Shanghai - Days 2 and 3

We were picked up by Bonnie and Steve (Mardi's brother) at 6:45 a.m. and drove to Mississauga to pick up their son Roy who would look after the car while we were gone and pick us up in two weeks.

It took us one hour to get to the boarding gate - have I mentioned that I hate airports?  

An uneventful flight to Detroit, followed by a 4 hour layover.  By the time we board the 747 in Detroit and head for Shanghai we had already put in an 8 hour day.  Our 12 hour flight to Shanghai took us on a circle route heading north over  Hudson's Bay, just south of the North Pole, and then over Russia and its former satellite states.  We bypassed North Korean air space (thank goodness).  

No need to change our watches (unless you had a 24 hour watch).  Morning is now night.

We spent October 4th in Shanghai.  The city proper is home to 24 million people and it has become a global financial centre.  It is also the world's busiest container port.

We toured the French Concession (after the Chinese lost the Opium War, Shanghai was partitioned into British, French, American and Chinese sections).

Next, we toured a silk factory (Chinese factory tours are like Disney theme parks - you tour the site and end up in the gift shop).

And a purchase was made!

Next on the list was an embroidery factory.

Absolutely awesome works, but priced well beyond our limits (thousands of dollars)!

The first week of our trip was "Golden Week" in China, celebrating the founding of the modern Chinese nation by Mao October 1, 1949.  Chinese families were on holiday and the streets were crowded with tourists, both local and international.

Mardi was interviewed by a student - they wanted to compare our family holiday practises with their own.

The student on the left videoed the interview.

Our local guide "Sidney" and "Cathy" can be seen over Mardi's shoulder.   Sidney had an Australian accent and told a couple of jokes and sang a couple of songs during our time with him.  Very entertaining, and obviously proud of his city.

Due to the holiday week, the museum we were scheduled to visit had a two hour lineup, so plans were changed and we toured the museum of the Communist Party of China instead.  No crowd there - don't know what that tells us.  Nevertheless, it was an interesting place and probably much more meaningful than the museum we missed.

And then, on to dinner.

And an Acrobatics Show.  Well done, but it was a Cirque du Soleil production which we had basically seen before.

Another view of the "hurricane" and "bottle opener" buildings.

And, lastly, an interesting sign we saw in a mall while on the way to dinner.