March 12

3-11: Our time in Shanghai has been extended - hopefully not by much - because of the fog. The port has been closed down for the time being so instead of having left at 6pm we are still tied up at the dock at 9:15. Of course, Ginnie and I are pretty sure that the fog is just hiding the SMOG The air quality is not wonderful - made Ginnie’s breathing pretty difficult. Our time in Shanghai was great - an amazing city of 17 million people! Block after block of new 20+ story condo buildings - our guide said they had to be tall buildings because if it was only 5 or 6 stories there would be no elevators. Also he said you could tell the difference between the apartment buildings and the office buildings because there was no laundry hanging out of the windows in the office buildings. All of the apartment/condo buildings had laundry hanging out - it was amazing - even the new upscale buildings. Also - so many bicycles! And so many pedestrians. Very different from an American city. We got our tour at 2 yesterday and traveled into Shanghai from the port - about an hours drive. We went to the Jade Buddha Temple. It was a beautiful place. The Jade Buddha was cut from a solid piece of white jade and was brought from Burma in the 1800s - it weighs tons and was carried by hand. We saw the monks come out and do a chant of some sort and there were people coming in and buying incense and burning it and bowing in the four directions. And they tie wishes on ribbons on the trees to send them to heaven to be fulfilled. They would buy big boxes of something and would burn them in huge urns in the main courtyard. It was a very beautiful and interesting place. There were also many people selling “stuff” - fans, “Rolexes,” backscratchers, postcards, etc. - on the street leading to the temple - amazing - kind of like Mexico. Then we went to the Yu Garden which was very nice - we got there just before closing so we didn’t even need to fight the crowds - well, at least not once inside the garden. Most things were not yet in bloom but it was still very pretty - and peaceful - it was hard to believe you were in the middle of a city of 17 million! After the garden we went to the Hyatt Hotel where we were having dinner and spending the night. The hotel is in the top of the Jin Mao Building which is the tallest in China. The lobby is on the 54th floor and our room was on the 67th floor. Our rooms were magnificent - and huge, especially after 2 months on the ship! Dinner wasenjoyable even though the food really wasn’t that good. The entertainment was great - traditional acrobats etc - pictures included. After the dinner and show Ginnie and I went to the hotel bar and had a beer - it was interesting to see the bar - looked like any upscale bar in any US downtown - except that all the YUPPIES were Chinese. This morning we had breakfast and wrote some postcards and then came back to the ship. We did laundry and napped in our “broom closet” of a room! All in all the trip to Shanghai was wonderful. Our tour guide was the best we have had yet and he made the tour very interesting. We are headed out of port (10pm) - a cold front came through and cleared the fog out - so we should be able to get to Hong Kong on time. Enjoy the pictures. Bedtime!