Results tagged “Shanghai” from East Asia 2017

Had a broken night's sleep - a lot of coughing :( Our neighbour was also coughing a lot of the night. I was even awake for our arrival in Shanghai at 01:00. Then I turned the GPS off.

It was a lot better organised getting off this time - our guide waited at each stage for the group to catch up so we all just went through as a group.

On the coach at 9:15, set the cameras to China time (need to remember that the ones taken on the ship will be an hour different).

So our first stop of the day was the Shanghai Maglev station. We caught the Maglev out to the airport, and then stayed on the train for the trip back in. It's something like thirty kilometres, and the trip takes seven minutes with a top speed of 431 km/h. It was pretty awesome!!

Shanghai Maglev tracks

Shanghai Maglev

On the Shanghai Maglev - 431 km/h

Pudong International Airport

Shanghai Maglev

Then we went into town and went up the Jin Mao tower. But it was super rushed, only giving us about ten minutes at the top, and of course we had to fit a bathroom stop in there too (and the associated queuing). It was a bit of a murky day, but at least it wasn't raining.

Feoso Zhiguang sundial

Skyscrapers in downtown Shanghai

Shanghai from Jin Mao Tower

Shanghai from Jin Mao Tower

Shanghai Tower from Jin Mao Tower

Shanghai Tower from Jin Mao Tower

Atrium of the Grand Hyatt Shanghai hotel

Atrium of the Grand Hyatt Shanghai hotel

Shanghai World Financial Centre Tower from Jin Mao Tower

Oriental Pearl tower from Jin Mao Tower

Oriental Pearl tower from Jin Mao Tower

The Bund from Jin Mao Tower

The Bund from Jin Mao Tower

Jin Mao Tower

Jin Mao Tower

Next was a quick photo stop of the Oriental Pearl tv tower.

Oriental Pearl tower

Oriental Pearl tower

Stu and me and the Oriental Pearl Tower

And finally we went to the Bund to drop off some people that wanted to do their own thing for the afternoon, and they would catch a shuttle bus back to the ship. So as soon as I found out we were doing that I asked if we could have a few minutes to go to the river and get some photos of the skyline. Because the other day it was rainy and horrible. But she said we wouldn't have time. Grunt. I even asked the Cunard guy if he could ask for a few minutes, but when I said I'd already asked, he just said oh well too bad. I was very stabby at this point. So we get to the Bund, and a whole bunch of people slowly get off and mill around talking to her. Several minutes passed. In the end I said stuff this, jumped off the bus and said, can I run up and take a photo. One minute. She wasn't too happy, but let me, so I *ran* up the stairs, got a couple of photos, then ran back. *sigh*

Shanghai Tower, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai World Financial Centre tower

Shanghai buildings and The Bund walkway

The Bund Bull and Shanghai

Shanghai skyline

Monument to the People's Heroes

Back at the ship we had a very late lunch, then did some washing, caught up on blogging etc. Did some work on a jigsaw for a while. Read for a while.

Plaque from Nagasaki at the Purser's Office

Plaque from Busan at the Purser's Office

Doing a jigsaw while watching ships sail down the Yangtze River

Went to the pub for pre-dinner drinks and trivia. Bad night though - only 12/20! I think the winner got 17.

At dinner Kay and Norman and Licia and David weren't there, but Bruce and Maria were. Then we were joined by two ladies from South Africa. It was all very odd.

Stu had tuna sashimi, haddock, and chocolate fondant. I had mushroom feuillete, lamb, and lemon and blackberry tart.

Got woken up at 05:54 by a ship's horn blasting. Then at 06:00 the next door neighbours had an alarm go off (we have a double room, and we can hear the neighbours talking through the door). So no hope of getting back to sleep. So got up and looked out, and we were still in the Yangtzee river (we were meant to have docked at 05:00). We didn't end up docking until around 07:00, so was able to watch the whole thing from our balcony, including seeing Quantum of the Seas docking just before us. The terminal is way out on the Yangtzee River, not on the smaller river in the city that for some reason I was expecting to go to.

Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal

Quantum of the Seas in Shanghai

We had breakfast delivered so we wouldn't have to fight the crowds in the buffet. It was a bit average, although it didn't help that I'd let it get a bit cold while watching us dock.

At 9:30 we disembarked. We had to go to the theatre to get allocated a coach group, and then we got off the ship. And walked into a hall of chaos. We were mixed up with people who were leaving the ship for good, so they were all trying to sort out baggage. And suddenly we lost everyone that had the coloured stickers. We did eventually go out the right exit and through a security check, but then outside there was one solitary sign saying where the Cunard tours were going, but after going that direction the signs stopped and everyone was going outside but there were no coaches out there and we had no idea where to go. Eventually I saw someone with a sticker and asked them and she said she was just following her guide, so asked the guide and she said she was looking for the coaches as well!! Gah!! She asked someone though and it turns out they were around the corner. We were almost the last to board our coach, so that was very stressful.

Also, random camera died. It's been a bit funny with the memory card since I dropped it in Hong Kong Disneyland a year ago - the memory card mechanism got a bit screwy, and the door for the memory card and battery always looked like it wasn't sitting flush. Well as I was getting off (after having downloaded the SD card before we got off), it decided it didn't want to work at all - couldn't read the card - reinsert. Fricken sigh.

And it was raining. And the coach windows were steaming up.

The tour we had was "Free time in three sites" which was described as they give you a map and you have time to explore three different parts of Shanghai. Except the map they gave us was a general tourist map of a huge area of Shanghai. No actual detail of any of the places we went to. So that map was completely useless.

Our first stop was in the financial district, and they gave us an hour and a quarter from 10:45 to 12:00. Which might have been enough to go up either the World Financial Centre, Jin Mao tower or the Shanghai Tower, as they are right next to each other, but Stu wanted to go see the Oriental Pearl Tower. But that's a fifteen minute walk away, twenty to twentyfive if you take a wrong turn or want to stop and take photos. So it was about 11:15 by the time we got there. Which isn't enough time to go up it. Well, it might have been, but only if there were no queues, but you can't tell that from the outside. So we didn't go up it. Instead we went to Starbucks. Yay. Did I mention it was raining? I wanted to go to the bathroom, so found one downstairs, but there were was no toilet paper. I knew this was a possibility, so had brought tissues. But they were in my bag upstairs at Starbucks where Stu was waiting, weren't they. Fricken sigh.

Looking across to the Bund from Mingzhu Roundabout

Disney Store

Mingzhu Roundabout

Oriental Pearl Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower

Walked back along the sky bridge thingie back to the coach.

Shanghai World Financial Centre, Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Tower

Oriental Pearl Tower and other Shanghai buildings

Our second stop was in the "Old Town" which is a mega tourist trap. Old buildings are all shops and tea houses and I would have enjoyed it except we hadn't had much for breakfast so I was starving and low blood sugar which meant even trying to find something to eat was too hard (no English subtitles pretty much anywhere so there's all this random food you have no idea what it is). Eventually we found a popular dumpling place and had some xiao long bao. Felt infinitely better after that, so we went to the Yu Gardens to have a wander around. Even though it's not very big it's like a little rabbit warren of passages and gates and completely disorienting with a new view through every turn. Would have enjoyed it more if we didn't need to be back at the meeting spot in time for our departure. We got toffee fruit on a stick on the way out which was a bit of fun.

Me and Stu having dumplings for lunch at Yu Garden

Bridge in Shanghai Old City

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Stu with fruit on a stick at Yu Garden

Fangbang Middle Road

Our third stop was at the Bund. In the rain. I didn't even get my big camera out for the last two stops (I took Stu's random camera which he's barely ever used since he uses his phone). Got some pics of the city from the Bund, then wandered most of the way down and back. Would have been sooo much nicer without the rain.

Me and Stu in the rain in Shanghai

Monument to the People's Heroes

The Bund

Shanghai skyscrapers

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund Bull

The Bund

The Bund

The Bund

Then back to the coach by 16:20 (actually we left a bit early because everyone was tired and over the rain and just wanted to get back to the ship).

Scooter raincoats

Getting back onto the ship was a lot easier than getting off it. Just walked straight in and through security and had our passport photocopies scanned on the gangway and straight back onto the ship.

Quantum of the Seas departing Shanghai

Looking towards the five Queens Grill suites, and The Verandah restaurant on deck 8

View of deck 6 and 7 from deck 8 while berthed in Shanghai

Terrace pool in the evening

Chilled out in the room for a while then went to the pub and had a drink and played the trivia again. We got 17/20 this time, but again a table got 20/20.

For dinner Stu had Indonesian chicken salad, cod with oxtail sauce (weird right?) and rocky road (which was a chocolate mousse not rocky road). I had cream of chicken soup which was lovely, steak which was nice enough but a huge meal - much bigger than they normally serve, and creme brulee which sadly hadn't been blow torched so was just liquid on top.

Then crashed into bed.