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I am not sure what we expected to see when we got to China but it wasn't the large cosmopolitan city we found in Shanghai. Unfortunately smog is a major problem in all large Chinese cities. As you view the photos you will note the sky is not blue, it is a hazy yellow and buildings at a distance are fuzzy. Yup, that is smog! China has many autos along with coal fired power plants, the air can be seen! Our eyes burned the entire time except while we on the Yangtze River. And ever there, when we hit a large city it was bad. If you have respiratory problems, we strongly recommend against visiting China.
Note the landscape planters along them.
taken through the bus window.
The different styles of architecture
caught my
eye as we were passing.
this a replica of the Wall Street "Bull". In a park
in Shanghai, China, a
Communist country! We even have the red national flag flying from a
building in the
background. It may have communist government, but from
what we saw, China is Capitalist in the first order.
Free enterprise is
definitely alive and well there
I have no idea what this "building "is but it was spotted along the riverfront near a river cruse ship.
Wall" on the Bund or waterfront.
flowerpot set into the side of a concrete frame. Flowers of the correct
size, color and texture are then planted to make up these geometric
designs.
Our next stop was the Shanghai National Museum.
It
contains priceless pieces of ancient art consisting
of bronze, ceramic, jade and calligraphy.
This escalator
bank caught my eye as we entered.
dark alley? Beautiful bronze work. Bronze was a valuable commodity
so this mask
was very valuable. Surprisingly we did not see any gold
work.
And then there was this happy, chubby fellow to make us feel good.
These canoes were on display at the entrance to the museum. I believe that they are reproductions
Chinese cash coins originated from the barter of farming tools and agricultural surpluses. Around 1200 BC, smaller token spades, hoes, and knives began to be used to conduct smaller exchanges with the tokens later melted down to produce real farm implements. These tokens came to be used as media of exchange themselves and were known as spade money and knife money. Many Chinese coins have holes. These holes allowed coins to be strung together to create higher denominations.
at a small garden area bounded by shops, one of which just happened to be a
American Ice Cream shop! Guess what we had for lunch? The lady with the red flag was our local guide.
Gardens. Yu or Yuyuan Garden is a famous
classical garden
located in Anren Jie, Shanghai. It was finished in 1577 by a
government officer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) named
Pan Yunduan. Yu in
Chinese means pleasing and satisfying, and this garden was specially built for
Pan's parents
as a place for them to enjoy a tranquil and happy time in their
old age.
located left and right on the entry arch shown above.
entry to the gardens
These entry walkways were fashioned from tiny pebbles embedded in mortar.
China. Most are considered good luck like the top two. Note that
they have something in their mouth. It is a pearl. Pearls are
considered good luck as well and are believed to give the dragon musical powers
such as flying. Note that Chinese dragons do not have wings.
The dragon depicted in the bottom photo must be a "Bad Dragon" as the warriors are about to put an end to him.
the toilets in China have beautiful names. Actually the signs were
pointing to different
sections of the garden and indicating that a toilet was
available there as well.
just outside the Garden. It was the last place on our visit before
heading to
the market for some souvenir shopping and then back to the hotel for
a well deserved rest and dinner.
On the morning of April 12 we visited a silk factory before boarding our plane to Yichang and boarding our River Cruse ship.
Surprisingly there are two
types of silkworm cocoons. The first is where a single worm spins a cocoon around itself from one continuous
fiber. This
fiber can reach a length of 1200 meters This cocoon is immersed in hot water to kill the pupa dissolve the "glue"
that holds the cocoon together. The fiber can then be unrolled into one continuous fiber of raw silk. The second
type is where two silkworms spin a joint cocoon. The fibers are interweaved so they cannot be separated into one continuous
thread. These double cocoons are treated the same as single but the cocoon is pulled apart into a tent shaped weave
and spreads out flat to make a mat.
The double cocoon silk is stacked to form a quilt or comforter batting that is then encased in a printed silk cover to make a bed cover. These comforters are extremely soft and warm.
artless of clothing are made. In addition it is used to make rugs and used
as embroidery thread to make beautiful
pictures.
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