We arrived early in the morning to Shanghai. I went out on deck for our sail into the harbourfront which was amazing. I could not believe the size and aesthetics of the large skyscrapers here. There are so many futuristic unique buildings.
We had a tour today which took us to the town of Zhujiajiao which is an ancient watertown, built on canals. It has many shops, restaurants and street food. We could have easily spent an entire day here, but we only had a few hours with our tour. We enjoyed the sights, some shopping, lunch at a canal side restaurant and boat ride through the canal.
After lunch we left for the Jade Buddha Temple, Longhua. This is the oldest and largest Buddhist Temple in Shanghai and today is an active Buddhist monastery. The temple has many beautiful statues of Buddha. Most were gold, but the main attraction was the large Jade Buddha.
We then were set loose in a large outside night market mall area. The area has many both high end shops as well as souvenir shops, a Starbucks, restaurants and food stalls. Ty and I both enjoy trying out all the different street food in the areas we visit. We have never had a problem with trying the local favorites except today. Now I'm an avid watcher of The Food Network, and have seen many shows on Asia. Bizarre Foods being a favorite, I have seen all about Stinky Tofu in China. Nothing prepared me for the wafting stink that permeates the entire area. All you could smell in the market place was fried stinky tofu on a stick and people were eating it everywhere. It was awful. Needless to say, we skipped this local favorite.
Our tour was over. We were driven back to the ship to enjoy a bit more American dinner or I guess I should say German as it was Oktoberfest night on lido.
After dinner the show was a local Shanghai Acrobatic dance troupe which was just incredible to watch. Great show.
After the show we stepped out on deck to admire Shanghai by night. If we thought the daytime skyline was impressing, it doesn't hold a candle to night time. Truly incredible. The buildings are all lit up with lights and screen flashing, pulsing, changing colors. Dinner cruise boats in the harbor sail back and forth with their own light shows. It looked light Christmas on steroids.
I really enjoyed Shanghai. For such a large city, approx 24 million, it was very clean, modern and something interesting to look at at every turn. Traffic was busy as expected, but not extreme. We only got to explore a fraction of Shanghai's offerings. I would love to come back again and spend more time here.
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