Date: March 7, 2007
Location: Shanghai, China (Departure – Day 4 of 4)
Next Port: Hong Kong, China, March 9-11
Quick Summary: Our last day in Shanghaiwas sunny but still quite cool. We took the ship’s 4-hour “Art of Shanghai” excursion. Voyager’s afternoon departure was delayed an hour due to heavy river traffic. The sail-out to the Yangtze and the ocean was another remarkable experience.
Report: We drove to the Jade Buddha Temple that was built in 1882 to house two jade Buddha statues brought back earlier from Burma by a Buddhist monk. It has bright saffron walls with the inner courtyard full of worshippers burning incense and special paper in two large cauldrons. (We learned that the worshippers burn paper fake money with the belief that their ancestors need money in the afterlife.) Multitudes of gold Buddha line the walls and center of a large, crowded temple building. A group of costumed monks with some musical instruments chanted for 15-minutes in front of one of the larger gold Buddha. Other worshippers were bringing fruit offerings. (We felt uncomfortable intruding with the jostling among the tour guides, tourists and kneeling worshippers.).
In a separate building, in a more reverent setting, we were led into a serene upper room to view the 6-foot high white jade Buddha. It is seated and encrusted with jewels. In another room, we saw a smaller reclining jade Buddha. In neither instances were we allowed to take photos.
In the temple’s tea house, our group was given a presentation on the health benefits of 9 different teas and an opportunity to sample each. And of course there was an opportunity to buy.
Next, we visited the Arts and Crafts Research Institute. Set up in a former French villa in 1956, it was the first center in Shanghai to focus on a comprehensive study of traditional Chinese folk arts and crafts. Now, it provides an opportunity for 160 artists to perfect their work in such crafts as woolen needlepoint work, silk embroidery, knitting, boxwood carving, lacquer ware production, jade and ivory carving, fancy lantern making, etc. We saw a couple demonstrations, including one by a woman who cut out freehand an intricate dragon from a single piece of paper in one continuous cut. (See the photo.)
Upon returning to the ship, Larry took a walk in the portion of the park that has already been completed along the dockside aft of the Voyager. If the parks around the new cruise terminal under construction are of similar quality, it will be a beautiful place to dock in the future.
It seems that much of the boat traffic on the Huangpu is determined by the inflow and outflow of the tide. Prior to and at the time we were originally scheduled to depart, the opposing coal barges and boats coming up river were so numerous, it seemed that one could almost use them as stepping stones to cross the river!
When the traffic calmed down, we had a tugboat escort us down river…almost without incident. At one point, the tug boat moved too far out in front, and a couple of small Chinese barges decided to cross through each other and turn perpendicular to our path. Capt. Dag had to put on the “brakes” and let them sort it out!
Shanghai (China) is an amazing place with no better way to see it than from along these rivers. The sense of energy, entrepreneurship and drive can be seen everywhere. It’s easy to see how China has been using 60% of the world’s concrete. Thousands of high-rise condos have been built in the last ten years, and 5,000 more above 25 stories will be built before World Expo 2010.
On this river alone, we passed 4-5 gigantic shipyards turning out huge tankers and LNG carriers, as well as military cruisers, submarines, etc. In fact, we saw much of the Chinese Navy: new construction, refurbishment and ships docked.
The largest container port was located almost two hours down the river from Shanghai where we saw more than 25 ships being loaded and unloaded. Though there where large blocks of low-rise multiple-unit housing close to the river, we could see a large group of 25+ story buildings that created a skyline to rival many large U.S. cities.
It’s hard to believe that China’s leaders would commit to any rash foreign policies that would turn its back on the West. Right now, they have people standing in line to do business with them. And doing business they are! With a population of 1.3 billion people, they can drive a hard bargain. If the other party balks, there is someone else who will be willing to do the deal.
Being in China again raises our awareness and interest in this exciting part of the world. The lecturers have given us such solid background and analysis of the issues and have made this stop so muchmore alive.
Larry and Karen
Photos of our cruise are available at the web site:
picasaweb.google.com/larryworldcruise
Photos of our last day in Shanghai and sail-away have been added.
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