Day 64

Shanghai, China

Today we had a third party tour. China requires a Visa for USA citizens. Visas’s are waived for cruise ship passengers if they are on an approved, organized tour. All of the HAL tours met this approval. Would the third party tour we booked meet this requirement? No one knew the answer so we decided to get our Chinese Visa back in October. This also allowed us to spend the night in China if we chose to do so.

Our tour guide, “Mary”, was to meet us at 9am in the terminal. I’m sure her name is not actually Mary but is some name we would have difficulty pronouncing. The ship was cleared at 8:30 am and we made our way into the terminal. Last night, a stamped copy of our passport picture page was delivered to our room. We would use this to get in and out of China.

The process went smoother than expected. I have to laugh at all of the things you can get people to do with no apparent reason. We walked by a scanner machine with a conveyor belt. The belt was operating but there was no one around to monitor anything that was happening. We, of course, just walked past it as ship passengers continually loaded their belongings into it and then recovered them from the other side. How ridiculous. I’m sure all of these people felt better when they did this. Improved security.

Mary was waiting for us in the lobby. The tour we had with Mary will use taxi’s for transportation. We were to pay for the taxi. Cash only. There was a money exchange place in the lobby but the line was long and the ship people always have lot’s of questions. Mary suggested we exchange money somewhere else. She would cover the taxi.

We boarded our taxi and left for downtown Shanghai. The ship was almost 20 miles from downtown. One hour with traffic. On the way we were at a stop light and a policeman came over to the taxi. Papers please! (my translation). The driver showed him some papers and we were off again. “He needs to have a license to drive a taxi”, Mary said.

Our first stop was in an area known as the ChinaTown in China. An older area of Shanghai with original Chinese structures.

Next was a shrine to Buddha. This religion was brought over from India. It is the largest religion in China.

There were people praying to Buddha. Burning incense so their message would travel up to Buddha with the smoke.

I found an atm in this area and quickly withdrew some local currency.

Lunch was next. We ate at what we would call a food court in the basement of a building. Yun dumplings was a chain restaurant. Yummy. Eating with chopsticks requires one to stick their face almost into the plate when eating things like this. I should bring my own fork.

Mary said a few things that stuck with me through the day. Most of the visitors to China come from the USA. The tourist areas were packed with people. It was obvious that it was mainly Americans. Another things she said is that the political party is Communist. The economy is not. If you don’t work hard, you don’t eat. America has a lot of social programs, she said. China does not. I thought that this was Mary towing the political line for her country. She was close to our age and grew up with this system. I imagine her parents told about how bad the hyperinflation was before the communists took over in 1949 and the nationalists fled to Taiwan. She kept referring to 1949 as the beginning of the “New China”. The government took control of everything and all of the foreigners left.

The Huangpu River separates the two sides of Shanghai. The older, British influenced section and the new modern Chinese section. The buildings in the section across the river began in 2006. Nothing was there prior to that year. The older section is about 100 years old.

The city of Shanghai is very clean. Lot’s of flowers, trimmed gardens, parks. It felt very safe. High end retail stores everywhere. Lot’s and lot’s of money here. Lot’s of police. Lot’s of cameras. No homeless to be seen. No one begging. People seemed very happy, very friendly, very helpful. I don’t remember any negativity when we struggled with the language. Everyone was willing to help with communication. I can still remember the head shaking when we were in France and I know a lot more French than I do Chinese.

I tried to think of an American city that I could compare to what I saw here. I couldn’t think of one. I did think of huge amounts of government regulation, corruption, and government spending on social programs. Wasn’t I being constantly monitored here in Shanghai? Cameras everywhere. Police everywhere. Wait a minute, I thought, isn’t this the way it is back home? Cameras everywhere? My online activities being monitored? Which country is the free one?

We finished our tour with Mary in the new section of Shanghai. No bridges to be seen in this area. There are 18 tunnels taking traffic under the river. All of them very new. Very modern.

The 2nd largest building in the world is right here in Shanghai. The tallest is in Dubai. We had planned a visit to that but we are no longer visiting Dubai on this cruise.

The world’s longest suspension bridge is here. Longer than the Golden Gate. The new section was immaculate.

It was time to head back to the port. About an hour with traffic. We said our goodbye’s and paid Mary for the taxi. $400 for the day. This included the one hour each way and all of the different tax’s we used during our tour. $400 Chinese Yuan Renminbi = about $30 USD. 8 hrs with a private guide and transportation cost us under $250 USD. Tipping is not done here. “They do the job they are paid to do”, is the attitude.

We had dinner up in the Lido and went to the evening entertainment. A group of Chinese locals performing traditional dance and music. Not a polished, professional performance but one that was still enjoyable.

It was good to be back on the ship. It was a long day.