A Journal, with Pictures

We arrive in Shang­hai by high speed train to a ultra mod­ern ter­mi­nal and dri­ve into the city to the Penin­su­la Hotel, is right on the Bund part of the his­toric British con­ces­sion grant­ed after the sec­ond Opi­um war (1860). Shang­hai is a amaz­ing city of 25 mil­lion stretch­ing for 75 miles and was and is a very impor­tant port city. We are treat­ed to a trav­el­ing lec­ture tour of the his­toric colo­nial build­ings, start­ing with the British con­ces­sion then the tree lined streets of the for­mer French Con­ces­sion. As we have seen through­out Chi­na, the infra­struc­ture is mod­ern with free ways and ring roads, high ris­es, includ­ing the sec­ond tallest build­ing in the world (125 sto­ries), and of course high rise apart­ment hous­es and an ultra­mod­ern inter­na­tion­al air­port. We tour the his­toric area with a unique enclosed struc­ture of gat­ed entrances, to alleys lined with small court yards called the Lane dis­trict. This was the ear­ly gat­ed com­mu­ni­ty pro­vid­ing secu­ri­ty for the res­i­dents of each neigh­bor­hood.  We also see where the first orga­niz­ing meet­ing for the com­mu­nist took place in 1921 and exam­ples of how it pays to be in “the party”.

One of the reminders of the his­to­ry lead­ing to the com­mu­nist vic­to­ry is a mon­u­ment on the Bund in the spot where a sign read “no dogs or Chi­nese allowed” (in the British Con­ces­sion). and then the huge mon­u­ment to those lost in the “Long March”.

We attend a Acro­bat­ic Show one evening, which was mind blow­ing, the Urban Plan­ning Muse­um which dis­plays the 25 year plan for the city, the Shang­hai Muse­um which cov­ers a range of sub­jects from cos­tumes from the over 50 “minor­i­ty” groups, to his­tor­i­cal paint­ing, ceram­ics and bronze as well as impe­r­i­al fur­ni­ture. We also toured a ren­o­vat­ed high end shop­ping dis­trict that con­nects the Yu Gar­dens one of the best exam­ples of tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese gar­den design.

Shang­hai was a great last stop, blend­ing exam­ples of the great his­to­ry with the explo­sive mod­ern­iza­tion of Chi­na. We arrived by Bul­let Train, had great tours, High Tea at the Penin­su­la Hotel, saw the sites day and night includ­ing the fab­u­lous Pudong Sky­line and bustling Huang­pu Riv­er right from our hotel room, and of course one last incred­i­ble Chi­nese din­ner with our new adopt­ed grand daugh­ter, Lotus Qi,  who made our three weeks in Chi­na effort­less and a won­der­ful experience.