BurbalDiaries: Maurer-Stier Annual

Monday, May 15, 2017

5/12/2017 Flight to Shanghai and Shanghai Art Museum

5/12/2017: We had to leave our suitcases outside our doors at 10 PM last night, and get up at 5 for a 6:15 departure to catch our plane to Shanghai -- which all went smoothly. However, Shanghai had heavy rains, and flights from Xi'an were delayed -- also we had to wait a long time for the bus to take us from the gate to the plane, so we were late leaving Xi'an, and then when we landed in Shanghai and had to descend from the plane to the bus to take us to the terminal, there was a deep, large puddle between us and the bus, and some passengers wanted instead to use the vans that were next to the plane, but they were reserved for crew, so that was another 1/2 hour, and (I'm told) cross words were exchanged.

I had my hiking shoes on, so didn't get v wet in the puddle. We went to the Shanghai art museum, which is really vg (I stopped in the cafe because the lunch on the plane had been v small) -- beautiful early statues of the Buddha, beautiful paintings -- we only had 1.5 hrs there because some people had wet feet and (not unreasonably) wanted to go to the hotel and change shoes.

We were to see an acrobatic show & ate dinner in a (vast) adjacent restaurant. The first 4 dishes were pork and / or seafood, but after a while some vegetarian fare emerged, which I was glad of. I didn't enjoy the acrobats all that much because my knees were achy but that wasn't their fault -- they put on a good show, climaxing with 6 motorcycles inside a globe-shaped cage, doing vertical circuits.

The Astor hotel dates from 1840 -- I guess they're renovating it gradually, but (because of its vintage) there are lots of stairs to lug suitcases up, and I can hear the TV next door, but these are first-world problems, aren't they.

We have foibles. One lady can't abide elevators. One's vegetarian, and then there's quasi-kosher me, and another guy addressing people in Spanish all the time. Time to break up and go home.

5/13/2017: Shanghai Bund and Yu Gardens

5/13/2017: Out local guide is relatively inexperienced, and is getting on peoples' nerves. He tends to walk fast, which makes him hard to follow, and not look back -- so not taking account of our being older and wanting to stop, look, and take pictures. We've been trying to explain that to him, but he still forgets. He also holds his guide-flag under his arm so it sticks out behind him, threatening to poke people in the eye.

We walked on the Bund, and saw the Shanghai skyline -- v impressive, and the row of old, western financial buildings, including the original AIG building (now labeled AIA).

We took a bus to the Old City (very narrow streets and v crowded, esp because today was Saturday) to the Yu Gardens, which were v pretty, and had a river running through it filled with hungry, giant goldfish. It's in the style of the gardens of Shouzou, about 100km from Shanghai, which if I remember right is where Siyi comes from.

Built in the 16th century, with lovely Ming roof-lines and creatures on the corners of the roofs. After a while, I started photographing people's children -- I mostly ask first -- people seem not to mind. Adorable little kids feeding the giant goldfish.

Then several of our group peeled off (including some to visit the Jewish quarter, but it was hot and I was tired by then & just wanted to go back to the hotel). The rest of us did a tea tasting, bought (more) (probably overpriced) tea, stopped at a dumpling house, but it was crowded and all the dumplings had crab, pork, or both, so I went off in search of something vegetarian. I had my phrase book w/ me, and it had "vegetarian" in the vocabulary list, but I didn't think of that -- went into a couple of places till I saw a plate of noodles and veggies (with no visible meat) for 23 RMB (so a bit over $3) and the nice waitress found me an empty table and I sat and ate. Then I had juice at a Starbucks (I was afraid to have anything with ice in it, remembering the travel dr's warnings, just as I've had no raw veggies or unpeelable fruit for a week).

We met at 2:30 in front of the Starbucks, made our way back to the bus, and turned in our Whisperers (earphones so we can hear what the local leader is saying). Home, tomorrow.