Shanghai, China

Shanghai is China’s largest City – yes, even bigger than Beijing. It is considered the gateway to the Yangtze River. It is a huge port handling about a third of the country’s ocean going cargo. One of the first things we saw was these huge oyster farms out in the harbor - intriguing to watch them at work. Shanghai is a young city compared of many in China, but has had a very checkered past. There were opium wars; also during that era it was one of the leading trade centers in the East. Self governed, it drew everyone from fortune hunters to smugglers. During this period men were often kidnapped to work the ships heading to and from Shanghai – thus the origin of the term “shanghaied”. Shanghai has temples, museums and the Bund – a waterfront promenade lined with 19^th century architecture. A great area for bars, hotels and restaurants. We decided on the “Humble Administrator’s Garden” tour – (circa 1509,  Ming Dynasty era). It is supposed to be an outstanding example of a classical Chinese garden. The garden was located in Suzhou, one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze River basin. Quite a change from Shanghai. First, while I would recommend this stop, I would suggest maybe in April – things were just beginning to bloom. (pictures above) Next it was to the Suzhou Embroidry Research Institue. I thought this would be a wasted stop but it turned out to be surprisingly interesting. The master’s work looks like a photograph unless you look really closely. They had double sided works where one picture is embrordryed on the front with a totally different picture on the back, both flawless  – the larger ones take about 18 months to produce. Jim bought a couple of things for his daughters. I was tempted, but I wondered if it wouldn’t be something I loved in China but did not have a clue why I bought, or where to put it, once I unpacked it in Atascocita. Then off for a traditional Chinese lunch. I didn’t recognize anything except some chunks of tofu –yuk. I was on my chop stick diet anyway, where only about half the food made it from my plate to my mouth. Next, a cruise down the Grand Canal. This canal was dug, by hand, 2,500 years ago and is 1,000 miles long. What they would have given for just one working backhoe. Because of all these waterways, Shanghai is sometimes referred to as the “Venice of the East”. Parts of it do look a bit like Venice except you are seeing them from a sampan, instead of a gondola. Sadly, a lot of this older area is scheduled for demolition to make room for more high-rise condos. It is a strange time in China with their government on a major spending spree, buying up people’s slum housing and farms. Not sure what the farms are for but they are buying the inner city housing is to build more condos. They gave extremely generous settlements for those that owned property. Those who were renting were just displaced. Like many of the larger cities in Asia, Shanghai has smog, a lot of smog. Asked if it was always this smoggy, the guide said his daughter’s kindergarten class was asked to draw the park nearest their house. He said every kid in the class used a grey crayon to color the sky. Even so, Shanghai is greener than Beijing; there is a law that there must be a green area or park every 600 meters. He said 90% of the kids from Shanghais attend college.  Really? There is still the rule in China that the government just pays for one child. If you have a second one you must pay for their private schooling and all medical costs etc. Because boys are in such high demand, especially in rural areas, the boys outnumber the girls in China. When it’s time to wed, they often marry girls from other countries. He covered everything from the time when the Emperor required all wives and concubines to commit suicide or to be buried alive with him when he died – to the fact that currently they aren’t allowed to have Face book and many of the western websites are blocked from them.  I will say that nights in Shanghai are quite spectacular. They put on rather an impressive light show with entire sky scrapers lit up with pictures like mega TV screens or all kinds of lighted designs covering the entire sides of buildings.  Even many of the boats cruising the Yangtze River are lit up like Christmas trees.  I do have to do another potty report. The Chinese have these “squat toilets”. Quite a come down, so to speak, from the luxury Japanese potties. The only points I give them is - you flush them with your foot. Tomorrow, Hong Kong.