Old Shanghai

Because our internal clocks are still running on Eastern Time, we both awoke at 2 am this morning. I guess our brains still recognize it as 2 pm. We did some reading and watched the British CNN before showing and dressing to go to breakfast at the Shanghai Four Seasons Hotel at 6:30. We ate with a nice couple from Cincinnati. The breakfast was very good. There was a nice mix of American and Chinese traditional breakfast favorites. We especially liked the fruit selections although it took a while for us to recognize the cut dragon fruit. 

Shanghai Skyline

From breakfast we boarded thee buses to drive to the Huangpu River that divides old and modern Shanghai. Our guide, “Patrick” pointed out many of the buildings in both areas and their importance or history. Our group especially enjoyed the beautiful buildings in the Bund area that were built in the late 1800s when Shanghai was an important link between the East and West.  We watched the shipping traffic on the river then drove to the Old Shanghai Quarter where we went to the historic Yu Gardens. This area is only about 2 acres in size and didn’t have a lot of variety of flowers but had many carvings and rockeries. We admired the many carved stone figures, lions and dragons throughout the gardens and on the walls.

Zig zag bridge at Yu Gardens

Although small, the Yu Gardens were beautiful and interesting. We were struck by the zig zag paths, bridges and walkways. We later learned that Chinese traditional belief holds that evil forces are unable to go around sharp turns. Similarly, many of the buildings in the Yu Gardens as well as throughout older areas of China have a high threshold at the doors. This is because they believed the evil spirits could not get over this obstacle.

Rooftop dragon at Yu Gardens

After leaving Yu Gardens we walked around many of the shops in Old Shanghai. We stopped in a couple of tea shops and sampled the selections of tea being sold. Shanghai has a long history in the preparation and marketing of tea. We went to a shop selling silk clothing that is operated by the Chinese government. Silk also has been a major part of the Shanghai economy for centuries. This shop sells only the highest quality silk and is priced very high. Cindy picked up a couple of scarves but we were priced out of most items.

Hand embroidered red panda on silk

On the way to lunch we stopped at shop where hand silk embroidery is done on silk cloth. These beautiful images typically take months for the artist to create. Patrick told us that in the past young women of high social standing would do beautiful embroidery to demonstrate their suitability as a wife.  The silks were priced from $2000 to $10,000 US dollars which makes sense given the time and skill required. We did fine until Mary saw a hand embroidered red panda cub. It was priced at $5000 but the salesman said that we would come down on the price since the frame had a scratch on it. He said that a similar item from the same artist recently sold for nearly 70,000 Yuan which is about $10,000 US dollars. We considered the art but kept moving as she thought about it. When he offered it at $2400 including shipping we decided to make the purchase. We didn’t want it shipped until after October 2 since we will be here in China until then. Also, October 1-8 is a national holiday in China so it will be mid-October before it will ship. The little panda is pretty cute and will be a great addition to our new home.

Mary & Cindy shopping in Old Shanghai

We had a dim sum lunch that had many traditional Chinese foods. We especially liked the dumpling which is a bread or dumpling surrounding a bit of pork, There was rice, noodles, meats, soups and vegetables that were placed on a turntable in the center of our table so we could eat family style. Everyone enjoyed the meal.

After lunch we had some free time in Old Shanghai that we spent walking around and checking out local shops and attractions before taking the bus to the Shanghai Museum. Our guides, Patrick and Sissy, provided us with devices that we could use to tell us more about selected exhibit items in English by pressing buttons on the remote control sized devices. The museum was large with many rooms on each of the four floors. We decided to start in the jade room of the fourth floor where we saw ancient items made of jade that have been dated to be as much as 4000 years old. Ceremonial swords and disks called bi were carved of jade stone at a time when no metal tools were available. From the jade rooms we went to the furniture rooms and saw ornately carved and lacquered chairs, thrones, beds and other items made from exotic Asian, Indian and African woods like sandalwood, rosewood and ebony. There were also items that were finished with the red lacquer that is so unique to Chinese furniture. We realized that we were nearly at the end of the 90 minutes that we had available for the museum.

Steve & Mary on the bus in Shanghai

We caught out bus back to the Four Seasons for a brief rest and to prepare for the evening activity. Since we will be flying to Wuhan on Sunday we did some packing and preparing for the next week. We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner which was a lot of seafood, sushi and many other Chinese and western foods. For desert, I had a bowl of ice cream, a small scoop each of ginger and matcha which is a flavor from tea. Both were very good.

After dinner we went to the room to prepare for the evening activity, a show of Chinese acrobats at the Portman Ritz Carlton. The bus arrived at 7 pm and the show started promptly at the advertised time of 7:30. The acrobats were very talented and put on a great show. I guess we expected the kind of plate juggling stunts that our generation used to see on the Ed Sullivan show but there was a nice variety of comedy, romantic and artistic scenes that concluded promptly at 9 pm as scheduled. We kept nodding off during the show not because it wasn’t good but rather because we are off our sleep schedules.

We finalized our packing and put our bags out to be taken to the airport for our part of the trip that will be on the ship.