Date: March 6, 2007
Location: Shanghai, China (Day 3 of 4)
Next Port: Hong Kong, China, March 9-11
Quick Summary: Today, we took an 8-1/2 hour ship’s tour, “The Best of Shanghai,” to see some of the wonders of this city. It was once known as the “Paris of the East” but now is more appropriately called by many “The Queen of the Orient.”
Report: They are building a large cruise ship port terminal alongside our ship. It seems most of the foundation work has been done, and the beginnings of a nice park and quay just to the aft of ship are seen. We climbed on the tour bus on an empty pier bounded by construction fencing.
We rode a short way through the remnants of the Jewish Ghetto where some 38,000 Jews lived during WW II. They had flocked here from Germany, Austria and Poland. After the war, and before the Communists came in, they dispersed to Israel and other places. Now there are very few Jews in Shanghai.
We crossed under the Huangpu River to the Pudong side. Here we saw blocks upon blocks of four- and five-story apartments, an explosion of building cranes, and some brilliant new skyscrapers. Our target was the Jin Mao Building,the fourth tallest in the world (#1, Taipei Tower; #2, Pretoria Towers in Kuala Lumpur; and #3, Sears Tower in Chicago).
Built by Skidmore, Owens and Merrill (of Chicago) and completed in 1999, it was designed to look like a (very tall) 15-section pagoda. Right alongside is another S.O.M. building, the Shanghai Financial Center, which may be the tallest building in the world when completed. It’s rising at the rate of one floor every three days! As you’ll see in the photos, construction is just about even with the 88th floor observation deck of the Jin Mao Tower.
We learned two interesting facts about the Jin Mao. One, the elevators take just 45 seconds to reach the 88th floor (traveling at 9.1m/sec). And two, from the interior of the observation deck you can look down through the atrium into the lobby of the highest luxury hotel in the world, the Grand Hyatt. Stretching from the 53rd floor to the 87th, it looks like a time tunnel leading to the future.
The views from the Jin Mao of Pudong, the river and old Shanghai were quite spectacular, even though a bit hazy.
From here, we drove to the Yuyuan Gardens in the center of Old Town (where we had lunch and shopped yesterday). Built during the reign of Ming Emperor Jiajing (1559) as the private garden of the commissioner of Sichuan Province, it is considered one of the four most beautiful gardens in China. And it is. (We were fortunate to see two of the others – the Lingering Garden in Suzhou and the Summer Palace in Beijing – during our family visit to China in 2005.)
After touring the gardens, we walked through Old Town and had a 40-minute break for shopping. Our bus then took us to the Jin Jiang Hotel for an excellent Chinese lunch. It was in this beautiful hotel that President Nixon signed the Shanghai Communiqué at the end of his 1972 historic trip to China. It outlined the steps for normalizing relations with the Peoples’ Republic of China.
From here, we went to the magnificent Shanghai Museum in People’ Square. With its unique form of a round top with a square base, it symbolizes the ancient Chinese philosophy that the square earth is under the round sky. The interior architecture, attention to detail and stylized galleries were absolutely beautiful. From the plaza, Larry was able to get photos of some of these outstanding buildings surrounding People’s Square:
· Shanghai Grand Theater (1998). The white arc rocking chair roof is thought by some to look like a cornucopia, “standing for Shanghai’s broadmindedness to absorb the world culture and arts.”
· City Hall
· Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center (1999). It showcases the city’s past, present and future development. There are large scale-model displays ofwhat the city will look like at the time of World Expo 2010.
· JW Marriott Hotel, with its distinctive pointed roof
· Radisson Hotel, with its revolving-globe restaurant
Next, we visited the Children’s Palace in the French Concession (the section of town in Shanghai given to the French during colonial times). This is a comprehensive after-school educational facility for gifted children. The students develop their talents by learning special skills in music, dance, Chinese calligraphy and painting, computers and martial arts. Since it was the first day after the spring festival vacation, many of the classes had not yet resumed. We did, however, thoroughly enjoy watching a painting class of seven-year olds and a ballet class of five-year olds.
On the return bus trip to the ship through the French Concession, we drove past the church where Larry’s father’s family belonged in the early 20th century. We had found it earlier during our family visit here in 2005. We decided to jump off the bus to make a return pilgrimage.
Larry’s grandfather came to China in 1906 as a medical missionary, sponsored by the Christian Association of the University of Pennsylvania. He started the Medical School at St. Johns University and taught there until he was deported by the Japanese. He returned after WW II but was run out again by the Communists in 1949. Larry’s father was one of eight children raised in Shanghai.
It was rewarding again to visit the Community Church where they all had worshipped. It is a protected historical structure and is in excellent condition. We then walked a few blocks to the large brick house that Larry’s grandfather built in 1923. It is now encircled by a wall with security cameras. In 2005, we were told that it’s being used as a recreational center for high Chinese government VIPs. It has obviously been recently renovated. Two summers ago, we were able to attract a watchman who let us walk around the grounds outside the house. No such luck this time, but we did grab some photos over the wall.
This was a memorable end to a remarkable day.
Larry
Photos of our cruise are available at the web site:
picasaweb.google.com/larryworldcruise
Photos of our second full day in Shanghai have been added.
No comments:
Post a Comment