Day 4 - Water Town and Shanghai at Night

Shanghai Noodle Breakfast

Here are some more impressions that we have formed of China. A Chinese breakfast is vastly different from ours. I asked our tour guide yesterday and he said he usually eats noodles and congee. This is typical of Shanghai but he said it varies from region to region and city to city. I tried out the noodles for breakfast today. They are served in a broth with mushrooms, cabbage and spinach. Not bad. It was kind of like eating thin spaghetti with chopsticks.

We were under the impression there was only one state run TV station but in fact there are about 50 with a variety of programs and even a couple of BBC-like stations in English giving the world news. Regarding content, we really couldn’t tell much. There were definitely a few patriotic stations but there were also some game shows and a lot of what looked like dramas.

Zhujiajiao Water Town

Crossing the street is an adventure. Even if you have the green walk arrow, you aren’t safe. Bikes and noiseless electric scooter mostly ignore the lights but they won’t hit you unless you make some sudden move. The scary part is that cars making a right turn don’t stop and seem to think they have the right of way.

Our tour today started at noon so we slept in and rested. Our guide, Zu Zu (pronounced Choo Choo), picked us up and there were only four in our group so we toured in a mini-van. We drove about an hour west from Shanghai to the ancient water town of Zhujiajiao. There are a couple of other water towns around Shanghai and at one time they were all similar to Venice as everything was transported by boats within the town. Today the boats mostly transport tourists. We strolled through the streets and an almost endless array of markets, many of which we have no equivalent. One shop specialized in letting you put your feet in a fish tank and letting the fish eat off the dead skin. Others sold candies, food and who knows what. Jeanne tried a sugar cane drink and I had a little of the Chinese barbeque and some sticky rice.

Shanghai at Night

When the tour was over, we drove back to Shanghai for an obligatory stop at the Silk Market. Same one as yesterday so a bit boring but they did let us stretch some silk from a double cocoon to help form bedding material. After that we were taken to dinner in a restaurant. It was supposed to be dim sum on the boat according to the tour description but I think this actually worked better as the ship was too crowded for any dining to happen. The meal was really very good and more like “American” Chinese. There were lots of dishes – duck, sliced beef, meatballs, General Tsao chicken, bok choy, soup, etc.  I’m sure we ate less than half of what was served.

The Bund

After the meal we were herded onto the boat for our evening tour of the Haungpu River.  I use the word “herded” because that is how the Chinese roll. There is no sense of a line, just everyone for themselves in a mad dash. The ride up and down the river was absolutely fantastic and well worth the aggravation of the crowd. Buildings on both sides of the river are lit up in an amazing light show and each building tries to outdo the next. There was a laser lightshow going on overhead with a flotilla of lighted boats cruising with us. I’m not even sure the pictures we took did justice to the sight.

70th Anniversary

The last photo is one of the Oriental Pearl Tower. I like this shot because you can see below a sign for the 70th anniversary of China as a republic.