Oct. 13 Shanghai

    Shaghai is China's most populous city with a total of 18.9 million!  In addition, there are 6 million "floating" people who come in and out of town to work, but are not counted as its citizens.  We arrived at the massive airport after a short flight of a couple of hours from Xian.  Annie tells us there is another airport here, too.       She says the city has 18 districts.  Again we notice how clean everything looks from the bus.  On our way to the hotel we cross the Pa River, which flows into the Yantzee River.  She tells us Shanghai is a cultural and industrial center.  We see the bullet train pass by in the distance and we wish we could take it.  It is the fastest train in the world - 250 MPH.

    Give me a second, and I'll find that part for you!  We drove by this little store on the way to the hotel.

    Since 1990 over 8000 highrises of over 15 stories have been built.  The tallest TV tower in Asia is here (468 meters).
    The bus takes us to the riverfront Bund area and she tells us we should walk down here at night to see the buildings lit up.

    The Bund area-looking across the river towards the newer buildings.  This word means "riverside" in Anglo and East Indian and "gathering" in Chinese.  The tallest structure is the TV antenna.

   There are no private banks in China.  Most of this row of front buildings is old banks and at least one insurance company.  The clock on the tower used to require 4 people to rewind it 4 times daily.  Now it is automatic.  The flowers and bushes were pretty.  This was one of the few times we had rain - far less than we had expected.  We went in October instead of September because they have so much more rain in September, especially in Hong Kong.  Thank you, Internet, for having weather sites where you can see historical data about weather for anyplace in the world!

    Over 10% of China's national gross income is made here in these buildings.  She tells us this city has more architectural variety - Asian, American, British and others.  Even some individual houses with foreign flair.
    One street we walked on had several of these planters on the light poles.  Interesting and pretty.

        While walking back to the hotel this mom asked Tom take our picture on her camera and he wanted one, too.  Several women asked to have their pictures taken with me.  Height?  Gray hair?  We saw so many adorable kids.

    For over 4 centuries the little fishing village here has been busy.  It is pretty close to the China Sea.
Most people in this area work very hard - fishing, salt mines, agriculture and with silk worms.
    Annie tells us that Shanghai was the first city in China to have electricity, running water and gas.  There is a lot of export trade done from this port.
    Earlier I mentioned the tricycles that were so popular on the streets - bicycles with 3 wheels and a small trailer attached to the back.  As we are turning a corner I see a man riding one - loaded down with a cedar chest and 3 other pieces of furniture!  Annie points out that the large commercial area we have been driving through has all been built since 1993.  And there is a lot of high tech area nearby.
    The newest skyscraper being built will be 121 stories high.  Since 1990 they have built 8 bridges over the river, plus tunnels under it.  Again we see hundreds of condo high rises and someone asks if she knows what the occupancy rate is and she said they always say they are about 95% occupied.
    She explains that some highrises are joint ventures with corporations and the government, where the government helps them build the structure.  Here, one side of the river has all Chinese business highrises and the other side has a lot of joint ventures between other corporations from elsewhere and the Chinese.  Some foreign corporations own their own.  The land is leased for 50-70 years and it will never be owned by the owners.
        We toured the Shanghai Museum.  It started in 1950, with a new building being built in 1995.  They have over 420,000 pieces, but only have room to display 11,000 at once.  The age of the pieces we saw were mind boggling.  Some bronze pieces were 4,000 years old and some ceramic pieces 10,000 years old.  I don't recall the age of this vase, but the painting was beautiful.

    Late afternon we went to the Children's Palace, home of one of the free after school curriculums.  They are funded by various companies, city government, donations and proceeds from the gift shop.  Many of us left a little there for them.  Very talented children are helped to move on with their artistic studies.

    The older girl played the stringed instrument called a Pipa for us.  The young girl is 7 and started playing the Zhen (zither) at 3.  Wow, could she play that thing! It has 16 strings.

    These girls performed gymnastics for us.  Then they put the scarves on the stick, sticking them up in the air  and twirling them as fast as they could.  We were impressed.  One little girl was "too tired", just as one in the ballet class had said.



          We walked back to the Bund to see the lights that evening.  This is a picture of the street on the way.

 The Bund lit up at night.

    The view looking across the river.