10/21/07-Suzhou/Shanghai (Bund, Nanjing Road, Shanghai Acrobatic Show)
After breakfast, we departed by bus for what was supposed to be a trip of 1 ½ hours to Shanghai. But because of heavy traffic caused by an auto accident it took us closer to 2 ½ hours to reach the hotel. The city is the second largest (17 million people) in China and feels that way as you enter the suburbs. There are row after row of tall apartment buildings right off the freeway for as far as the eye can see. As you get closer to the center, the office buildings emerge, each one very modern, some ultra-modern and all big.
Our local guide, Samantha was attractive, knowledgeable and bright. Our hotel, the nicest one on the tour was old European style and very pretty. After lunch, we toured the Bund, a waterfront promenade known for its landmark, neo-classic architecture of European style. It borders the Huangpu River and offers spectacular views of the amazing edifices on the east side. As you can imagine, it was mobbed with tourists and clouds of vendors. To see a short video of the view from the Bund, click Bund Panorama Video.
Within walking distance was East Nanjing Road, the first major street in the city and now a famous shopping street. Heading west from the river the street is lined with fine hotels and restaurants and after 5 blocks, it becomes a pedestrian mall which continues for some distance more. This mall area is as crowded as the Bund with the same mixture of humanity. Before reaching the mall, we stopped to look at a glossy brochure offered by a pretty girl who, we soon found out, worked as a front person for a business a block or so off Nanjing Road. Her job was to entice tourists to follow her with the promise of prices that were even better than those in the stores on the main street. She succeeded. We followed her like obedient hungry puppies and, after some intriguing minutes of passing through serpentine alleyways, little stores, across a small street,and into another little store, up some low, narrow winding stairs, we reached our destination. It was a small store with a couple salesladies and quite a bit of merchandise. Brona bought a Luis Vitton Handbag, and Dave a Prada wallet (all after much heavy bargaining). But, they didn't have one item we were searching for: A Hard Rock Cafe Tee Shirt from Shanghai. So, once again the same girl collected us and led us on a journey of discovery until we ended up in another store which, by golly, had the shirt we sought. Again, bargaining ensued and eventually we had the item in a bag.
We were then left on a small street that quickly emptied into Nanjing Road. From there we walked a few blocks to the mall, found restrooms in a large shopping center, and turned back to find a coffee house. There, Brona had some green tea and Dave had a coffee with ice cream. That was his downfall. The coffee water probably wasn't boiled as the drink came out cold with a generous ball of vanilla ice cream on top. It was delicious but deadly. By the next morning, he had a good case of the “Touristas”. The group met, per arrangement in front of a hotel and awaited the bus. But, Dave fell prey to a street vendor who was selling genuine Rolex and Omega watches for way below retail. They fought back and forth for many minutes until the vendor finally conceded to sell the watch for $4 easily $500 less than in Saks. But, when Dave reached into his pocket he discovered that he only had $3 and one Yuen (1/7 of a dollar). The vendor was in a quandary. Should he sell the watch at a loss of $501 dollars or drop off negotiations? He begrudgingly accepted the offer. That evening, Dave discovered he could have bought the same watch for 2/$5. How do those people make any money? And we thought the Chinese were such shrewd businessmen.
That evening, we were taken to see The Shanghai Acrobatic Show. We attended the 5 PM show and had dinner there afterwards. The show itself looked like a highlight reel from old Ed Sullivan shows. There were an extensive series of acts featuring acrobats, jugglers, bicycle ridding, plate throwers, magicians, and an amazing finale: 6 motor bikes roaring around a circular cage at breathtaking speed. There were lots of oohs and aahs, during the show in general and for that act in particular. Again, we were “blown away”.
Pictures taken this day can be seen here Suzhou/Shanghai.
This was another great day.
One more day to go --- Boo-Hoo. Although we missed the family, we had experienced such a grand and memorable adventure and wished it could continue a lot longer.
