Shanghai waterfront

Monday, October 14, 2013
Today we traveled by bus back to Shanghai.

 Our first stop was along the Bund, the historical downtown financial centre of China. The bull is similar to the Wall Street Bull. There is a levee and walkway along the river to prevent flooding.

 Looking across the river from the walkway, we could see the more modern side of the financial centre,  built within the last 20 years or so.

 Anita and I are posing with our national guide, who used the English name "Mark". Mark lives in Beijing and speaks quite good "Chinglish". That is, he has difficulty with some words or phrases but is very good at understanding and being understood. He traveled with us for the whole 23 days and looked after every detail. Very pleasant, patient and organized, he was a fantastic guide.

 We stopped at a silk workshop where we all took a turn helping the workers stretch some pure silk to form the inner layers of a silk duvet. Many of the group purchased silk bedding and other items.

 In the afternoon we took a boat cruise along the Huangpu River through the heart of downtown.

Although I'm not a real fan of cities, Shanghai has the most fantastic skyline I've ever seen. There are huge skyscrapers with unique designs, including the 118 storey (I think) "bottle opener". It's owned by a Japanese financial corporation and was originally designed to have a round hole through the upper floors to let the wind pass through. However, Chinese authorities felt that design looked too much like the Japanese flag and demanded a change. There is still a great deal of animosity in China toward the Japanese. The Japanese invasion of China during WWII has not been forgotten.

 In the late afternoon, we wandered through the pedestrian mall of Nanjing Road where there are many large stores and high end boutiques.

In the evening we checked into the Wyndham Bund East Shanghai Hotel where Anita amused herself by playing with the remotes for the motorized window blinds and the TV in the bathroom.

Very nice room.