Our first introduction to China today. A short minibus journey took us across the Huangpu river into the centre of Shanghai and the historic Bund district. We visited the Peace hotel, built by Victor Sassoon and opened as the Cathay Hotel in 1929. As an introduction to Shanghai, strolling through the opulent decor of the reception area and dining hall, we could see the British colonial influence of the pre-communist past when Shanghai society events featured jazz and tea dances. As we paused outside to cross over to the river bank for a photo opportunity, a municipal street cleaning lorry busied itself along the kerbs, blaring out the tune to ‘Happy Birthday to You’ !
The skyline across the river comprises the high rise buildings of the financial district, that characteristic photo shot of the new Shanghai, an area that only 20 years ago was farm land. More evidence of the extraordinary rate of development.
Back on the minibus and on to the Shanghai museum and our first exposure to priceless historic art treasures. We explored half a dozen galleries ranging from bronze work, calligraphy, precious jade, porcelain and paintings through to traditional costumes from China’s indigenous people groups.
The museum building design combines the Chinese elements of heaven and earth symbolised by the round roof and square building below.
Form the museum we walked across the park behind, on the site of the old racecourse, through the underground train station and on to a restaurant for lunch. The chopsticks are starting to feel more comfortable in my hands!
After lunch we headed to the French Quarter, Zhiang pointed out some of the older communist era lower level buildings en route – most marked for demolition. These were built for communal living with families sharing cooking, eating and toilet facilities and with no lifts servicing the 6 or 7 floors.
For the Chinese, number 8 is lucky and 4 unlucky. We have noted that there is generally no 4th floor in hotels and 4 is usually absent from car number plates.
The French quarter retains its narrow streets and European architecture. Having browsed in the small independent shops, we retired to Starbucks (okay –mainly in search of a loo but also fancied a coffee). We ordered a black coffee and a weak latte, we were given an extremely strong iced coffee and a sugar laden iced latte, neither of which were potable in our opinion. We searched for a convenient plant to pour them into.
Our next stop was the silk museum where we observed the silk worm lifecycle – from the live worms, through to the chrysalis and moth. We saw the individual silk casts being spun into threads.
We then helped pull out thread sheets across a table to form the filling for a duvet.
After the demonstration, we were given the opportunity to purchase silk good – duvets, sheets, jackets, shirts, ties, boxer shorts etc from a substantial warehouse.
6 of us headed out for an evening meal. The Chinese eat early, usually around 6pm. Most restaurants seem to be emptying from 7pm onwards. We were shown into a private side room, away from the smoking in the main eating area (yes, there is still a lot of smoking in restaurants here). We tried squid this evening. It was very good. We were just finishing when the door opened and a strange man walked in, greeted us all, gave a rambling speech in Chinese, smashed a wine glass and walked out again!