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Published: August 31st 2014
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Our trip to Shanghai started with a delay which is so expected at this point that it almost seems like if the delay is less than a few hours, we are actually on time! We had some issues with towing the a/c from our hangar to the departure area, but we made it in time (thanks to the delay) and had a nice flight to Shanghai. We essentially had to do an instrument approach because of the amount of smog and pollution. We couldn’t see the runway until a little over a mile out! We landed, got the plane cleaned up, got a ride to our hotel, had a quick dinner and then hit the hay.
The next morning I was up early and decided to let the Concierge at the hotel help me come up with a good day. We decided on buying a BigBus tour company ticket. These are pretty common in large cities and maybe you have heard of them. It is a big double decker bus that stops at all of the big tourist locations. You can get off wherever and get back on whenever there is space on the next one. Our first stop was
the Nanjing Rd Pedestrian Street. James and I casually walked the street, fending off vendors who were trying to sell us “copy” watches, handbags, etc. This, being my first public experience in Shanghai, seemed very different than what I was expecting. Shanghai is the most populous city in the world and I figured it would be very crowded. However, it is far from the most densely populated city in the world so it is just not that crowded. The pedestrian street was some high rent malls and shops with a fun little Disney like train that travelled up and down the street for 5RNB or about $.65.
Next location was an area called The Bund which is along the Huangpu River across from the downtown/financial center of Shanghai. This area is full of French style buildings from their time controlling Shanghai. The area is quite beautiful and the contrast of sights is amazing. From standing on the banks of the Huangpu, you can look through time. Look West and you see century old buildings screaming of French architecture of the period. Turn around and you see one of the most famous city skylines in the world. The Oriental Pearl
World Financial Center and Jim Mao Tower are impressive sights on their own.
James and I thought we had a ferry ride on the river that we could take any time, so we walked to the cruise/ferry terminal but couldn’t find what we were looking for. About an hour later, and a couple beautiful parks and some cool architecture, we gave up. Tired and looking for a way back downtown we headed to the MTR. Unfortunately I did not have the correct denomination of Yuen with me so I couldn’t buy MTR tickets (they only take 1,5,10,20s). We headed back up street level and hailed a cab to get back to The Bund where we were going to meet Russ. Fortunately we had grabbed a Chinese Big Bus map at the bus terminus and we were able to point to the point we wanted to go on that map. The driver got us there is a very short time and broke about 72 driving laws on the way. Riding in cabs in Shanghai is quite the experience.
Back together again as a trio we headed for the “Sightseeing tunnel” which is a tunnel under the Huangpu river that
is a cross between a car and tram tunnel for pedestrians. It costs 50 Yuen and you get in a tram type car and get treated to a pretty impressive light show for about 7 minutes. The other side of the tunnel drops you at the base of the Shanghai Pearl TV/Radio tower. We walked around the tower and debated going up to the top for 220 Yuen but we all agreed that since we were staying above the 50
th floor in our hotel, we had nothing new to see for the cost. Found a BigBus stop and hopped on to head to the Cool Docks. The Cool Docks is an old textile and other miscellaneous manufacturing area that has been completely overhauled to be shops and restaurants within the old buildings. We stopped and had Thai Curry, water, and freshly made Mango Juice. The Mango Juice was blended from fresh pealed mangos and it was nothing short of fantastic.
Leaving the Cool Docks we headed to Xin Tian Di which is part of Old Shanghai full of what they call “Traditional Houses” that have all been overhauled to another very cool cultural area with museums, narrow alleys, and
interesting architecture. We spent a few hours here and went to one Traditional House Museum, but it was getting late and we needed to meet Mooney (our flight attendant) for dinner at 6. We hailed a cab and got back to the hotel with just enough time to shower and meet in the lobby for dinner.
We left for dinner at 6, arrived at the restaurant at 7 and got a seat at 8:30. It was a Korean BBQ place that Mooney was fond of and I could see why. The food was amazing with a hot plate toward the edge of the table filled with a charcoal (not briquettes) that was used to cook our food. We ordered, tons of food came out, they cooked it bit by bit for us so we could experience all of the flavors. Fun meal for sure, but uncomfortably full.
The next day was back on the big bus for a little while, but I had a lot of work to do and my phone wasn’t working so I was back in the hotel where I could get WiFi and be in contact. I was back to the hotel by 10am.
We headed for the a/c at 5 to fly home. Arriving at the airport we had a few hours to get the airplane ready. I took care of fueling it and getting things ready for flight while the crew and flight attendant took care of everything else. The pax arrived with 17 pieces of luggage and we were off to our first stop to pick up additional pax. Unfortunately this stop cost us some valuable time. As this was our last stop in PRC we had to clear customs before coming back to HK. It took too long and we lost our slot into HK so we took a three hour ground delay! Mooney kept the pax happy and I killed time by hanging out on the ramp where it was nice a cool. It was nearly 1am before we took-off. Our flight home came with some severe turbulence that resulted in a great story. It was impressive, a few broken dishes, a few doors off hinges, and some wide eyed pax/crew. I guess Shanghai didn’t want to let us go!
Take care everyone!
Ian
p.s. The photo uploader seems to be not working again perfectly so
I can't put them in the correct order or comment on them.
Sorry!
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