5/10
Get limo out to Heathrow. Everything runs very smoothly and Virgin seem very efficient. Their lounge at Heathrow is spectacular. On the plane, have ordered vegetarian food but we note that, unlike any other airline, there are vegetarian dishes on the main menu. However, they are determined we should have the 'special' vegetarian meal which turns out to be leaves with tomato, cucumber, asparagus and peppers with no dressing. Ask to eat the main menu food.
Pudong Airport (brand new) seems virtually empty. Terrifying taxi journey through Pudong (Ann here - it was not terrifying it was heart stopping, traumatic, the scariest event EVER). Hotel is huge (66 floors). We've been put on the 49th floor so we can have a 'special' view of Shanghai. It's a bit too special for Ann's liking, ie it has ceiling to floor windows with views over Shanghai and down to the street. Close the curtains. Bathroom has three doors. Huge swivelling TV in middle of the room. Have access to the Royal Club Lounge which has free breakfast, afternoon teas, cocktail sessions etc etc and turns out to be a great base (Ann - on floor 44). Decide to wander down Nanjing Road to the Bund, not realising it is a public holiday with 6.5m extra visitors in Shanghai (on top of the 20m+ already living there) most of them seemingly on Nanjing Road. Run for cover (Ann - I want to go to Auckland NOW). Eat in one of the hotel's six restaurants, Italian.
6/10
Decide to go to Shanghai Museum which is across People's Square. Lured into People's Park we have another 'unfound' moment but this is beneficial as we get to see how the park is used for sitting, exercise, children's fairground, watching, even playing boules. A green oasis in the middle of downtown Shanghai. Bump into the Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum which we had intended to visit but it has been taken over by a PIXAR Exhibition, ironically the day after Steve Jobs' death. Eventually get to the museum which is a very manageable experience. First thing I see is Te Ao Maori (Ann goes for the ceramics), an exhibition of artefacts from Otago (Dunedin being twinned with Shanghai). Some good stuff, particularly the kete. The best standing exhibitions are the Ceramics, the Sculpture, and the Minorities. Well laid out, with good supporting information, though very little deference to modern museum visitor management, except for the shopping opportunities. Drink and eat in the Museum's tea rooms which demonstrate that China's understanding of hospitality and tourism still lag behind all the other developments. Then visit the Centre for Urban Planning (honest) which has a fantastic, huge, detailed, spectacular model of Shanghai which lights up every 15 minutes. In the evening go to hotel Chinese restaurant and persuade them to give us some (quite good) vegetarian food. Hotel wifi is spotty, not helped by the Chinese government's blocking of Facebook, blogs, much of Google, as well as Apple's blocking of Flash.
7/10
Meet Catherine the guide we hired through Localtours.com. Go in hired car to Zhujiajiao, a water town about 45 minutes from the centre. Based around a number of canals, it is 1700 years old and whilst now dedicated to tourism, retains the old buildings and structures, so gives a different view of Shanghai. Walk around a number of attractions, including an old large private house from the Ming period with domestic garden still being worked (green beans, spinach, squash), a couple of temples, and an old herbal pharmacy. Lots of quaint bridges including one where traditionally people put fish into the river for luck. Being tourists we buy some fish to put in the river. Having carefully freed them in the river, a man instantly pops up with a net looking to recycle them. Have Chrysanthemum tea in an old tea house overlooking the canals before renting a boat to take us through the canals back to where we started. Catherine turns out to be relaxed and helpful, taking a lot of pressure off us. Return by mid afternoon. Use the Lounge's facilities and then try Nanjing Road again. A bit quieter as the holiday is over, but because the population has had a three day holiday they have to work over the weekend. Amateur dancers and musicians on the street. Visit Shanghai no 1 Department Store and Shanghai no 1 Food Store. Meet a Chinese Kiwi woman who used to live in Auckland.
8/10
Go with Catherine by taxi to French Concession. It doesn't take long to get sense that it is very different, with low rise houses from early 20th century, trees, restaurants and bars, though as it is 9am Sunday, the busiest place is the Christian church (which is very busy and evangelical). Get the idea and move on to a large fabric market. Ann gets 6 meters of silk and arranges for two silk blouses to be made and delivered to the hotel within 24 hours. Then move, to our surprise to the Godly vegetarian restaurant (opened in 1922) for an early lunch. Very traditional upmarket Chinese restaurant, with a proper restaurant on the first floor, overlooking Nanjing Road West (address is 445 Nanjing Road West), and a noodle bar on the ground floor. Although the menu has reference to Chicken, shrimps, beef etc, Catherine assures us that anything that looks like an animal/fish is actually tofu. Have an excellent mini banquet, which includes Ann's favourite tofu style peking duck wraps with cucumber and hoisin sauce). Catherine, who got married very recently (in fact two days before, during the national holiday), demolishes a great deal of it. Then on to the old town where we visit the very interesting Yu Yuan gardens, move around the bazaar shopping, and then end up in the main tea-room on the bridges where we have flowering teas. Very enjoyable and different. In the afternoon it's the All Blacks vs Argentina in the quarter finals of Rugby World Cup and the hotel's Club Lounge is busy with Argentinians who, fortunately, end up very disappointed. I only mention I'm from NZ after the first All Black try.
9/10
Rob to Shanghai Institute of Technology for four hour meeting and 20 dish banquet lunch. Very humid after a few days of, for Shanghai, quite pleasant weather. Ann checks out Nanjing Road West, has a swim and decides to go nowhere near the spa (is that fungus I see?). In the evening, stroll up a cooler and quieter Nanjing Road (by Nanjing Road standards), taking photographs, popping into unusual shops, buying flowering and sleeping tea, as well as oranges. Go to the hotel's French restaurant where they (unlike any restaurant in Paris) have a vegetarian section to the menu. The hotel generally has been excellent, apart from the wifi and the spa, and the Club Lounge in particular is excellent value, with a very helpful manager, Stephanie. Packing nearly completed with the three non-extended suitcases that we started off with having been transformed successfully into four extended cases.
10/10
Off to the airport. Not being able to face another suicide taxi driver, have appropriated the hotel car, so we make a more sedate exit (at no more than 120kpmh). Pudong airport is brand new but lacks the modern touches. However, we get on the plane and before long (well after 12 sleepless hours) we are back in Auckland on 12/10.
For the first time since we set off over five weeks ago, we need the raincoats we had perfectly packed as it is teeming down. Unfortunately, we can't remember where they are. The first taxi refuses to take us because we have too much luggage but by 8.30 we are home and Daisy looks bewildered but happy as Ann comes through the front door. It's been a very interesting and exciting trip (sometimes too exciting). The first two weeks were a nightmare as the house sale started to go to custard, but after that (and after the house was sold) it was great. 8,000 years of history in four countries; 6 cities, lots of different churches, cathedrals, museums, exhibitions, cultures; a kaleidoscope of walking, looking, shopping, eating and wondering. Excellent.
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