Day 10&11 at sea and Shanghai.

Day 10 an at sea day started with a sleep in as  we put the clocks back by an hour as we moved to Chinese time zone. It was an interesting breakfast with a couple from Charleston South Carolina and a women who was a researcher for the Democratic Party in America, Jennifer she was a bit of a history buff and though interesting she proceeded to give a American history lesson through out our breakfast. James went to the gym for an hour after breakfast while Jenny did some shopping as they had a sale on. We ended up having Lunch in the Metropolitan restaurant and after Lunch headed up to the Cosmos bar for the Music quiz before catching up with Lee and Maureen plus Stella for a game of five crowns, Jenny won followed by Lee and Maureen and Jamie and Stella finishing last.

We then had a coffee before heading out for tea once again in the Oceanview cafe, we did not stay for long as we were traveling in a fairly heavy swell and Jenny was feeling seasick.

Saturday we awoke early Jennifer had booked breakfast in the stateroom for six am and James went down for the express breakfast in the dining room. We had to meet in the departure area at 7.45 for our best of Shanghai tour.The Ship had docked in Baoshan which was around a forty minute drive from Shanghai. Our tour include the Bund area which is the river bank precinct with traditional architecture overlooking the new city on the other side of the river. 

We also visited the impressive Shanghai Museum which had an impressive array of exhibits across all eras of China’s history some dating back 8000 years. From there we went to the newly built theatre for lunch a Chinese banquet this took place on the eighth floor convention area and was a nice meal shared with ten others from our bus. Shanghai was amazing with the amount of growth and development 24 million people live there and an appartments cost over a million for a modest unit of around 300 square metres.

Another highlight was the Jade Buddha Temple which featured a six foot tall Jade Buddha inlaid with diamonds and agates. The temple was part of a new project encompassing the older temple.

The next stop was the Yuyuan Garden this also had a Buddhist Shrine and was supposed to be surrounded by five acres of beautiful scenery but was actually a newly built market place with traditional style structures. This we found quite tacky and especially after getting lost not a enjoyable part of the day.

Another interesting happening was as James went through the immigration check on arrival he got taken to one side and had his temperature checked ( in the ear not rear )

We had booked this tour before departure and had received a generous discount it ended up being nearly half the price charged on board I guess it makes for a good value excursion.

We returned to the Ship and had a casual dinner on deck ten before having a couple of night caps at the Cafe