Heat Wave!

I have NEVER seen the temperature this high in this area. While yes, 91 degrees in April was common in the desert of Sacramento, we feature cool, coastal 65-degree temps even in summer here.
While Pepper doesn't handle the heat well, I was loving it today. Aah!

Shanghai: "Paris of the East"

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We only really had one, rainy day in Shanghai, jewel of the Orient, but it was great “dessert” for our trip to China. Shanghai is a very cosmopolitan, international city which was an open trading port and which has many European influences in everything from dining to architecture.

We started out in the Bund (mile-long waterfront area), which also serves as Shanghai or China’s “Wall Street.” The eastern buildings across the river (Pudong) are relatively new, built in the last 20-30 years as the city has expanded into (surprisingly) China’s largest city.

National pride! (check out all the Chinese flags)

Asian "rainbooties"

This Peace Hotel (owned now by Fairmont) is the fanciest hotel in the city, akin to Mumbai’s Taj or Singapore’s Raffles.

  

interior relief

We visited a silk museum where we saw real silkworms at work and I got to help stretch out the bunches of silk as these women made a mattress.

We then enjoyed the splendid (and free) Shanghai Museum, which has tons of traditional Chinese arts on display, from bronzeware from the 11-15^th centuries B.C. to painting and calligraphy. Many other people were also using the museum as shelter from the horrendous rain outside, as they use it (per our tour guide) in summer to benefit from the “free airconditioning” and escape the oppressive heat of the outdoors and their un-airconditioned apartments!

Ox-shaped wine vessel (6th c. B.C.)

Jade

Blade-coins

We visited the YuYuan market and Gardens, which was a private garden dating from 1577.

The gardens had lovely pavillions, greenery, and courtyards, as well a this famous “Jade Rock” (although I don’t think it’s made of jade) from the lakes of southern China, as you can see in the Forbidden City Garden which has 72 holes.

 

200+ year-old Tea house and “nine-turn bridge”

(the toad below the dragon's chin feasts on his saliva)

Banyan-tree furniture

Jade Rock

We ended our day around the French Concession area (which was foreign-controlled land from 1849-1946), now home to many international restaurants.

We left Shanghai on two short metro rides and the bullet Maglev train, which reached a speed of over 300 km/hr and got us to the airport from downtown in a mere 8 min.!!! It was fabulous! Why doesn't the U.S. have these??

We haven't yet been to Paris, but Shanghai (also on a rainy day) was pretty neat.  While I wouldn't call most of China "charming," Shanghai certainly was :).  What a great trip!  I hope you enjoyed the visual tour through China!

Yangtze Cruise and the Three Gorges

The city from which we departed our Yangtze cruise was Chongqing, which means “doubled happiness,” and apparently is home to some of the spiciest food in China (known for its hotpot).

We first checked out a pretty city park translated by the guide to be something like “Very Green Park.” There was a (mobile but stationary) police station out front which assured us that the city is very safe, and pretty scenery.

 (please go elsewhere for your non-urgent rubbish needs)

These men/women were playing some kind of a paddle game where you swooped, not hit, the ball over the net.

Singing in the park!

We viewed some (100-200-year-old) wooden/lacquered beds of the emperors and their concubines.

shoes for bound feet

Ciqikou Ancient Town (street)

flower-shaped cotton candy! Amazing!!

In the evening, we boarded our boat, the President Prime, to start our three-day Yangtze River Cruise, China’s longest (and the world’s third-longest) river at 6300km.

On the first (full) day, the boat stopped in the “ghost town” of Fengdu but the (optional) excursion fee was quite steep (and we were informed that we couldn’t disembark independently from this Chinese ship—strange rules, eh?!) so we hung out on the boat.

(warm prompt?)

I watched a little demonstration of some Chinese traditional medicine practices from the cruise doctor, Dr. Yu and learned a little bit about acupuncture, cupping, and moxibustion.

In the afternoon, we got off the boat at Shibaozhai, which means “Village of Precious Stones.” 

We climbed the 12-storey wooden pagoda (made without nails) dating from the 17^th century and visited the temple-on-a-hill. 

This sign marks the highest water level seen after the construction of the Three Gorges Dam downstream (it's not expected to exceed this level, either).

White Emperor City (optional excursion)

Our boat then passed through the scenic river gorges (Qutang, Wu Gorges). Unfortuately, we had rather cool, cloudy weather but the beauty of the area is still apparent.

 

We took a boat excursion up Shennong Stream.

 

Before the dam’s construction, the water level here (upstream) was quite low, and men (“Boat trackers,” historically naked) would have to run up on stream to pull the boat along. Clothed, they demonstrated for us.

 

random guy in a suit, chillin' on the stream bank (we're not sure how he got there or got home!)

There is a “hanging coffin” you can (barely) see in the crevice.

 

 

On our last day, we passed through Xiling Gorge and visited the Three Gorges Dam Project area.  The dam took 17 years to build and was completed in 2008.  Initially built with the objective for flood control in mind, it also serves as the world’s largest (175m x 2.3 km) hydroelectric power source (supplying approximately half of China with power). The resulting rise in water level upstream required the government to resettle over 1 million village inhabitants away from the river’s banks, so the project certainly had and has population and environmental impacts but is hailed as a great success in China.

We visited a small park in Yichang before heading to the airport in Wuhan (hometown of one of my favorite tennis players, Li Na) before heading to Shanghai, our last stop in China.