SUNDAY, MAR 7TH--SHANGHAI DAY 2

WHAT A DAY!! Shanghai is a truly remarkable, beautiful, and intriguing city that is changing constantly. The largest metropolis in China and fifth largest city in the world with a population of over 17 million. It has its charming old buildings dating from the early 1900’s to the skyscrapers of the new Pudong area that have all been built in the last 20 years on what use to be rice paddies. I uploaded photos of our first day in Shanghai last evening so you can now see what I am talking about when I mention the “Pudong” area with the Oriental Pearl Tower as its most interesting landmark. Having lunch in it, 876 feet above the ground, was breathtaking. The most amazing thing about this city is, the literally, thousands of 20 to 30 story apartment buildings. Most of them are modern buildings and really quite nice. As an interesting aside, our guide said apartment prices are really escalating as she paid less than $100,000US for hers 7 years ago and it is now worth over $500,000US. When they marry here the man has to buy an apartment or they will not marry. Prices are so high now that the parents of the man now help him make the 30% down payment. In Shanghai couples are limited to only 1 child. Having a car is discouraged in Shanghai because there is not much parking and the roads would not handle cars for 17 million people. So the government limit’s the number of license plates issued and they are bid for on the internet. A license is good for 15 years and may cost as much as the car itself. As a result bicycles, electric motor bikes (gasoline ones are banned because of pollution--noise & air), buses, and the subways are what most use to get around. Our tour bus took us about an hour drive out of the downtown area to the ancient water town of Zhujiajiao (dare you to pronounce that) which is called Shanghai’s Venice. Apartment buildings lined the road as far as you could see for the whole drive. New, modern highways and interchanges were being built. Investing in the Chinese construction industry seems a good one! So this ancient town dates back 1700 years and has a canal running through it with small boats that will transport you much like the ones in Venice, Italy. I think my pictures will convey what a wonderful experience our 15 minute boat trek was. There were several foot bridges over the canal that our oarsman had to duck to get underneath. Our cruise director, Jamie, and Diana, his camera operator, were in our boat and they were filming a segment for his “Jamie’s Journeys” that they produce in very port for viewing on the TV in our suites. Our tour guide was also in our boat and Jamie was interviewing her. This was a very special experience for us and I suspect we will be “movie stars” on this new segment. After leaving the boats our group was led on a walking tour of the town. We went through a post office dating back to the Qing Dynasty. There will be a picture of the oldest mail box in Shanghai and one of the mail boat that delivered mail on the canal. Long ago paper was rare and expensive so they wrote messages on bones and shells. The post office is still in use today. Then we visited a fascinating ancient pharmacy. It is still being used and we watched the pharmacist fill a prescription for an old woman the old way. No pills here! He weighed herbs & drugs on old scale then ground them in special stone container with a stone. Then he poured in on brown paper and folded it before handing it to the woman. She was using an old plastic sack for her purse. Folks, this was such an experience and one I shall treasure forever. Back out on the narrow pathways through the town with all the shops lining both sides and an occasional motor bike winding its way through sending the people scurrying to get out of the way. We were then turned loose for an hour of exploring and shopping. Even though we dressed warmer for today’s tour, we were still freezing. That was not going to deter us as we were having such a great time soaking up every bit of this unbelievable experience. We had arrived at 9am and the streets were almost empty but by noon, when we left, they were full of city people out to spend a Sunday in the countryside. Needless to say the two Regent tour groups were the only Caucasians there. Rebecca bought a pashmina and a little snuff bottle and the woman wrote her name inside it. Try that one! We also bought some interesting covers for wine bottles that we will use when we take wine to give as a gift. The fun part for me was haggling over the price. I brought some candy from the ship and would give it to the little kids. I gave one to a very old woman and her face lit up. I made her day and she certainly made mine!!! We were frozen when we got back on the bus but loved every minute of this tour. Back at the ship we grabbed some hot soup for lunch before once again boarding buses at 2:45pm for the Chinese Acrobatic Show. It was in the 900 seat showroom at the Ritz Carlton Hotel located in the expensive shopping district of downtown Shanghai. Regent had reserved the whole showroom for a special acrobatic show just for us. Sorry, no photographs during the show were allowed. For the next 1 ½ hours our mouths gapped open as we watched one amazing fete after another. The Chinese acrobats do traveling shows in the States occasionally so do not pass up the opportunity to see them if you can. So we were back at the ship by 6pm and I worked until 8pm uploading pictures of day 1 on the blog. Then we rushed down for a quick dinner before heading to the showroom to watch the movie, “Inglourious Basterds” on the big screen. We are watching the Academy Awards this morning as I write this and it is up for several awards. So today we are back out in the East China Sea sailing for the Chinese port of Xiamen. At noon it is overcast and 49F with the ship moving about some but not too bad. This morning everyone, even the crew, had to have their temperature taken and logged for our arrival in Hong Kong on Wednesday. We will have 3 days in Hong Kong and can’t wait. This afternoon I will try to upload yesterday's photos.