Hard to believe this is our last full day of
visiting in China. Today at breakfast a
business man sat beside us and we started talking to him. He is from Palo Alto, CA and we talked about
everything from the changes in Shanghai (he first came here in 1980), him
meeting Pierre Trudeau, his Pilipino wife and how she was able to sponsor him
to get into Canada, he is from Indonesia originally. Anyway turns out he feels that he owes
something to Canada and offered to take us to the bund tonight to see the
lights, he said we should really experience the subway and will take a few of
us if we can all walk. We arrange to
meet in the lobby at 8, but tell him we are not certain we can be there, and
also if he has plans to not change them and wait for us, we’ll see what
happens.
 |
| View from the business lounge at our hotel |
We started off today with a shopping visit
at the silk factory. This was pretty
interesting, we saw how the silk worm spins their cocoon and how they take the
silk worms out, and then some eat them, passed on that. This place made a killing on people buying
silk comforters, we passed. Many people
on our tour bought them, everyone said they were a great deal, but no need for
silk for us, so we left lots for others.
I did purchase a silk cushion cover for the living room, I want a new
chair, so I guess I’ll try to match it with the new cushion!
 |
| Silk factory |
 |
| Stretching silk to make a comforter |
 |
| Prices of real estate in this area, The top one is a 2000 square feet condo and it is 3.5 million Canadian. Notice the blue packages people are carrying, these are the silk comforters that they shrink down for travel. |
Next stop was the bund, the most famous view
of Shanghai. It really is spectacular, I
know pictures will not do it justice. We
again were given quite a bit of free time to explore. I think it is about 2KM long, you look across
the very busy river traffic to a fantastic skyline of skyscrapers. Hard to believe this has all been built in
the last 25 years or so. Shanghai is
known as the financial centre of China, Beijing the historical and political
centre of China.
 |
| On the bund in Shanghai with Martin and Tammy |
After lunch we are off to the Shanghai Museum. We had quite a bit of time to spend here and
a few of us decided to just explore the traditional costumes floor, then we
were off to find some more shopping. A
couple of people wanted purses and watches so we were on a mission to go back
to Nanjing Road and find a deal! It really
is fun going through this process, we went back to the shop we had been in
yesterday, lots of haggling back and forth and I think 3 purses and 3 watches
were bought in the end. We didn’t add
anything else to our purchases, we already have our Rolex and Gucci watches,
and I have way too many purses at home now anyway, will save these knock off
purchases for New York at some time I
guess.
 |
| Shanghai Museum |
 |
| Traditional costumes at the museum |
 |
| One of only a couple of Christian Churches we saw the entire 2 weeks |
 |
| China hamburger? |
 |
| Back wall of store opens to where you go illegal purse and watch knock off shopping, FUN! |
Following the Shanghai museum we were
committed to visiting a cashmere shop, I think the tour spent a total of 10
minutes here, but it was fun exploring the shop beside them that had silk embroidery
and carpets. What amazing work! Once
again nothing purchased by us.
 |
| Silk embroidery |
We are then taken to the Old Town Shanghai
market. Beautiful old Chinese architecture
found here, something I really thought we would see more of on this trip. We did purchase some more tea here, as well
as 2 tea cups.
 |
| Found a food court like we would have in the malls here, Andre had a good time wandering taking pictures |
 |
| Beautiful architecture in Old Town Shanghai market |
 |
| This is a live show that you look through and the man on the left commentates, no idea what is in there, but popular with kids and adults |
 |
| Found out these are straws in the dumplings, filled with some kind of soup, we did not try them, but found out later some did and it was good |
Tonight is our last supper with table 7,
tomorrow we are all leaving at different times to goodbyes to our bus tour
friends that we have met over the last 2 weeks.
Again it has gone by so quickly like all vacations do.
 |
| We saw these signs a few times, wondered if they just change it to 2017 in a few more months? |
Back to the hotel at 8PM and I see our new
friend Ray from breakfast in the lobby, we ask him if he can wait 10 minutes as
we all have stuff to take up to our rooms.
Back to the lobby and we are off to the subway to go to the bund. It really wasn’t hard to do, had to change
lines once. They have 500 km of subway
now, another 500 to be added in the next 5 years. We probably would have struggled buying the
tickets from the machine, and walking through the gates was different than any
of us are used to in metro, underground, subway or whatever you call it, so
this caused some laughs. There were 6 of
us in total including Ray, and he was a great tour guide. A much different pace than our daily tour,
this man walked extremely fast! One of
the other guys is really into photography as well, so we had lots of stops to
make as we walked around. So many more people
on the bund at night, it really is “the” place to go for the lights. If we would have had one more night it would have
been great to do a river cruise at night as well. We walk from the bund to Peoples Square, with a quick stop at the Fairmont Peace Hotel, then
catch the subway back to the hotel from here, we are totally done by now. It has been a long fantastic day, and we are
exhausted.
