Day 15 Wuhan and Shanghai

Our cruise down the Yangtze River was over.  We left the boat in Wuhan and boarded buses to see the Hubei Provincial History Museum.  This museum contains artifacts from the tomb of Yi of Zeng who died in 433 B.C.  His coffin was a lacquered box inside another lacquered box.  There were thousands of bronze, gold, wooden, and jade items found in the tomb.  These were all on display in the museum along with a set of bronze bells that were carefully made to emit specific tones when struck.  After looking at items in the museum and learning about the era of Yi, we attended a concert played on bells modeled after those found in the tomb.  String, wind, and percussion instruments from that era were played with the bells, and a dancer with the long flowing sleeves performed a dance from the era.  The bell tones were very clear and ranged from low tones to very high notes.  The players and dancer were dressed in traditional, very colorful constumes.

Wuhan is a city on the banks of the Yangtze River of about 9 million people.  There was new construction throughout the city.  It is known for automobile assembly.  Our bus then took us to the Wuhan Airport for the hour and a half flight to Shanghai.  We arrived in Shanghai at about 2:00  p.m.  Shanghai Pudong Airport is a huge structure, and it was strangely empty and quiet.  All the airports we had been through previously had been crowded and noisy.  We were told that Shanghai has another airport that is used for many of the domestic flights.  Since Shanghai has a population of 22 million, we were surprised by the quiet airport.  We boarded buses for the hour drive to Shanghai.

Shanghai is an international city.  It has older buildings dating to the 1800's and new skyscrapers built recently.  The older buildings were ornate five- to six-story stone buildings with all kinds of decoration.  Looking at that street, we were reminded of Budapest and Vienna.  But in the blocks behind that street and across the river, the glass and steel towers gleamed (or would have if there had been bright sunshine -- the air was thick haze).  These were the tallest buildings and the largest grouping of tall buildings that we had seen in China (Beijing and Chongqing have tall some tall buildings, but not this many in one place).  When night fell, both sides of the river were lit up with spotlights on the old buildings and outline lights on the new buildings.  It was a spectacular scene.  There is one structure that is simply an ornate tower extending from a globe structure at the base.  Throngs of people were milling along the river walkway (Bund).  The crowd was like a flowing river; you entered the flow and went with it.  The crowd contained families with children, but most seemed to be young adults.  Everyone seemed to have a camera and picture-taking was the activity of the day.  We went back to the Bund in the evening and the crowd was even larger; it extended for perhaps a mile up and down the banks of the river.  While we were walking, three people stopped us to visit.  One was a young woman from Beijing on vacation in Shanghai.  She spoke clear English and just began talking with us as we leaned against the rail looking across the river.  The second was a young man who began talking with us as we walked by him.  He was an engineer who lived and worked in Shanghai.  He also spoke clear English.  The third was an American college student from UCLA who was doing an internship in Shanghai.  I think he really enjoyed visiting with us and was surprised at all the places we had been and all the things we had seen in China.

The crowds finally became oppressive and we retreated to our hotel room.  Tomorrow will be a busy day in Shanghai.

Pictures:  Wuhan Museum (4), Wuhan Museum Bell Performance (2), Judy with lady in Wuhan Museum wearing a Route 66 shirt, Judy and Dwight in Shanghai, Shanghai skyline (2), Peace Hotel (green pyramid on top), Crowd outside hotel door (blurred because the crowd was in motion).