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June 08 Our China AdventurePreface to Our China Adventure.
We took over 500 pictures so obviously not all of them are included here but I did try to hit the highlights. I've tried to arrange them in the order in which I've written the blog. The trip far exceeded our expectations and was worth every penny and then some. It was a fantastic adventure. We drove to Toronto and spent the night, flying out the next day to San Fransisco. We spent the night there and flew to Shanghai the next day leaving at 1 PM local time. We arrived about 5:30 PM local time, the next day, - a 13 hour flight. Going through Chinese customs was painless. There was one incident.
We were in a lineup of about 100 people when a rather stern-looking, young Chinese man in uniform gestured for us to come with him. Oh, oh. Turned out he was taking us to the Assistance required/Senior's line. We didn't know whether we should be happy to have gone, more or less, to the front of the line or annoyed because he thought we looked old enough to warrant being given special attention.
We were met at the airport by a tour representative (holding up a sign with our name on it). He had transportation for us to the hotel - a 5-star Westin. We were introduced to our tour director who would be with us for the whole tour in China. He got us checked in and saw that we were escorted to our room. We were to meet him the next day after breakfast for a get-aquainted talk and overview of the tour. Tired, but excited, we went to bed, slept well, and the next day, and for the next 10 days, we were on our adventure.
Due to some camera problems there will be some pictures that are somewhat blurry but I thought they should be included anyway. We'll be getting a new camera for our next adventure - whatever and wherever it may be.
DAY 1
The day started with breakfast. But not just any breakfast. There was just about anything you could imagine. Eggs in just about any style you wanted, at least a dozen Dim Sum choices, breads, oatmmeal, fruit - on and on and on.
Our first stop was the Bund - Shanghai's riverfront boulevard. There is (obviously) two sides to the Yellow River; there's the old side and the new side. I've included a picture of a typical tourist. There's also lots of river traffic. On the new side you'll see a closeup of a blue, teardrop-shaped building. That's an aquarium. We didn't get to see it. You'll also see a building the top of which resembles a bottle opener. In fact, that's what the locals call it - the world's largest bottle opener. It's just an office building and the shape has no significance. Old Shanghai has more colonial style buildings. In the background the tall builing with the flower-shaped top is our hotel. Of interest is that in new Shanghai the buildings don't fly the national flag whereas in old Shanghai they do. The reason - old Shanghai buildings are mainly government owned. The newer buildings are joint ventures with companies from other countries. Next stop - the silk factory.
Each silkworm cocoon consists of one signal strand about 800 metres long. They are soaked in water then the end of the strand is found. For at least 6 cocoons these strands are connected to a device similar to a bobbin on a sewing machine and as it spins around the silk thread unwinds around it. When full the bobbins go off for dying, drying, and processessing.
Sometimes two larvae are so close together they create one large cocoon. These can't be used like the single ones as the threads are too intertwined. In that case the cocoon is opened by hand, the larvae removed and then, after soaking in water are placed over a "U"-shaped frame. Eventually they're moved to a larger frame and when there are 7 layers of cocoon they're removed, dried and stretched over another frame (looks more like a matress than a frame) and are used to create silk duvets. They're sold by weight.
The dyed silk threads are woven into the most beautiful wall hangings, rugs, etc. All by hand, some taking up to a year to complete.
Next was the Yuan Gardens - a typical Chinese garden located in old Chinatown. Now why, you may wonder, would China have an old Chinatown? Because - the architecture of most modern Chinese cities is no different than that found in any westernized city. To preserve the old style a section of, in this case Shanghai, has been set aside as a new-construction-free zone. As you will see in one picture, even in old Chinatown there's something new though. There's not much to say about it, just enjoy the pictures.
We also visited a Children's Palace. We'd call it a kindergarten. We didn't expect to see much. Surprise, surprise. The children are taught dance, music, some martial arts skills and while we were there put on a show. Only one picture turned out well enough and it's one young girl performing a dance as part of a troupe. Anyone who shows exceptional skill at dance, music etc are given advanced training as they get older. We met some teens who played a variety of old Chinese insturments. All in all it was very entertaining.
And speaking of entertaining. After a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant we went to a theatre for a show featuring Chinese acrobats. Since I was trying to capture movement with a still camera there are only a few photos. Take my word for it - it was spectacular.
And so ended Day 1. What a day!
DAY 2
Day 2 was a relatively short day as far as sight seeing went. We had a bus trip through Shanghai but it looked like any other big city - except for the thousands of cars and hundreds of bike riders. No pictures. The Shanghai museum contained jade works, furniture and pottery hundreds, or in some cases a thousand, years old. There are a few pictures. Outide the museum, which was built on a former British race track, are several carved stone statues.
We had a long bus ride to our river boat. It was much larger than I thought it would be. Throughout the cruise the food, service and enterainment were wonderful. There was an excursion to the Three Gorges Dam project, the largest in the world, to supply electricity to China's growing need for power. I've included only one shot of the dam and one shot of the model. More than that would get pretty boring. What was left of the day was boat orientation, meals and resting up for the four days ahead. We sailed shortly after supper. We also went to bed not long after that. Tomorrow, some pictures as we sail through the gorges, kite flying and more.
DAY 3
Today was just sailing and eating. While I took lots of pictures of the Gorges these give the best example. It was, of course, more spectauclar being there than in the photos. The last of the Gorge pictures is called the Goddess Peak. You can see what looks like a person standing between two outcroppings. This is the Goddess. If you can zoom in you'll get a better view.
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