Traveling Cows

20 million people. 20% of the construction cranes in the world. Shanghai is a crowded ever-changing city. In the neighborhood where the ship was docked, there were high-rises in the final stages of construction and 2- to 4-story buildings being demolished to make way for something new. The city has even more construction than usual because they are preparing for an Shanghai Exhibition in 2010.

Looking Across the Huangpu River to the Pudong New District

For the first excursion, I went one way and Janice and John went another. I was interested in riding the Maglev, or Magnetic Levitation, train that runs suspended above its track by a magnetic field and is capable of sustained speeds over 265 miles per hour. The excursion bus took us from the pier through town, under the Huangpu river into the Pudong New District, to the Long Yang Lu train station. Pudong was farmland until 1990 but is now home to several of the tallest buildings in the world. The train runs another 20 non-stop miles to Pudong International Airport. It can make the trip in 8 minutes. Unfortunately for us, they had an unspecified project under way and limited the train to 301 k/h (about 187 m/h). Still, it was a fast, smooth ride, both out and back.

Next I went to the top of the second-tallest building in China, the Jinmao Tower. Part of it is a Hyatt Hotel—the lobby is on the 50^th floor and the atrium is open to the observation floor, the 88^th floor. Since the Chinese consider 8 to be the luckiest digit—remember the Olympics started on 8/8/08—building an 88 story building was significant. Now there is a 102 story building next door and plans to build an even taller building. From the top, it was apparent how smoggy Shanghai is. Although the rain and clouds had cleared—we were told it had been raining for the past three weeks—the smog limited viability to a few miles.

John and Janice went on a excursion that included the Jade Buddha Temple. Built in 1882, it houses two jade Buddha statues brought from Burma. The centerpiece is a 6-foot-high white jade seated Buddha encrusted with jewels. No pictures are allowed of the statue. But there were lots of other statues of Buddha.

Golden Buddhas at the Jade Buddha Temple

Their second stop was the Shanghai Arts and Crafts Research Institute where they are trying to research and preserve the traditional arts and rafts by maintaining and training artisans. The silk embroidery was exceedingly fine and looked the same on both sides.

After lunch, we all caught the free shuttle into town, sponsored by the silk factory at the other end. Fortunately the factory was near People’s Park, and it being Sunday, the park was full of Shanghai one-child families enjoying the dry but chilly weather. There were vendors selling kites and soap-bubble kits. Many children were running around enjoying their new bubble makers. So we wandered around taking photos, and being photographed. It was a delightful afternoon and I’m sure it will remain one of the highlights of our cruise.

Bubbles in People

In the evening, we all went to a Chinese Acrobatic show. It was excellent. There are only three performing groups in Shanghai and they perform mostly for tourists because the Shanghai people are tired of it. Sounds like eating lamb in New Zealand.

The second day in Shanghai we went on an excursion that took us to the Shanghai Museum, which is in People’s Park. We had enough time to see some of the history of pottery, although apparently many of the best pieces are in Taiwan having been taken there when the Nationlists fled the communists. We also saw some ancient calligraphy and painting. In addition to enjoying them I was fascinated with how they controlled the lighting to help preserve them—the routine lighting was appropriately dim, just enough to let you see what was in each case, but if you moved in close to the glass and lingered for a moment, the light level would smoothly increase so that you could get a good look. When you walked away, the light level would smoothly drop back.

After the museum we went to Shanghai’s Chinatown—only it’s called Old Town—to see the Yuyuan Garden. The garden was built between 1559 and 1577 by a very wealthy family. It is a beautiful garden with all the elements of a Chinese Garden: rocks, water, structures, and flora.

Us at Yuyuan Garden

[Please see the Production Notes page.]

Hong Kong is every bit the metropolis depicted in the movies and on TV.

We sailed in at dawn, still in the wet low pressure system. (We saw some patches of blue sky in our two days but never really had sunshine.) We were immediately struck by all of the high-rise apartment buildings along the water—banks and banks of 20 story buildings, even on the outskirts. But we also sailed past a little fishing village.

Hong Kong Contrast

Hong Kong includes a section on the mainland and about 200 islands, including Hong Kong Island. As in Sydney, our hotel had the best location—at the cruise terminal in Kowloon on a point of the mainland across the harbour from Hong Kong island.

Hong Kong Island Skyline Reflected in the Rotterdam Bridge Windows

The cruise terminal is really a 3-4 story up-scale shopping mall, next to the Star Ferry and city bus terminals and the clock tower, a couple blocks from Kowloon Park and two streets over from the legendary Nathan Road—Hong Kong’s high-rise Rodeo Drive.

The first morning’s excursion was around Kowloon. We started with a flower market (on Flower Market Road, I won’t attempt the Chinese) and the neighboring Yuen Po Street Bird Garden and market. It appears that Asian countries tend to cluster merchants together by type rather than spreading them around town.

The second stop was the Kowloon Walled City Park. Up until 1899 the area was a walled garrison city. Then it was used for a variety of purposes. In the 1990s it was developed into a park based on the Jiangnan garden style of the early Qing Dynasty. A traditional Chinese garden has four elements: rocks, water, flora, and architecture. One element of architecture is the fully restored courtyard complex.

The third stop was the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, one of Hong Kong’s largest taoist temples. There are several temples and a large garden. The largest, Buddhist, temple was under reconstruction, so we couldn’t see it. Most of the complex was crowded with incense being burned in and near the temples. There was a beautiful garden in back complete with a zig-zag bridge to confuse the evil spirits.

Zig-Zag Bridge in Garden of Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple

On one side of the complex there was a long two-story building full of stalls occupied by fortune tellers.

The final stop was the Hong Kong Museum of History, a fantastic depiction of the history of Hong Kong from its 400 million year geological formation to its cultural and political development. There are dioramas, recreations, artifacts, photos, videos, etc. It was established in 1975. One could easily spend the day.

After lunch on the ship, Janice went out to explore more round the terminal area. We wandered up Nathan Road and into Kowloon Park, a large public park with swimming pools, aviary, and gardens.

After dinner Janice and I went outside again to see the famous Symphony of Lights show. Every evening at 8pm there is a 15 minute show that coordinates lights in and on more than 20 buildings on both side of the harbor to music. We finished the day with some time on the Internet through the free Wi-Fi in the terminal.

The second day dawned as foggy and drizzly as the first. But that did not deter Janice and I and about 40 of our Tai Chi classmates from venturing out before 6am to go to Kowloon Park and do Chi Kung with the natives.

After breakfast, all three of us went on an excursion to see the highlights of Hong Kong Island. The bus took us through a tunnel under the harbor (there are several tunnels these days, but no bridges) into the business district called Central. This is probably the area best known through movies and TV. It is where most of the high-rise office buildings are. We took the tram up Victoria Peak and saw absolutely nothing (except the inside of a cloud).

Then we went over the peak and down the other side and on to Aberdeen and a sampan ride. Like the rest of Hong Kong, Aberdeen is changing: fewer people are living on the water and more are living next to the water. You may have seen Aberdeen in a James Bond movie that had a scene a the Jumbo floating restaurant.

Final stop for the day was Stanley Market a warren of small shops selling all manner of goods for tourists.

Stanley Market

After lunch Janice and I spend some more free Internet time.

After dinner, we watched the Light show from the Sports Deck in the drizzle. Thankfully, the rain subsided enough that the dragon show could go on, although the lighting was disappointing. The troupe had banks of black lights to illuminate the two-person dragon and the 75′ boa-like dragon, but it just wasn’t enough to really see them on top of the terminal building. There was another two-person dragon with a “Welcome to Hong Kong” sign down by the gangway that was much more visible.

The sail away was as drizzly as the sail in but more of the buildings were illuminated.

Hong Kong is a fascinating city with much to do, friendly people, and generally clean streets.