China 2013 Day 19

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Today we have a free day in Shanghai. We give ourselves the luxury of sleeping in a bit, to 8 pm. Violet and I have mapped out our day with our two main traveling companions and have had breakfast and are on the road by 9:30. Both of us are still battling some cold symptoms, but we're not alone, because many of us are in the same boat.

We were originally going to take the subway but opt for a cab because there are four of us. Cab fares in Shanghai (and presumably in China as a whole) are very reasonable: 14¥ for the first 3 km and then 1¥ per km. And plus you are treated to in-cab entertainment as the cab careens through the streets, between lanes, over curbs, on shoulders, forcing its way around buses, scooters, bikes, other cars and pedestrians, and honking up a storm at all the other vehicles doing exactly the same thing. We thought it was nuts on the bus, but at ground level it's in-your-face intense. To be fair, though, there is no road rage. People cut you off and tailgate you all the time, because that's the normal way to drive. You just cope with it and somehow everyone cooperates to make it all work. We have seen some accidents, sure, but not that many and none serious.

And, indeed, we arrive safely at our destination: People's Square in the heart of downtown Shanghai. Here is a large park where people and their dogs can walk around. Surrounding it is a forest of fantastical skyscrapers. The architecture is truly amazing. We particularly like one building with a huge circle right in the middle that you could fly a small plane through.

We purchase tickets for a hop-on, hop-off tourist trolley. It's a double-decker bus, although neither level allows me to stand up straight. A nice feature is that you are handed a set of ear buds as you get on the bus for the first time, which you can plug into jacks beside the seats (if you get a seat) to listen to narration in eight languages. The bus is packed, but the mood is friendly and cooperative. At various times, we strike up conversations with westerners and Chinese alike.

The four of us decide that we will ride the complete red line once, which goes in a big circle around the downtown area. (There are two other lines that we could take to visit other sections of the city.) This circuit takes us by the East Nanjing pedestrian mall, the Bund (more later), the old town, and the French Concession. Once we complete one entire circuit, we alight at the East Nanjing pedestrian mall and stroll east along its length. Many high-end glitzy stores, some of which are investigated by the girls, but the report is that that there are no bargains to be had here. Quite a number of pesky peddlers, but we're veterans now, and we know how to avoid eye contact while making a swiping gesture that means "these are not the droids you're looking for." There are also girls wanting to "practice their English"; I'm safe in the company of the three girls, but I need only step three or four paces away to become a target.

We've been eating so much over the past few days that it's an easy decision to skip lunch. We stop by a coffee shop and enjoy coffee and juice with some fruits that we picked up from the breakfast buffet.

At the east end of the mall, we board the trolley for a couple of stops to reach the Bund. This is a strip on the west side of the Huangpu River that was one of the world's financial hubs in the 1920s and 1930s, a place where fortunes were made and lost. Today all its colonial-era buildings have been restored to their former glory. They include the Palace Hotel, the Peace Hotel, the Custom House with its replica of Big Ben, and many others. We saw these last night on our river cruise. Across the river we can spy the futuristic buildings of the Pudong, which we also saw last night.

By now, it's time to head back to the hotel, as a number of us are planning to get together for a final dinner. We flag down a cab (a little more of a challenge than I expected) and make it back to the hotel. This last driver is actually nowhere near as homicidal as the previous one.

After about an hour's down time, we regroup in the lobby. The plan is for everyone to meet in the French Concession, an area known for its international-themed restaurants (i.e., not rice and stuff). The group of us at the hotel heads off in cabs and we reach the designated meeting place in Xintiandi. However, there has been a crossing of wires, because no one else shows up. Eventually we strike out on our own, and fortuitously we happen upon the others, who were delivered by their cabs to a different location in the area and who have been looking for us. We wander a while through the French Concession area, which is replete with interesting shops and restaurants in restored nouveau-chic buildings. We settle on, of all things, a German/Bavarian restaurant. It turns out to be an inspired choice, as the waiter delivers groaning plates of sausages, schnitzels, ribs, potato and saukraut. What a wonderful change of diet!

We return to the hotel in a series of cabs, just in time to meet some others of our party who were in the same area but failed to connect with us. They had gone Greek.

It's about 9 pm now and we have an early start tomorrow. We retire to our rooms, shower, and repack before turning in.

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