Shanghai

In the middle of the night I woke up to stillness. There was no sound of waves or the motion of the boat rocking which I have come to enjoy thoroughly during my REM stages. It was still dark so I didn't dare get up to look out the window because I usually have a difficult time getting back to sleep.

About 3 hours later, a fog of daylight shined through our porthole. I peered outside and saw huge shipping vessels floating by. We had turned off the pacific sometime during the night and were now on the
Huang Pu River that lines the banks of Shanghai.

We docked on the Bund side of the river giving us a breathtaking view of the financial district skyline on the opposite side of the river. Skyscrapers galore! And architecture I've never seen in my life. Chrome, glass, metal, concrete in all shapes and configurations.

The Bund, is the old world side of Shanghai. Very British in look and feel but also very Chinese. A keenly sharp contrast to the newer financial district.

Like our port cities in Japan, Shanghai is a major shopping area. Know as "The Paris of the Far East".

In 1929, Victor Sasoon of Great Britain built the Sasoon Building in Shanghai which housed The Cathay Hotel (Now known as the Peace Hotel). It was the most luxurious hotel in the Far East during its hey day in the 30's. In 2010, after a 3 year renovation, The Peace Hotel was reopened in all it's Art Deco glory. We went upstairs to the small museum and met the curator who has been with the hotel for over 40 years. He takes care to show off the remaining furniture from the original hotel and is understandably proud of its role in the history of Shanghai.

Our guide book directed us to a "top choice" restaurant called "Southern Memory". It specializes in traditional dry pot entrees, meaning, you get your very own little mini wok and sterno. Awesome! The only thing that took away from the experience was that the restaurant was located on the top level of a shopping mall!

Nanjing Road is a very popular tourist place, but again, the main draw is shopping. However, we did have some items on our list including a ping pong paddle that Ben wanted. They've been playing a lot of ping pong on the ship and Ben thought it was time to have his very own paddle and where better to buy one? China, of course! So the hunt was on.

Well it turns out, ping pong paddles are hard to find. Everyone we asked could not even suggest a place for us to look. And our Chinese translator that we down loaded seemed to be more helpful in asking for things like the bathroom.

Chris read about a ping pong club and stopped our waitress at the coffee shop to ask if she happened to know about it. She spoke just enough English to convey to us that she had no idea what we were talking about. But a kind and very energetic Chinese man sitting at the next table overheard us and asked, waving an imaginary paddle, "You like play table tennis?" Then he invited to take us!
We hesitated. He insisted. The waitress translated and he just kept insisting. "His company has table tennis. He take you." I looked at her and laughed nervously. She motioned for us to go, "You can trust him." Really?! Who the heck is he? So, like the tourists we are, we followed.

Across the street and to the 5th floor, all 5 of us squeezed into a 3-man elevator. He pointed to the sign on the wall as the doors opened, "Shanghai Real Estate". From his hand gestures and rapid fire Mandarine, it appeared that he was the owner of this company.

We walked about halfway down a long dark corridor and he opened a door. Inside the dingy room were a couple of swivel chairs, a bank of cabinets and...the most beautiful ping pong table in the whole wide world! The he handed Ben a paddle.

I would not have believed it if I didn't see with my own eyes. Ben, who has been struggling to win even a few points from his brother during their shipboard matches, was all of a sudden a contender! A stranger, who speaks no English but clearly loves table tennis, was able to change Ben's game completely in about 5 minutes! Ben was so thrilled at how long his rallies now were that he would break out into laughter just from pure amazement of his new found skill ; )

Mr. Cu, spent a little over an hour showing the boys the solid basics of a table tennis master. Afterward, he brought us to his office and gave the boys some souvenirs. It turns out that he is an art distributor as well and gave Jeremy an original print from one of the artists he represents.

It was dark now and time we headed back to the ship. On our way, Mr. Cu walked us to a sporting goods store and there, he presented the boys with their very own, brand new, Butterfly paddles. A gift from a stranger and an experience they will never forget.

We fly to Beijing in the morning.