After breakfast eight of us decided to take a cab down to Nanjing Rd and check out the shops and visit The Bund. Two cab eight people would we ever see the other four at the meeting place on Najing Rd.
Surprisingly despite going different ways and being dropped on different corners we found one another again. The morning was spent wandering down towards the Bund from the Peoples Square.
Shops shops everywhere and the highlight was going in and checking out the The Peace Hotel is a hotel on The Bund in Shanghai, China which overlooks the Huangpu River. The word “bund” means an embankment or an embanked quay which decribes it perfectly. Even if we only slipped in to use the bathroom but I do know when I go back to Shanghai I will be having a night or two here.
We headed under the Huangpu River river to Pudong which is a district of Shanghai, China, located along the east side of the Huangpu River, across from the historic city center of Shanghai in Puxi in The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel which is one of Shanghai’s top five tourist attractions and it’s also one of its strangest. Bizarre, trippy audio-visual effects play as you travel in an automated car ‘into the core of the Earth’ under the Huangpu river.
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| Guard on hand to keep everyone off the grass |
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| Just has to try it!!!! |
Spending half a day wandering around was great experience and Shanghai is just like New York, I have another favourite city in the world to add to my list of favourite cities.
I will definitely be back to explore this great country and Shanghai more. Rested up in the afternoon to get our strength back for the MacWool Farewell China dinner.
While we were out seeing the sights Don, Ian and Kerrie were scouting out a venue for our farewell dinner. Can’t remember the name of the restaurant but it was in the French Quarter and we had a great night with everyone sharing their memorable and not so memorable moments of our time in China.
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| David Zhou – Our guide |
The common thread in every speech was how lucky we were to have what we all considered ‘The Best’ national guide in China. David Zhou from Wendy Wu tours was just fantastic and really contributed to a very successful and amazing trip.
Nothing was ever too much trouble he had a great sense of humour and quickly picked up on the Aussie fun loving ways. He will always be remembered by all in our tour group.
The next morning eight of the group were up very early to catch a very fast train to Biejing for an additional couple of days while the six of us heading home from Shanghai had a bit more time for one last buffet breakfast before a bit more free time heading to the train station to catch our train. Sharpy and Frank wanted to visit an old haunted of Peter and Nadia Brice. The just had to go there even if too early for a beer.
The Shanghai Maglev Train is a magnetic levitation train, or maglev line that operates in Shanghai,China. It is the first commercially operated high-speed magnetic levitation line in the world and only the third Maglev line to be operated.
The train line was designed to connect Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the outskirts of central Pudong where passengers could interchange to the Shanghai Metro to continue their trip to the city centre. The top operational commercial speed of this train is 431 km/h (268 mph), making it the world’s fastest train in regular commercial service since its opening in April 2004. During a non-commercial test run on 12 November 2003, a maglev train achieved a Chinese record speed of 501 km/h (311 mph).
The train ride was sensational and my need for speed ensured this was one of my highlights of the whole trip for me.
After a rather eventful flight home with Ian in pain with a flare up of kidney stones, we arrived home after a fantastic trip with the best group of people you could ever travel with.
The team at MacWool should be congratulated on a great this initiative and providing us all with the opportunity to get out of our comfort zone and experience another culture with the bonus of seeing what happens to our wool when it leaves Australian shores.
Our Adventures - Near and Far 