May | 2013 | monagustafsonaffinito

And so we near the end — but still more time in China. This time in Shanghai, beginning with a view of the port.

The thing of outstanding interest in Shanghai is the difference between the Bund, the side of the Huang Pu River that is the older site, and it’s opposite bank, the bustling new and modern Shanghai that was once an area of some few homes and ample forestation. We started our excursion on the new side at the museum,

gorgeously modern on the outside, and most beautiful on the inside, beginning with the ground floor.

Photography – without flash — was allowed, so I took a few shots, though my camera was a bit restless. Just a couple good enough to show here. First, a furniture display.

Then a happy Buddha.

Here’s more of what the modern side looked like’

Our next stop was at the Bund, the other side of the river, which gave a better view of the tall buildings.

One building-in-process intrigued me because of the method. The top and the bottom were unfinished, but the mid section looked pretty complete.

I happened to see the building later in the March 2013 Popular Science. It turns out I was looking at the Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building in the world and a particularly interesting engineering feat. Googling told me credit goes to the San Francisco Architecture firm Gensler.

But now join me in looking directly at the Bund itself,

including a wall of flowers

and a statue which seems to extol the strength of the working man.

But we’re not done yet. It’s time for lunch.

Once again a very modern, even elegant, hotel greeted us. We still haven’t hit the traditional Chinese method of service.

Back on the street, we had another chance to share in the celebration of the Chinese New Year by observing decorations on the street.

Picking up on the theme of comparing markets, here we have a market in Shanghai, with more New Year’s celebration.

And now on to the the YuYuan gardens, appreciated by crowds of people, so it wasn’t easy to get photos of the scenes we passed in approaching the entrance. It was a matter of luck whether the camera grabbed a shot as we moved through.

Notice the crowds in the upper part of the photo, and you’ll see what I mean. And take a look at the header for today — the YuYuan gardens.

I’m realizing this was a very full day, ’cause we’re not done yet. We still have the Jade Buddha Temple to visit.

Unfortunately I didn’t realize until the end of the trip that my little old camera could take motion pictures. If I had known, I could have done better than just a still photo of the chant and response at the temple.

Reaponse

But we did finally head back to the ship, but not the end of interesting things to note about Shanghai — a bright and active night life.

Remember, you can enlarge any photo by clicking on it.

Hong Kong, China, and we are approaching the end of the journey. But we haven’t reached the end yet. Good. I don’t want it to end.

It took a lot of paper work, and we were photographed as we exited the ship. Otherwise, I felt happily comfortable in China. In fact, I loved it there. More about the people in the next segment, but here still is the travelogue.

If you remember the photos of arrivals at previous ports, you’ll see the difference here — a very active commercial port – and colorful, too.

Our first visit on land was to the funicular that took us to Victoria Peak.

It really is local transport. We stopped at one point on the way up to pick up passengers. That led me to take a photo of the notice of posted stops. (Look up, to the right.)

The final funicular stop was not, however, the end of the trip to Victoria Peak We needed to take the escalator (or maybe I took the elevator — I guess you already know I have an aversion to escalators.)

At the top, we got to wander around for a while. Here’s what Hong Kong looked like to my camera. I’m not sure whether the haze is smog or weather haze.

Reminding us that the world really is small, our gathering spot to move on to the next phase of our journey was outside Starbucks.

There we were also reminded that the Chinese celebrate their new year long (3 weeks) and enthusiastically, as witnessed by the flower display in the square, set up there in celebration of the holiday.

OK, now here’s the question for you. Do you remember the markets from our previous stops? Well, here’s the Stanley market –our next stop. Some difference, huh?

Then we went on to Aberdeen, a section of Hong Kong. More specifically we spent time on a sampan touring the harbor. By the way, notice the British influence in so many of the place names. And take a look at the sampan (well, one like ours) on the header

I cheated a bit and googled some, helping to put some words to what I had seen.It’s a busy harbor — a floating village, really. Mentioned first was the jumbo floating restaurant, looking lie a floating palace of imperial China. One of many restaurants in the harbor, I wish I could take a trip back just to eat at this one.