Day 3 (November 12, 2015)-- Shanghai, China
We have a whole day here in Shanghai today. One thing I liked about this tour was that it did not require us to get up extremely early in the morning. Usually we would have breakfast at around 7AM, then meet with the guide for tours at around 8:30. That gave us enough sleep for the night and had time to enjoy our breakfast leisurely before the busy day.
Breakfast was something to look forward to because of the variety of food available. Most hotels provide plenty of western and Chinese breakfast items for guests to choose from. Lunch and dinner on the land portion of this tour were monotonously, with some kind of sweet and sour at every meal, and lots of vegetables. I think they tried to provide food that is cost effective and appeals to the western taste buds but did a poor job doing it. What turned out on the lazy susan would generally be the Chinese version of the Americanized Chinese food. If there was a soup, it could very well be the imitation borsch that was watered-down and flavorless. There were a few times that they had french fries as a dish at meals. Yes, a lot of fried things.
All-you-can-eat breakfast at Wyndham.
Lots to choose from
View from our hotel room to the right.
Yangpu Bridge (Inner-Ring Elevated Road) over the Huangpu River on the left.
After breakfast we had time to go out on a stroll nearby. We walked a couple of blocks to Pingliang Road, then made our way back through Meizhou Road. Feeling the rhythm of the city and seeing how locals go on their daily lives is something that intrigue us.
Look! There is even an 85 Degrees Bakery!
Then we came upon this wet market, I believe this was on Shenyang Road.
We also went inside this indoor market on the right. We managed to get some hot soy milk and Chinese doughnuts at the stand near the corner of this street after standing in line for 10 minutes. We were quite full from breakfast but we just had to try some. They were delicious!
Great soy milk and fried dough shop. The line soon got quite long as we were still deciding if we should get some. The lady brought her own pot to bring some hot soy milk home.
Our hotel standing tall in the neighborhood.
Shanghai Museum
Last night, we came to the hotel with bus #2 and this morning we finally met our fellow travel companions from bus #1. We were also asked to switch from table #2 to table #4 because there seemed to be some problems with the original grouping.
First excursion of the day was to the Shanghai Museum.We were there early so the line was not terribly bad. Security was very tight, almost like going through security check at the airport. The exterior of the building is quite impressive and admission is free, we were told.
Entrance to the museum
beautiful sculptures
ceiling
There are four levels with different exhibition in each room. Well organized and easy to explore.
I only took one picture of the displays there though.
I was actually too tired to go through the rooms and spent most my time sitting on benches waiting for MOR to explore on his own.
Silk Embroidery-Mongolian BBQ-Cashmere Factory
It was raining when we came out of the Shanghai Museum. Our next stop would be a shopping stop at a complex that houses an embroidery factory, a Mongolian BBQ restaurant, and a cashmere shop.
Exterior of the complex
First stop, the embroidery factory/shop.
They had some amazingly beautiful silk embroidery for sale but they were all too expensive for us.
Other than a couple of people buying small versions of the silk embroidery, most of us just enjoyed our time there admiring these beautiful pieces.
After a long stay at the embroidery shop we were taken to the Mongolian BBQ restaurant next door. It was already filled with people from different tours, and it seemed to be mostly Sinorama tours from different countries. I honestly believe that the factory provide free lunch to the tour groups when they visit this complex here.
Just like any other Mongolian BBQ places, you pick the meat, vegetables, and seasoning that you want and they cook it on the giant grill for you. Here, they served beef, pork, and chicken with many different kinds of vegetables. They also had self-service rice, soup, salad, fruits on the side. It's all-you-can-eat if you line up fast enough. The problem was they did not give us enough time here to enjoy the food before they lead us upstairs to the cashmere shop.
The cashmere shop
Huangpu River Cruise
This was not a good day to go on a river cruise as it was raining continuously. By now, my shoes were all soaking wet which made it quite uncomfortable for the rest of the day. Our bus dropped us off at the Shiliupu Marina to board the 3:00PM cruise.
Waiting to board the boat for the river cruise.
It was still raining outside as we board the boat, so everyone stayed in and there were not enough chairs on deck. They closed off the front part of the ship for people who were willing to pay 30RMB extra for the 'VIP' seating which included drinks and snacks. No takers on this sailing though.
We had the 'front row' (only row) seats cruising along the Huangpu River, with the new Pudong district on one side...
...and the historical buildings on the Bund side.
It would have been beautiful cruising on this river in the evening.
Back to the Shiliupu Marina in the rain.
Then we were taken to Nanjing Road for some free time and shopping. Nanjing Road is the pedestrian street with many shopping opportunities. We were not interested in malls but found a drug store/pharmacy type of shop to get some needed Chinese medicine. There were many French Canadians shopping for prescription drugs here also. We ran into this same Sinorama group several times later on. It seemed that they all came prepared with prescriptions in hands and lead by their tour guide as interpreter. I was kind of shocked by what I saw.
After Nanjing Road, we were taken to a Szechuan restaurant for dinner where the food was spicy and greasy.
Our last stop for the day was the Acrobatics show. She bought a Chinese flute at the restaurant and having some fun playing as we rode the bus to Ritz Carlton for the Acrobatics show.
A quick picture as we went into the show room.
The acrobatics show was fascinating, but I have to admit that I slept through most of it and only saw the beginning and the ending of the show.
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