Day One and Day Two of Tour (Shanghai and Guilin)

Oh, my, gosh.  I don’t even know where to begin.  I am sitting in an airport, our flight inexplicably delayed, (though those who speak Chinese may know why) and I am FINALLY finding a moment to begin blogging.  It has been a long road to get here – one full of a few challenges involving telephones and credit cards not behaving in expected ways for me, and not enough sleep for any of us.  But challenges have been surmounted, and sleeplessness aside, we are now on our way to Xian to see the terracotta warriors, after an absolutely amazing stay in Guilin.  Really, words fail me. Anything we have to say about most everything we’ve done so far would be superlative in all ways. From its beginnings in Shanghai, at the Broadway Mansion Hotel (oldest in the city) and their abundant buffet breakfast, offering foods of east and west (toast and jam to noodles and conji) to the overwhelmingly congested streets of the city teeming with the activity of 25 million people.  Let's back up and look at a few highlights:

Day One - Shanghai:

Lisa (DeAnn’s sister), DeAnn, and I spent our first two nights together in the same room, and we enjoyed each other’s company as we got our bearings together.  Broadway Mansion Hotel did not disappoint.  The accommodations were lovely, with an excellent view of the city, both fabulous bath and shower, and awesome little toiletries. (Seriously, it’s the little things that delight.)  After a delicious breakfast that did not disappoint, we headed to the lobby to map out our one day in the city before the official tour began.  The concierge did his best to convince us that we needed to take the five-hour $150.00 bus tour of the city.  Um. No.  We struck out on our own, armed with a city map and the address of a silk factory, as we’d determined that that was the one thing we wanted to see that is not included in our tour.  We headed out into the misty city, across a bridge over the Hu River.  After a stop at the Monument to the People, we walked for what may have been a few miles along the river in the Bund.  The Bund is an older upscale area of Shanghai, full of beautiful architecture dating back to colonial days - - gorgeous buildings and a walking path all along the river, kind of like Chicago’s magnificent mile (eh, sort of).  The signage and people watching were both so entertaining.

The river traffic was busy, but the street traffic was unbelievable, with scooters whizzing around, many of them crammed with multiple helmetless people.  It’s common to see what looks to be entire families buzzing along, one or two kids stuffed between two adults, or a tiny baby in arms and a toddler standing in front, all braving the cars, busses, carts, bicycles and motorcycles.  Our guide, with whom we spent our time in Guilin, told us that Yes, there are lots of accidents and scooter injuries, but thankfully, we’ve yet to see any. 

We made what felt like a big leap of leaving the pedestrian walkway and crossed the bustling boulevard into the city proper.  Lisa was certain we were taking our lives in our hands.  Kind of like double-dutch jump rope, we had to find just the right time to jump into the stream of pedestrians crossing the street.  Not really trusting that the lights indicating traffic to stop were to be relied upon, we instead abided by the law of safety in numbers as we worked our way into the Yuyuan Old Shanghai Bazaar, where we finally felt like we were entering “real” China.  Crowded streets packed with stalls devoted to singular items, like pots and pans or tires or electronics, and smells and sounds decidedly different from home.  We wound our way through many stalled streets to a Taoist temple, were we paid 7 cents to get in.  Throngs of tourists and devotees alike made their way into the temple.  Some purchased huge bundles of incense to burn as offering or little paper boats that they tossed into a fire.  Others, in the different areas of the temple devoted to different gods, paid their prayers and respects, or, like us, just marveled at the beauty and wondered at the meaning.  So, who or what is the idol with hands coming out of his eyes and eyes in the palms of those hands?  Curiouser and curiouser…

Leaving the temple, there were so many people hawking wheels that you attach to the bottoms of your shoes to roll along (kind of like those sneakers with wheels that were all the rage a few years ago).  SO many people trying their best to get us to purchase wheels, each attempting to make a sale as though he or she were the first ever to try.  As we dodged the wheel sellers, we decided that food was a necessity and looked for a restaurant that seemed the least dubious in terms of being a stomach hazard.  We took an elevator up to a second floor restaurant and made our first foray into “eating out” out in China.  Eh.  No one was particularly excited about the meal; DeAnn was particularly disappointed in her meal, as the stir fried vegetables she ordered came out as soup - - not so good.  No matter.  We were on our way.

Back out into the hustle of the city to find a cab to take to the silk factory.  Who knew that catching a cab was going to be such an adventure?  It took us FOREVER to hale one.  Every single one that passed was already occupied.  It was like a New York City experience on steroids.  DeAnn and Lisa sat down to look at a map while I continued the seemingly futile effort of securing a cab.  They determined that our destination was much too far to walk, so we redoubled our efforts and were rewarded after moving to another street.

The cab drive there assured us that we would most certainly NOT have been able to walk the distance.  We climbed out of the cab (after paying a whopping 3 dollars or so) to the front of a very unassuming façade within a row of buildings.  We were greeted right away by a welcoming gentleman who ushered us in and up the stairs.  And there, we met Rainbow.  She was our docent and stupendous guide through the super charming little silk museum and little demonstration factory.  Oh, my, was she delightful.  We learned so much about silk!  Rainbow (and yes, it’s Rainbow, for real) was a fount of bubbly information.  The demonstration factory was the best part.  First off, we seemed to be the only people in the museum at the time, so everyone was seemingly at our beck and call, rising to attention as we approached to show us their portion of the silk-making process.  It’s amazing how they are able to find the beginning of the silk thread of a cocoon and unravel it as if it were a spool of thread.  And then those double cocoons - - how those are stretched and stretched and layered in order to make batting for comforters.  Crazy cool.  Nature rocks.  And how the Chinese figured this out millennia ago is amazing!

After falling prey to the hard sell at the end of the tour, comforter in hand, we were close to desperation as we tried again to catch a cab.  When we finally piled in to the first empty cab that seemed to exist in the entire city, having gotten wise enough to catch one in front of a hotel, we felt victorious.  Not for long, though, as our cabbie rejected us.  It seemed that he didn’t know where the address was.  Thankfully, we lucked into another cab soon after and made our way back to the hotel. We felt pretty satisfied at having seen so much on our own.  Phooey on the big bus tour!  It had been such an amazing day. 

Lisa and I had a little adventure in trying to get connected to WiFi later in the evening.  The hotel WiFi was down, so we thought to try the WiFi at the Starbucks down the street.  So out we went into the night and witnessed a little Shanghai nightlife.  There were so many people out and about.  It was like prom night along the riverfront, with snappy couples parading up and down, taking pictures of one another in the misty night air, many of the young women in what looked like prom dresses.  It was kind of surreal.

Our Starbucks mission was a failure, as to get onto WiFi, a message came up that a code would be sent to your phone…what phone?  We headed back to the hotel where the WiFi was back up, took care of business, and headed to bed.

Day Two - Guilin:

We packed up, ate another tremendous breakfast as we looked out over the city at kites flying over the Bund, and then made our way to the lobby to meet our driver, who took us to the airport for the two-hour flight to Guilin.  We also met the other two women who would be joining us on the tour and subsequent teaching experience, Nancy, a middle school technology teacher from Overland, and Theresa, an ESL teacher from St. Charles.  Upon arriving in Guilin, we were greeted by Eva, our tour guide for the next 2 ½ days.  If was not long before we were all in love with this absolutely delightful young woman who provided us with a wealth of information regarding this breathtakingly beautiful area of southern China.  

Our first stop was Folded Brocade Hill Park and a hot and steamy jungle hike to the top of the “mountain.”  Upon reaching the summit, hikers are greeted with a sign that translates to mean, “All who reach the summit will live to 130 years,” and a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside.  Following our seriously sweaty hike, we piled back into our thankfully air conditioned van and ventured to Elephant Trunk Hill for more hiking and oohing and aahing over the karst topography of the area.  Lisa, Linda, and I opted for the more adventurous route, which took us over the rock formation that looks like an elephant drinking with its trunk from the river.  We climbed steep and slippery steps and passed through a low tunnel, expecting to meet Indiana Jones at every turn.  The elephant seems to be a symbol of luck and is prominent in much of the architecture we have seen.  Another interesting surprise about Elephant Trunk Hill is that its caves and caverns are used for storing rice wine, and the strong smell of the wine was prevalent on much of our walk. 

At this point we were starving; Eva took us to our first dim sum dinner.  Delicious!  What a treat to walk into a restaurant and have everything pre-ordered and waiting AND for it to be super yummy.  Following dinner, we boarded a small riverboat for the Seven Bridges Tour down the Hui River.  We all agreed that it felt a little Las Vegas as the boat passed small stages along the banks filled with costumed singers and dancers lip-syncing and pretending to play light up traditional Chinese instruments.  Cheesy yet delightful.  A serious highlight, though, was stopping to watch a cormorant fishing demonstration.  This form of fishing is now mostly for tourist demonstrations, except in small villages, as commercial fishing has taken over.  The cormorant is a large water bird that consumes fish.  The fishermen put a ring around the neck of the bird so that when the bird catches a fish, which it is trained to bring back to the boat, it cannot swallow it, and the fisherman can retrieve the fish (and it was quite a large fish!).  The fisherman feeds the birds pieces of fish that are small enough by the bird to eat as a reward for its troubles.  (And a side note, while on the boat we stood with Tom Hooper, director of “The King’s Speech!”  He is in China to participate in an international film festival in Shanghai.  Cool!)

We spent the night in the Guilin Park Hotel with its huge Buddha rising out of the gnarled wood and wedding preparations being set up in the lobby.