SHANGHAI, CHINA (3/4/2007)

From: Sherman Rootberg (biggiroot)
Date: Mar 4, 2007 9:54 AM
Subject: Sunday, March 04, 2007

Sunday, March 04, 2007

SHANGHAI, CHINA

Welcome to China. It smells bad and you cannot see a thing for the smog/fog. The ship’s horn starts at about 6:30 this morning. You look outside and you instantly know why. There is no outside. The white stuff starts at the balcony rail and you can see no further. As the morning goes on the stuff starts to clear a little but then comes back just as thick.

At about 1:30 this afternoon we picked up a pilot and proceeded to a wide opening, up a river, that is a connection to or part of the Yangtze River. The water traffic is the worst I have ever seen. Ships are cutting in and out like New York Taxis and just as courteously. The ships horn had to sound warnings several times. At about 4:30 we finally docked.

The sights were great, both on the river and in the harbor. There were tall buildings in every direction and ships were going up and down the river like bugs at a candy spill. Right across from our room was a huge weird tower. It stood up on three pipe like legs. Above the legs was a pipe like structure that led to a ball about 1/3rd the way up. Again there was a pipe like structure leading to another ball about 2/3rd the way up. Above that second ball was another short pipe leading to a pointed top end. It is the third tallest tower in the world, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

The Chinese had to have every person aboard get their passport and parade by them. At about 6:30 in the evening that farce was done and at about 7:00 we decided to take the shuttle bus into town. The smog had lessoned during the day but was still there. The ride into the city was not at all what we expected. One strangely lit up building and skyscraper after another. The scenery was spectacular. Fire works were popping up from every direction.

We were dropped at a building that had several stores and a money exchange. Bobbi changed a little money and we looked at some of the items in the store. Prices were fixed by the government and were out of sight. After about a half of an hour we decided to go back. There was nothing worth buying here and it was far too cold and windy out to walk around. We hopped on the shuttle and went back to the ship. All this time we had Lynn and Nick with us and we decided to get dinner back on the ship.