Shanghai

August 2nd

The common person does not have a clothes dryer here. You see everyone’s laundry wherever you go.


Another shot of the squatting. They must have awesome muscles in their thighs to for this to be comfortable!


There are over 2,500 high rises in Shanghai. It’s truly amazing to see.

We started today with a tour of a Children’s Palace. This is a place where you pay for your children to attend extracurricular activities/lessons on Saturday’s & Sunday’s. Dance, calligraphy, Chinese art, music, etc. The parents attend the classes with the children so they are up to speed on the lessons and then practice with the children during the week.

They are very big on…. “no education, no future”

Next we toured a silk factory. They started with showing us how silk rugs are made. The statistics blow you away.

A 4x6 rug that has 600 knots per square inch takes 1 person, 11 months to make.

They are all handmade and the quality is based on how many knots per square inch. The average quality is 600 knots per square inch. The finest has 2,500 knots per square inch. Wow!!

After the rug is completed, it is flat. They then “sculpt” it with electronic scissors.


See the photo below – the top part is sculpted, the bottom part is not.

Below is my favorite rug. I believe it was 5 x 8 and was $11,000 USD. I think it was of average quality (600 knots/square inch)

Next they showed us how they got the silk out of the silk worm cocoon. The small cocoon meant one worm lived inside. Those are used for material & rugs. The cocoons are boiled (to kill worm) and then put on this machine to unravel them.

The larger cocoon meant 2 worms lived inside. Because there are 2, they wove their silk string in different directions, so they (silk workers) are unable to find the start and end of the string. In this case, a person opens the cocoon (after being boiled) and picks out the worms.


Then the silk is stretched out and they make comforters out of them.


Upon leaving, the street vendors were outside our bus selling their wares.



We then went to the Yu Yuan Gardens. Which was much like the other gardens we have visited around the country.

Outside the garden is the Yu Bazaar where we spent a while shopping. It was amusing to see all the ornate shops ….

and then you see a Starbucks


That evening we had our farewell dinner in the hotel. It was a very nice (Western) meal. I broke down and ate meat – but it was a filet mignon. It was tougher than our version, but looked and tasted relatively the same.

The past 13 days have been a whirlwind! A fantastic trip – but I think I am ready to get to work.

Suzhou > Shanghai

August 1st

We awoke to sunshine! Our first time seeing the sun and a blue sky since arriving over a week ago. Guess the ‘fog’ from the humidity isn’t so bad in Suzhou,

Couldn’t wait to get out of stinky hotel!!

We began at the Garden of the Master’s Fishing Net – which had nothing to do with fishing. It was built from 960-1279 AD. It was owned by 3 different families who sold it to each other over the years and kept adding to it.



Again, as with all the gardens, so breathtaking!

In each room, there were windows which served as frames to the beauty outside them. They were intended as artwork – instead of hanging actual artwork on the walls.

This tree is 920 years old

Next we went on a boat ride in the Old Canal. We sat very low in the boat so our head was just above water level. Again not the kind of conditions we are accustomed to.

One little tidbit that I haven’t shared yet, is that all the thresholds are raised when you enter a home. The higher it is, the higher your social status was. Meaning an emperor’s was very high – a commoner’s was very low. Also, they are raised to keep the demons out.


Most everyone rides a bicycle, scooter, Vespa or electric bike. It is amazing how they hold every thing on the bikes! Most things are held between their legs or stacked & tied on the back.

Note the child seat in China:


It was about a 1.5 hour bus ride to Shanghai. Upon arrival, we had lunch. I had the typical rice, added soy sauce and took a few onions & peppers from one of the meat dishes. Dessert was of course, watermelon.

Now we made a stop at the Huangpu River which flows between the 2 sections of Shanghai. On one side is the Old City – on the other side is new Shanghai, called Pudong. Pudong did not exists 20 years ago.

Pudong side

The tower with the red bulbs is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

Currently, the tallest building is the one to the right of the TV Tower – it has a square hole at the top – kinda looks like a bottle opener – I believe that is a Hyatt Hotel. However, in front of it, they are building an even taller financial building – that will be the tallest building in the world.


Old City side

While at the boardwalk along the river, we were constantly berated by street vendors and beggars. They are very persistent and often times even touch you.

After the boardwalk, we went to the Shanghai Museum. Of course it was not without incident. Since we had not yet checked into the hotel, I still had my laptop with me. When we went thru security, I was pulled aside and told to leave because I had the laptop. I searched around for Wendy, our local tour guide, once I saw him, I yelled for him come assist me. He yelled back & forth with the security people and then told me I had to leave the laptop at the front safe and pick up later. I told him no way. So again, more yelling back & forth and I was eventually allowed to keep it. I just had to turn it on and prove that it was a computer. (It’s always something!)

The museum itself was just like any museum you go to. Wonderful artifacts from the thousands of years of history.

We had 1.5 hours to spend here – which was probably a little long, but we still enjoyed.

Next, we checked into our hotel – Sofitel Shanghai. Very nice hotel in the center of the world famous Bund shopping district.

More issues with me checking in since you have to show your passport & visa. Your visa is typically stamped on one of the pages inside your passport. But since I am here for the Olympics, my visa is represented by my Olympic credential. Not everyone realizes that, our tour director has to explain it to them.

Our room overlooked the Bund shopping area which was amazing! Cross between Vegas and Times Square. Bright lights and people. Endless people!!

Apparently the prices in this area for designer brands are great – however, mom and I had no interest in shopping.

On the pedestrian road in the Bund shopping district:

Since we were on our own tonight for dinner, we asked the concierge for a suggestion on a Western Hotel. He gave us one and directions. We never found it.

We did walk around for about an hour – never found anything Western aside from Burger King, Dairy Queen & McDonald’s – which was not what we wanted.

We ended up back at the hotel and ate there. We have found that a sit down meal takes 1-2 hours here. It can get quite tiring!

After dinner, we sorted our luggage and started to separate our stuff since we only had 1 more day together.

Tonight was the first time I have experienced limited internet access. Can't get on United.com to check on mom's flight. And Slingbox is being blocked by a firewall - trauma!

Oh ya... Slingbox is a program that I have on my laptop that allows me to control my cable box at home. Meaning I am able to view my cable anywhere in the world. I also am able to watch any shows I have recorded on that cable box. Best invention ever! And fabulous Christmas gift from Dave!