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Our morning call was 5:45 am to give us time getting ready for our 7:55 am flight. During breakfast, we learned that the Politician and Mr. Chen were having the same problem with their rooms. The Politician locked Mr. Chen out for over an hour. When Mr. Chen got the hotel manager to the room, the manager couldn't open the door because the Politician had put the manual lock on. The Politician claimed that he was in the shower and left them standing outside the room for over an hour. Again, the Politician left his bath water in the tub, and had things all over the place. The Politician was also cursing and making noises during the night. Mr. Chen said that he decided to call the hotel manager every time the Politician locked him out. The Politician even got on the hotel manager's nerves because the hotel manager finally told Mr. Chen that if the Politician did it again, he was going to call the police. I don't understand.
On the way to the airport, Wendy came over and asked to join me. We chitchatted a bit. Wendy is a 28-year old Wuhan-native. She's very open and talkative. We chatted on our way to the airport the next day, and she told me more about herself. She once had a boyfriend, an ABC, from the USA. She said the distance, and the cultural barrier made it impossible to continue. Eventually feelings fade and he just ended the relationship. She has the philosophy that she would marry if it was right, and I agree with her.
She seems like a very capable and independent girl. She had once moved to Shanghai for 3 months, and really liked the modernization of Shanghai. Wuhan, according to her, is probably 30 years behind Shanghai. She said maybe she didn't give herself enough time to get used to Shanghai. Who knows, maybe one day she will return to Shanghai again.
Since I was holding on to the luggage tickets, I should be the last to enter the security gate. But the Politician lingered around and entered the gate behind me. I heard him complaining to Wendy about how Mr. Chen snorted throughout the night and how he could not sleep at all. What a whiner.
After landing in Shanghai, we learned that this is where we split group again. Mr. & Mrs. Professor, Mr. & Mrs. Chen, and Mrs. In-Law were on the 16-day tour and would be going to SuZhou first. The rest of us were on 12-day tour and would be staying in Shanghai. We took a parting picture with Mr. & Mrs. Chen and Mrs. In-Law and said our good-byes.
The remaining 12 of us met up with our local guide Tony Zheng and then headed for the famous Bund for a walk. As usual, Tony asked if everyone onboard knew Chinese on the bus. Since we had two non-Chinese speakers, naturally we would prefer that Tony explained both in English and Chinese. The Politician immediately jumped in and said that Tony only needed to explain in Chinese and we (meaning Earvin, Marie and I) would take care of the non-English speakers. We let that go.
Shanghai is a very modern city. It was interesting to see how modern it is compared to other cities, especially inland cities. When our Wuhan guide Wendy told me that she thought Wuhan was 30 years behind Shanghai, I didn't believe her. I think I agree with her that Wuhan is much behind Shanghai but I don't know if it's 30 years behind.
Along the Bund, we saw the Concession area. The concession was a restricted area where only Chinese and dogs were prohibited to enter. Of course, that is no longer the case today. There were so many magnificent old buildings. Tony told us that is China's Wall Street, since all buildings were occupied by some financial institution. We also saw, across the Huangpu River, the Oriental Pearl TV tower, and the tallest building in China, 88 floors high.
About Shanghai
Shanghai lies on the west bank of the Huangpu Jiang river, which flows into the Changjiang (Yangtze) 28 km farther upstream. The northern part of Shanghai is separated from the rest of the city by the Wusong Jiang river.
Shanghai is considered the biggest city in China in terms of economy and commerce. Only 500 years ago, Shanghai was only a small fishing village with a population of about 17.
Foreigners lent Shanghai its appearance, making it more western than Chinese. Twenty-story-high buildings reach skyward; there are vast hotel complexes, villas and palaces that a visitor from the West can more easily identify than a temple, for they were built according to Western architectural style by former business and military men.
We then were taken to the SiZhou Silk factory in Shanghai. Tony had warned us that there was no bargaining here, but we had to tried. Of course, we failed.
Afterwards, we were taken to the famous Nanjing Road to shop. Then we had dinner, then was driven through the underwater tunnel to the new development area, Pudong. We were originally told that we'd be staying at the Jinjiang hotel near city center, but we ended up in the Ramada Plaza in Pudong. Ramada Plaza was very nice, the nicest of all the hotels we've been in on this trip. But we couldn't go anywhere since we were in the middle of nothing.
On the way to the hotel, Tony asked to see all of our plane tickets to double-check our departure time. He said that he just sent off a tour group on the same flight, but an hour earlier. We figured it out that it was because US' daylight savings time was ending. If the plane were to keep the same landing time, they would have to push back the departure time.