Shanghai, People’s Republic of China - Oct 19, 2011

Situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China sits beautiful Shanghai, the largest city of the People’s Republic of China and seventh largest in the world. Shanghai is also one of the world’s busiest ports, becoming the largest cargo port in the world in 2005. Originally a fishing town, Shanghai has emerged as one of China’s most important cities. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Shanghai was the third largest financial center in the world, after New York City and London, and the largest commercial city in the Far East. Its beauty and mystery had led to the city having various nicknames including “Paris of the East” and the “Queen of the Orient”. Before the nineteenth century, Shanghai was not considered a major city of China and compared to other major Chinese cities there are few ancient landmarks to be found. Shanghai’s importance grew in the nineteenth century, as a strategic position at the mouth of the Yangtze River made for a perfect location for trade with the West. British forces temporarily held Shanghai during the first Opium War and when it ended in 1842 Shanghai was opened for international trade. From the 1920s to the late 1930s Shanghai was a so-called “sin city” as gangsters wielded a great deal of power, running casinos and brothels, but bringing enormous profits into the city. In anticipation of the World Expo in 2010, Shanghai spent millions of dollars redeveloping the Bund, a popular pedestrian walkway along the banks of the Huangpu River, Shanghai also has one of the world’s largest numbers of Art Deco buildings including the beautiful Park Hotel, the Grand Theatre and the Peace Hotel, where live jazz is played nightly.

Yes there are 23 million people living here and although it is very crowded it just seems to work. People do get around and they are friendly enough about the craziness of getting from A to B. An interesting fact on one of our handouts state that “Shanghai is one of the world’s most densely populated cities and the hustle and bustles takes a toll - some people work as official ‘apologizers’”.

The sail in was simply fantastic with great weather, warm and clear.

 We had tour booked for our first day, a 90 minutes bus ride out of Shanghai to Zhujiajiao Watertown, with Venice type canals with gondolier style boats. Old world China, Zhujiajiao’s streets and alleyways contain numerous stone bridges and centuries old buildings. We visited the old post office, where the mail was delivered using canal boats and the old pharmacy, still using the weighed and measured traditional chinese medicines - the calculator they used is still the abacus.

With the camera on the ship we visited the newer part of the city, the Pudong. After taking the shuttle in we took the space age under water gondola (with laser light show) the half mile over to the Pudong. This is where the main financial district is as well as all the landmark futuristic buildings, the Pearl TV Tower and the worlds largest bottle opener. To gain the best views of both these buildings we took the elevator up the 88 floor of the Jinmao Tower. The observation deck on the 88th floor is 1520 square meters in area and 340.1 meters high, it is the highest and largest observation deck for sightseeing in the country. The elevator moves at 9.1 meters per second to get us to the observation deck in 45 seconds. The walkways in the Pudong are mainly elevated over the traffic to make moving around safe and easy. 

We then took the underwater tunnel back to The Bund and Old Shanghai and visited the Art Deco Peace Hotel to listen to the incredible live Jazz in the lobby bar area.  

A picture perfect first day in Shanghai.

Tip or Comment of the Day - Always throw the camera in the backpack because you just never know when the next great photo opportunity is going to happen.