Our First Few Days in Shanghai

Monday October 26th - Tuesday October 27th

Here we are.  We arrived safely on Sunday evening, 6pm local time, and were welcomed very warmly by members of the Rotary Club of Shanghai, Cisca, Tom, Marjorie and Judy.  Off to the hotel, then Cisca took us out for a meal, she decided not to throw us in to the deep end and give us a traditional Chinese meal, but we enjoyed some lovely food sitting outside in the warm weather.  Monday was free time for us, a chance to catch up on sleep, explore a little of Shanghai.  We took a 2 hour walk around the streets by the hotel and saw so much in just a small area.  Learning to look both ways for cars, bicycles and bikes was an important first step, but watching the traffic and how well organised it is, despite the horn honking and tooting of bicycles, was impressive.  We found a pretty public park tucked into a side street in between buildings.  There were people reading, playing games and exercising.  We also watched people selling vegetables on the street from carts and bags, as well as browsing through some antique shops and galleries in street known for its French influence.  For lunch, Des, Matt and Tony all had some chicken feet – they all enjoyed it.  At dinner we were taken to a restaurant that served traditional food from Northern China.  We were taken there by Cisca and her husband Tom, Rotarian Randall and his wife   Randall first treated us to some street food, a tasty lamb shish kebab cooked over some coals – very nice.

It was Randall’s birthday, as per Chinese tradition we watched him as he was fed a long noodle to represent a long life, he was sung what I suppose is a Chinese birthday song which we had to clap with, and introduced him to the Didgeridoo as Des played while we sang. Randall owns a chain of massage businesses. We were all treated to a 2 hour massage including head, feet, arms, legs and back – luxury.

Today, Tuesday, we have been taken to Urban Planning Museum where they have a huge scale model of Shanghai (or a part of Shanghai).  It was awesome to see, and have a clear view of the city and the buildings.  We were also able to see how the city has been changing, especially in the last 15-20 years with high rise buildings being constructed and old buildings of Shanghai gone.  A how then important building project at the moment is for the World Expo 2010.  A huge amount of land is being used to build the site, with very impressive buildings, but along with this is major road construction consisting of lengths of concrete highways to keep cars moving.  While thinking about long roads the Museum also showed the Shanghai shipping port was constructed.  Basically 32 km of road was constructed to a few mountainous islands off Shanghai, and the port was constructed around the islands (not on, but all around). Incredible.

We then went down Nanjing Road, which had many shops, very Western influence here.  We stopped and ate at a Japanese Noodle Bar, before being taken onto the subway for a train ride – just for the experience.  The train was much faster than any in Australia, and the trains and platforms are very clean.

Tonight, Tuesday, was our first meeting with the Rotary Club of Shanghai at the Hilton.  It was a wonderful meeting and we all had the opportunity to meet many people from many different countries.  The GSE Team presented at the meeting, talking about Rotary in Australia, talking about ourselves, and our vocations.  It was a great success.  Des received an encore for his Didgeridoo playing.

But now, we are all with our host families – although believe a few team members are off to watch the Michael Jackson movie premier at midnight.