Tuesday March 17th - When we awoke we had already docked in Shanghai, I opened the drapes to the view of the amazing Shanghai skyline, we were docked in Pu Xi, on the HuangPu river, close to the Bund, the former European area of the city. After breakfast, we went up on deck to watch the passing scene, river traffic was generally larger vessels, barges etc with a few smaller ferries occasionally passing. A massive video screen, perhaps 100 feet by 60 feet, sailed past us, constantly changing its’ display of advertising, it made me think of the movie Bladerunner with its’ futuristic view of Los Angeles.
The view from our cabin - ShanghaiWe were scheduled to pass through Chinese immigration at 09.00am on board the ship and there were all kinds of rumours of photographs to be taken, fingerprints and heat scans to find out if you had an abnormal temperature, but when we finally passed through, it was in one door, a quick glance at the passport, then out the other door.
Downtown Shanghai
The Video Ship on Shanghai river
A free shuttle to People’s Square, close to the centre of Shanghai, was provided by local business, so we decide to go in to town for some quick shopping. As soon as we’d cleared immigration, we were on our way, unfortunately traffic was so bad, we decided not to spend any time in the city, as we were worried about missing our 12.15pm scheduled departure for Beijing.
There were 81 passengers from the ship, doing the overland China trip and we were split into 3 groups, 27 people per bus. The trip out to Pudong airport took about an hour, I was disappointed that they didn’t transport us by the new MagLev (magnetic levitation) monorail system which makes the trip from the city to the airport in 7 minutes, it flashed by us a couple of times at 200mph as we travelled along at a 50mph crawl. Our flight, China Eastern MU5115, left on time at 15.35pm and landed in Beijing almost exactly 2 hours later, where we were met by our guide, Leonard (his real name was HaiChen (spelling?), but all the guides used English names), Louis and David were the other guides. We reached our hotel, The Great Wall Sheraton, checked in at a very civilised reception with coffee and welcome speeches and by 07.30pm, we were in our 8th floor room. Dinner was provided in the Silk Room restaurant in the hotel and it didn’t take long before most people were eating. After dinner we took a brief walk out on the busy street, lots of people and traffic, bicycles, questionable ladies and the occasional beggar, but we were tired and soon returned to the hotel.
Soldiers in Tiananmen Square
Izzy in front of Mao's Tomb
Me in Tiananmen Square
Wednesday March 18th - We were up early for 07.00am breakfast, the city was shrouded in a thick haze of pollution. I’m surprised Izzy managed without her inhaler, I felt an irritation in my lungs occasionaly, but otherwise the weather was perfect, a high of 29 degC (85 degF) and sunny.
We met the rest of our group on the bus and left, around 08.30am, for our first stop Tiananmen Square (literal meaning Gate of Heavenly Peace). We were able to step right off the bus within a few feet of the square and spent close to an hour checking out all the buildings around, Mao’s Mausoleum, The Great Hall of the People, The National Museum of China to name a few. The square is surrounded by a low fence with guarded access points several places around requiring entrants to pass through a screening procedure, not sure why because it looked as if it would have been easy to just step over the low fence. In addition to the buildings and monuments the other ‘highlight’ of the square was the vendors, selling a variety of souvenirs, they moved around trying to conceal themselves in our crowd as security people moved around the square trying to move them off. Occasionally one or two were called over to a vehicle for a warning, I assume, after which they were especially careful about ducking around to avoid detection, we generally did our best to hide the ones we’d been talking to.
We left the square heading for the Forbidden City, I was completely surprised by the architecture in Beijing, as we drove along, one spectacular modern building after another and everywhere modern wide highways, mostly packed with all kinds of vehicles, not surprising that there is a real problem with pollution.
Temple of Heaven
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was not as I’d imagined, I thought there would be gardens and grass and generally a greener more natural landscape, but in fact it is almost all buildings and huge stone and brick paved courtyards. Nevertheless, it was a most interesting place with many wonders and over the next few hours we passed from the ‘Gate of Supreme Harmony’ through temples and palaces to the ‘Gate of Divine Might’. Outside we were met by a plethora of vendors and beggars, many with physical deformities, it was a bit daunting and our group tended to huddle together like penguins trying to avoid the harsh climate on the outer edges. I felt sorry for the children but I was happy to get back on the bus and its’ relative peace.
Next stop was lunch at the Regal Palace Restaurant, a typical Chinese meal, many small dishes served on a rotating glass wheel. I like Chinese food and most of the dishes were nice enough, but when it comes to trying to catch a snow pea or two as they go flying by, it’s not my favourite method of eating. I didn’t like getting one or two bites of meat then waiting 5 minutes to get a green bean then a few strands of noodles five minutes later, I prefer my own heap of food on my own plate, nobody else gets to pick at it. Anyway I eventually got enough to stave off the hunger for an hour or two.
After lunch, we went to the ’Temple of Heaven’, a complex of buildings situated in South Eastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District, the highlight being the magnificent triple-gabled circular building, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests. Waiting for the rest of our group in the courtyard, we had fun trying to communicate with some locals, I got to practice my few words of Mandarin, to the amusement of all. Izzy asked their names and told them ours, all in Mandarin, I was proud of her, she can talk to anyone even when she cant talk their language.
Chef cuts the Beijing Duck
By 04.30pm we returned to the hotel for a break before heading out at 06.00pm for a pre-arranged Beijing Duck dinner at Quanjude Restaurant. The place was very busy, so I guess the food was good, but once again it was a struggle to get any more than an occasional bite. On our way back to the hotel, we drove around Tiananmen Square and area to see the lights, very illuminating.
Birds Nest at the Olympic Facility
Thursday March 19th - Another early start, our first scheduled stop was The Great wall, but after a bit of encouragement, Leonard our guide agreed to stop at the Olympic facility for a picture taking opportunity. It was great to see the buildings we’d seen on TV during the Olympics and the fantastic hotel opposite, representing the shape of a dragon. Outside the hotel on the long veranda at the front, a troup of soldiers were going through their paces marching and stopping to do push-ups. That’s something we saw a few times, groups of 20 to 30 soldiers marching around in formation, great picture taking opportunity.
The Great wall
The Great wall
After the Olympic facility, we drove the hour and a half out to The Great Wall. It was everything I expected and more, a spectacular vista I’ve seen many times on TV and in pictures and now I was there, I was impatient to start climbing. We tackled the East side first, Izzy went up to the third station and rested while I continued on ‘til I couldn’t breathe any more, the road varied from steep steps to extremely steep slopes, the slopes were much harder to climb, fortunately there hadn’t been any rain for a while. I returned to where Izzy was and we went back down to the main level section, where Izzy teamed up with Norma and they went down to do some shopping while I climbed the West side, once again breath taking, in more ways than one.
We had lunch at Longdi Restaurant, by now I had learned to lift the dishes off the moving disc before they passed so I enjoyed the meal a little more
Elephant on the Sacred Way
Then we were off to the Ming Tombs followed by a visit to the Sacred Way and its’ avenue of 600 year old carved stone animals, it was a pleasant 40 minute stroll along part of the ancient path used by the emperors on their way to their tomb. Back at the hotel, we were free to find our own dinner, so we took a walk toward town and stopped to eat at a pleasant Italian restaurant, La Gondola, finally dinner on my own plate, lasagna, it was excellent and so was the beer, even though it was $10 per half litre.
Friday March 20th - Next morning we were scheduled to fly to HongKong, so we were up at 05.00am for an early breakfast and our 09.30am flight, China Air CA111. We said our goodbyes to Leonard, our excellent guide, and soon we were on our way. We’d managed to get the emergency exit row, so we had lots of leg space and the 3 hour flight passed problem free. By 01.00pm we were standing in the HongKong arrival hall waiting on the remainder of our group to catch up. From there we were bussed back to the ship arriving around 03.00pm, the airport to ship transfer was poorly thought out and while it eventually got there, it took twice as long as it might.
Izzy with Angela and MichaelAfter grabbing some food on board, we walked out into downtown HongKong and hit the shopping district, we’ve been to HongKong before so we’d seen the usual sights and besides we only had about 3 hours before having to be back on board. On the way back to the ship we met a young couple with two beautiful kids, Angela and Michael, the little girl took to Izzy immediately and she was so cute, Izzy said it was just the icing on the cake of her visit to China. The ship was due to sail at 08.00pm and we were up on deck to watch the city as we departed. What an amazing show, as music played in time, 20 or 30 building in the harbour put on a spectacular laser light show, it was a sight to be seen, every building in the harbour was brightly lit.
The HongKong light show