Shanghai

Friday, 29 Sep 2017 – This was a very full day.  We got up early for breakfast and met in the lobby at 8:00 AM, when the coach took us to Yu Yuan Garden.  Not a traditional garden, this park had lots of rocks, trees, sculptures, ponds, and buildings.  Originally, this had been a private garden for a single family.  After the garden tour, we were given free time for an Old Shanghai tour (that is, shopping).  Soon we found a place to sit and spent our free time there, within view of our meeting place.  A group of young Chinese women asked to take a photo with Jesse, as well as a young Polish woman.  An elderly man also stopped and talked to us, but we have no idea what he was saying.  He also sang to us.  After our free time, we boarded our coach, which took us to a silk factory where very expensive framed silk needlework, rugs, and furniture were sold.  Several passengers made purchases.  We then rode the escalator up two floors for a Chinese-style lunch, served on a lazy Susan.  Jesse really liked the soup and tried to finish off the bowl, but there was a little too much.  (It’s too bad that he couldn’t bring it home!)  While waiting to leave the mall, we all joked about the large

Shanghai Mall

advertisement on the wall, “Learn to speak big English like an American!”  After a short walk, we boarded our coach for transport to the Shanghai Museum.  The museum was very large and modern with five floors.  Although there was a very long line of visitors waiting to get in, we went to the line for those with reservations and were soon admitted.  The main attraction was on the second floor, which appeared to include mummies; however, since a long line was awaiting admittance, we skipped that floor.  The other floors included Chinese archeology, ancient coins, ethnic clothing, etc.  We returned early to the bus.  Although it should have been very nice sitting outside the bus on some benches, a beggar woman tormented us, really aggravating Sally by getting into her face, so that we soon boarded the bus.  She had been walking around in that area for several hours and seemed healthier than some of our group.  (Jesse wasn’t annoyed by the beggar woman and thought she was entertaining!)  Since we would be attending a Chinese acrobat show later that evening, we had a 5:00 PM dinner at the hotel.  This time, we had chicken and sat with Margie and Alex (from Boulder, CO).  Since they had a very early morning flight, they would not be attending the acrobat show.  After dinner, everyone said goodbye to them.  At 6:30 PM we boarded our bus and rode for 45 minutes to the theater through very heavy traffic.  The show lasted 1.5 hours and included lots of juggling and magic, as well as men and women performing acrobatics.  (Jesse mostly napped.)  The traffic for the ride back to the hotel was much less congested, but we did run into a problem with the local police.  Apparently, the driver needed a permit to drive us through the area nearest the hotel, and he did not have one.  Soon, the hotel’s manager showed up and rescued us.  (Otherwise, the driver would have been ticketed and we would have had a long walk back to the hotel!)  Since our airline departure times varied, we all hugged and said our goodbyes in the hotel lobby.  We finished most of our packing before retiring for the night.

We found Chinese people, even at security points, to be friendly and helpful, and we always felt safe in China.  Since they are already a great power in the world, it is easy to see that in 10 or 20 more years, the U.S. will seem very small in comparison to China.  However, at least at the present, that does not seem a scary future to us.