Shanghai

The Shanghai skyline, with the famous Oriental Pearl Tower, greeted the ship.  Onboard ship, we were greeted with the Chinese bureaucracy of immigration.  I have come to learn through my years of traveling that entering and exiting a country is quite arbitrary.  Rules and regulations you are told one day can be opposite the next.  Such was the case for gaining ship clearance in Shanghai.  Normally, once the ship is cleared all passengers are allowed to disembark.  Gaining ship's clearance happens in several ways, most often with immigration officers looking at all passports and placing the entry stamp inside.  Other times, it is face-to-face, where each passenger must meet with an immigration officer to have their passport stamped.  For this arrival, it was face-to-face, but by specific groups.  The downside, they were letting passengers off the ship after going through immigration.  Imagine my concern, when I have several tours waiting to leave the pier, student gathering at the buses, and myself and my colleagues stuck onboard toying with the idea of dispatching trips from the ship's outside deck. 

Fortunately, my team and I were processed and made it outside in time to not only dispatch our trips, but to stand and freeze in the cold.  I didn't quite know if I would need it when I was packing for the voyage, but my winter coat (purchased for the winters of Minnesota) was worth the luggage space.  

China has a population of 1.3 billion with 14 million in Shanghai alone -- almost double the population of New York City.  The population density was felt while walking the streets where shoulder to shoulder is the norm, not the exception.  To add to the density, it was also Lunar (Chinese) New Year - a 15 day celebration - when many go on holiday.  Nanjing Road is known for its many shops and popular amongst visitors.  As such, it was full of shoppers, visitors and tourists as far as you could see.  One my least favorite times to be out shopping is between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The shopping malls are overcrowded, people bump into you, you are hot from wearing your winter coat indoors.  The anxiety I have for that was all too present while walking the streets of Shanghai.  

I enjoy good Chinese food while at home, and I am very much aware that American Chinese food is often far from authentic Chinese food.  Delicacies of China are not always delicacies back home.  Because of this, and my previous visit to China, I had my apprehensions about meals while in China.  Courtney, our Lonely Planet expert and Chief Research Officer, came across two all vegetarian restaurants.  The meaning of being vegetarian through Asia is always up to interpretation.  In Japan, for example, it meant bits of pork where acceptable.  Being vegetarian is not a commonly held practice in Asia, so not to our surprise, there were many dishes on the menu at the vegetarian restaurant that included meat.  What was a surprise, was that it was  all mock meat.  While I am not vegetarian, I enjoyed temporarily becoming one in China and had two fantastic meals which were a highlight of my visit. 

Other notables of Shanghai included visiting a Jade Buddha temple, a tucked away Chinese tea shop , Dunkin Donuts and stumbling on the filming of a Hugh Jackman movie on the streets of Shanghai.  All-in-all, a good visit.