March 8, 2018 Shanghai, China – Day 1

It appears today, March 10, that this website may be blogged by the Chinese, so if you are seeing this rea

The largest city in China and one of the world’s most important ports, Shanghai began as a tiny fishing village 5,000 years ago. Because it has long welcomed people from all over the world, it has a history of being an open-minded city with a freewheeling character. Today it is a modern metropolis and center of finance with a population of 23 million. The famous Bund, the city’s elegant riverfront promenade overlooked by colonial-era banks, stretches along one bank of the Huangpu River (Pushe), while the futuristic skyline of Pudong rises on the other. This area of Shanghai is only 30 years old.

Shanghai has a lot of mass transportation including the fastest train (bullet train) and the longest subway system in the world. There are 15 subway lines with 600km of lines. It was not till 1978 when Mao left and new leadership took over did China open their doors to the outside world. It was then that they decided to make the east bank a financial center. This changed Shanghai from an industrial city to a financial center.

We came into Shanghai via the Yangtze and the Huangpu rivers. Shaghai is at the mouth of the Yangtze and sits on the Huangpu. We were docked right downtown.

 

Our tour today was of two of the big sites downtown. We went to the Museum and to the Bund. Our first stop was the People’s Square, the city’s vast public space surrounded by skyscrapers. At its center, a rose- and sand-hued fountain sends jets of water into the air; however, no water today (it is very cold, 40’s).

Here in People’s Square is where the Shanghai Museum, home to one of the most celebrated collections in the world, is designed to resemble an ancient bronze cooking vessel.

The museum was established in 1952 and is world famous for its ancient Chinese art. The present building was completed in 1996, and is shaped with a square base and a round top attached with arches like a bronze Ding, indicating the ancient Chinese philosophy of the universe that the earth is square while the sky is round.

 

Among the one million pieces of the collection, there are nearly 130,000 pieces of national treasurers. They cover 21 categories such as bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy, paintings, jade and ivory works, bamboo and lacquer wares, oracle bones , seals, coins, and artifacts of the ethnic minorities, the first four of which are among the best collections in the world.

 

We only had an hour and a half here, and here is a little of what we saw.

From there we took our bus to the Bund where we were able to walk down the inviting promenade along the Huangpu River. Old and new Shanghai were both there, with colonial architecture towering over the Bund and the futuristic cityscape of the Pudong district glittering across the Huangpu River.

There were also some very interesting sites as we drove around the city.

That evening they were having the naming of the ship, which they were doing on the dock with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. We were bused off across the street to have dinner and watch it on screens where they would translate it from Chinese to English. It was bad. It was cold, the buses ran late, the food was not good, the English translation was on top of the Chinese, so you heard nothing. But we enjoyed the company and got them to let us walk back instead of waiting for the bus.

And this is our wonderful captain and his wonderful wife Laura. He is one of the best captains we have ever sailed with and his wife is one of the nicest persons you have ever known.

One of the big things that happens in Shanghai at night, is that all the buildings are lit up until 10 PM. It is beautiful. Here are some from the first night.

It was a cold day, but tomorrow promises sun, though just as cold.