Thursday 12/3/2015 Day 65, temperature outside 12-14C today, bright and sunny Shanghai

Our day in Shanghai turned out not to be as cold as anticipated, although there was a nip in the air first thing.  We were in our jumpers and winter coats, + scarves ;)  We shuttled into the town centre on the first bus with Judy, Jim, Debs and Phil.  there began our rapid tour on a hop on hop off bus on the Blue Zone – which took us over the river to Pudong and the Shanghai World Finance Centre where the TV tower can also be found.  We did what had to be done and went at 8 metres a second up the high speed lift to the 100^th floor of the centre, an out of this world futuristic experience, including toilet facilities with choice of bum washing drying and warming facilities while you sit!!

At the top of the SWFC we were able to see the ground through the glass floor, and if it hadn’t been misty the views would have been vast, they were still good though.

The building had shopping facilities and restaurants on a few of the floors, so we stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant, called Aniseed, and had quite a banquet for next to nothing.  Mine was a super spicy fish meal cooked in a clay pot (enough to feed 3-4 people by the way) with steamed rice and soup.  Khachik had a substantial seafood fried rice.  Beads of perspiration while we ate and hot lips all afternoon

Afterwards we travelled back on the hop on/off bus with English commentary through headphones to the Bund where we then walked along the same stretch of the waterfront I had walked 7 years ago on my visit with China Britain Business Council.  It was a lovely place to be again, down by the river watching the boats,  full of young students, families, beautiful babies and children, and lots of photos to help keep our memories clear.  As well as the obvious high tech high rises we also managed to capture glimpses of how the average family lives in comparatively poorly maintained looking apartment blocks.  We were fascinated by their “washing lines” – arrangements of bamboo poles extending out of the windows in the upper floors and tied together with fibres, some on more upmarket expanding concertina frames, others just long bamboo poles on fixed steel frames.  Along with the flashy cars on the streets we could still see the evidence of older people on big three wheeled bikes carrying all sorts of food supplies and recycling materials, one stacked high with flattened card board, another with plastic bottles.

Delighted to say that from one of the port shops I got a Chinese sim card so I can Skype to my heart’s content, and use Linked In while we are here (maybe Hong Kong too, let’s see) and also in Sanya, that’s 4 days for approximately. £7. The down side is Facebook, Twitter and Google are blocked so I will have to use the satellite from the ship (it irks me to have to pay £2.00 for 10 minutes ;) ) for the online social networking and blog, and the new sim for everything else.

Back on the ship, tired out, achy feet and legs, but reflecting on a very enjoyable day full of contrasts again. Tonight’s special evening meal was a sweet and sour dish, so we are getting a good range of Eastern choices on board as well as off.

Bye for now we are on our way to Hong Kong!