On Thursday, our day began fairly early with a guided tour
of Shanghai. We set off in a local tour
bus with our guide, Coco. She was a
young Chinese woman who was very knowledgeable about Shanghai and the
surrounding areas.
Our first stop was the Jin Mao Tower which is 88 stories and
translates to “Golden Prosperity Building” in Chinese. The tower reaches 1380 ft above ground and we
were able to see stunning views of the city from the observation deck. Although there was quite a line to wait in to
ride the 45 second elevator up to the observation deck, it was well worth the
wait. One of the neatest aspects was
actually the fact that there was a hotel located in this tower and you were
able to look down through the glass viewing gallery in the center of the
building and see the hotel lobby 88 floors below. It gave a very heeby-geeby feeling but was
exciting all the same.
The tower was the main aspect of our touring in the ‘New
Town’ of Shanghai and then it was time to board the coach and head to the ‘Old
Town’. Here, we arrived at Yu Garden
which was a lavish 5 acre garden that is filled with flowers, plants, ponds,
fish and pagodas. Coco led us on a
guided tour and gave us lots of information about the background, history and
significance of the gardens. We learned
that the four elements of a garden consist of plants, water, rocks and
architecture. The day was absolutely
beautiful and although the gardens were very crowded, we had a spectacular
time. Once the garden tour had finished,
we had 3 ½ hours to tour by ourselves.
Our first stop was to the dumpling house that was known as
the best place in town. This restaurant
had different levels depending on how much you wanted to spend. The top floor was very expensive and elite
and served a variety of different foods.
The middle floor was a nice sit down restaurant and was a bit pricy but
had a nice atmosphere. The lower level
was a very inexpensive pick up line where customers would wait outside and walk
up to a window to buy take out dumplings.
Jessie and I decided that this would be the best option for us. We didn’t realize that the wait would be over
an hour long! During our time waiting in
line, Jessie got to experience the lack of personal bubbles in Asian
culture. The women behind her were
pushing up against her and breathing down her neck. I had spent so much time complaining about
this during my time in Korea and Jessie never understood the frustration behind
it until she experienced it herself. It
was very satisfying for me when she finally understood the rationale behind my
rants.
Eventually we got to the front of the line and were able to
buy our dumplings. By this time, we were
famished so we got 3 orders because we knew it would be too much of a wait if
we didn’t get our fill the first time around.
We found some stairs in front of store fronts nearby and set out our
spectacular lunch. The dumplings were
well worth the wait. Jessie and I
devoured them and had a fair amount left over at the end. This worked out well because a poor old
Chinese lady came by and asked us for food.
We gave her our dumplings, which I’m sure made for a nice snack for
her.
After lunch, Jessie and I spent some time walking around the
local markets. We were able to find a
few nice things and enjoyed looking at the various trinkets the vendors were
selling. We have noticed how much our
bargaining skills have improved over our travels; I seem to get quite a ‘high’
from finding a good deal. Jessie always
lets me do the negotiating when she wants to buy something. It’s quite a thrill.
As we were walking along, numerous Chinese people stopped to
take our pictures. At one point we had a
few women who asked if they could pose for photos with us. It was quite funny and flattering at the same
time. I never thought we’d be treated
like such celebrities in China, but it was fun all the same.
Around 4pm, we all met back up and headed to the bus. Jessie and I passed out on the bus ride back
to the ship. When we finally arrived, we
got on board and got cleaned up for dinner.
Shanghai was much different than I expected but it was a wonderful place
to visit. I hope to come back
someday.
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