Tuesday, April 16. Cloudy but pleasant.

We were on our way around 9:15. Today our mission was to get to the far side of this vast area known as Shanghai to visit an old fishing village which is now a destination for people looking for a pleasant day out without the hustle bustle of the big city.

Shanghai is vast, about 80 x 120 kilometres with a population of 24,000,000 souls. There does not seem to be a City Centre as such. It is just one vast continuous built-up area. We drove for over an hour and you would swear you were in the city except the traffic was lighter. Actually they seem to take a lot of care to plant trees and bushes and beautify the roadways. Speaking of roadways, the government does a pretty good job of collecting tolls to help finance a very good road and highway system.

At the outskirts of the village it was a pleasant stroll through a very narrow street where food vendors were displaying and in some cases cooking their food. We always stay away from such food stalls and try to eat in established restaurants. A slightly better chance of avoiding tummy issues at least.

We are definitely Foreigners and stand out as such, we occasionally see white people but very rarely. Our guide said that there would be people here from places where they would never have seen white people before: we get stares, waves and on more than one occasion I have seen people taking our picture.

At lunch time we ate in a restaurant that was over 100 years old. The food was basic but good and the three meals came to $15.00. Lunch was not included today so we treated the guide.

A stroll back to the car and the run back to the city where we stopped for a short run-down on how the silk worm works his magic ending up in garments.

Next we went to the Apple Store to try and get some help on improving the connectivity of my iPad. No luck so back to the hotel to have a bit of a quiet time and to try and send some pictures via this darned iPad! Today it appears that I am having relatively good luck.

Tonight we went to another gourmet restaurant that is in the residence of a former high official in the last Dynasty around 1907 [?]. Apparently when his party went out of favour he built a home for his favourite concubine and one for himself. He eventually became a banker. The restaurant grounds are crowded with shiny black high-end cars: Mercedes, Audis, Jags, BMW and Lexus, all with drivers waiting for their big-shot bosses to come out.

The food was picked by our guide who then left us to be on our own. We feel rather conscious of the fact that we are foreigners and the staff knows that we are unfamiliar with their customs, they do try to help us and often I catch them watching us curiously as we try to identify and eat the foods presented to us. So far the food has been delicious and I actually used chopsticks for about 33% of the meal, improving!

Tomorrow we have a noonish departure for a short flight to where we join the Yangzi River Cruise. I think that we have had enough of big Chinese cities for the time being, they are important to get an overall feel of the country and it has been very nice to have the use of a private car and driver with a personal guide but enough is enough of cities. Time for a change of scenery I think.

400 year old bridge

A park in the old French Concession

Agnes, our guide

Baby time...

Canal bridge

Canal

More canal

Grass beasties

Mulberries

Photograph the foreigners

Pigs feet

Sampan man

Silk thread winder

Street market vendor, frogs anyone?

Snails

Monday, April 15. Hot and humid during the day, cooler at night.

We arranged to get picked up at 10:00 am so we could have some time in the morning to get ourselves together, nice!

When we went to breakfast there was a note on the table saying that all poultry products were no available. Fellette had oatmeal and I had pancakes.

We seem to have run out of Chinese money so we went a few doors down the street to the Bank of China and the giant doors were unlocked and opened as the clock struck nine. After no luck at two ATMs we got lucky on the third. Back to the hotel to clean my cameras and get ready for a day of touring.

We were met in the lobby by Agnes, our 45 year old Chinese guide. Two minutes later we were off to the Park and Garden which we thoroughly enjoyed, next a stroll through Old Shanghai were some still live in tiny homes holding many families. I think this is when my first impressions of China as a very old and dirty place were formed in the 1940s. Probably by some photographs and old books I suppose,

The Chinese common folk are very patient and tolerant of being in close proximity to crowds and other people inside what we would consider our private space. They are also used to being in an environment where they are subservient to others, just like the Emperor had control of life or death over his people. In our country we are taught that everybody is equal, I don't think that is the case here, some are more equal than others. Many government officials are billionaires, on the backs of common folk. This they can do nothing about.

We had lunch in a local restaurant where I actually had luck using chopsticks, momentarily. We strolled through the streets absorbing the colour, noise, smells and atmosphere of Shanghai. We next visited the Shanghai Museum which is less than 15 years old and a masterpiece of marble and granite and appropriately holds and displays artifacts going back for 5000 years, seeing the development of bronze, pottery, porcelain and textiles over the ages was interesting. Besides it was air conditioned in there.

We were back in the hotel for a quiet time before we are scheduled for a dinner and and acrobat show tonight.

I cannot believe the opulence of this hotel. We paid what was appropriate for a decent tour for two people for the 18 day tour of China. I asked what was the room rate for our room. The clerk looked it up and it was $850 per night!!! Now you do the math, there is no way that we paid enough for 17 nights in hotels such as this. Somehow there must be a policy of putting foreign tourists, on an organized tour at greatly discounted rates. We even have Free International Phone Calls included. So, I spoke to all of our kids and Moe today. Except Jeannette who disregarded the funny phone number on her display. Understandable.

Back home here at 9:30 after a dinner and acrobatic show, fantastic. We have seen them before but they are certainly worth seeng any time you have an opportunity.

We finally have a handle on this touring in China: don't even try to do everything that is offered, you will burn yourself out and it is impossible to do much more than get an overview of this country in 17 days anyway. 10:00 am pick up again tomorrow!

Central section of Old Shanghai

Yuyuan Garden in Old Shanghai

As you can tell, we are garden people

In the garden still

Garden still

A shopping mall in Shanghai

Chinese Army crawling soldiers for sale on the street, they actually crawl

Old Shanghai

Saturday lunch

Shanghai Museum

Ethnic gallery

Taiwan is represented here, as a province of China

Our mega super unbelievable Spa bath complete with music

Fellette trying to make coffee in the fancy machine

Sunday, April 14. Warm, 30C.

Awake at 5:30 after a great sleep, again!. The touring is interesting but we are on the go all the time. We will have to pick and choose what we want to see in Shanghai methinks so we have a little relax time, just the two of us.

Regardless, we had breakfast where I was successful in getting a few pictures off so that was good. Back to the room where Fellette had packed earlier and soon we were in the lobby with our luggage on tour again.

First stop was the Muslim Temple in the Muslim Quarter for a stroll and peek at the Mosque, built in 742. The Muslims that settled here were from Persia and they were some of the traders travelling the Silk Road from China to Europe that married Chinese women and settled here. There is now about 80,000 Muslims living in Xi'an. They also have their own shops and restaurants etc. It was very interesting to see them cooking exotic looking dishes right in the street, and patrons eating there as well. The place is obviously old, but as clean as it can be. They look identical to the Chinese here but just dress slightly different sometimes.

Next we went to a street that sells products for those that practice the art of calligraphy: a wide assortment of brushes, papers and a vast array of associated goods. There were scores of shops, and as many or more street stalls in the area. Other artists have also set up there.

Next we went to the City Wall: Xi'an is a walled city, a rectangular wall, three by four kilometres each side 14 kilometres all around. It was built several hundred years ago in eight years and has beautiful watch towers every 120 meters. The wall is 14 meters across and about 10 meters high, truly a beautiful feature for the city, today full of families and tourists strolling, flying kites and biking the wall on a Sunday. The wall was put up to keep domestic malcontents out, not foreign invaders. The rich lived in the city and the poor folks lived outside in the country-side. It is illuminated at night, the watch towers as well as the wall and is absolutely beautiful.

Next we asked to be taken to the airport to get ready to fly to Shanghai, or Bird Flue City as I call it.

I may have mentioned before how nice it is to have this private call all time. My gosh, we just finish somewhere and next thing the car is there and the door is opened and we are whisked off, it is magical and a bit addictive I think.

As you can see we have done a fair amount before we even fly for the two hour flight where we are to be met and taken to Shanghai by a Magnetic Levitation train, known as a Magnev. Then we will have time to relax and unwind before we start it all over agin in a new city!

PS We arrived as scheduled and are now in our hotel room. My gosh, it keeps getting better... This one is absolutely over the top. Indescribable, right down to free international phone calls! I will try and describe later.

We have talked to our guide and will modify the hectic time here and bring it down a notch. Great.

Bank of China head office.two buildings away from our hotel, The Peninsula

Fellette strolling the City Wall in Xi'an

Flowers in our hotel

Shanghai Bund at night

Strolling in the Muslim Quarter

That says 300 KPH

The Maglev from Shanghai airport to downtown

Saturday, April 13. Hot and a bit muggy.

At nine we were Off to the factory that makes theTerracotta Warriors for official sale. The shop of course had some other absolutely gorgeous furniture and carvings for consideration. As you may know I am the shopper in the family and am bedazzled by this stuff. Our big house has still room for more stuff. I thought that I had passed that stage but...

Next to the actual site of the warriors. It is not just a big building, but rather an enormous modern complex covering acres and acres. It was crowded but apparently not really, according to our guide.

The discovery was made by four farmers digging a well in the 1970's I believe. All have died but one, and he is there signing books for tourists. We bought one. He and his friends are responsible for thousands and thousands of jobs revolving around this 'Industry' of the warriors.

We had lunch there, very nice indeed, then to town to the City Museum which we could have skipped, then to the Big Goose Pagoda, nice stroll, then to the hotel for a quick shower and change of clothes.

Next we went to a Dumpling Restaurant where we had basically, Death by Dumpling. It was seemingly endless, but very nice, again. We then walked through the busy streets for 15 minutes to the theatre where we saw The Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Show. All I can say that it was spectacular and about the most colourful thing I have ever seen. Fascinating.

We were met outside the theatre by our private car and driver and whisked back to our hotel, exhausted!

There is so much going on on this trip it is very hard to take it all in. Impossible to be factual.

I hope that some of the flavour of what we are experiencing is coming through on the blog.

Tomorrow, Sunday here we fly to Shanghai, we are looking forward to the quiet time at the airport and the two hour flight, it seems that is the only rest time we have, other than sleep.

Duck dumpling

Fellette is getting better!

Happy Budda

Tang show 1

Tang show 2

Tang show 3

Saturday, April 13

Observations.

While at the Beijing Domestic Airport I had some time to People-watch and made the following observations:

- The staff in the airport are friendly, happy and helpful, to everybody regardless of race. The security people in particular.

- The passengers are the same as in any modern airport except they dress better, seriously, the dressing down and unkempt look seems to not be in fashion here. The worst dressed people seem to be white.

- The toilets: We in the west could take lessons from the Chinese on how to keep toilets clean and comfortable in a public building.

- Most signage and announcements are in English as well as Chinese. We are made to feel like welcome visitors.

- The flight, on Eastern China Airlines was on an Airbus A321. Clean as a whistle, lunch was served on a one hour and 40 minute flight. Excellent service, landed at Xian airport, immaculate, big, new.

Hi Folks, please take the time to read this about my blog.

Not sure if I can continue to have a blog going under these circumstances. I hope you can tough it out with me.

My iPad seems to have difficulty functioning properly. I think a lot of it is the Internet system here as well as iPad limitations.

Also I think there is some form of filtering of messages going on.

Sometimes it sends but most time not. Also I seem to lose typed messages so I sometimes have no idea what I have sent. Text goes easier than photos it seems. There is no pattern. So, sometimes there may be no pictures. .

SATURDAY. It is 5:30 and we are wide awake having gone to bed around 8:00.

We had a wonderful flight and we met again by our guide and a private car. We toured a bit visiting two sites: one the dig site with a wonderful museum now over it,

the other a a museum of artifacts found during the dig. Both are of a funeral site of an earlier dynasty than Terracotta Warriors but only discovered in 1990 when they were digging a road to the airport for the Olympics.

It seems that this country can do things on a massive scale without fuss and bother.

Next we had dinner which was great, there are some very nice Chinese foods we are finding.

Then to the Sofitel Hotel in the centre of town where we were upgraded two levels to a Mini-Suite. Very posh indeed.

Later today, Saturday, we go to the actual Terracotta Warriors site and some other attractions. This city of 8,000,000 is prettier and has much more parks and green space than Beijing, much warmer too.

Eastern China Air, A321 plane, spotless, good service and lunch on a 1 1/2 hr. flight

On the flight they even had head pads, long gone on most flights at home

Dinner remains

At the restaurant. Doug covets these!

Nice work they do here

Horses as they were found

Miniatures

Reproduction of the chariot

Restored horses

The arms were wooden and they were fully clothed when new, then buried

Some of them

The main site. Overwhelming

Also the main building

Friday, April 12. Clear, warmer.

Today we fly to Xian, a two hour flight to the ancient city where our sole purpose is to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. I think we need a bit of a day off and am happy to have a travel day even though it will be rough it will be a change and different. We arrived here Sunday changing our clocks 14 hours ahead. Although we slept on the plane we hit the ground running the next morning after 4 to 6 hours of fitful sleep. Since then we have walked forever, and I mean forever.

Our guide has tried to show us everything on her schedule and some things are more interesting, to us, than others. Yesterday was kind of the breaking point, I was fine in the morning, yet about five minutes after getting in the car my stomach started to send signals that all was not right in that area of my body. Oh, Oh, and we are off to see the Great Wall. The driver stopped on the freeway to get me a throw up bag in case the worse happened and eventually we stopped at a Freeway Service Area Rest stop. The issue subsided and we proceeded. Hmmmm, must have been the bean-curd dumpling I tried for breakfast! That ends the experiment in venturing into the exotic foods for breakfast thing!

We got back to the hotel around 4:00 last night and I felt better just being there. My next mission was to get some pics of the Wall to Craig. No luck in the room so I reluctantly dragged myself to the downstairs lobby and had success. That made me feel better, so I had a Gin and Tonic while I did my thing. It is very frustrating as the iPad is not as strong as a computer and it can only be hooked up wireless, unfortunately. I got about 6 pics off in less than an hour. That would take two minutes at home.

Back to the room again where Fellette had been relaxing. I did not want to face another Chinese menu so we ordered room service. I ate 3/4 of a club sandwich and just laid on the bed and dozed. HBO had the final episode of The Lord of the Rings, Fellette, who ate her salad with gusto watched it and next thing it was around nine o'clock. I officially went to bed then and slept the night. We got up at six, me to write the blog, Fellette to do her usual thing. Fellette has an amazing constitution, able to take just about anything and sleeps like a rock.

Me doing the blog is good for me in spite of the problems. It inspires me throughout the day as I take pictures bearing in mind that you folks reading this may get some enjoyment out of it. What would really be the point of taking pictures if they are not to be shared. And showing pictures to people at home after the trip just doesn't do it and is not practical.

Our in-room dinner! [No Chinese!]