SHANGHAI--DAY 2

Tuesday, March 19th
     Actually this is first day as we arrived here last night at 8:00pm.  Once we entered the river it took 3 hours to finally arrive at our dock right in downtown Shanghai.  It was beautiful arriving after dark as the lights in downtown buildings are spectacular!  We had a nice window table in the Compass Rose restaurant on board with view of passing boats that were all lit up and the buildings on other side of the river.  As I mentioned yesterday, we were to have fried soft shell crabs but they were fried in tempura batter so sent them back.  Chef will try it again for us tonight.  This time french fried with cornmeal coating.  One of the entree choices for the night was osso bucco which is one of my favorites so we enjoyed that instead.

                                            Lots of industry along river heading up to Shanghai

                                               Going to drop off another river pilot

                          Lillia, from Ukraine, making my Manhattan up in Observation Lounge

                                                  View out our dining room table window

                                     Oriental Pearl TV Tower with revolving restaurant in top ball.

                                       Trademark of Shanghai is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower

                                                           Pool deck at night

                                                 View from our suite balcony at night

                                                        Our balcony view in morning
     We had to be up early this morning as our tour was to meet at 8:00am.  There were two buses going on our tour with 17 passengers in each one.  Regent never packs the tour buses full.  Traffic was bad on way up to the water town.

                                                 Tours buses arriving for morning tours

                                       Luke & Alan, excursion managers, organizing the tours.

                                        Our tour for today.  This place is called "Venice of Asia"
We arrived at the water town after 1 1/2 hour drive.  It was a nice day today with high temperature of 70 degrees.  Our tour guide's name was Jenny (same name as one in Beijing).  She led us through the tiny walkways.  We had to be careful as motor bikes would be using the same paths.  I gave a little girl some candies that our stewardess leaves every night on our pillows.  The people there seemed very friendly and we only ran into one lady begging.  Jenny told us that the Chinese call us "big nose" people as our noses are very big compared to theirs.  Little souvenir shops and food stands lined the narrow walk ways.  We spent a couple of hours here then rode a boat back out to where our bus was waiting.
     We had planned on taking shuttle bus short distance to shopping area near pier after having some lunch but looking like rain so we are just staying aboard.  Will go exercise after getting the blog done.  Ship sails with the high tide tonight at 1:00am.  Will try to catch the show tonight after dinner.  Day at sea tomorrow.

                                                              Jenny, our guide

                                                           entrance to water town

                                                  Should have put Rebecca on top step

                                             One of 36 bridges over the river here

                                                                  YUMMY?????

                                                       Pigs feet on bottom left

                                    She is wrapping pork and rice in lotus leaves then tying them

                                                 They are trimming some kind of vegetable

                                                            Restaurant along river

                                                 A woman was frying these small fish

                                                We would ride in one of these boats

                                                                    Our boatman

Day time of tv building

https://goo.gl/photos/89ADjg8iwtAA7P6C7

                                 

SHANGHAI--DAY 1

Monday, March 18th
     It is now 9:00am and will be writing/adding to today's blog throughout the day as time permits.  Another smooth night of sailing in dense fog.  The sun is just now starting to burn off some of the fog and the forecast high temperature will be in mid 60's.  We will be docking in Shanghai at noon.  When we were here in 2010 on our world cruise, we froze our tails off.  Glad it will be warmed this time.

                                                              Last night's show

     Well, Captain just made announcement that they are having propulsion problems.  Seems they can only enter Shanghai harbor during high tide and will miss that window of time so now we will be arriving in Shanghai at 7:30 this evening (next high tide).  Will stay there until 1:00am on Wednesday.  As a result they will bypass our next port at Xiamen, China.  A revised daily schedule is being sent out.  So guess we will not be doing our Maglev Train (very high speed train) excursion.  No big deal for us.
     The ship had propulsion issues (lost one of it's four engines) in January and had to miss some ports.  I certainly hope they can get this problem fixed while in Shanghai.  Going to be some unhappy passengers if they don't.
     Now 4:00pm and just back from a show in the theatre.  John Paul Almon is here from Las Vegas where he has been in Phantom of the Opera for past 4 years.  We are entering Yangtze River that leads up to Shanghai.  We should be docking there in 3 more hours.  I am hoping it will be dark then as the lights of Shanghai are incredible.
     Shanghai is known as "Paris of the East" and "Queen of the Orient".  The name, Shang hai, means up the river from the sea.  With over 23 million inhabitants, it is the largest city, population wise, in China.  For the past 20 years it has been one of the fastest developing cities in the world and today is the commercial and financial center of mainland China.  It is the world's busiest ship container port.  Besides shipping Shanghai is home to many heavy industries, such as, China's largest steelmaker, ship building, 3 of China's largest car manufacturers.  As we sail up the river delta, the shore is lined for miles with manufacturing and we are meeting many ships heading out of the port area.  Shanghai has the best education systems in China and was the first to implement 9-year mandatory education.  There are also over 30 colleges and universities here.  Well, after all, there are a lot of people living here!
     We were here 3 years ago so will be interesting to see if there are any differences today.  Tomorrow we are going on a tour to the "Water Town of Zhujiajiao".  We did this same tour 3 years ago and loved it.  We have some definite shopping ideas for our visit there.  Tour leaves at 8:00am so have to be up early.
     I called my son in California this morning (evening time there) but he was not home from work yet so talked with Tae-young, our daughter-in-law.  We get 36 hours of free phone time on this cruise which is more than we can ever use.  This is because we are "platinum" members now with Regent.  We also get free laundry, which I take advantage of daily.  5:00pm here which means it is 4:00am in Dallas.
     Last night I sent a request to the chef that he prepare some fried soft shell crabs for our dinner tonight.  Unlike the larger cruise ships, Regent will honor special requests and I rarely here the word "no" or "cannot not do".

                                           Our friends from Galveston, Joe & Allison

                                         
   

PHOTOS OF OUR SUITE

                                                         Bed is VERY comfy

                                        Very happy that we get FOX NEWS here on Regent.

                                                        There is also a nice balcony outside.

                                                 Hallway from door past bathroom and closet.

                                             I bring magnets to put stuff on our walls.

                                                                 Walk-in closet

                                                           Shower (nice size too for ship)

This was bath tub but we had them cover with plywood and put bar in so we could have room to put more of Rebecca's clothes.

https://goo.gl/photos/oStA4zYfEdLenxJy7

SUNDAY--CRUISING THE YELLOW SEA

Sunday, March 17th
     Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Last night we put our breakfast order request on door handle to be delivered at 8:00am.  I got up shortly about 6:30 as needed to work on the blog for you.  Got a lot done on it today!  After our room service breakfast, we went to an interdenominational Sunday worship service, which ironically, was held in the Horizon Bar Lounge.  Our cruise director, Ray (same one as last year on South America cruise), led the service which lasted about 30 minutes.  Every Sunday when not in port there will be a worship service on board.  Following that we attended an enrichment lecture by Sandra Bowern entitled
"Imperial China".  Sandra was also the lecturer on our 2010 world cruise and she is an amazing woman.  She is a walking encyclopedia on places and history of the world.  Her hour lecture today covered the history of ancient China to its last emperor.  Tomorrow morning she will cover China's history from there to the present.  Our scheduled arrival tomorrow in Shanghai is noon.
     We have been sailing in dense fog ever since we left the port yesterday evening.  We are in the Yellow Sea between China and South Korea and the ocean here is only about 30 feet deep which I find amazing.  The water is very smooth and looked like glass most of today.  This is my kind of sailing.
     After a bite of lunch we headed for the gym to get our workouts in.  After showering I have since been back at the computer working more on blog.  I spend a considerable amount of time blogging.  Tonight is formal optional dress so that means tuxedo time for me.  I enjoy wearing it.  At 6:00pm is the Captain's Welcome Reception so will go meet our Captain, who is an Italian, and his staff of officers.  After dinner will be the first production show with ship's young singers and dancers.  I met a couple of the female dancers yesterday and they must have been 6 feet tall and very lovely.  I will be on front row tonight!!
     We have seen quite a few crewmembers that we have sailed with previously and they all remember us.  Not sure if that is good or bad?  It is so nice to get to visit with them again.

                                                   Jane & Jacob, our suite stewards.
                                           

SATURDAY--BOARDING SHIP DAY

Saturday, March 16th

     We were suppose to have our luggage down in lobby between 10:30 and 11:00 in order to put on one of 3 buses to take us to the port.  We had a wonderful breakfast then finished repacking before calling bellman to come get the luggage.  We were on bus #2 along with our luggage.  One great thing about Regent is they never crowd the buses.  There were only 20 people per bus so was half full.  We left exactly at 11am on the 2 1/2 hour ride to the port (120 miles away from Beijing) with a 15 minute toilet break half way.

                                                               buses at rest stop
     There was a lot of new construction near the port as they are reclaiming the land and adding to the industry near the port.  The cruise terminal looked to be brand new and was very nice.  Porters took our luggage and we were directed to a security check area then to Chinese immigrations.  For some reason we had to make 3 copies of our passports before being processed.  The immigration check was very thorough!  After that we proceeded to board the ship and was directed into the theatre for check-in.  It was did not take long for that.  By now it was 2:00pm and were told our suites would not be available until 2:30 so we went up the have a bite of lunch.

                               Our suite door--Magnetic plaques on it with our previous long cruises.
     Our suite was ready right on time and our luggage showed up with 30 minutes.  So now the big job of unpacking began.  Think we dislike this more than packing.  Our suite stewardess and steward came in to introduce themselves, Jane (from Philippines) and Jacob (from Indonesia).  They skipped their normal briefing as we have heard it many times now.  I had a list of requests from them, the main one being for 40 more hangers.  It took us until after 6:00pm to finish unpacking.  Our bathroom has both a shower and bath tub.  We ask for them to put plywood over the tub so we could sit an open suitcase on it to use a clothes drawer.  They also added a rod so we could hang more clothes over tub.  We did this on our world cruise also and it works great.
     I had earlier made an 8:30pm reservation at the steakhouse, Prime 7.  It was after 7 before we were ready to leave the suite and head up to the Observation Bar for pre-dinner cocktails.  Rebecca likes St Francis chardonnay so she asked for it and I asked for a gin martini.  I don't usually drink martinis but my first drink on the ship was to honor our Australian friend, Peter.  We met Peter & Maureen (they live in Sydney) last year on our South American cruise.  He is fighting cancer now and praying a lot for him.  I learned one thing on that cruise.  NEVER try to out drink an Assie!!  Lillia, the bartender from Ukraine, had to call wine cellar for the chardonnay.  They told her there was none.  I told her we had our travel agent request special for us so she called down again.  Boris, the head Sommelier, came up carrying a bottle of St Francis.  He informed us there was only 50 bottles on board and were reserved for only us.  That will not last us 78 days.
     There was a headline (comedy pianist) entertainer show at 9:30 but we had not finished our steak dinner
 by then.  We had a smooth night of sailing in the Yellow Sea between China and South Korea.

BEIJING PHOTOS

                                                  Getting ready for our Peking Duck dinner.

                            Chef carving meat off the duck.  We were not impressed with it.

                                                       Pedestrian street at night.

                                                     Found this in mall food court.

                                           
https://goo.gl/photos/EKVNPfjtqqVXc2RN8