We had a change of circumstance while packing out of our room yesterday. Our driver quit on us so we were waiting for the concierge to find new travel arrangements. We got the news that our visas were cleared to enter China.
We are in Shang hi, China and staying at the Fairmont Peace Hotel on the Bund. We had dinner in our room then shared the spa tub until our skin began to wrinkle. We gave each other a massage then went to bed and got all dirty again.
The Peace is a restored pre-communist era hotel overlooking the one of the rivers and Nanjing Road.
It might rate as one of the most beautiful hotels that I've stayed in.
We hung around the area. Went shopping for clean dress clothes so we don't look like a couple of over aged street urchins then went out to explore a nearby museum. Much of the population speaks English and many of the people in the streets are Westerners. I feel like I am in New York, London or Paris.
We had High Tea when we got back to the hotel then later dined in the Dragon Phoenix and then went to The Jazz Bar to relax. This is so opposite of the trip we had planned but this will change when we head out to the Fujian Provence later this week. I want to visit some people that I met when I traveled with a friend who is a tea buyer and collector. We'll be hiking quite a bit.
It might be opposite from the trip you had planned but it sounds as if it's a good experience anyway. What's the quality of life like for the people of the city in general? We hear so much of the new wealth in China but I wondered how it affected everyday living for the ordinary citizen.
ReplyDeleteI have only seen the area around what seems to be the center. It looks and has all the trimmings of wealth. We passed some areas that looked more middle to low income on the way from the airport.
ReplyDeleteWe'll be taking a train from Shang Hi into the Fujian Provence later this week. That is a whole different story. Wealth and poverty change from village to village depending on their economic activity. It is hard to tell sometimes in the countryside. From my experience, there are people who are starving and very impoverished.
I should add, like in every country in every part of the world including the wealthiest of nations. (I could rant on and on endlessly about that). Greed is the worst of all human diseases!
ReplyDeleteYou're right there. I saw a programme on TV last night which included the fact that there are more billionaires in China than the US now. Difficult to comprehend those figures when it comes to personal wealth.
ReplyDelete