March 11 and 12, 2012, en route, Shanghai, China: The East China Sea in a Fog
After leaving Hong Kong on the evening of March 10, we turned north northeast for two days at sea through the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea bound for Shanghai. The weather was not cooperative, and there were interchanging periods of intense fog and high winds. The sea state was waves up to 15 feet that turned a large number of our fellow passengers into Kermit the Frog (It is not easy being green!). Even E, who is rarely late to table, claimed that she was "too tired" for breakfast. J dined alone in the The Restaurant with only one hardy English couple for company and a very unsteady-looking staff of waiters. "Waiter, please make every effort not to barf in my coffee." Ah, life on the high seas.
By noon, E was wide awake, and we did the usual at-sea thing of playing bridge and going to tea, and watching an early evening performance of the Artists of Silver Whisper -- "High C's with the Artists of the Silver Whisper." This was about the third time that they had performed the show (with slight modifications) since we departed Ft. Lauderdale, and as another World Cruise passenger said, "It is lucky we are all so old that we don't remember much from one performance to the next!" There are some positive aspects to being a "senior" citizen.
Weather conditions did not improve on March 12, but the sea state backed down, probably because we were in the lee of Taiwan Island. Temperatures continued to fall into the 45 degree F range, and the fog often reduced visibility to less than the distance from the bridge to the bow. The fog horn was now in almost constant use. At 11:00am, we had our first bridge lesson with our new bridge instructor, Anne, who reminds one of learning bridge with a Catholic nun, sans ruler -- "these are the rules!" Anyway, it is quite a different approach from JoAnn and a much more serious business. However, for J and E, the approach doesn't seem to matter. We are still in last place and sinking fast. We are beginning to think that we may have to give up bridge for Old Maid, which may be more within our intellectual reach.
In the evening, we had dinner in The Restaurant with the Cruise Director, Fernando, who is Portugese/Spanish, lives in Turkey, and has traveled the world over. Fernando is an entertaining raconteur, with numerous stories and anecdotes, and five of our fellow passengers. . The high point of the evening was a piano concert by Tian Jiang, a Chinese pianist, who was on the 2007 World Cruise, and whose original classic compositions, especially "Shanghai Dreams," is among our favorite modern classical pieces. So, it was a late evening for us, and we anticipated that when we awoke in the morning, we would be docked at the Shanghai Cruise Terminal. But, with the thick fog banks, we might still be in the Yangtze River estuary awaiting clearance.
March 13, 14, and 15 Shanghai, China: Shanghai Surprise
The Bund, circa 1934
The building with the pyramid tower is the Peace Hotel
March 13: We were awakened promptly at 8:00am on the 13th by the ship's general announcement system (4-MC in Navy terms). The Silver Whisper was tied up at the Shanghai Cruise Terminal pier up the Wangpu River and just north of The Bund. We were informed to proceed IMMEDIATELY into the Cruise Teminal and clear immigration and customs. All of this before even a cup of coffee, how inhumane. If China is the future, the World's motto will be: "Get in line, and get moving!" We disembarked and walked for at least a half-mile through a deteriorating tunnel (new Chinese construction is sometimes suspect) into an immigration hall that would have done Ellis Island proud. There, we were scanned, imaged, inspected, stamped, and stamped again. (The Chinese invented bureaucracy about 1,000 years before Europeans got down from trees.) Then, it was a half-mile walk back to the ship on the surface where the temperature was in the mid-40s F. China is not for sissies.
M/v Silver Whisper at Shanghai Cruise Terminal
The Bund and Zhongshan Road
Shanghai, Pudong District
This did not exist in 1990!
Oriental Pearl TV Tower
Do Not Try This At Home!
The Sphere of Many Motorcycles
The Cast - All Lived!
Departing the shuttle bus, we optained directions to the book store from a Shanghai city guide. The first problem was to get a taxi to take us to the location. So, we crossed the street, entered the very fancy Peninsula Hotel by a side door, and acting like guests, proceeded to the doorman and asked for a taxi. Five Yuan later, a taxi appeared, and we were off to the book store on Fuzhou Road. The taxi dropped us at a point with a book store on each corner, and on the second try, we found the right one -- a seven-story monster with government and privately- printed books, DVDs, and other media. We were directed to the 6th floor, where the DVD was found (sealed copy) and purchased for 35 Yuan, about US$7.00. The pirated copy would have been only 10 Yuan, but it might have been "No Good!"
Next, we walked up Fuzhou Road toward The Bund, and found a branch of the Bank of China. When J consulted with the Chinese government in the 1980s, he had been paid per diem in local currencies of two type: Ren Min Bi (RMB) and Foreign Exchange Certificates (Yuan) issued by the Bank of China. Before leaving Kona, J had discovered a hoard of old (1980s) RMB and Yuan and took them along to see if they still had monetary value.
Even a little branch of Bank of China is not banking with the thugs of BofA. We were greeted at the door by a uniformed guard who gave us a number, but since we were obviously foreign, he asked us what we wanted, and J showed him this handfull of strange money probably printed before he was born. This engendered an immediate response. (J's Chinese had probably become painful to the guard's ears.) The English-speaking bank manager was called, and upon seeing the "old" currency, the young man called his "foreign exchange expert." The foreign exchange expert, a young woman, looked the bills over. She told us that the FECs were valid currency, but she would exchange them for new bills because most merchants had never seen FECs and would not accept them. But, the RMB were demonitized and worthless - see what hoarding gets you! After the FECs were exchanged for bright, new Yuan notes, the RMB were returned. J said that the Bank should keep them for their currency museum, since he was not a currency collector. After some hesitation and discussion, they were kept by the bank. J and E were escorted to the door and, with handshakes and bowing all around, left the Bank of China. Ten minutes after we entered, we were back on Fuzhou Road headed toward The Bund. (Up yours, BofA!)
This was an interesting experience from the perspective of how seniors are treated in China. Although the old system of ancestor worship and senior family rule has passed, it was clear to both of us that one reason we were so courteously treated by the young bankers was that we were seniors and foreign. This, of course, is at odds with American values, which treat seniors, at best, as kind, house pets and foreigners as illegal aliens on sight. Enough polemic!
We walked up Fuzhou Road and crossed to Nanjing Road, which is closed to traffic and is an open, pedestrian shopping mall. Finally, dragging the hind feet a bit, we reached The Peace Hotel. Open by the famous English hotelier, Victor Sassoon, in 1929 as the Cathay Hotel, it is a major landmark of The Bund. We went into the coffee shop (Victor's Cafe) and had a cappuccino and pastry to recover, and then toured the public spaces of the hotel. In a city full of 5-plus star hotels, the next time we come to Shanghai, we want to stay here. It is the history of 20th Century China in one building. The hotel has a small museum with a young female curator, who enjoyed describing some of the exhibited items, but it really is fairly self-explanatory from the names of the actors involved. To cite but a few resident guests who were from the US -- Edgar Snow, Pearl Buck, George Marshall, and Henry Kissinger. The hotel's "Jazz Band" has been playing in the same bar since 1947.
Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall
The Apple Store
Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall
People's Heroes Monument, The Bund
Bank of China, The Bund
British Consulate (formerly Ligation), The Bund
The International Concession was run from here.
The Waibaidu Bridge Over the Wusong River
The Russian Consulate
This shopping center was Gucci heaven. And, there was a Brooks Brothers store, and they had dress shirts on sale. We were the only shoppers in the store, and the four, yes four, shop girls all tried to wait on us at once. It was a bit of a circus, but they all contributed to seeing that J had the correct size (large neck, short sleeve length) that was required. So, three BB dress shirts later, at prices that were more than J used to pay for a suit, we settled the bill. To recover from this experience, we had a cappuccino at the mall's coffee shop and watched the passing shoppers: mostly overdressed, young Chinese women.
Shopping finished and the weather improving, we caught a taxi east up Nanjing Road past Remin (People's) Park, now surrounded by high-end automobile dealers (Oh, Mao, please buy me a Mercedes Benz; all the comrades drive BMWs, I must make amends -- apologies, J. Joplin.) Remin Park was in pre-World War II days the horse racing track of the French Concession. It has had many incarnations. During the last years of the Nationalist government, it was where Chiang Ch'ing-guo (Chiang Kai-shek's son) brought "hoarders" and often personnally shot them. Messy business, but someone has to do it. Anyway, that is all past, and Remin Park is now a place for tai chi, old men with birds in cages, and a leisurely stroll.
Continuing up Nanjing Road, we drove past mega hotel after mega hotel (all of the usual suspects are in this area) and shopping mall or arcade after shopping arcade. Who buys all these high-end watches? Or, for that matter, all the high-end, knock-off watches the little guys in the long coats want to sell you. "Rolex very cheap." Did you know, you can put more than 24 watches on one arm? Finally, we reached The Bund and Zhongshan Road. Then, it was back to the Silver Whisper, a long afternoon nap, tea, and dinner in the room. The Silver Whisper departed Shanghai at 11:00pm in heavy fog and mist.
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