March 26, 2016

March 26   Shanghai & flight to Wuhan to board the Viking Emerald

         

     We had taken out only a few clothes, so there was little to pack before going down to the restaurant for breakfast by 7. The luggage needed to out in the hall by 8:30 for pickup to transfer it to the airport. Breakfast was a wonderful array of Chinese and western food.  There were octopus balls and fried duck wings as well congee and steamed buns and everything from yesterday’s buffet. The morning temperature was 8 C with a bit of smog in the air, giving a reading of 153, on the scale used in China, which is a level unhealthy for asthmatics and people outdoors exercising or working.  Before we left Canada, our city’s reading was 24 with clear blue skies. We had checked out returned our keycard by 8:30 and went a walk along Zhongshan Rd heading south of The Bund. About 20 minutes of walking took us to Fuxing Rd East, near the “Cool Docks” on the Huangpu river, where we took pictures of the overhead pedestrian walkway which could be accessed from each corner.  We continued the walk along Fuxing Rd East and saw some old Shanghai streets and other side streets with only new high apartment buildings.  There were lots of windows where laundry was hung out to dry on long poles or clothes lines, since few homes have dryers. When we got to Henen Road South we headed back to the hotel. At the junction with Fuxing Rd East, there was another overhead pedestrian walkway above the traffic lanes, which were three lanes in each direction. As we strolled along Henen Road South, we realized that we had been in the area yesterday, when we passed the Tesco Shopping Centre where we had seen the silk embroidery and had lunch.  The Yu Gardens were a five minute walk away. We took a picture of Lantern Street from the opposite end than yesterday’s photo from near the bazaar. We were back at the hotel by 10 and had logged over 3.75 miles.  The bus arrived by 10:30 and Gao’s group boarded and we were on the way to the airport to fly to Wuhan for the start of the five day Yangtze River cruise. The freeway ran parallel to the magnetic levitation (maglev) track. If Viking River Cruises could coordinate all the people that arrive at different times for China tours, the people could ride the maglev and be in Pudong in less than 10 minutes as it reaches speeds of 420 kph and then just need to provide transportation to cross the river to the old Shanghai side to get to the hotels there, but the logistics would be more complicated than the current system. We saw many small fields of canola in flower on our way back to the airport.  At the airport, our passports were returned to us with our boarding passes and boxed lunches were distributed.  Since our luggage had gone ahead, only carry-on luggage needed to be processed.  Security was similar to North American and European checkpoints with scanners for carry-on pieces and people. There was almost an hour before needing to board the 1:20 p.m. China Eastern Airlines 737-800 plane, so we found seats and opened the box lunches. There was half of an egg salad sandwich and half of a tuna sandwich and a piece of lemon cake.  Then we browsed our pictures to choose ones to attach to the blog. When boarding was announced, we boarded a shuttle bus for a five minute drive to take passengers out to the plane.  It was supposed to be an 80 minute flight, but was almost 2 hours. The distance between Shanghai and Wuhan is 760 km. There was a meal served of rice, a mixture of mushroom and chicken, a bun, two seaweed cookies, a small pack of almonds and a Snickers bar accompanied by a bottle of water. We found out at dinner that a Southern Chinese Airline plane which left Shanghai 20 minutes after our plane, with passengers for our ship, had been struck by lightning and it got priority landing while our plane circled the airport in a holding pattern.  Everyone was fine on that plane.  Lightning strikes to planes are quite common. Our plane landed and parked at a platform away from the terminal and again we were shuttled, this time to Wuhan airport.

    The wind was very strong blowing dust, but the smog was thicker than in Shanghai, probably close to 200 on the smog scale. The sky was mainly cloudy and the temperature was 19 C. When we got to the terminal, Gao’s group assembled near the baggage claims area while Gao supervised collection of the luggage, then had one member of each family or couple identify their suitcases to be sure all were there for the crew to transfer to the ship. From there we paraded to the pickup area to wait 20 minutes for our bus for the hour long drive to Hubei Provincial Museum en route to the ship.  We were met by the local guide, Helen, who provided a commentary on Wuhan. It is the third largest city in Eastern China. Before Helen gave her commentary, Gao collected our passports to keep for the duration of the cruise, for official checks along the route. They will be returned before our flight to Xi’an on Thursday.

The name, Wuhan, is a combination of the names of the three cities that make up the jurisdiction - Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang which have flourished along the Han and Yangzi rivers for generations. The land is flat here which makes it easy to get around on bicycles and electric motorcycles.  Hankou also has a Bund area of European 19th century buildings, which along with modern buildings, are part of the colourfully lit buildings after dusk.

    The Wuhan streets are clean, maintenance people are seen sweeping debris from the streets.  There are lots of bicycles and small electric motor cycles competing with cars on the roads.

  The bus stopped about 5:20 p.m. at the Hubei Provincial Museum, where we enjoyed a concert including the chimes of ancient bronze bells and ancient Chinese wind instruments, performed by musicians in period Chinese clothes. After a brief tour led by our local guide, Helen, of the artifacts displayed in the gallery, we were driven for another 25 minutes through heavy traffic to your ship, Viking Emerald.  Some of the ship’s crew welcomed us as we descended a 150 meter ramp to the dock and were greeted by several more staff members and close to the ramp leading to the ship’s entrance other staff members were performing a short Lion Dance accompanied by drums. We were welcomed aboard by the hotel manager and staff and were shown to our stateroom by a staff member.  Our luggage had not arrived but was delivered within the hour. The stateroom is a nice size of 250 sq. ft. with a sliding door onto a little balcony. There are staterooms on four levels, plus a dining room, reception, gift shop, gym, reading room and tailor. There is an open sun deck on the 6th level as well as one of three bars and a walking track.  Dinner was at 7, so we only had 15 minutes to get ready.

   In the dining room on the second level, we joined Lorraine and Gary and later two other British couples, one who were Colin and Heather, joined the table.  We ordered either Thai Fish cake or Cauliflower soup for appetizers, then Beef Tenderloin with potato and vegetables or Braised Pork with rice and lotus root, followed by dessert of Expresso Vanilla cheesecake.  We had to hurry to the 9 p.m. meeting in the lounge/bar on the fifth level for an official general welcome from the hotel manager, Wilhelm Steinbrunner, and an explanation of Sunday’s itinerary by the Program Director, Ben Chen. We will receive a newsletter each evening, delivered to our stateroom during dinner, of the next day’s program of events.  When the meeting concluded, we went to the 6th level bar where there was a duo signing songs near a 100 square foot dance floor, large enough to squeeze on seven or eight couples.  We danced waltz and swing, before returning to the stateroom to write up the blog.  We were back in the room by 10. We managed to hit our walking goal by walking 5.9 miles today.