22nd Shanghai – Traffic! – Went to garden and around market in old town…
My comment on traffic was an abiding memory of the day – it took so long to get from place to place in Shanghai at that time. The city was growing much faster than its infrastructure would allow and it really was traffic bound. I honoured Shanghai with…
The Department Of Transport Award For Traffic Congestion
…which took some winning in China back then – all the cities were pretty congested, with a mixture of cars and bicycles, mostly the latter, not well separated.
…Jade Factory and Carpet Factory -> The Bund & Nanjing Road, on to Mongolian Barbecue…
I recall being fed “Mongolian Barbecue” on several occasions on that tour. It was a “bit of a thing” in England back then and I guess the Chinese thought that the English thought that this was sort-of Chinese food. Actually, it turns out that this “comedy dish – Mongolian Barbecue” is slightly more Chinese than I imagined, although it has no connection with Mongolia whatsoever.
Jade Buddha Temple including Monks Prayer Ceremony…
Janie and I loved this bit. Remember, this was before we became “templed-out” and “monks-prayered-out” – this was our first experience of such stuff.
-> Children’s Palace – Chinese violins, ballet, violins, computers…
-> dinner at Rooftop Restaurant (everyone else hated) -> early night
Interesting observation about the Rooftop Restaurant. I guess that Janie and I felt we were getting a rare authentic Chinese meal there, whereas many of the other tourists missed their sweet and sour balls and chips. I don’t really remember – Janie might recall more, but I awarded that restaurant:
The Egon Ronay Award For Most Appetizing Food
Praise indeed.
All the photos we took on that day – by which I mean all 57 photos – can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:
