Sun Nov 29 cont’d….
We started the morning with a tour of Chongqing. What a great city it is! It’s old and new. It’s high enough that it wasn’t impacted as much by the dam as other cities along the river. The morning started off rather cloudy and overcast. It was a bit hard to tell what was cloud versus pollution! But still quite a lovely city…to me. Brightened up nicely later in the morning.
To me it’s a “real” city. BIG still applies to everything but it doesn’t seem a garish, or over the top like Beijing. Lots of activity and lots of people. Winston says it’s the largest city in China….30+ million. I thought Shanghai was but apparently not. Many interesting side streets and alleys. It’s quite a clean city.
First stop was lovely Eling park overlooking the city. Beautiful gardens…which are probably even nicer in spring and summer. Busy place being a Sunday. Family parties/picnics, people doing tai chi, playing badminton, groups playing cards etc. There is a children’s area with little rollercoasters and other amusement park type rides, restaurants, cafes, some vendors selling some quite lovely handmade items (lots of paintings!) and just lots of places to sit or walk around. The park overlooks the river. Even with all the people it was a relatively quiet and peaceful place to wander thru.
Another park/plaza was our next stop, again with lots happening. Kids bring their bikes, scooters and whatever else they have to ride on. There a little toy kiosk that puts things out for the kids to play with. A couple big trees with wooden benches built around them that the old people, mostly men, sit and visit. A couple of food trucks too…..looked and smelled really good. The original building, that was a palace, is now a huge big hotel. Wandered around and people watched for the hour we had there.
I had heard about, but had never saw, until today, baby pants with slits in the bum…..strange concept to us but it’s been around in China for eons! Thought “whatever” until seeing someone hold their baby over a garbage can…..kind of ewwwww.
A really nice day and really very nice driving around this city and to the airport. Still lots of “stuff” everywhere but generally clean and relatively tidy in comparison to Beijing.
Lunch on the plane was “chicken rice”
Tonight we’re in Suzhou. It took over 2 hours to drive from the Shanghai airport….mostly just lots of traffic.
Suzhou is known for a big garden and it’s canals, which we’ll see tomorrow. Dinner was at a place in the old part of town. Really pretty pedestrian area along a canal. Lots of nice little store, including a Starbucks. Dinner was pretty disappointing….some of it was OK but again just not enough food.
Tonight we’re at the Wyndham Garden Hotel…..really nice. After checking in we had time to wander around. Very nice area with lots of shopping (expensive), restaurants and clubs. So many shops with beautiful coats!! I’d love to get one but I doubt very much they’d have my size. Donna, Dave and Loyanne headed back to the hotel. Shirl, Neil and I explored a bit more……we came across a KFC!! Neil was still hungry so in we went. He had a 3 piece meal and Shirl and I just shared a 2 piece….was delicious!!
This was the first time on this trip that we’ve been able to wander freely!! The electric motorbikes are the scariest thing we came across…..because not everyone stops for red lights you just about take your life in your hands when crossing on a green light….you cannot hear them coming!! Definitely caught on to that after a near miss the first time we crossed a street!!
Back to the hotel for a drink in the lounge and to bed. Very busy day….not a lot of walking just planes and buses.
Mon Nov 30
Up early to visit The Lingering Garden (UNESCO site). Very beautiful with the fall colours, especially the yellow leaves on the ginko trees……they’re shaped like little fans! The central garden has a little manmade lake that all the trees and building around it reflect on. It must be pretty amazing here when the flowes are in bloom. Lots of parts to the garden, including over 100 bonsai. Very nice. Small shop where I bought a picture of bamboo painted in black ink on silk. Could have spent a lot more time there!
https://www.chinadiscovery.com/jiangsu/suzhou/lingering-garden.html
The weather the last couple of days has been great! No coats required 🙂
The rest of the morning was spent at the canals. Very pretty and referred to as the Venice of the East. Lots of little shops and cafes….and a Dairy Queen! Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time to explore the canals and the market, which was too bad because both were incredibly interesting.
The market was unbelievable. It went for blocks and blocks. Local food…..lots of vegetables, stands selling cooked and uncooked (but dead!) chicken, duck and pork…..probably beef too but can’t say that I recognized it if it was there. Fish in big tubs, crabs, clams, shrimp, prawns, eels…..all were very much a live. Some keep hoses running constantly in the tubs to keep it all fresh. There were live chickens and ducks. Some things I had no idea what they were. One place was selling frogs, but they were dried and on display in a nice case, so assumed they were expensive. Margaret bought some little apple type things on a stick….6 or so of them. They were kind of like baby candy apples coated in sugar……quite tasty. Lots of stands selling nuts (lots of walnuts) and beautiful looking pastries but was afraid to try them because of all the nuts. One guy was making what looked like 3 ft round shrimp chips….started with a little piece of dough about as big as a fist, threw it in the hot oil in a big wok and poof…..almost instantly it puffed up into the giant chip. Also stands selling clothes, purses, cooking stuff and pretty well anything else you think of. You could also have clothes made!! Could easily have spent another hour or more there. Tons of people, lots of scooters driving down the narrow alley, some even had carts attached. Lots of hand carts, bicycles and pretty much anything with a couple of wheels to get the goods in or out.
On the road again to Shanghai, with a stop for lunch…..great buffet today with lots to eat! Not exactly sure where we were, still along the canals. Very nice complex….a combo of restaurants and townhouses. Very neat and tidy with a lovely park across the canal. Still a portion of the old city wall from 1000 yrs ago (?). Not sure what city though!! Had some time to wander around, cross the old bridge and take a few pics.
Back on bus and into Shanghai. Busy, busy place!! Took almost 2 hours. The first stop was the Shanghai Museum. Excellent museum!! Very well laid out and really nice, interesting displays…..most with English descriptions. We only had a couple of hours to see it so I went off on my own and was selective as to which rooms to go into. I did the silk and clothing, the bronzes, ceramics and pottery. Quickly went thru the furniture and the seals and stamps rooms. Could easily have spent at least another hour there. Very nice store with some expensive things.
https://www.shanghaimuseum.net/museum/frontend/en/collection/index.action
Dinner! Also very good….buffet at a big fancy hotel. Much the same stuff but all really good…..today I think were the best two meals we had along with the one in Jingzhou.
Tonight we saw the famous Chinese acrobats. They are all pretty incredible. The girls on the bikes at the beginning were unbelievable and then the 6 or 8 motorbikes in the big ball cage were pretty amazing. How they stayed so focused was unreal….one little missed queue and they would have been a mess on the bottom. I think we saw the watered down tourist version but still really good. A few circ de soliel type acts as well. We were told that the company has helped a lot of young people. They offer free education to kids (some as young as 6 or 7) from some of the poorest villages around China. They come to the city and along with their schooling are trained to become these acrobats. As they get older their experience with the acrobat troop supposedly helps them get better careers. Good/bad?? Regardless they were excellent!
Finally at almost 10 we arrived at our hotel, the Radisson Blu Shanghai. Nice rooms except for the shower, the tile of which could have used a good scrubbing with some bleach. It had a two part shower, hand held and rain head. The hand held one HURT if you turned it on full blast….like pins poking you everywhere….definitely good water pressure. It was also one of those hotel rooms that had a window/glass wall between the bedroom into the bathroom! There were blinds but still….I don’t get this set up! Had a glass of wine in the bar before going up to bed….a big glass. Wine was from Argentina….very good. Bar was in the lobby which was so cold you had to wear your coat.
A very busy day today…..but a very good one!
Tues Dec 1
Up not so early this AM. Not on the bus until 9.
Our room was very hot and no matter how low we turned the heat it never got any cooler…..made up for the no heat in the lobby I guess.
Breakfast here is good but not as good as the other places we’ve stayed. Not a lot of variety….but there was an egg guy. I think the Wyndham was the nicest overall, or the Holiday Inn in Xi’an,
Our first stop this morning was to the silk factory. We watched a demo of how they make the silk threads from the cocoons and also how it is stretched and then layered to make the comforters and pillows. Would have liked to buy a duvet cover but very expensive so didn’t bother. They had some lovely clothes as well. Jackets, shirts, blouses etc. I tried on a cute vest but it was a little too tight and too short. The next size up, a 2XL (!), fit ok except the armholes were too big so let that pass too.
Lunch was a little different today….all you could eat Mongolian Grill. Was great and lots of fun. You go thru the raw food buffet filling your bowl with meat and veg and the sauces you want then take it up to the 3 people cooking it on a big round grill (Mongolian grill!). There was also a salad bar and rice and Chinese noodles. Very good!
There was a cashmere store upstairs…..some very nice stuff but again, all way too expensive…..honestly we could buy at home for way less. They kept insisting that it was way better quality….not terribly sure about that! The stairs to go up were tile….white, or would have been, really quite a mess…cracked tile, tiles missing altogether, and not very clean BUT at the top of the stairs is a great big beautiful crystal chandelier hanging from a gold ceiling!!
After lunch it was a visit to Chinatown! Yes they have a special area for that even here! It’s the old original area of Shanghai. Most of the buildings have been redone/rebuilt and are full of touristy type shops, bars and teahouses. Dave got taken to one by a lady that had asked him “what was he looking for”…..BEER he said! Donna and I were a little worried because we’d been warned not to do that!! I went after him and Donna waited for Loyanne. As it turned out it was an OK place….a nice teahouse and bar on the 4th floor of one of the pagoda buildings. It had one of the best skyline views of Shanghai that I’d seen so far! We had a beer, took a bunch of pictures and went back down to meet up with everyone.
I managed to find jammies for the kids, had their names written on cards in Chinese and picked up a shot glass for Craig’s collection and a pretty ivory (plastic!) fan for Kim.
Back on the bus for some shopping and people watching on Nanjing Road. We all wandered around a bit but really wasn’t into anymore shopping…..this is a famous road for shopping! Most of it is pedestrian only. Was still daylight when we arrived and it was quite busy but within an hour or so, once it was dark the street was packed!! Donna, Loyanne, Dave and I found a coffee/beer bar right on a busy corner and just parked ourselves there for the rest of the time we had on our own….another hour or so. Lots of big name stores on Nanjing Road and lots of big prices to go with them. Great people watching! It’s pedestrian only but there are still crossroads…..so even when the light was red on Nanjing, the people just kept walking and the cars, buses, bikes scooters etc., who had a green, had to go slow and nose their way thru the people! A lady had a doggy dressed in a little plaid shirt, jeans and pink booties! Kathy from RI came by and shared some of her roasted pigeon!! A little over done but tasted like chicken!
https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/nanjing_road.htm
The bamboo scaffolding around buildings that were being worked on was amazing…..I can’t believe in this day and age it is still used.
Dinner was at a restaurant on the Bund! Finally get to see this famous area….in the dark! After dinner we went across the street to the park on the Huangpu river. Great views across the water of Pudong with the Oriental Pearl tower and Jinmao Tower and another new huge building (118 floors) still under construction that will be a “self-sufficient” living environment when it’s completed. The night view was lovely…..lots of lights of course across the way, ferries, also lit up, going up and down the river. There is the first iron/steel bridge ever built in China, that was 100 yrs old. I just wish we’d have more time to wander around in the daylight……was looking forward to seeing all the historic buildings and would also have been nice to visit Pudong across the river.
Back on the bus and to the hotel by just after 7:30 to get packed up. Stopped for a drink in the lobby with N & S. Rhode Island people came in and had a drink but left to get more food. When they came back I went up to the 27th floor to have a drink with them up there…..nice view but not of anything too exciting.
Finished packing and to bed….wake up call at 6:45.
Tues Dec 2
Up and packed before 6. Breakfast and on the bus to the airport by 8:30. Some flights (Calif) left an hour before ours so we all just went together.
We had all checked in but sort of all wandered off in different directions….I had put my boarding pass in my passport and thought I’d just check the gate and time again…..I noticed the gal had given me my passport but Donna’s boarding pass!! A little bit of a panic because Donna was on her way to go thru security. I went racing over to find her but no sign of her…..I assumed that she had gotten thru with MY boarding pass no problem. I was with Neil so told him when we were going thru, if I had any issues, he’d have to go and find Donna to get MY boarding pass. As it turned out, it wasn’t an issue….the guy glanced at it but didn’t bat an eye lash….thought maybe he couldn’t read it or just one of those “for show” security things??? A bit worrisome though when you think about it!
Caught up with our group and found a coffee place not far from our gate and ran into the RI folks. Donna and I had beer and dumplings that were really good! We did not see many dumplings on this trip.
Flight left on time at 1:30. The route home was a direct route over the Pacific to Vancouver. It started out really bumpy for the first few hours, even hitting an air pocket or two…..one big one that had people screaming!! I drank my wine with dinner, took a gravol and managed to sleep over 4 hours, which was great because we were more than half way home when I woke up. Flight had smoothed out nicely…..read and dozed for the rest of it. Breakfast was really yucky…..scrambled rubbery eggs, incredibly greasy bacon(ish) and a couple of warm tomatoes. We got a Chinese style “croissant” after?? Weird because the same thing happened with the dinner bun….it came AFTER dinner.
Our flight was 10 hours, way shorter than going, and we even arrived a bit early. We left Shanghai on Dec 2 at 1:30PM and arrived in Vancouver on Dec 2 at 8:30AM! So we not only gained our day back, but an extra 5 hours!
Overall this was a fantastic trip. We saw some amazing things! Very busy and not a lot of time to see or do anything on our own but that’s what tours are like. Some of my best pictures are ones taken out of the bus window…..traffic, people….just going about their daily business.
It was the only way to go to China to me….unless I knew someone who spoke the language and was familiar with all the quirky things. Based on stories we heard and Winston’s warnings, getting ripped off was a bit of a concern….not just in the markets but even the bigger stores too. Our experience with the bottle of wine…..bought one thing and found when we’d got back to the hotel that they’d put something totally different in our bag…similar thing happened again. That said, I really enjoyed the markets, including the bargaining! I’m not a “major” purchase shopper….thank goodness!
The food was the most disappointing thing. Only 3 or 4 meals that I’d call really good. Was really hoping to experience a variety of some great local dishes in each of the areas we visited. Friends of friends that had done the exact same trip in September said food was excellent and in abundance!! They did pay a bit more but presumed it was also because of the time of year….maybe not!
China is so advanced in some ways….huge buildings, dams, cars, electronics etc. but then they still use bamboo scaffolding and twig brooms, such a mix but that’s what makes it interesting! BIG is important to them, clean (as in floors and windows being washed) and maintenance of some things, not so much.
A great trip with great friends…even made some new ones!
My Travel Journals 