Day 18 - Shanghai

Day 18 – Hers

Goodness, we need a rest – and thankfully from this afternoon we’ll get one.  We awoke to the alarm, showered, packed and went down to the hotel lobby to say a final farewell to Tory and Michael. Having stowed our packs in the luggage room, we then set off with Irfan back to the People’s Square to the very modern Shanghai Museum.  Irfan had only a few hours and had wanted to take a bus tour of the city – but when we said we were going to the museum instead (We have 4 more days to explore the city – no need to cram into a sightseeing bus with a hundred sweaty bodies steaming up the windows....), he came along. 

 We queued for about a half an hour to get through security, admiring the impressive architecture and sculpture for the first 5 minutes and then just quietly melting in the heat.  It is airport-standard security – no more than 100 ml of liquid, no lighters (Rob put his in the designated basket and fished it out as we left 2 hours later.) and a full scan of bags and bodies.  The air-conditioning inside hit me like an ice bath – I can understand why thousands of tourists think it is a good way to spend a hot Sunday - and the gilt-decorated stairways climbing four floors up towards the glass dome of the central hall were an exhibit in themselves.

 The galleries are well laid out with information in Chinese, Japanese and English. Several rooms also had films and interactive activities.  The films about jade carving and the minting of coins (Chinese and the special currency of the Silk Road) were really interesting.  We visited the exhibits of ethnic minority costume and crafts, furniture, coins, calligraphy and painting, metalwork and jade.  The oldest exhibits were in the jade gallery – dating back over 4000 years.  It is amazing that people could carve so intricately using only a piece of flint.  In addition to the beautiful weaving and silk embroidery, several of the costumes featured intricate designs produced by tie-dye and batik – I hadn’t realised that these crafts were also part of ancient Chinese culture.

After the museum, we wandered back to the hotel and lunched at the next-door noodle bar that had been recommended by Tory.  I am getting sick of noodles, though, and they still sometimes slide between my chopsticks despite 10 days’ practice.  If you aren’t adept at eating with chopsticks, bring your own cutlery to China.  Even here in Shanghai, there is not a fork in sight.  You should also bring a cup with a lid that can cope with hot water.  Most places have a boiling water tap where you can make your own tea, but otherwise the ‘drink’ available is the broth from your noodles, slurped from the bowl. (Whilst I’m on the subject, women should also bring an umbrella – not for rain, but to use as a parasol.  I have found that it does make a huge difference – several million Chinese women can’t be wrong – and you’ll only be hit by theirs as you walk along anyway.)

 Irfan still had three hours before he had to leave for the airport, but we left him at that point – headed off to a market to spend his last few yuan – and collected our things for the move to our new hotel.  A hot, sweaty trudge, packs on our backs, over the motorway and down two blocks brought us to a different world. The polished marble of the floors, gleaming rosewood and satin of the furniture and sparkling crystal of the chandeliers in the cavernous lobby announced our 4 days of rest and relaxation before our next adventure.  (“Are you backpacking through China?” an Armani-dressed man in the queue at reception asked me.”That’s brave.”)

 I’ll leave it to Rob to describe our suite – yes, suite – on the 20^th floor with the first bath we have seen in China – a huge corner bath with a massage shower, complimentary dressing gowns and a range of toiletries greater than I have at home.  I must admit, though, I was really only interested at first in the comfortable bed with two fluffy pillows and pristine white sheets.  A couple of hours’ nap and I’m sure I’ll feel up to checking out the rest of the hotel.....

 Day 18 – His

We are 20 floors up. I don’t like it. I am always unsure of buildings that are taller than they are broad. Only birds are meant to be this high. Still it’s not the worst. Just off the peoples square is a building like a knife. It is 40 floors high and only 10 meters deep all the way up. I am sure it sways unsteadily in the wind. I mean this is a typhoon zone. What are they thinking? I question the wisdom of some architects and some town planners that let such things be built. Well we aren’t staying there so I should worry. But we are staying here and its 20 floors up. One wall of the bedroom is just glass. There is carpet, bed then nothing. Just air and a 60 meter drop to the street. I won’t be sleeping in that bed. The rest of the suite is well away from the window wall – which is good as far as I am concerned and it is decorated in deep red panelling and over ornate gold, wood and lacquer furniture. It’s all very plush and Patti won’t let me put cups down without a coaster which should say something about the place.

We are tired. It’s funny how tired you get. Without even realising it rushing about day after day in the searing heat really saps you so after a little afternoon sleep we went out for dinner when the sun had gone down and things had cooled off a little. I suspect it is true of most hot countries – after the sun has gone the place comes alive. The streets were filled with people. We wandered around the environs of our hotel and eventually reached a mainline shopping street. It was bustling and filled with brightly lit shops and neon signs and notices encouraging you to spend more money than you have on things you couldn’t possibly want. Irfan left us with a bag of such things – but i believe they were for presents – so that’s ok. Presents should be things you couldn’t possibly find any use for. At the end of the shopping parade were crowds of people surrounding men on bicycles with laptops open. They were displaying the latest forex prices and the people of Shanghai were betting on the price movement. It was most curious and made more curious when we realized we were in the heart of the financial district. It wasn’t like any other financial district i have been in before. Normally financial districts are pretty dull at night. Here the various stock houses were surrounded by small time punters betting their wages on the money markets. I suspect the men on bicycles had somehow learnt how to tap into the stock houses mainframe to get live streaming prices. It seems as if this is a great hobby here.

After watching for a little while we turned down a few smaller streets until we got a little lost and went into the first restaurant that had pictures of food on the walls so we could get dinner. Another small family run place where we could get noodles and spiced meat and rice after a pantomime of pointing. In a way it’s quite fun. Finding the hotel again was relatively easy. It is tall and has an odd basket like construction on the top. Lots of the buildings have odd tops. One of them wouldn’t have looked odd if it was in metropolis or a batman movie, another has a strange dome like construction on it that wouldn’t surprise me if it contained a mad scientist and a doomsday weapon – ours has a basket. So all we have to do is get relatively near and head for the basket. Most handy, especially as Patti likes to wander – she usually only chooses dark alleys and winding streets though – she tells me they look interesting.

 After dinner and wandering we returned to the hotel to contemplate the next day and as far as i can work out it will consist of little more than exploring the hotel buffet, having a bath and reading  - how cool is that!