Changning

We joined the tour with our guide Tony and the driver, Master Wong. He is called Master, because you have to be a master to negotiate the Shanghai roads.

The first stop of the tour was the Shanghai Museum of ancient Chinese art. The shape of the building is a square base with a round top attached with arches like a bronze Ding (which is an ancient cooking vessel) indicating the ancient Chinese philosophy of the universe that the earth is square while the sky is round.

We saw bronze, ceramics, calligraphy, paintings, jade and costumes.

Next stop was the Jade Buddha Buddhist temple. The Buddha is carved from white jade.

We then went for lunch in downtown shanghai at the sea palace floating restaurant which consisted of a yum cha style lunch.

After lunch we stopped at the Jin Mao Observatory 88 which is a very high tower that swings a little in the wind. It is the biggest sightseeing hall in China, with a height of 340.1 metres. The elevator runs at 9.1m/s and takes 45 seconds to rise to the 88th floor.

After the Jin Mao Tower, we went through a tunnel under the sea which is two levels, one level is for cars and buses and the other level is for trucks heading towards the Yu Gardens.

We saw a three fingered dragon. A real dragon is 5 fingers.

Around the Yu Gardens were many market stalls and shops with lots of approaches from pushy sales people selling tea, watches, bags and other electronic gadgets. We were sick of them not leaving us alone.

The last stop of the tour was the shanghai silk museum where we saw what the silk worms produce to then make blankets.

We drove through the Bund on the way back to the ship. The Bund was named that after the 1840 opium war by the indians.Read more