14 Shanghai

Sat, Nov 8 Shanghai, China

After an afternoon reward flight on Air Canada partner Shanghai Air, and we transfered to downtown on the amazing Maglev train, which in 2004 was the first (and still may be the only) commercial high-speed magnetic levitation line in the world.

It was a 30 km/18 mile journey that took 7 minutes and 20 seconds to complete. There was an odometer above the door in each of the 3 or 4 cars on this bullet train, and all of the “tourists” had cameras ready as the train accelerated to 350 km/h (220 mph) in the first 2 minutes, and then cranked it up to 431 km/h (268 mph) as a maximum speed. We blurred past cars on the adjacent highway, and for the 2 turns on the route, we were banked up like bikes in a velodrome! It was a terrific “thrill” ride for a mere 50 yuan (US$7.27), but not really practical, location-wise, since we still had a half hour taxi ride ($10) to get to our hotel in this gigantic city.

Our hotel, the Fudan Crowne Plaza, was a beautiful 5 star establishment - which augured well for a high accommodation standard on the rest of this trip. Tomorrow the rest of the tour group would arrive (tired) on the long flights from LA and New York City.

For orientation purposes, Shanghai is midway between Beijing in the north and Hong Kong in the south. It is near the mouth of the mighty Yangtze River, but is actually located on a more navigable major tributary called the Huangpu, and, accordingly, the city grew to early prominence as a strategic port location. In fact, “Shang Hai” means “on the sea”. It was one of the five Chinese cities forced to be “opened” to foreign trade by the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, following the Opium War between China and victorious England. Checking in at 18.5 million inhabitants (the population of Ontario), the city is one of the largest in China, and is considered the fastest growing metropolis in the world.

The next day started out overcast and cool. Our China journey commenced with introductions and a bus tour of the famous central downtown area known as the Bund. This area is the old financial hub, and is an area along the river where dozens of grand and now historical buildings once accommodated the major European banks and trading houses of pre-WW2 Shanghai.

Across the river is the new financial epicenter of Chinese (and Asian) commerce and finance: an area called Pudong, which 15 years ago we were told were fields of rice paddies. Today it is glitzy, astonishing architecture, all emblematic of China’s rocket-ride to being the world’s fastest growing economy.

We visited the lovely Yu Yuan City Gardens, and performed a dramatic cat rescue!

We spotted a tiny kitten stumbling along a crowded street near the Gardens, scooped him up, and after some arm-twisting of our guides, we transported him by taxi to a caring and empathetic vet who promised to treat and find a home for this helpless, beautiful creature. (We later found out that the month old scrawny feline had a broken rib, an eye infection, worms, and malnourishment, but with vet Stephen’s intervention, he eventually recovered completely and a few weeks later was adopted by an English speaking Chinese couple with whom we have communicated by email! Little Singa, as we call him, is one fortunate little creature.)

China has brought the world many inventions that are celebrated in Chinese culture. The four greatest are touted as the Compass, Gunpowder, Paper, and Printing (both moveable type and block). These four discoveries have had an enormous impact on the development of Chinese civilization,and a far-ranging global impact about which the Chinese proudly keep reminding tourists.

You really notice how many people there are in Chinese cities. It is not just in the population number, but in the feel of the city. It is dense with humans. We see wonderfully creative bicyclists carting huge and interesting loads on their two-wheelers. Imagine this being tolerated on busy roadways in North Ameica!

We also saw that every day is laundry day; it streamed from extension poles out apartment windows and on balconies. Our guide, Chen, said this is only in southern China; Beijing won’t tolerate open laundry like this.

Silk fabric was also first developed in ancient China, evidently as early as 6000 BC. Many Chinese silk products are gorgeous works of art, and we briefly visited a silk factory and manage to squeeze in the purchase of a beautiful, lustrous silk duvet before taxiing off to deal with Singa.

We have already visited some wonderful museums (Taipei, especially; it will be hard to top that one), and we have now added the Shanghai Museum to the list. It is a sterling one, documenting huge achievements over several thousands of years in pottery, ceramics, brass, art and other skills. Suddenly, pot design incorporates handles, or a cylinder to pour liquids grows a spout; features taken for granted in modern times, but clever and useful in all time periods.

Visitors are struck by the imaginative architecture in Shanghai. Dramatic buildings are everywhere.

One night, Chen escorted our group to a performance by the world famous Shanghai acrobats in a (naturally) spectacular show, akin to Cirque du Soleil in which many of these acrobats have worked. The show was a definite improvement over dinner where Colleen ended up covered in spilled beer as our group hadn’t yet learned to keep table objects clear of the ubiquitous Chinese food turntable (lazy susan) with its serving pieces aiming to knock a kilter anything in its path, particularly liquids!

(Another video... click on the play arrow)

One final Shanghai adventure: Minutes before departing the Fudan Crowne Plaza Hotel, we made a last “visit” to an exquisite silk embroidery picture that we had been admiring in a hotel store. The merchant, knowing our tour group was imminently exiting, magically dropped the price, we bought it, and arranged for it to be shipped to Montreal by slow boat. (The shipping logistics turned out to be a magnitude more complicated than we envisioned, but that’s another story, and now the Chinese faces in our picture gaze back at us in our dining room as a reminder of the diversity of skill, and love of beauty, people throughout the world have).

We've had a wonderful, eye-opening 3 days in Shanghai, but now it was time to be off to explore the wonders of Beijing!