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Returning
from Suzhou to Shanghai signaled the end of our stay in Shanghai.
Just one more night and the next morning and then we'd be flying
southwest to Wuhan where we would board the boat for our 5-day cruise
on the Yangtze. Before we left, however, we'd have an opportunity
to visit the Shanghai Museum for a few hours.
The
Shanghai Museum is a wonderful museum with many exhibits showing
numerous examples Chinese art and cultural treasures. Among them
were exhibits for jade, Chinese currency, Chinese lacquerware furniture,
costumes from the various cultures that make up modern-day China,
and porcelain. Anne and I would enjoy the time spent at the museum
by concentrating our time on the jade and Chinese furniture exhibits.
However,
before we see some of the pictures taken at the museum, take a few
minutes to walk with Anne to Jing An Park, a local park, near the
Hilton. Many of the group's early risers would walk over to the
park early in the morning and observe the locals as they did their
daily exercise. Anne joined Phil and Beth Rosenberg this last morning
on their walk to the park while I caught a few extra winks.
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Entrance
to Jing An Park, Shanghai |
In
every city we visited throughout China we observed many parks and
recreation facilities, and they were very popular with the locals.
No matter what time of day, whether it was early morning, midday,
early or late evening, the parks seemed to be full of people doing
their Tai Chi exercises or just sitting and talking with friends.
Nearby there was always a concentration of bird cages with brightly
colored birds of all sizes singing away. One evening in Beijing, on
the way back to our hotel after the opera, we passed a small park
which was full of people all doing ballroom dancing. It seems that
ballroom dancing is one of the "in things" in China
these days. The parks that we saw were all very well manicured and
maintained. |
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Young
and old doing their Tai Chi exercises |
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Parks
were well maintained and manicured |
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Beautiful
setting for morning exercise |
Phil
and Beth Rosenberg |
Small
ponds were common |
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I
have to give Anne credit for taking the pictures at Jing An Park.
I was in bed at the hotel sleeping. Thank goodness for digital cameras.
Without it we wouldn't have these pictures of the park, or the pictures
at the top of the Great Wall of China. She would have never taken
the 35mm still cameras as, according to her, they're too difficult
to work. With the digital it's simply point and shoot. Much more to
her liking. |
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A
Chinese man's best friend hangs from a tree limb or sits on a
ledge nearby
singing
the hours of the day away
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| Now,
let's take a look at some of the things we saw at the Shanghai Museum
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The
Shanghai Museum
modern building
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Anne
standing with
the statues in front of
the museum |
Inside
the museum
crisscrossed escalators
take you from floor to floor |
View
of the lobby
from the top floor
of the museum |
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| Our
first stop was the exhibit on jade. There were many jade articles
on display, all in dimly lit glass cases so the pictures aren't great. |
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The
Jade Gallery
The jade pieces, as you can see, were all very beautifully and many
were carved in intricate detail. We wished we had more time to really
study the entire collection, but that wasn't possible as we wanted
to also visit several of the other galleries.
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The
Lacquerware Furniture Gallery
The Shanghai Museum has many wonderful examples of Chinese lacquerware
furniture. Many were so beautifully carved and inlaid with excellent
Chinese works of art depicting traditional Chinese themes.
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The
Porcelain Gallery
There
were many interesting shaped pieces in the porcelain gallery. Can
you guess the use of the objects in the 1st and 3rd pictures?
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Our
stop at the museum was only about two hours so we had to go through
the selected galleries rather quickly and, of course, make the mandatory
stop at the museum store where we purchased some nice books on the
museum's collections. We also purchased some good T-shirts at the
museum. I have quite a collection of T-shirts and I've always found
that those purchased in China were inferior and subject to great
shrinkage. These were good T-shirts, the best I'd seen in China,
and I'm happy to report they haven't shrunk yet.
Leaving
the museum I went to board the bus for the trip to lunch then the
airport. As I approached the bus I was inundated by the dollar people
Anne yelled out the window for me to buy a couple of the small fans
for the grandchildren and I proceeded to bargain for them as is
customary. I have finally arrived at a price of $1 for 3 and reached
in my pocket for the money. When the seller saw the cash she immediately
thrust her entire stock toward me and said $5. You'd be surprised
how cheap you can get things. Three baseball caps for $1. Two packages
of 10-pack postcards for $1. Granted the quality isn't the best,
but who cares with such things?
After
a quick lunch we were driven to the airport where we bid good-bye
to Julia, our local guide in Shanghai, and settled in wait for our
flight to Wuhan. It was a short flight and we arrived in late afternoon.
Our bus was late arriving to pick us up which cut down the amount
of time we had for a city tour. We went directly from the airport
to the Holiday Inn for dinner before boarding the boat for the Yangtze
Cruise. Dinner was great. A buffet with what seemed to be hundreds
of choices of meats, seafood, and vegetables.
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Halloween
decorations at
the hotel in Wuhan |
A
bread basket decoration at the hotel
in Wuhan |
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Having
completed dinner we immediately headed back to the bus for the ride
to the dock and our waiting cruise ship. The ship was set to sail
at 7:00 p.m. with no delays and we just made it. We boarded and
by the time we made our way to our cabin we were already moving.
Continue
to the next page to begin your cruise of the Yangtze River ...
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