{The Oriental Pearl Tower - iconic Shanghai}
As you can see from the photo above, the sky remained cloudy and the air rather thickly smoggy for our first couple of days in the city. We explored a couple of underground markets where we were entertained by the traders and their bartering techniques. Having a driver (Mr. Xu - pronounced 'Shoe') meant we didn't have to battle with the public transport or taxi drivers and he would drop us off, then pick us up again later.
On our first weekend Mr. Xu insisted on taking us for a day trip to one of Shanghai's water towns. This is a partly reconstructed area but interesting as a view of how the people used to live. It was a great day out, the weather having improved once we were away from the centre of the city.
The traditional wooden boats were rowed alongside the covered walkways. The woman driving the one in the photo was singing a folk song to her passengers. Unfortunately we never did find the jetty where we could take one of the boat rides.
At Granny's Teahouse we stopped and had our first cup of tea from a bowl. From the menu of about 30 different varieties I chose the Granny tea, of course! It was delicious! We wandered on.....
The water doesn't look very healthy but it was all very picturesque.
Just before we left the town a bridge took us over the river.
Driving back to the city took us about half an hour. I noticed at one point that the road we were on consisted of seven lanes of vehicles, travelling bumper to bumper at about 60 mph. No wonder the ex-pat community is advised not to drive themselves!
2 comments:
Looks like a wonderful mix of old and new. The tea looks interesting.
It all looks a bit like Cambridge, but with pointy hats! Will there be more from the Far East? Hope so.
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