China Day 13, Bullet Train to Shanghai

Saturday July 9^th

Off to an early start this morning, we were out of the hotel and on the minibus by 7:30 for the half hour ride to the train station. Allen left us in a waiting area and went to buy the tickets for the bullet train to Shanghai. He couldn't get tickets for the 9am train so we had to get them for the 11am train, perhaps we should have bought them yesterday? So we took all our bags and sat in a KFC restaurant for an hour and a half, because it was air-conditioned. It was interesting to watch the Chinese as they ordered and ate their American fast food. Then we went to the station waiting room. We boarded the train promptly on time. It was a beautiful, sleek, and very fast train that travelled at top speed of 260kph.

As we left the city of Hangzhou two things became readily apparent. One, how hazy and low the sky is. Allen claims it is humidity in the air, but it's really thick. It doesn't seem to smell but we've been noticing the air like this for awhile now. I think it's largely pollution. The second thing is how intensively the land is used here. I noticed the same thing on our last train trip. There is no vacant land, every inch is used for either buildings and roads, or farms. I suspect that they are using up their own farm land as they build more housing and infrastructure. We have seen lots of evidence of improvements in roads, train stations and bridges. I wonder what kind of problem that will create for them in the future.

We arrived in Shanghai about 2pm, checked in and went for lunch. We went to a Chinese restaurant that serves Western type food, called Waggas and I had a chicken curry wrap. After lunch we went for an orientation walk to the Bund area, which is a wide walkway along the edge of the Haungpu River. We were on the old side of the city, with older buildings that were built by Western companies. Across the river was the new financial area of Shanghai, with its many skyscrapers, including the Needle and the World Financial Building, which used to be the tallest building in the world, but is now third. On the river were lots of boats carrying payloads of coal and other raw materials and tour boats as well.

Allen led us to the Yuyuan Gardens, which were built by a rich family during the Ming Dynasty from 1559 to 1577. They are called a garden, but really it used to be the home of the family, and included all the family dwellings and gardens and ponds. We took the subway back to the hotel and had an hour to rest before the evening activity.

We went to see the Shanghai Acrobats at the Yun Feng Theatre. There were numerous acts including, contortionists, gymnasts, acrobats and five motorcyclists roaring around in that metal ball. It was an excellent show. Then we came back to the hotel area and went to a restaurant for our last night's dinner as a group. It was our last night with Allen and we had a good time, a couple of drinks and lots of laughs.