Shanghai
Wow what city. We were well into the port area this morning at 5:30 when we woke up. Our room service guy said we had been in the port for several hours. It runs upriver for many miles. The buildings were magnificent; beautiful skyscrapers with wonderful designs. We docked directly across from the building with the two red globe-shaped areas. Also nearby was the port building that had two huge glass world globes; one at each end. I’d love to be able to see the inside of some of these buildings but this trip we won’t see any more of the city except on our bus ride to the airport.
We cleared immigration on the ship in about 10 minutes, but we were the last group through. The earlier tours had a considerable wait in line until the Chinese officials actually started processing people. After that we went up and had a buffet breakfast and then killed a couple hours on the balcony watching all the boats and ships go by in the river. Then it was time to meet for the tour.
There are only 81 people on the tour and we have 3 coaches so it won’t be crowded. The ride to the airport was about an hour and then the guides handed out boarding passes and passports and we progressed through security to the gate. All very quick! The airport is very nice and there were a number of shops on the concourse. [written at the airport at the start of the trip]
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[written after the tour]
The flight to Beijing was only an hour and 30 minutes and we proceeded through the airport quite quickly and were loaded onto three buses to take us to the Great Wall Sheraton - 5 star hotel.
Good heavens - the smog; so bad you couldn’t see ¼ mile. We did get to see some of the city. With a population of 20 million it is completely packed with tall apartment buildings. The roads are jammed with cars (our driver, Tom was unbelievable throughout the whole trip). All of the Chinese guides have ‘working names’; our guide was Leonard. He, too, was excellent. He was an English major so we had no problems understanding him and each day he did Chinese lessons for us to help us speak a couple words. The ride to the hotel took a little over an hour and then by the time we got checked in and to our rooms it was time for dinner… then I was too pooped to do anything except go to bed.
Stay tuned….
Wow what city. We were well into the port area this morning at 5:30 when we woke up. Our room service guy said we had been in the port for several hours. It runs upriver for many miles. The buildings were magnificent; beautiful skyscrapers with wonderful designs. We docked directly across from the building with the two red globe-shaped areas. Also nearby was the port building that had two huge glass world globes; one at each end. I’d love to be able to see the inside of some of these buildings but this trip we won’t see any more of the city except on our bus ride to the airport.
We cleared immigration on the ship in about 10 minutes, but we were the last group through. The earlier tours had a considerable wait in line until the Chinese officials actually started processing people. After that we went up and had a buffet breakfast and then killed a couple hours on the balcony watching all the boats and ships go by in the river. Then it was time to meet for the tour.
There are only 81 people on the tour and we have 3 coaches so it won’t be crowded. The ride to the airport was about an hour and then the guides handed out boarding passes and passports and we progressed through security to the gate. All very quick! The airport is very nice and there were a number of shops on the concourse. [written at the airport at the start of the trip]
------------------------------
[written after the tour]
The flight to Beijing was only an hour and 30 minutes and we proceeded through the airport quite quickly and were loaded onto three buses to take us to the Great Wall Sheraton - 5 star hotel.
Good heavens - the smog; so bad you couldn’t see ¼ mile. We did get to see some of the city. With a population of 20 million it is completely packed with tall apartment buildings. The roads are jammed with cars (our driver, Tom was unbelievable throughout the whole trip). All of the Chinese guides have ‘working names’; our guide was Leonard. He, too, was excellent. He was an English major so we had no problems understanding him and each day he did Chinese lessons for us to help us speak a couple words. The ride to the hotel took a little over an hour and then by the time we got checked in and to our rooms it was time for dinner… then I was too pooped to do anything except go to bed.
Stay tuned….
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