Last Day in China

Nov. 9

After an absolutely whirlwind tour of China, we found ourselves at day last. I’m glad I’ve been writing regularly, because by now, the early part of the trip is becoming a blur.
We spent the last morning doing a little more Shanghai shopping. We took a cab with two fellow travelers to the Science and Technology Museum. Now you might think that we were looking for some final day enlightenment. In fact, we were seeking out the shopping area sprawling beneath this Museum.

The plaza was a non-stop warren of alleys filled with all manner of shops, some strictly directed to tourists and some a little more high end, with a huge area devoted to tailor’s shops. Had we been staying longer in Shanghai, we might have had something custom made. The common denominators of all the shops were the young ladies sitting at the entrances to the shops encouraging all passersby to enter.

We were glad to take a little jaunt to this area, because it gave us another opportunity to admire the wonderfully unique and imaginative architecture of Shanghai. Since so much is new here, there appears to have been a competition between builders to achieve the most beautiful structures. A true feast for the eyes!

By early afternoon, after a western meal – aka hambuger - at our hotel, we were whisked off to Pudong International Airport for our flight home. At this time, we bid adieu to our national guide Ling Ling. She certainly worked beyond expectations to make the tour most enjoyable.


There were no hitches with our flight to Chicago today. We had a rough stretch over the north Pacific, but both of us slept for half of the flight and before we knew it, we were in Chicago. We then had an opportunity to explore a bit of O’Hare Airport, as we needed to go from terminal 5 to 3 to catch our Toronto flight. The connection was very slick. We were also sitting in front of Miss Universe Canada all the way to Toronto, which brightened up the day, for me anyway.
So that’s it for another adventure, and THAT IT WAS! We saw much more than we ever dreamed we could in the two-week period and although one specific highlight comes to mind, there were so many highlights to consider. I think the Great Wall is still number one, but then you can’t ignore the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Terracotta Warriors, the Chongjing market and hotpot dinner, the Yangzte Cruise, Buddha World and Shanghai itself. Wow!!! Loved it!!!

Hangzhou and back to Shanghai

Nov. 8


The little gal in the photo above was our guide in Hangzhou, Fiona, and she certainly typifies the fashionable young women of China.
We woke up this morning to tai chi lessons across from the hotel.

After evening in another excellent hotel, we headed out to cruise on West Lake, a natural lake in the middle of town. Morning rush hour has been pretty interesting all over China.

We cruised for about one hour, taking in the views of the city and other boats on the lake.

Currency in China is called the People’s Money – RMB – and the one yuan note features a scene from this lake, part of which is shown below.


Following West Lake, we were off to Dragon Well tea plantation. This was our first actual country excursion.
Anybody know how tea grows? I didn’t. Turns out, it’s a bush and it was planted on terraces all over the hillsides.

The famous green tea here is only cut once a year from March to May and they only cut the top leaves for this special green tea. Dawn is now certain that if we drink green tea that we would be much healthier. I’m not convinced.


Then we headed back to Shanghai for some more sightseeing and shopping. The drive was three plus hours.

Once in Shanghai, we had the choice of shopping on Nanjing St. or sightseeing on the Bund. We actually opted for both. We did some shopping with serious bartering at Shop 61, walked further down Nanjing to the walking street section and then headed back for some nighttime shots on the Bund, which is a walkway along the river overlooking the ultra modern financial district of Shanghai. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.



The miniscule woman above sold Dawn some shoes and the next pic is Dawn discovering the shops within the shops within the shops. It appears as if there are 3 kinds of goods for sale here: the first are sold in most shops with no bartering; the second might be seconds or might have found their way out the back door of factories and one must barter for these goods; the last are counterfeits which are not openly displayed anywhere, but can be discovered in the closets behing the shops, like the one Dawn was entering here.

We had a lot of fun in the short two hours we were given and then we were off to our last dinner in China.
Following that, it was back to the Minya Hotel where some socializing was in order before calling it a day. And what a day it was!

Wuxi & Hangzhou

Nov. 7

After another night in a fabulous high-end hotel, we were off to a pearl market. This part of China is one of the two cultured pearl centres of China. It was located in a very modern, well-organized facility, nothing like, say, the spice market of Istanbul.
We started off with a demonstration of pearl grades and their byproducts, and then had an oyster opened for us to reveal the pearls within. With an oyster, every opening is a surprise.

As well as having the 4 colours of pearl found in China, they also had a rare fifth colour – gold. The pendant below rang in at around $30 000. Yikes!

Next, we were off to Lingshan Mountain and a huge park developed by the government and devoted to Buddha. From this point onward, I shall refer to this place as Buddha World.
Since most people in China do not profess to be linked with any religion and since the People’s Republic has discouraged religious behaviour in the past, we found the development of this project to be curious to say the least. Our Chinese guides were equally nonplused about the expense on this project.

Buddha World is still under development, but the numerous ways in which Buddha is displayed and worshipped is already seriously impressive. There is everything from the huge bronze Buddha – shown above - larger than the Statue of Liberty, to the Buddha inside a lotus bloom atop a fountain that has a regular show where the Buddha comes out of the blossom and revolves with various water displays and music, to the reclining fat Buddha, to a couple of Buddhist temples.



Because of the huge scope of Buddha World, we elected to get around in their little trains. The train that took us up the hill to the foot of the giant Buddha was driven by a Mario Andretti wannabe. He just about threw us out on a couple of curves, but everybody, including the Chinese, were having a riot on the ride.

After lunch at Buddha World, we headed off to our next destination, Hangzhou, pronounced “hung-jo”. The city of 6 million relies primarily on tourism for its livelihood, so we expected it to be crawling with tourists once again. We were not disappointed.

By the time we got into town, the sun was setting so we went to only one site – the Yellow Dragon Cave, which is where people come if they are in need of a mate. There were matchmakers on site ready to assist. And, by the way, there is no cave, only a little grotto with a small yellow dragon’s head.

Then it was once again dinnertime. Most of our group has enjoyed the challenge of the new food and I have to say, as someone who isn’t overly fond of Canadian Chinese food, that the food here is much better. But by now, everyone is hankering for good old Canadian food. Soon!
This evening, we were in the Canal Hotel in downtown Hangzhou – another first class establishment - and we had some time to socialize a bit before calling it a night.

Shanghai, Suzhou and Wuxi

Nov. 6

By the time today was over, we had visited three cities whose combined population was greater than the whole of Canada – Shanghai, 22 million, Suzhou 11 million and Wuxi 4 million. We didn’t actually see much of Shanghai, other than the route out of town from our east-side hotel. We did however get a peak at the financial centre with its ultramodern skyscrapers. I hope to get a better picture of this area, but for the time being this will have to do.

As we continue our travels in China, it has just struck us that we have yet to see a stop sign. This explains the insane merging that goes on everywhere and the non-stop horn honking. Electric bikes and scooters are abundant and usually carry a variety of cargo. I’ve tried to make a point of capturing the human element in my photos. I’m not sure this blog has illustrated the unique manner in which these people live or how cute the children are, but the next photos might help with that matter.
Our first destination was the city of Suzhou. This place has been nicknamed the Venice of China, due to its myriad of canals and waterways.



We visited three places in Suzhou. The first was the interior of a once private house dating back 1000 years that was owned by a ranking official under the Emperor. This place, called the Garden of the Master of the Nets, was a vast expanse of buildings, gardens and ponds.

Next, we took a short cruise down one of the canals. Although we didn’t find it overly reminiscent of Venice, apparently Marco Polo did and one of the bridges over it bears his name.

Finally, we visited the Tiger Hill Pagoda, which is compared to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, due to its equally scary tilt.

We then headed north towards the much smaller city of Wuxi - only 4 million. By the time we arrived here the sun had disappeared, but we took a quick stroll through a park, before heading downtown for dinner.

We have been astounded at the night-time lighting all over China and Wuxi did not disappoint. Many of the lights are not static, with a variety of moving patterns and designs being created on the sides of buildings.

We finally made it to our hotel for this evening, shown below, the Grand Park Hotel. It was located in the heart of downtown, so before bedding down, we took a stroll through the shopping area. Tomorrow we will see more of this beautiful, relatively new city, before heading to our next destination.

Three Gorges Dam and off to Shanghai

Nov. 5

We woke up this morning berthed below the Three Gorges Dam. We had spent a better part of the night navigating the 5 locks at the dam. Every time we entered a lock, another 5 ships accompanied us, so it took a while before the gates could close. Once we cleared the locks, we were 100 metres lower on the river than we had been before.

Then we had a quick tour of the dam. The dam has been fully operational for 1 year now and the water levels we experienced were the highest they have ever been. So whatever the Yangzte and the villages along it looked like before the dam, we’ll never know.

Some things along the river haven't changed much, like the women, above, coming down to river's edge to do their wash. This is a seriously polluted river so I don't even want to think about the health ramifications.
The dam itself is the largest in the world and the Chinese are very proud that it was their creation. The 17 year project has employed over 10 000 people. Although it’s created a lot of hardship, it’s also improved the lives of many. Will it solve the flooding problem? Only time will tell.


Our flight to Shanghai was on Shanghai Airlines out of Yichang, one of the many cities along the Yangzte that has experienced tremendous growth due to an influx of displaced people from the Three Gorges Dam project. One point three million people were displaced, most of them farmers, who haven’t recovered the amount of land they previously could work. This means a huge lifestyle change for them.

Once in Shanghai, we headed for dinner. This was not cheery prospect for many of our group who are suffering a variety of stomach maladies. We did meet our Toronto tour agent, Victor for dinner before he flew off to Beijing to visit family.

By 8:30 we were at our hotel, the beautiful Minya Hotel in the eastern part of the city.
For the next few days, we’re bus touring and then we return to this hotel for our last night in China.

The Three Gorges on the Yangzte

Nov. 4

Sometime in the early morning, we docked in Baidi, where only one of our group opted for an optional morning tour. We enjoyed a leisurely start to the day, anticipating our mid-morning entrance into the first of the three gorges. The skies were clearing so the day was shaping up to be a beauty.

A word or two about our boat, the President 1. This is supposed to be a five star boat, but we would rank it more at three stars. It’s nice, the staff are very friendly and helpful and the food has been excellent, but the boat itself is a little tired. I might note that compared to other boats we’ve passed on the river this one is the best looking one, which means there’s a lot of scary crap floating down the Yangzte and I don’t just mean the garbage floating in the water.
Before we sailed to the gorge region, we had a pearl demonstration. We learned that to judge the value of a pearl, you could basically follow this rule: Big, Round and Shiny. So, if you find a big, round and shiny one, it should be expensive. We also learned how to differentiate between real and fake. Real pearls are cooler, less perfect, heavier and rougher then fake ones. They also give off a residue, if rubbed against something.

Shortly after we set sail, we were in the first of the three gorges, the Qutang Gorge. Although still slightly hazy, the views were pretty spectacular.

Within an hour we were cruising through the Wu Gorge. This one was actually more spectacular than the last. Although I snapped a lot of pics, none of them did the majesty of our surroundings any justice. It’s one of those “you had to be there” moments.
Once we were through the Wu Gorge, we transferred to a smaller boat that took us up a tributary of the Yangzte called the Shennongxi Stream. With the rise in water depth due to the dam, this is now a river comparable to the Grand back home, only seriously deeper and slightly more scenic.

After about 10 kilometres, we transferred to little flat-bottomed canoes/sampans that held our group of 13.

Each boat had four rowers, three in the bow and one in the stern and one man on the rudder. They rowed us for another 5 kilometres at a pretty good clip.

They used to have to use trackers to pull the boats through shallow water but these days with the new water depths, they’re not really necessary. They did however give us some “token tracking” when we reached as far up the stream as we were going. Two front rowers jumped onto shore and pulled the boat along with a long braided rope.
Retracing our route back down the stream, we returned to the boat in time for dinner, with happy hour at our room on this night. Each meal we have been served by the young lady shown below, named Katrina – her English name. She had been doing this job for only 2 weeks and was a tourism student at University.

After dinner, we had a little show featuring some passenger talent – our group led the room in the chicken dance – and I got involved in a game swinging a ball between my legs, which had to push a little box along the floor.

Before bedtime, we reached the Three Gorges dam and the locks. We went up on the sundeck to watch the entry to the first lock and then we were lights out. The ship took 6 hours to clear all 5 locks.