Shanghai: Paris of the East

Riding in a gondola

Exploring the Shanghai Museum

Seeing how silk is made at the Silk Factory

Having lunch at a local's house

Learning Tai Chi from a master in the park

Quick Tips:

Toilets in China are often just holes in the ground, even in some fancy restaurants. Also, there often is not any toilet paper, and if you are in remote areas, there are no sinks. It is a good idea to carry a pocket-pack of tissues and a bottle of hand sanitizer. I also carried antibacterial wipes for washing hands. If you come across a Western toilet, use it, because who knows when you will come across the next one?

Best Way To Get Around:

We only used a tour bus.

In Shanghai, I stayed at the Windsor Evergreen Hotel. The rooms were rather small—mine especially, because I was sharing with two others. There was only two feet of space between the end of the beds and the other furniture. Between each bed, we had about six inches. The place where we really had room was in the bathroom. We had a nice, large tub that was perfect for when we decided to do all our laundry together one night.

A buffet breakfast was included with the room. Each morning, there was fresh fruit, vegetables, hot breakfast items, and toast. You could also have your eggs prepared any way you wanted, provided you could communicate it to the chef. Most of us ended up with scrambled eggs.

During our stay, we had a few problems with the hotel. On the first night, we had to wait for over 3 hours to get the third bed delivered to our room. They had accidentally delivered it to another room that was part of our group. In the middle of our stay, we came back to find that on one of our floors, the hallway outside the rooms was being remodeled. The carpet and wallpaper had all been removed during the day.

Prices are around US$45 per night.

One afternoon we got to experience the most authentic and delicious Chinese meal. Can you think of a better way to have an authentic meal than having one made by a local and served in their house? Well, I cannot.

We arrived at an apartment complex and our group of 28 was divided into four groups. Each group was taken to a different local’s house to have lunch. We got to eat with the son of our hostess and a local university student that was able to translate for us. Most importantly, she was able to tell us what each dish was.

The meal lasted over an hour, with our hostess/cook continually bringing dishes of food. Just a few of the dishes included dumplings, battered eggplant, tofu, and pumpkin pastries. It was all delicious, and most of the dishes we did not have in any of the 15 Chinese restaurants we ate at in China.

I suspect that this was something that our tour agency set up, and it is probably possible to have set up. It seemed like they were used to serving tourists. It is probably a great way for them to make some extra income. I am not sure on the price range, but I am pretty positive we paid for the meal as part of our tour. I doubt that it was that expensive, as even some of the fancy restaurants were pretty reasonable.

While in Shanghai, we went to a silk factory after we had seen the tai chi outfits worn by those who taught us tai chi. Many in our group were interested in buying silk outfits. When we first arrived at the factory, we met a guide who gave us a tour of part of the factory. In the first room, we got to see silkworms and touch them. We also learned that when the worms build their cocoons, where silk comes from, they sometimes become intertwined with another cocoon, creating a double cocoon. Double cocoons are impossible to turn into string because they are so tangled. The cocoons do not go to waste, though.

The second room was a machine that takes the single cocoons and makes it into thread on a spool. The spools are then used to make silk clothes and pictures. Some of the spools go through a dyeing process to turn them into different colors.

The last room was the shop and demonstration on how the double cocoons are used. The double cocoons are wetted and then stretched over a hoop. About ten double cocoons are stretched over one hoop before the pile is removed. The pile is then stretched out to make a filling for a blanket. We even got to take part in this process.

In the shop, you could buy the blankets for any bed size you have. You could also buy the silk coverings. The blankets are good for any weather. They do not make you too hot, but keep you warm when it is cold. I enjoyed the ones used at the hotel. Also, in the gift shop, you can buy clothing. They have outfits for children, men, and women. The part of the shop I enjoyed most was the gallery of silk pictures. I even bought a little circle one that had three fish. If I remember correctly, the fish stood for status, fortune, and luck.

To tell the truth, I had no clue as to what made silk. I enjoyed learning about the process of making silk items by actually watching the process. Getting to participate in making the stuffing for a blanket made the whole experience even better.

The gardens were created from 1559 to 1577 for the Pan family, who were rich Ming dynasty officials. The gardens were ransacked during the Opium War in 1842 and the Taiping Rebellion from 1851 to 1864. Today, the gardens have been restored to their original Ming design.

One of the things to see in the gardens is the Exquisite Jade Rock. This rock was originally meant to be used in the imperial court in Beijing, but the boat carrying it sank outside of Shanghai. Another thing to see is the Five Dragon Wall. The wall, as the name suggests, has five dragons. What is unique about the dragons is that each dragon has only four claws, instead of five, like the dragons used by the rulers. Legend has it that they originally had five claws, but one was cut off each because the symbolism of a dragon being used by a non-emperor was disrespectful. The theory is that it is no longer a dragon with four claws. At least, that is how our guides translated the story.

Near the entrance to the gardens is the Mid-Lake Pavilion Teahouse. It is one of the most famous teahouses in China. Queen Elizabeth II and Bill Clinton have both visited here.

The city of Zhouzhuang is about 25 miles outside of Shanghai, but it resembles the Italian city of Venice on the other side of the globe. It is known as China’s first water town (there are a few others around Shanghai: Jiading and Suzhou, to name two). The city was established over 900 years ago. Recently, the city was declared an International Heritage Site by the United Nations.

The city is dominated by old buildings, some of which date back to the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The city contains canals that have 14 bridges over them. You can tour the canals in an eight-seater gondola for 60 yuan (about US$8).

After our gondola tour, we had the opportunity to walk the small cobblestone streets near the canals. While walking, we saw locals hanging out by the water, doing daily chores such as laundry. We also walked along a street where locals had souvenir and food shops to gain a living off the tourists.

According to my guidebook, this is a popular tour site for Chinese tourists, but there are few international tourists that visit. We encountered only locals that lived in the building surrounding the canals, but that may have been due to the fact that we went on a rainy weekday. I am guessing it is more crowded on weekends and during good weather.

I enjoyed cruising on the canal admiring the beautiful bridges sitting in a gondola. I have never been to Venice, Italy, but as far as I am concerned, I have had a gondola ride equal to one that can be offered there. Who knew there was a place like this in China?

The Bund was originally a tow path to pull barges of rice. Wàit`an is the Chinese name for the area. The Bund is the Anglo-Indian name for the embankments built up to discourage flooding of the area. It is comes from the word band, which means 'embankment' in Hindi. In the early 20th century, this was the international area. From that time is the Russian Consulate building, which is the only consulate to remain in its original location.

We visited this area twice, once during the day and once at night. During our day visit, we walked along the water. Across the street, we could see the old buildings. One of the buildings was even leaning. Along the Huangpu River, we watched the many different boats go by, from tour boats to freighters to cruise ships. Across the Huangpu River, we could see the Pudong, with the Oriental Pearl Tower dominating the skyline.

We came to the area at night to take a cruise on the Huangpu River. On the cruise, we got a great view of Shanghai at night. I found the colorfully lit Oriental Pearl Tower most beautiful. Also, during the cruise, there was a very entertaining karaoke competition on the ship. It was fun to watch and listen to, even though most of the songs were sung in Chinese.

The Shanghai Museum is built to resemble an ancient bronze ding, which is a three-legged food vessel used for cooking and serving. The exhibits include Ancient Chinese Bronze, Ancient Chinese Jade, Calligraphy, Chinese Painting, and Ming and Qing Furniture.

The museum’s most famous gallery is the Ancient Chinese Bronze Gallery. The exhibit contains bronzes dating back to the 21st century BCE. Just a few of the types of bronze objects the museum displays are wine bottles, bowls, goblets, dings, stylized animal motifs of dragons, lions, and phoenixes, and bells.

My favorite gallery was the Ancient Chinese Jade Gallery. There were examples of jade from the simplest early carvings to later, more complex carving. The small jade discs used to worship heaven were examples of some of the earliest and simplest carvings, dating back 5,000 years. I was really amazed at the intricate carving of some of the larger pieces. I cannot imagine men carving these using the ancient technology of bamboo drills, abrasive sand, and garnets crushed in water. Although a lot of people thought the bronzes showed the advanced ancient Chinese civilization, the jade was what made me realize it the most.

Of course, it would not be a tourist destination without a shop or two. The gift shops contained everything from books on the exhibits (some were even in English), pins, postcards (a whole wall of ones to choose from), magnets, and replicas of some of the items in the exhibits. At the gift shop on the top floor of the museum, there was a machine that would engrave a coin with an image of the museum. You could get it to say anything you wanted. I put Beijing Bowling Classic (the official name of my trip) and the date. A lot of people put the names of their friends and family with their birth dates.