Shanghai, a.k.a. Tomorrowland

We had a long wait at the airport Tuesday afternoon with no place to sit other than restaurants. Eventually we found out that is considered perfectly okay in China. We saw lots of people from our ship since there are only two flights a day to Shanghai—one in the morning and the one we were on in the evening. The flight was delayed an hour. Then we waited a long time on the runway for gate. We didn’t get to our hotel room until after midnight and fell straight to sleep.

I have had tummy problems the last couple days. Yesterday lunch was not included in our tour, and I opted out altogether. Steve got a hamburger at the airport, which bought us a place to sit for quite a while. After the late night, I slept in while Steve went to breakfast. I had a granola bar and tea for breakfast (love the in-room kettles!), but that went through me too. So I decided on a second day of fasting.

In the morning we went to the Shanghai Museum. Gorgeous building!

Lots of beautiful things but mostly arranged in glass cases in dark rooms. In the painting and calligraphy room the lights came up when you stepped near to look. We especially enjoyed the Ming and Qing furniture and the minorities crafts room. 

We only scratched the surface before going to the shopping area outside Yu Gardens. The buildings are several hundred years old. Felt very much like “old China”. Also very crowded and full of gift shops and boutiques. 

We ran into several people from our ship, including out tablemates, Joseph and Josephine. They are Italian-American. He grew up in Italy and has a strong Italian accent. She came to the US as a child and is all New Jersey. We enjoyed their company, but today only greeted, marveled at the “eye-candy” as Josephine called it, and exchanged pictures.

The Yu Gardens were a rich official’s estate that he built for his parents in the 15th c, but his father died before it was complete. Steve complained that our daughters hadn’t built us such a nice house.

I kept thinking what a beautiful place it would be with sunshine.

Our guide, Linda, left us on our own to find lunch in the shopping area. I was tempted by squid on a stick, crab soup filled dumplings, and any number of other things I saw around me, but sadly, thought my digestive track needed the rest and passed them up. Steve was not tempted by such delicacies or by the McDonalds, but found a Starbuck’s.

Going up in a hundred-story building was on the itinerary, but Steve is not enthusiastic about heights and I was feeling drained, so we came back to the hotel for a rest. I slept for 3 hours. I woke refreshed and ready to go out for the evening.

Linda took us to the pedestrian mall on E. Nanjing Road. Think Times Square in NYC.  The driver picked us up and then dropped us at the Bund, the waterfront, for a view of Shanghai on the far side of the river.

Someone had mentioned Shanghai being futuristic. I was certainly thinking Tomorrowland when I took this shot. (The incredible highway we came in on last night twenty stories in the air with ramps that spiraled 720 degrees down to earth felt pretty futuristic as well.)

Our side of the road had the early 20^th c buildings of the English and French governments. 

The side of the river in the first picture has all been built in the last 25 years.

After we had had a look, Linda led us back down to the street and called the driver to take us to the boat for an evening cruise, but I wasn’t done walking. “How far is the boat?”

“Far. About a thousand meters.” 

“A thousand meters? That’s half a mile. Can we walk?” So we did. Lovely stroll along the river.

The boat ride was 50 minutes up and back as darkness fell and the lights came on. Awesome.

While Steve was elsewhere, Linda started telling me a story about her family. We got interrupted, but later I asked her to finish. I was very touched that she shared it with me, and I think I was an encouragement to her.

As the cruise came to an end, I wasn’t done drinking in the lights, so Linda gave us directions home. It turns out it was only about a 40 minutes walk. Well, an hour because I kept stopping to take pictures and Steve stopped at McDonalds. I did put an ice cream cone in my stomach and it seems to have done all right.

Our hotel, the Radisson, is the space ship disk down Nanjing Rd. in the center of the picture. Not hard to find our way.

It’s our last night in China. I’m ready to go, but already full of plans for the next trip. I’d love to do the cruise at a drier time of year. The autumn pictures I find on-line are on fire with color. Or find a place for hiking in the area to have a more intimate view of the gorges. I want more time on the wall. And a couple people on the ship mentioned going near the Tibet border. One woman said it was so beautiful that she cried. So hopefully there will be a next time for us.

Xiling Gorge

Xiling Gorge is below the dam, unaffected by the change in water level. It was misting and not everyone chose to watch. I had the front deck to myself much of the time. By sitting back under the overhang with my umbrella over my knees I managed to stay dry. Hot tea kept me cozy. All the gorges acted as wind tunnels, hence the dramatic hairdo.


The mountains were less high in Xiling Gorge, and we could see signs of a road, tunnels and houses from time to time.

The road made me think of our first sight of the road to Skagway, Alaska, from the train. We gazed across the valley and thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to drive?" A couple years later we did. Today I was having the same, "Wouldn't it be cool" feelings, but driving on our own in China would be a bit more complicated. The idea of exploring the walks and trails around these buildings in the National Park only added to my desire.

The Town of Where-they-work-on-the-dam

In the night we passed through 5 locks to descend the Three Gorges Dam. I heard the screeching of something like a giant screw, but was too out of it to get up and watch. From information the next morning, it takes 3 hours altogether, so obviously it didn’t keep me awake the whole time. Steve had taken a sleeping pill and heard nothing.

Now we are below the dam in the part of the river unaffected by the change in water level. The dam brought lots of jobs to the area and therefore lots of growth, hence the name of the town (which I couldn’t tell you in Chinese.)

This morning was a whole-ship tour of the dam. Our guides led us through a gauntlet of vendors, all saying “maybe later” as they held out T-shirts and maps of China, encouraging us to stop on our return. Then we boarded buses for the short drive to the dam observation area. We passed the lock we had come through the night before.

 A guide explained the plan from a large wall picture before multiple escalators took us to the overlook.

The building in the foreground is the recently opened “elevator” that takes small ships to the top in 45 minutes instead of the 3-hours required for the 5 locks.

I liked this bas relief sculpture representing the electric turbines that function quietly beneath the level of the water. I didn’t bother fighting the crowd to do the 70 extra steps to the platform since I’m quite sure you couldn’t see anything that we couldn’t see from the main overlook.

The dam is truly massive although Itaipu in Brazil is longer. This view is upstream on the reservoir side.

From downstream, the dam is to the left, the locks to the right.

When we left the buses back at the port, we could either run the gauntlet of vendors again or walk along the waterfront. Three guesses as to which we chose.

We still had the bottleneck of re-boarding the ship, but ship's employees keep repeating the phrases “Watch your step,” and “Be careful.” We made it.

Gorging on Gorgeous Gorges

Soon after returning from White Emperor City we made sure to claim seats at the front of deck 5. We figured that would give the best, both-sides, unobstructed view of Qutang Gorge. I was glad we did. People packed the rail, but we sat further back since mostly we were looking above the heads anyway. Periodically I jumped up to go to the rail for a shot.

The announcement was to go to deck 6 (the roof) to see the gorge. Let’s just say that would have been a much more social experience, including an announcer talking the whole time about what you were seeing over the loud speaker. Joseph and Josephine, our table mates, complained that it was very hard to hear what was actually said because when English was being spoken, the non-English speakers felt free to talk among themselves. With that noise on top of the accent and electronic distortion, they didn’t understand anything. On deck 5 we could hear that there was an announcer on deck 6, but we weren’t disturbed by it, and the crowd was much less.

That white line of rock you see is where the river sweeps through during flood season. It is not a few feet wide as it appears, but more like 50 feet.

We came out of the steepest part of the gorge and all went to lunch at the same time, which was somewhat chaotic, but not bad in the private dining room. After lunch I made tea, and saved our seats while Steve had his usual siesta. Second gorge, Wu Gorge, was even better than the first.

 The peak you see here is Goddess Peak. If you look closely you can see some structures for pilgrims climbing the hill. I would love to do that, but Steve was less than enthusiastic. It wasn't an option this time.

We docked opposite Goddess Peak and transfered to small boats to go up Goddess Stream. 

This was a 2m deep rafting stream before the dam. Now it is 100+ m deep at the mouth. Technically part of Wu Gorge, it got narrower and narrower the further in we went. (The level didn’t change because this is the height of the dam.) It started to rain so the peaks are misted out in these pictures, but the best of pictures could never have done it justice. Absolutely awesome!

By the time we reached the narrowest part at the top of the stream an hour later and all turned around, it was raining steadily.

That just contributed to the sense of mystery as far as I was concerned.

I took this picture after we got back, sitting at the desk working on this blog. Forget it. I’m going to go sit outside! Who cares about rain?