Shanghaied?

In Shanghai we docked in a primarily residential area and I was picked to escort a tour that included the Meglev high speed train. Ronnie booked an excursion to what is often called the Venice of China with many waterways. Ronnie came back with glowing reports of her trip a few photos. On my tour, we basically had two 8 minutes rides on the Meglev, to the airport and back. The train actually floats on a magnetic field one centimeter above the track. As you travel a sign above the coach gives you the current speed in kilometers per hour. You don’t really feel the speed that much because the train is so smooth, but you gradually increase until it reaches 431 k per hour or a little over 269 miles per hour. It is an exhilarating experience. We then went to an observation platform on the 88th floor of the JinMao tower, the second highest building in Shanghai. It is only a few feet lower than the tallest building which is a block away, but those few feet saved us a two hour wait and the view was spectacular with a relatively clear day for Shanghai.

When I returned Ronnie was just leaving, so I took the ship’s shuttle into town for the afternoon. Unfortunately the shuttle dropped us at an out-of-the-way silk shop, so it was quite a walk to Yuyuan (or just Yu for short) Gardens where I spent most of the afternoon. I went into a small temple on the way and took photos of the local populous, most of who were dressed in modern western attire. Only a few older people wear the “Chairman Mao” drab blue/gray outfits that characterized the Cultural Revolution. Our guide in the Meglev tour was a young Chinese man who told us that the Cultural Revolution was Mao’s big mistake. They still revere him but modern China looks a lot more like a modern capitalist state than a Communist one, at least on the surface. As I was looking at a map to find my way to Yu Gardens, a young couple asked if they could help me. The young lady actually spoke the best English, and she said they would take me to Gardens. I don’t know if it was out of the way for them, but they did take me right to it.

After spending an hour or so at the Yu Gardens market (it’s actually a huge series of indoor and outdoor markets with an overwhelming variety of merchandise), I decided to find my way back to the shuttle. However the market is so large that I couldn’t find my way back to the way I came, so I headed in the direction I thought I should go. I kept looking at my map and then at the street signs but could not seem to make them match. I ran into a young British lady who also was a bit lost. Together we compared maps and found our way to the Bund historic area and the main shopping street (Nanjing). I took the metro one stop while she continued on. Actually if I had just walked back to the ship from the Bund, I would have been fine, but I thought I could get close to the shuttle by way of the metro.

Did I mention the pushers? Yes, by this time it was rush hour, and to get on the subway you stand in front of the platform and are literally pushed and squeezed into the already full train car. Forget personal space. “Don’t you wish you used Dial?” the old ads for Dial deodorant soap used to say. I truly wished everyone around me had. Getting out of the subway was the next challenge as I had to push aside about a dozen people to get to the door, and then there were about 5 different possible exits. I don’t think I chose wisely, as I still could not match up my map with the streets around me. I walked and walked looking for the street of the out of the way shuttle stop, asking shop keepers and bystanders, none of whom understood a word I was saying and they could not seem to make heads or tails out of my map even though it had the Chinese characters on it. As much as I pride myself on being able to find my way, I gave up knowing Ronnie would be back from her tour and probably worried about me (that is an understatement).

I got in a taxi that looked more like a truck. The ship people had warned us to get a price before we went anywhere in a cab. I showed him the ship’s address printed in Chinese characters and in English and after a few minutes of negotiating I thought we agreed on a price of 15 Juan (the exchange was about 7 or 8 to the dollar, and most people had been paying around 20 Juan for a taxi into town so I though this was a good deal). The driver seemed quite friendly and kept laughing as he was saying over and over again the only English words he knew, “Welcome to Shanghai.” Actually there was one other word he seemed to know: “Obama.” Yes, almost everywhere we went people mentioned our new president, most quite excitedly. After a bit of a trip, my driver stopped at a place that looked like it was at least close to the ship. I handed him the 15 plus a tip. He became very agitated and kept repeating “15, 15,” or so I thought. Finally I realized he was saying “50” not fifteen (no wonder he was laughing before!). Not another international incident?! Or was I going to be Shanghaied? I ended up giving him 30, and although he was not entirely happy and I was not entirely happy I walked away and he drove away.

It turned out I was still quite a ways from the ship and walked the last few blocks along the mostly deserted harbor street. By the time I arrived at the ship it was after 6:30 and indeed Ronnie was not a happy camper. I understood her frustration, because we had wanted to go back into town in the evening. After a quick room service we got back on the shuttle into the city to see the lights. Shanghai presents a spectacular face at night. Lots of lights and activity. We enjoyed the ride but did not have time to do much at the shuttle stop except walk up and down the street before taking the ride back to the ship.

The next day we left the ship fairly early and just walked to the main shopping area, the pedestrian mall called Nanjing where I had been the evening before. On the way we stumbled onto a little tourist tram (the “Bund Sightseeing Tunnel”) that went under the river to Podong and the Oriental Pearl Tower (like a space needle except with a round ball at the top) on the other side of the Huangpu river. It looked like they had tried to make the tram into an amusement park type ride as it went by many bright flashing lights and displays. The young lady attendant who let us on the tram wanted us to kiss and called Ronnie a “sexy lady.” We thought the whole thing was bizarre to say the least. We walked around the tower area and found a nice garden along a waterfront area. We took the tram back, this time with another family in the car and proceeded to Nanjing Street. We did see some good values at some of the stores, but I settled only on a long sleeve shirt since I knew we were coming to cooler climates. We walked again to the Lu Gardens area and did some shopping some of the many jewelry and knock-off stores.

Yes, we did follow a hawker and a group of several tourists into a back alley where the “real” knockoffs were. Ronnie saw a new pattern Gucci pocketbook she liked and was negotiating while I watched one of the locals do her own bargaining. I was fascinated as the volume and gesturing increased to a significant level. I thought they were going to come to blows before they finally agreed on a price. However, Ronnie was not happy with her price. As we walked out of the store one of the sales people followed us down the street. The bottom line is that they never met her price so they did not make the sale and we moved on.

A quick (and cheap – 22 Juan) taxi back to the ship and we had room service to get ready to take the bus to the Chinese acrobatic show. It was spectacular to say the least, and although I had seen some of the acts before never to this extreme. Standing out in my mind is the man who juggles huge ornate China pots and balances them on the rim on his head, as well as the motorcycles in the large enclosed wire ball. One or two I had seen before, but 10!?! going round and round in this ball they could barely fit into was amazing. However, leaving the show Ronnie and an Englishman named Michael with whom she was talking got separated from our bus group. They were the only ones not on the bus and the Englishman’s wife and I were getting more worried by the minute (I was approaching panic). I asked (really told) Christine, the Director of all the ships excursions, who happened to be on our bus, not to leave as I went back to the theater to find Ronnie. I scoured the place but there were only cleaning people left. When I finally got back to the bus Christine told me they had called the other bus (I had forgotten there were two ship’s busses going to the show) and somehow Ronnie and Michael had found there way to that bus. At least they were safe, but I hope never again to be so worried.

The next morning the ship was leaving around noon, so Ronnie and I walked around the residential area near the harbor and really got a better taste of the lives of Shanghai residents. Sewing machines on the streets, food vendors with boiling pots of oil on every corner, and small shops and street vendors selling basic daily products from produce to pots and pans. We bought one of these huge reinforced plastic bags (the size of a large suitcase) for one dollar. We saw them all over Asia as a means of packing and transporting goods. It came in handy when we left the ship with our loot. It was a pretty sail out of Shanghai, and I was again amazed by the number of Hi-rise apartments and condos packed into a small area. Shanghai represents the future of China with 17 million residents, and they are totally rebuilding the city to get ready for the worlds fair Expo next year. I have no question they will get it done.