We woke up to sunshine today, which was great so we could see this great city without the clouds and rain! Today we were doing Shanghai on our own.
Took the free shuttle to the drop off near the Shanghai Museum. We spent our time in their wonderful gift shop since we had seen the museum itself before. We were able to make many purchases we had hoped to find while in China!
Then we took a cab to Old Town (which we had been to before and had called their China Town) with its maze of narrow alleys and cobblestone lanes.
There are many shops that specialize in just selling one thing like chopsticks or fans or musical instruments.
Centuries ago it was the center of Shanghai. Now it is shops and restaurants in the old buildings which have kept the character of long ago.
After a few purchases, we were hungry and found a dumpling restaurant. It was all in Chinese and we were the only non-Asian people there. But we found a picture of the food we wanted which helped. We had 10 dumplings each and then we each had a bowl of soup plus one soda. The whole meal was about $5 for the two of us. It was not only a bargain, it was yummy!
We strolled around for at least an hour and bought more “stuff.” We could have spent the whole afternoon there. But we had so many packages, we couldn’t walk without bumping into the crowds of people walking along. So, we needed to come back and put them in our cabin, which we did. Then we went out again for a walk for about an hour near the Bund just to enjoy the beautiful day and all the impressive parks and buildings. Here is just a sample of some of the interesting architecture we liked.
The odd “spaceship” looking one is the TV tower –the first building on what were rice fields just 15 years ago.
We were docked in a great location to get around the city easily. This port area is new since last year.
On our walk, we went to a viewing area of the Bund (all new since we were here a few years ago.) It was a Friday afternoon around 3 p.m. and there were so many people out that it looked like a stampede – except they were just strolling!
The ship left right before dinner, so we watched the sail away from the Crow’s Nest. After the sunset, we had dinner in the Lido again. I went to the movies – the Joy Luck Club – it was very good. Doug went to the ship’s entertainment. We were supposed to have the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center scheduled for a performance, but they got as far as the Shanghai airport. They must have been missing some paperwork (visa) because they had to get back on a plane and fly back to the U.S. As a replacement, the Rosario Strings (a 3 person instrumental group from the ship) performed. Doug thought they were so good, he waited for me to finish my movie and took me back to see the 10 p.m. performance. They really were good!
It was a full and wonderful last day in Shanghai. We’d like to come back here again.
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