Shanghai, 12th May 2018

Our tour started properly today, after a bit of confusion around the meeting time, was it 8am or 9:30, no-one knows. Turns out it wasn’t  8am, so we went to breakfast instead. John, Georgie, John and Yvette arrived at our hotel from their epic flight from the US via Hong Kong at around 2am, so we weren’t expecting to see them too early. But I spotted them in the foyer just as we were finishing our breakfast and showed them the way up to where it was served. It was so good to see them both and Deb jumped out of her seat (I’m  sure I heard a little squeal of delight) and rushed over to give Georgie a big hug. We sat with them for a while and then headed back to our room and got ourselves ready for the days tour.

We met our Gate 1 tour director Melinda (not her real name, she is a Chinese national) and our Shanghai specialist guide Heidi (a local Chinese) down in the lobby with the other 37 people in our tour group. When I got our tour badges off Melinda she said, “Oh, you’re the Australians!.”  Yes we are the “token” Ozzies for the next 2 and a bit weeks.

We all climbed into the bus and into our allocated seats. Yes, the seats are allocated so your seat location is varied throughout the tour, with everyone having a chance to sit up front!

Our first stop was the Jade Buddha Temple, where we were given a brief rundown on Buddism Chinese style and then shown through the various buildings on the site. There were large, 3m high, sitting Buddha’s,  rows of standing Buddha’s, a reclining Buddha and then there was a Sitting Jade Buddha. All very interesting.

There were lots of people, locals, there praying to Buddha, offering gifts of food, incense,  burning fake money and other things to get the favour of Buddha.

A group of about 10 Buddhist monks came into a courtyard, chanted and played small brass instruments for a while, I think they were offering their blessings to the people present.

From there we boarded the bus again and drove down to The Bund, the river bank in downtown Shanghai. There is a 1.6km prominard there, it serves many purposes, a tourist walk and  a gathering place for locals.

We were dropped off at The Bund and given a bit more information about all the old buildings along the forshore, their present use and the history behind them. We were then given about 45 mins free time to wander for ourselves.

Deb and I headed off to have a look in the Peace (Fairmont) Hotel and then down to the Waldorf Astoria. These were both Olde World type hotels with that Olde World grandure you just don’t get anymore.  They were both very grand, but the Waldorf just seemed to take it all to the next level. Deb really enjoys looking through the great hotels of the world, even if we arent staying in them.

We met back with our group at the Bull on the Bund. The Bull was made by the same person responsible of the famous Wall Street Bull. I got my pic taken with it and another with me squeezing its nuts, same as I did in NY City, anything to get the “Bull Markets” running.

The Bund Bull

It was then back on the bus and back to our hotel. As we drove by The Peoples Square, we were told that one of the more interesting uses that was made of it was that it was a place where parents arranged “dates” for their children. Aparently on Saturdays parents “sell” their children’s best attributes to all who will listen to secure the best partner they can for their child. When asked, Heidi said her parents never took her there, but she took herself!

We then had a quiet afternoon in our room, it drizzled a bit outside, so we decided we made a good choice.

In the evening we had an orientation talk, that included some brief population information about the cities we are going on our tour, a taste of the history  and day to day tips on the water, money and taxis, amongst a lot of other information. Generally we got a good idea of what we were in for and then a welcome chinese banquet dinner in the hotel.

When we had drinks with Glenys last night she told us of the chinese cultural thing where they need to tell the whole story, every minute detail when passing on information, what she called “The Once apon a time” version, where in most cases everyone just needs the “and they lived happily ever after” version. We got the former, lol.

Big day tomorrow, 6:30am wakeup call, on the bus by 8am. Adventures ahead.