Today was day of contrasts. Old and new, rich and poor, Chinese and European.

The day started with a walk to a local street market that Lachie and I could see from our room. From our 5 star room we could see a shanty town street market. We didn’t see another westerner, and it was obvious from the curious looks that we got that not too many westerners wander through here. Fresh fruit and vegies, meat, live and not so live birds and fish, live frogs, turtles, eels. The smells (good smells) from the ‘food court’ area told us it was time to head back and meat the girls for breakfast. The contrast was amazing.

After we met our guide Zou (Joe) we headed for The Bund, the old British part of town from the early 1900’s. From here the view across the river to the new part of Shanghai was incredible. Only 20 years ago there was nothing on the other side of the river.

Next stop was the Yu Gardens, a 400 year old garden build by a retired army general. This was in the middle of ‘China Town’. Yes, that’s right, Shanghai has a China Town. It’s an area that modern Shanghai people go to see how people used to live in China. While in that area we had lunch of typical Shanghai fare (or so we were told).

After lunch we headed to a silk factory where we were shown the process of making silk. We found out that there are two types of silk cocoon. The small ones contain one caterpillar and are used to make silk thread. The large ones contain two caterpillars and two threads are tangled around each other, so they can’t be spun, so they are used to make doonas. The process of stretching the cocoon to make the doona is incredible. So we bought one.

Nanjing Road, the main street of Shanghai was the last stop. This is a shopper’s delight. One shop we checked out was the government toy shop – 5 stories of kid’s clothes, toys and games. And the Hagan Daas for an ice cream
Dinner was similar to lunch, but a half hour drive from the hotel.

Final observations of Shanghai: Lots of very well kept dogs. Traffic chaos, but it seems to work well. For a city of 22 million plus people, the traffic was always moving. 2013Road markings, pedestrian crossings and even traffic lights seem to mean little, but everybody keeps moving smoothly. The population density is amazing. High rises for as far as you could see in every direction.