Tuesday, 20 May 2014
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| Shopping bazaar |
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| Alan and stone |
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| Self explanatory sign |
At last, a really comfortable bed! When we arrived at breakfast this morning,
there was a bit of a queue and wait, so the dining room manager (I assume that
is who he was) asked the six of us who were waiting if we would like to
breakfast in the executive dining room on the next floor. Well, we did have to help the hotel … We had a lovely window table to look at the
mist and smog and the service was excellent.
Our tour this morning was to the Yu Garden and most
interestingly, we had to walk through a shopping bazaar to reach the garden,
which was such a tranquil place surrounded by pandemonium. The garden, which was something to do with an
emperor, was really beautiful, with water, rocks, trees, pavilions and
fish. We spent some time wandering
around and taking photos, and being early, we managed to avoid much of the
crowd. However, we did discover on our
way out that the gardens would be closed at 11.30 am as the Chairman’s (big
boss) wife would be visiting during the late afternoon.
We were then led into the depths of the bazaar, taken
to a pearl shop (commission for the guide perhaps?) and then left to our own
devices and navigational skills for the next forty minutes. Definitely a place to return to on Thursday
before we leave Shanghai
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| Where is everyone? |
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| An advertisement for Australia |
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| Missing - one toddler |
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| Bamboo scaffolding |
We then travelled to the beautiful, and quiet, French
Quarter and again had time to wander the streets and lanes of this leafy part
of the city, famous for its many restaurants.
A quiet sit in Haagen Hazs with an ice cream was a welcome break before
being taken to lunch. The lunch restaurant
was in the English Quarter and was a most beautiful old building and all the
old décor had been retained – the old tiles on the floor were fantastic. Another Chinese meal – which by now really all seem
to be the same.
After lunch, the bus returned to the hotel to drop some of
the party who wished to have some free time, and then took the remainder of us
to a cashmere wholesaler in the suburbs.
Unfortunately, none of us thought the designs were particularly stylish,
but there were some very nice and reasonably priced pashminas on sale!
This evening we are being treated to an acrobatic show. And what an amazing show it was! Our local guide earned his full complement of
Brownie points by getting us a seating upgrade to the VIP section – apparently
we were a delegation from the Australian Embassy! With the conference happening in town, all
official foreigners are given privileged treatment. The acrobatics and juggling were wonderful,
especially the boys on the outside of the large “bicycle” wheel and the couple
flying on the two long streamers. The
performance concluded with eight motorbikes inside a small “globe of death.”
Our bus was not able to access the streets near our hotel
on our return and we had to walk a short distance on our return. All the streets were blocked off, with a
large police presence. We discovered
that Mr Putin, from Russia ,
is staying in the Peninsula Hotel, which is next to the Fairmont ,
and his deputy is actually staying in the Fairmont
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