Asia - Day 4, October 11, 2015

We were picked up by our guide at 9:00am from the hotel and drove 1 ½ hours to the ancient river town called Zhujajiao.  The town is very well preserved and it resembles a Chinese Venice with lots of waterways and lots of shops lining the sidewalks.  It dates back to the Ming Dynasty.

We spent a couple of hours there walking the streets and buying a little, but mostly just looking.  As we were at the far end, we took a boat ride back and did that ever save our feet!!

Then it was back in the van to go downtown where we had a fun Chinese lunch at a very nice restaurant.  We had the usual too many courses but the one we liked the best was cooked Eel – a great taste.

Following lunch, we then went to the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center which is currently the 7^th highest building in the world by one of the judging standards.  In 2008, it was the highest.  The ride up was quick, the weather was wonderful so the views were amazing.

After that they dropped us off at a huge building close to the Marriott called Shanghai’s Fake Market it was probably one of the best if not the best market we have ever been to.  It was 5 floors full of Chinese souvenirs, bags, shoes, fake watches, Apple products and just all kinds of “stuff”.   We had fun for a couple of hours and then went back to the hotel to eat in the Executive Lounge as we were still a little full from lunch.

At 6:15, our guide and driver picked us up and took us to a very good Chinese Acrobat show and we had a lot of fun.  After the show, we took a cab back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we will have the morning to do some things by ourselves and then we will be picked up at 2 to go to the ship.

Shanghai has been very interesting, especially since it is in a Communist country and it is the largest city in the world.  It was not what we expected.

The wages here are very low and apparently there is a high unemployment rate.  On the other hand, the prices of food are very, very low.  We probably never paid more than $5.00 total for the both of us for lunch.

The lack of cars in also amazing.  The hotel is located at one of the major intersections and there are fewer cars going buy that on Veteran’s Parkway in Bloomington.

 

Our own river boat

 

Eel and it was very good!!

 

From the tallest building

 

Another good lunch - this was all for us!

Making lunch

Snacks for lunch