Day 80 - An outing to The Bund

This morning we woke up ready to hit Shanghai - so we headed to The Bund, of course. The Bund (also known as Waitan - foreigner's street) is situated on the Huangpu River and is probably the most famous street in Shanghai. Along The Bund is a collection of old-European style buildings that stare across the river at modern skyscrapers, and is meant to be the most beautiful street in Shanghai. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to comment on this, until much later, as the rain threatened our plans of a walking tour along the river.

Whie sheltering from the rain we devised a new plan of heading for the Shanghai Museum - though this plan was also momentarily hindered as we watched a taxi vs scooter crash unfold before our eyes. Of course the taxi came off best, and as the scooter driver picked himself off the road, we were shocked at the lack of concern or anger from the drivers or the public - and even more shocked as the scooter driver went across the road to fetch his shoes that had come off in the crash and then mount his scooter and drive away.

Refocused on our plans, we set about finding the bus to take us to the Museum. On the advice of one of the many guards that seem to mill everywhere, we boarded a bus and soon found ourselves across the road from the Museum. This is where the ablibing plans fell apart once more. Standing in the middle of the square wondering how to enter, we were approached by two students wanting to practice their English on us - after about half an hour of chatting they told us they were off to view a traditional tea ceremony and invited us along. We have been wanting to see a tea ceremony in China, so we jumped at the chance tto go with some people who could explain it to us.

It wasn't until we arrived that we realised it was a private ceremony, in which we were taking part! From what we have observed in China so far, the Chinese people are very polite and it would have been beyond rude to pull out at this stage, so we both wrote off the cost as an experience we wanted to enjoy, and set about engaging and appreciating the ceremony. During the hour long ceremony we got to try six different teas, all very different but as delicious as each other, as well as four different 'tea snacks'. We were provided with a running commentary by the tea ceremony host and a translation by our new found friends. The family of our host were the makers (and supposedly the copyright owners) of the 'snacks' and of one of the teas we tasted (we tasted merely a fraction of the 200 on offer), which was the sweetest and Liv's favourite. Sitting there it was hard not to have flash backs to the wonderful times we had spent enjoying mum's endless supply of a variety of teas back home. A memorable part of the ceremony was when the host served tea out of the Lovers' Teacup, that changed colour as hot water was poured in.

We left the ceremony with new found knowledge about how to correctly hold and drink from the delicate and tincy teacups and and set about following through with plan B: Museum!

Farewelling our friends we entered the Museum and began wandering our way around the four expertly created floors full of Chinese history. Adam's two favourite exhibition halls were the rock carvings, which showed both beauty and destruction, and the currency exhibition that showed both simple and elaborate designs. We had to laugh at the coins in the shape of knife blades, imaging walking into a store and pulling out a weapon for currency! Liv's favourite was the ceramic exhibition, where we were dazed by an array of delicate and colourful pottery, some thousands of years old. Pottery is one of the three things China is famous for (according to our tea friends), tea is the second (which we had definitely had our fill of today), and the third is silk which we saw in the Minority Costume exhibition. Armed with our new-found history knowledge, we finally made our way to The Bund and set plan A into action. While our plans for a Bund-length walking tour were now altered after being on our feet for so many hours, we were still keen to see as much of the architectural history we could! Heading in a direction we weren' t quite sure of, we immersed ourselves in the action of the Bund for a good few hours as day turned to night. This allowed us to see two different sides of the Bund and witness the waterfront swell with human life as the locals came to socialise the night away. The Bund was packed with people selling all sorts of gadgets, and in traditional Chinese fashion those selling the same things sat side by side. Although there was so much space in the surrounding streets and pathways, we understood why The Bund drew such a crowd, and we figured that without these people The Bund just wouldn't have the same atmoshpere.

After partaking in our second English lesson for today while standing across from the Peace Hotel (one of the many old buildings that got the camera clicking), we made tracks towards our Shanghai home.

Finishing off the obligatory icecreams and having a short rest, we went in search of more food for Adam, who had been tantalised by the burning bbq grills that line the streets since we arrived. Munching down octopus kebabs in one hand and a cold beer in the other, Adam decided that he liked Shanghai very much.

By this stage it was getting late and we hope to explore the old town of Shanghai tomorrow so in preparation for the next day's plans we headed to bed - hopefully our plans for tomorrow will go smoothly.

Adlibing a Chinese education.