China - August 2007
In the parks around Shanghai you could see people doing Tai Chi and other exercises in the morning, a lovely peaceful way to start the day in such a busy city. The locals all bring their pet birds out in cages and hang them in the trees throughout the park. In the evenings they had their version of ballroom dancing. I couldn’t believe how many people gather in this small area. They are very social people. Nanjing Road is the main shopping strip and was so overwhelming for someone that isn’t a big shopper. One tip for China is don’t leave your hotel without their business card. English is not widely spoken. The business cards are in English and Chinese so these are good to give taxi drivers to get you back to your hotel.
At the Shanghai Museum we saw lots of clothing and embroidered fabric from all over China as well as traditional masks, Ming porcelain, calligraphy, paintings, furniture & jade. A silk factory was fascinating how strong it is and how beautiful it turns out in the end. The Yu Gardens had beautiful old buildings surrounded by gardens built in the 1500’s. The Maglev train is an exhilarating experience. This train travels from the airport to Pudong 30kms in under 8 minutes. We got up to 431kmph.
Yi Chang is where we were to catch our riverboat which is our home for the next 3 nights. The Victoria 3 had everything we needed and plenty of activities on board such as painting lessons, Tai Chi, embroidery demonstrations, shows & a river guide. The Three Gorges themselves were really beautiful. We disembarked at Chongqing a huge city of over 30 million - crazy! We were straight out of there and drove about 5 hours to Chengdu. This is a very modern city with one of my favourite experiences in China, the Sichuan Opera. There were lots of different acts including the changing masks and shadow puppets all set in an old tea house while constantly having your tea cup refilled with tea pots with giant spouts. Tea poring is an art in Sichuan.
The next day was the day I was waiting for, a visit to the Panda bears. The pandas are so close you can almost touch them. They are like old men that sit back and munch away at the bamboo and look you straight in the eye. We were then taken into the nursery where they had tiny little babies ranging from a couple of days old to 3 months. The older ones were just like little human babies sound asleep in a play pen. Next thing, which went beyond my wildest dreams, I got to go into one of the pens and pat a juvenile. With the little fella busy eating I was able to be with him for about 1 minute and have some photos taken.
Xian is an interesting city as it is the beginning of the Silk Road (something else on my bucket list), home of the Terracotta Warriors and delicious dumplings. I loved Beijing with all of its history and culture. Tiananmen Square is so huge you really need to take a moment to absorb its size. From here you can walk through the Forbidden City. My favourite was the Great Wall. It does get very crowded in certain parts so my advice if you want to walk part of the wall is to go early and get fit with some step ups before you travel. My thighs were on fire for a few days afterwards!