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Next morning it was time to head off and fly to Shanghai. Here we are in Beijing Int. Airport just before boarding the aircraft. McBear said it was an Airbus A330 from Dragonair. Tom hadn't finished his beer in the bar and wasn't back when the photo was taken...
Click each photo to enlarge
We were fortunately enough to get window seats again, however, there wasn't much point as the smog prevented us from seing much...
In Shanghai we stayed at the Galaxy Hotel. Like Day's Hotel, it was tall as a skyscraber.
From our hotel room we could see some of the skyscrabers closer to the city centre of Shanghai. And just outside was a motorway junction so there were constantly cars driving by...
Roger started to tease McBear.
"Now, don't tell me you are considering writing proposals for constitutions for branches of TARF in Beijing - TARBE, or in Shanghai - TARSH!!!"
"Well, that would be a very good idea" McBear replied, "The Chinese authorities are not exactly famous for their respect for human rights, so I am worried about Toy Animals' rights in China..."
We went to see the Yu yuan Gardens. Here, there were lots of small and cute houses of old Chinese architecture, and it was very neat. McBear had made sure we got proper Chinese hats to wear in China; Rice hats.
Here we are in the old Yu yuan town district. Surprise, surprise, they had a ... Starbucks Coffee shop! This inspired Roger to claim:
"Okay, they have China Town in New York and China Town in L.A. So this must be America Town in Shanghai... or even China Town in Shanghai. Hah hah!!
Roger found it very witty, however the rest of us were a bit embarrased, and Tom asked:
"Can we leave now?"
In the evening we were invited to a lovely dinner party. Roger discovered some long bars. To Roger, being an athlete, they looked exactly like pole vaults, and maybe the Chinese as part of the preparation for the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 had decided to introduce a new tradition of leaving pole vaults at each plate at dinner tables. Roger loved the gymnastics and started to visualize himself doing a fine sukahari while the crowd was clapping... but then McBear turned up.
"I asked for bear sized chop sticks, and they have them in handy jars; here you are ... oh, and I see you came across some human sized chop sticks. Very good, Roger."
Roger got silent.
The next day we went sightseeing in Shanghai. Here we are at the famous pedestrian walk. A lot of people got curious by seeing bears from Ireland...
We went along the street all the way to the Bund, a fine area along the river. Here, we could see the skyline of Shanghai's tall buildings across the river, including the 468 meter high Oriental Pearl Tower.
We decided to visit the Pearl Tower. Here we are high up in the visitor centre. This is a platform built at 269 meter above the ground; almost as high up as the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
McBear wanted to carry on with his mission finding leaking TA sources, and there were lots and lots of factories in Shanghai to visit. Here we are in front of yet another factory.
We went inside and asked the lady if she was making TA's. She got a bit surprised but replied that she was actually creating fine hand-woven silk carpets...
"SILK CARPETS?" Roger got excited. "We have always wanted a silk carpet at home!"
The lady showed us the sales department, and there were piles and piles of fine silk carpets. They even had bear sized carpets with Pandas!
We came across a lovely blue carpet with a dragon. In China, Dragons symbolizes happiness, so we decided to buy it.
"This is a true treasure", Roger pointed out.
Then it was time to leave Shanghai and fly to Yichang to embark on the M/S East King in order to sail up the mighty Yangtse River. Here we are after arrival to Sanxia Airport near Yichang. McBear said it was a Boeing 757 from Shanghai Airlines, and he was excited as it was the first time we had flown 757. Behind us we could hear the air hostesses giggling.
"Don't worry about that," Roger said. "Curious people and admiration is part of being a celebrity...!".
Then we embarked on the 5 star river cruiser, M/S East King. Roger said it was the very same cruiser former US president Clinton had visited. The cabin's weren't huge, but their standard was excellent.
Next day, M/S East King headed west upstream the mighty Yangtse River. We were sailing through the Three Gorges with its spectacular beauty and vertical mountain walls many places.
Then we arrived at the brand new dam across the Yangtse River. It was a tremendous project at high costs, but it would save the Chinese from burning lots of coal to produce electricity. To pass the dam, the Chinese had built a system of 5 locks, and here we are approaching the first lock.
After the first lock we went down for lunch. McBear however, found the lock system so impressive that he skipped lunch just to be studying the locks working!
Here we are at the top of the dam, actually behind the dam where the water was flowing towards the dam. The dam spans nearly 2.5 km across the river!
Next day we arrived at the city Fengdu and went onshore for a visit. Here we are with the M/S East King in the background. McBear was planning on visiting more factories, but we only had a limited time...
Here we are at the local market in Fengdu. It was exciting but also a bit scary as you would meet all sorts of people; both kind people and people who seemed a bit dudgy! Roger insisted on being put back in the bag as he was afraid some local mobsters would discover and kidnap him to get paid a large ransome.
The last day on the cruise we enjoyed a relaxed afternoon on a sunchair on the sun deck.
"What's this?", McBear asked. "Are you leaving no room for me?"
Bamse and Tom started teasing McBear.
"Well, we thought you were down surfing the internet to catch up with the latest TARF news!"
First Tale: Beijing Second Tale: Shangai & The Three Gorges Third Tale: Chongqing & Xian |