our full day of touring the sights of Shanghai, for which Max had a panda attached to an extending pole for us to follow. First on the agenda was The Bund, a broad 1,500 metre long waterfront promenade which runs between the Zhongshan East 1st Road and the Huangpu River, and showcases distinctive modern and colonial buildings along it’s length. Pride of place on this promenade is a huge bronze statue of Chairman Mao with a couple of cafe bars for company. This is a busy waterway with many

different types of craft plying their trade along its choppy grey waters. The vista on the opposite bank was dominated by the 468 metre high Oriental Pearl Radio & Television Tower, which up until 2007 was the tallest structure in all of China.

After half an hour to ourselves here it was all back on the coach for our next sightseeing wonder... the French Quarter and Tianzifang Arts & Craft Center. Although the French Quarter is ancient, it has been mostly modernised and as well as the arts & crafts centre, there are numerous cafe/bars and restaurants dotted around it. Just a quick stop here, so we soon hit the road heading for the YuYuan Gardens and Xintiandi, which are located next to each other.

We park up in what can only be described as a temporary car

park, and have to walk through a rough shanty town area to get to the gardens, which these days are surrounded by the shopping area, Xintiandi. As we cross the perimeter road into the centre our olfactory senses are assailed by the most disgusting stench we’ve ever experienced, and it seemed to follow us right into the shopping area. It didn’t appear to bother any of the locals but it was so bad that a couple of the ladies in our group had tissues that they were spraying with their perfume for makeshift nosegays and handing them out to those who wanted them! It’s impossible to exactly describe this foul gut wrenching pong, but try to imagine filthy latrines, rotting vegetation and aged vomit all mixed together in the sweltering heat and you’d maybe somewhere close...!!!

The area was very busy and we had to make sure we all kept

up as we followed the panda to the gardens, and these were absolutely heaving with it being a Saturday. YuYuan is wonderful and is a flowing mix of small garden areas, ponds and individual wood & stone built single room buildings, all ranging between 200 & 400 years old. The ponds are teeming with huge koi carp and goldfish along with varying sized turtles and terrapins. All the surrounding and dividing white walls are topped with black serpentine dragons, and some of the buildings are topped with detailed bronze statues.

Once we’d fought our way through the throng and out to the shopping centre it was apparently time for some lunch, and we were herded into one of the nearby restaurants and up to the third floor to our now standard four round tables. The food was pretty good here, with no surprises in the soup or

fried chicken this time. Before heading off elsewhere, we were given some time to stroll around the Xintiandi to see if we could spend some of our hard earned holiday cash.

On the way back to the coach we encountered that awful Shanghai Stench again and after querying it with Jen it turns out to be a delicacy that they actually eat... Stinky Tofu. They queue for ages for this disgusting stuff at a kiosk just outside the centre (as its not allowed within it), and it looks like batter coated crabs on sticks, but is actually deep fried (stinky) tofu! We’d noticed people eating these when we arrived but never for a moment did we think that they could be the source.

Last port of call of the afternoon was the famous Nanjing Road, now well known for its high class stores and

restaurants. Before leaving the coach we were warned to beware of the many hawkers selling knock off goods at exorbitant prices, and we saw loads of them but they weren’t too much of a problem. More obvious were all the (mostly older) women offering “massagee”... what ever that is...!!! They even openly offered these services to men with their wives and girlfriends in tow! We fancied a coffee and opted to try out the Chinese McD’s, and to make ordering it easier we used the computer system but after about five attempts we gave up and had to order from the counter... no problem! For the first time we were last back to the meeting point and had the walk of shame through the coach to our seats! Back at the hotel we had a bit of rest time before our evening meal.

Dinner was in a nearby restaurant, so we walked to it from the

hotel, led by Jen and the panda. This was in a new looking complex, though the layout looked the same as those before it. Good selection of choices this evening including all parts of the chicken... feet in the soup and battered head with the fried chicken. I had a go at the chicken head but got very little from it funnily enough! The dinner was good here with some different flavours for us to enjoy.

After the short stroll back to the hotel, we’re loaded on the coach again, with Jen only this time, to take us to the waterfront for the additional Night River Cruise that most of us had opted to go on. But when we get there the eight o’clock cruise is sold out, with the next available one being nine o’clock, so it was choice time! Who wanted to wait and take the later one and who wanted to give it a miss and return

to the hotel as we had an early start in the morning? Only eight, including us, wanted to stay and then share a taxi back afterwards; the rest wanted to give it a miss. So the eight of us, which actually increased to twelve, got off and the others headed off into the night.

Jen returned to the ticket kiosk but worse news when she returned - only nine thirty cruise was left, so another decision to be made... wait or go, all agree to stay as we were here now! The time was well spent wandering along the promenade together, which was actually very nice as there were various illuminated vessels cruising up and down the waterway, and most of the buildings were also highly illuminated. It was also nice that we were now on the opposite bank from our morning visit to The Bund, so were

looking over at those same buildings we’d seen close up earlier in the day.

The time passed pretty quickly and we then had the stress of queuing at the wharf to get on board, and the Chinese don’t like queuing, so it was standing united side by side with elbows out! Our cruiser had three decks, the first two were enclosed and the third was open air with the best vantage points, so most people wanted to go upstairs. As we got there passengers were coming straight back down and it turns out that the only seating area (two thirds of the deck) had an additional entry fee of 50 yuan (about £5.50).

We, and six others, chose to go in and boy was it worth it; not least of all as the fee got us a beer or ice cream and a small

pack of Pringles as well as a seat. The illuminated sights along the river were amazing... certainly worth every single yuan! Now considering that an ice cream alone here costs around 30 yuan we all felt it was money very well spent.

All the buildings looked amazing from the river, and best of all being the Oriental Pearl Tower with its ever changing colour display. We were the last boat to return and docked just after ten o’clock and all the illuminations went out at exactly that time, making the whole vista look very different.

Back at the hotel we had to do our packing and shower before going to bed, as we needed to be up at four o’clock and be ready to leave by five o’clock to get to the airport in good time for our seven-thirty flight up to Yichang.