Day 14 - Hello Shanghai

After arriving in very late last night … our plane landed at 11.20 pm … we navigated our way through the airport, collected our luggage and headed out to the arrivals hall. Pudong Airport is huge … HUGE … so we had our fingers crossed that we would be able to find our guide when we emerged from airside. Wendy Wu didn’t disappoint us … standing right at the opening of the doors stood Dawn holding a WW sign and a sign with our names on it and waving madly at us!

So first step in Shanghai was a success. Dawn was welcoming and friendly and quickly headed us off to the car park to meet our driver Mr Son. We then had a 45 minute drive to our hotel which, like all of our hotels on this trip, have been located right in the centre of the city. Shanghai has a population of 26 million (just under the total population of Australia) and yet it was a smooth drive all the way from the airport. We were fascinated that the city was in relative darkness and a quick Google revealed that Shanghai have implemented a “light curfew” where the lights on the buildings are either turned off or dimmed and street lights are also reduced. They are attempting to minimise light pollution … a strange but impressive sight.

We arrived at the hotel and Dawn assisted us with check in, took us up to our room to check it was to our satisfaction and then bid us good night. She was not to be our guide for our days in Shanghai but she had been tasked with ensuring our safe transition from airport to hotel. Armed with the name of our guide for the next day and our meeting time … she had done a good job.

So at 1.15 am … we crawled into bed knowing that we did not need to start early the next day. Our meeting time was not until 10 am … so no alarm was set and we both crashed. I slept until 6.05 and Ian until 8.00. Then shower, breakfast and preparing for our day ahead.

At 9.50 we were in the lobby waiting for our guide … Sophie. She arrived just after 10 … very apologetic for being late! She is young and bubbly with incredible English and knowledge of her city. We headed out to greet Mr Son again (who we had already met) and jumped onto his car to begin our adventure.

We drove to Gucheng Park … a public park which was only developed 20 years ago. It is a beautiful park with lovely gardens, exercise equipment and a small public square where couples were dancing to music. The elderly here (older folk) take their health very seriously, with many exercising, and dancing like we have seen in other cities in our time in China.

We then headed to Yu Garden … just a short walk through Gucheng Park. This was a private garden built for Mr Pan (a minister during the Ming Dynasty) by his son in 1559. It is now owned by the Chinese government who has made it accessible for all to enjoy (for a minimal price). It has been declared a national monument. It is an extensive Chinese garden with meandering paths and over 40 viewing spots. There are arched bridges that cross a water feature that bends its way through the garden. Massive rocks and boulders create features within the garden that is filled with trees, shrubs, azaleas in full bloom, grasses and bamboo. There are several buildings (many have been either rebuilt or repaired since they were originally built) including pavilions for drinking tea, writing or spending time with guests.

Walls and gates within the garden are guarded by lions or dragons … protecting the garden from evil spirits. Tessalated windows in the walls provide glimpses of what lays beyond with every window being different to the others. Wall friezes tell stories of the time, mosaics made of pebbles depict animals like deers and bats. There was so much to see … and despite the crowd (which apparently was quite reasonable today) there was an overwhelming sense of tranquility.

Leaving the gardens we wandered into the Yuyuan Bazaar which abuts the garden. This bazaar dates back to 1907, and feature many antique buildings, the nine step zig zag bridge (the number nine is meant to bring luck), a tea house established over 100 years ago, food stalls, antique stalls and the typical souvenir stores. The buildings are beautiful and many surround the central ponds. We wandered through looking at the buildings and the gardens and stopping to watch ladies making dumplings and tasted some tea.

Sophie took us through a sports store which provides access to a traditional wooden bridge that connects two of the buildings so that we could look down on the small streets in the old town. She also took us to a hidden roof top balcony where people order tea from the nearby tea shop and sit to sip their tea and read a book. The rooftop overlooks the Yu Garden so we had one last chance to see the gardens, this time from above.

We then headed out of the old town and meet up with Mr Son who carefully drove us to lunch. Lunch was at a popular dumpling restaurant 1km from our hotel. Jia Jia Tang Bao (since 1986) must be famous because: a) it has framed pictures on the walls of celebrities who have eaten there; b) it featured in a UK doco on eating out in Shanghai; and c) there is a queue to get in.

Ian picked 4 (safe) dishes and Sophie added 3 more adventurous ones. So our end of the small shared table comprised: steamed meat soup dumplings (set of 12), black truffle dumplings (6), wontons in soup (12), Shanghai noodles, spicy noodles with pork mince in soup, duck blood soup and steamed vegetables. And between the three of us we did a fair job of polishing off most of the food. Lovely flavours, warm broths and soups, generous portions. Another lovely lunch that pushed our culinary boundaries out a little further.

After lunch Mr Son drove us to the Bund. Apparently, according to Sophie, if you don’t visit the Bund you have not visited Shanghai. The Bund, which means embankment, lines the Huangpu River. Side note here … the word Pu means river so when we say Huangpu River we are actually saying Huang River River!). This part of Shanghai was once a wasteland on the West Bank of the river and the landed was ceded to the British and became a central location for European trade. The buildings in the West Bank have a very European architecture … two or three stories, granite or brick, with towers and clocks. They were the banks and financial institutions of the 1920s and 30s.

The east side of the river … Pudong was undeveloped until the 1990s when the premier announced that the farmland and wasteland would be redeveloped. Modern buildings quickly grew in the area and is now home to the tallest skyscraper in Shanghai (Jin Mao building … 420 m tall) as well as others that reach high into the sky. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is a notable feature of the skyline, with its distinctive pearls falling from the sky.

As we wandered the Bund, stopping to take photos on both sides … the contrast of the old traditional and the new modern … we passed families, young couples, couples having wedding photos taken in hired wedding outfits (they hire them for the day, pay a photographer and spend the entire day taking photos). We walked along the river watching the boats in the river … large barges bringing shipping containers from the docks and cruising boats (one of which we will take later in the evening). We stopped to take photos of the floral wall and the replica Bull of Wall Street.

We then headed back to the car and Mr Son drove us back to the hotel for a “rest”. It was actually greatly appreciated after the busy days, early mornings and late nights. I’ve had the chance to write much of the blog, Ian has sent me photos to include (and he wrote the section about lunch). We enjoyed an ice cream from a local store. Ian watched the footy!

After the game finished … yay Hawks … we headed downstairs to join Mr Son who would drive us to meet Sophie at the wharf for the evening cruise on the river. Mr Son greeted us warmly and we headed off. About 10 minutes later we arrived at our destination to find Sophie waiting for us (she had gone ahead to queue for our tickets). Our cruise was scheduled for 6.45 and we began queuing at 6.00. Because of Sophie’s good planning we were at the front of the queue to board the boat when it was our turn. A couple of rather large men tried to muscle their way in front of Sophie is who probably only 150 cm and weighs about 40 kg … but she held her own and stared them down. What they also didn’t realise was that Sophie knew the quickest way onto the boat and so once the gates opened we boarded and had prime position despite them rushing ahead!

The cruise was about 50 minutes long … first on the east side of the river which is the new side. Here the buildings are modern, glass, structurally interesting and engineeringly challenging. They are lit up as a light show from 6 pm to 10 pm which made for a wonderful show. At the end of the river just before a bridge lit up in red the boat turned to begin its journey back … this time we were viewing the west bank. Here the buildings are the older more colonial or French style and instead of being a rainbow of colours were lit by yellow lighting providing a contrast to the other side.

The cruise was fabulous. The air was warm but the breeze cool. As the darkness descended the views became more and more impressive. It was great to see the buildings at night after we had seen them earlier in the day on our walk on the Bund.

And as I sit here finishing today’s blog Ian is outside amongst the fanfare, whistles, and noise of the Nike After Dark run. Commencing at 9 pm for the women. I can hear the noise from our room on the 19th floor!

Stop press (Ian here): The 2025 After Dark Tour sponsored by Nike held its 10km women's run in Shanghai tonight. Several thousand professional and amateur runners from China and around the world started their race in the brightly lit Century Square Nanjing Rd in central Shanghai (think Times Square). Which happens to be 100m from our hotel! So, with a front barrier view right at the starting line, a stream of runners raced past me at 9pm, to the cheers of thousands of spectators and the accompaniment of the lead race car and a large police escort. What a sight! I took photos of the lead runners and then switched to video. It took 2 minutes and 10 seconds for the last runners to reach me. Have fun girls!