Shanghai, China - On Our Own (Day 2 - Friday, March 9)

Our second day in Shanghai was delightful in every respect.  We had signed up for a 4-hour excursion called "Shanghai Panoramic & Walking Tour" but the specific section of it to which we were assigned had a start time of 1:30 p.m.  Not wanting to squander the morning, we set off on our own for a walk along the Bund, which is an elegant boardwalk running along the western bank of the Huangpu River in that part of Shanghai that in the 1920s and 1930s had been developed as a financial district.  On the other side of the river is the Pudong District that as recently as 1992 was nothing more than a rice field.  Today it is full of beautifully designed skyscrapers of various sorts that make for a stunning view, like the one above.

The Bund is wide, well designed and impeccably maintained.  It offers incredible views of elegant colonial-era buildings, other walkers, endless maritime traffic on the river, and the skyscrapers on the opposite bank.

      

Among the activities taking place on the Bund while we were there were modeling photo shoots.

                   

Our ship, the Viking Sun, was very visible.

At the far end of the Bund we crossed the street in the hope that by moving in the direction of the interior we would find our way to the so-called Old City, the area inside the ancient walled city of Shanghai.  As we walked we came upon groups of locals sitting on benches socializing and, in one instance, dancing (undoubtedly a form of exercise or relaxation).

 

And then we entered and walked through a park named Gucheng Park to its furthest end.

  

The skyline view from the park is dramatic.

We came across a man practicing caligraphy by drawing Chinese language characters on the pavement with colored water.

Eventually we found ourselves at one of several entrances to the Old City.  We quickly realized that when we were last in Shanghai 6 1/2 years ago on a Viking tour we were taken to this area but did not remember its name.

   

The Old City was crowded with people, most of whom were Chinese.  So it's much more than a tourist attraction.  The old buildings are beautifully preserved.  If anything can be said to tarnish the authenticity of the area it is the presence of a number of American fast food chains such as Starbucks, Haagen-Dazs and KFC.

I was fascinated watching this guy make noodles.

                       

Just outside the boundries of the Old City are other, larger stores and restaurants (including Pizza Hut and McDonalds), but still in more of the old style than is the case of the shopping area along Nanjing Road that we visited the day before.

  

We also remembered that contained within the walls of the Old City is the famous Yu Garden which is a model of classical Chinese gardening architecture.  The garden was built during the reign of Ming Emperor Jiajing (1559) as the private garden of an individual who was the administration commissioner of Sichuan Province.  We were so pleased to be able to see it again, this time at a much more leisurely pace.

         

By the time we left the garden it was late afternoon.  We had made the decision along the way to scrap the organized excursion we had signed up for because we were at that point too far away from the ship and were having too good a time on our own.

Our sailaway was scheduled for 8 p.m.  At this time of year in Shanghai it is dark by 6:30 or 7 at the latest.  In a separate post I will include photos I took of night views of the river, boats, buildings on our side of the river and of the skyscrapers in the Pudong District across the river.  The photos will speak for themselves.