Xi'an: Missing Blog on City Wall and Museum (March 19)

What happened to this blog entry?  Good question. I wrote it. I sent it. I received a message saying it posted. And then it disappeared with no trace, so I am now writing it again since not even a local draft of it survived. Maybe the infamous Chinese internet censors zapped it because of its edgy content. Regardless, let me return the reader to Xi'an on March 19.

  

A light rain and cool temperature were no more than a minor detractor.  We began the day with a visit to the city wall. This wall rings the entire inner city and totals over seven miles in length.

The wall is so wide running and bicycle races are held on it.

From the wall the Bell Tower can be seen. Back in the day, the sounding of the bell signaled the opening of the gates in the city wall. In the evening, the sounding of drums in the Bell Tower's counterpart cleverly named the Drum Tower signaled the closing of the gates.

The next stop was the Shaanxi History Museum. It is one reportedly of the best museums in China.

One of the most impressive exhibits depicted the fact that every face in the Terracotta Warrior army was unique.

   

Some of the artifacts were amazing in their intricacy, detail, humor and/or artistry.

  
  

  

 

After the museum and inevitable daily "crafts" store it was lunch time. Once again we were at a round table setting 10-12 people. On the table was a large class 'lazy Susan' onto which waitstaff would place dishes of food. There was always an abundant variety of food to sample. It was fun and efficient.

After lunch we reboarded the bus for the trip to the airport for the flight back to Beijing. The plane was spotlessly clean and the flight attendants helpful and courteous.

[NOTE on March 22:  Now that we are aboard VOYAGER linking to the Internet and World Wide Web through satellites rather than through internet service providers controlled by the Chinese government, I can finally see how postings from my iPad appear in my blog.  It is apparent that I have some reformatting to do when I eventually clean up my entries prior to printing them as a book.]

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Approaching Shanghai (March 23)

As we cruised the Yellow Sea yesterday the amount of ship traffic was impres-sive. In addition to numerous fishing craft we were always in sight of six or more large freighters/tankers. It is a sea lane that must be extremely challeng-ing to navigate in limited visibility.

The traffic is less dense this morning (0800 +8 GMT) but will no doubt increase as we get closer to the mouth of the Yangtze River. We will enter the Yangtze on the making tide about 1300 and dock in Shanghai about 1730.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:At sea ~90 NM NNE of Shanghai

Approaching Shanghai - Part 2 (March 23)

As we approached the mouth of the Yangtze the number of ships around us grew steadily. Some were at anchor awaiting authorization to enter the river while others were entering or leaving it. In some respects the scene reminded me of the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.

We proceeded upriver in a surprisingly narrow channel full of boats and ships of all sizes.

The ship was taking advantage of in incoming tide. There was considerable current. Visibility was hazy, caused in part by China's infamous air pollution problem. This is more that just a guess.

Shanghai is not on the Yangzte River but a large tributary called the Wungpo (I need to check the spelling) River. The river follows a genially north-south course, dividing the city into an east half and a west half.

As we approached the city ship traffic became denser with all sorts of craft vying for space in the narrow waterway.


Lots of people looked at the ship, but I did not see a single smile or wave.

  
Compromised by the haze, the impressive skyline of Shanghai came into view.

 
  

The ship docked on the east side of the city directly opposite some of the highest of the high-rises on the west side. As the sun went down and the hazy receded, these lit up...

...as did ones on our side of the river.


We headed out on a night tour that included a trip to the 88th floor of a skyscraper.


The elevator ride took 45 seconds!


From the observation deck you could look down inside the building 33 floors to the reception area of the hotel that occupies the top of the building.


Returning to street level, we wandered around looking at other buildings...

 
...before returning to the ship for the night.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Yangtze and Wungpo Rivers + Shanghai

A Visit to Zhujiajiao / A Walk in Shanghai (March 24)

Onto a tour bus and off to Zhujiajiao which according to the tour description is "Shanghai's Venice". This proved to be a bit of a stretch, but nevertheless an enjoyable and interesting trip.

  
The boatman sculls (uses a long single oar at the back of the boat to propel and steer) the boat.

  
After the boat ride we wandered down some of the narrow shopping streets.

   


 
We visited a Tao shrine...

 
...where prayers are written on a red ribbon that is then hung on a tree.

Some people catch fish in the river (given the pollution level not a personal dining temptation)...

...while other people buy 'goldfish'...


...to throw back into the river as a good deed for which they will be rewarded in their next life.
The tour over, we returned to Shanghai and went for a walk on The Bund - the Shanghai equivalent of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, but wider and made of concrete.

 
There is an interesting fact about the skyline in the background of the picture above; none of it was there just twenty years ago! Since then 300 skyscrapers and 30,000 high-rises have been built, complete with roads, utilities and all the other necessary infra-structure.
From The Bund we took a pedestrian tram from the west side under the Huangpu River (this time spelled correctly) to the east side.

It was quite a ride.

 

We had a look around...

 
...then tunneled back to the east side to return to the ship.

Another interesting fact about Shanghai's tall buildings; they are sinking. There is no firm rock below the city even hundreds of feet down, so buildings are constructed on essentially underground platforms floating in a sea of mud. The buoyancy of the plat-forms is proving to be uneven and less than neutral, so some buildings lean, some sink and some both lean and sink.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Zhujiajiao + Shanghai