1. The first leg of our journey to China

MAY 17, 2001 - THURSDAY

Today we boarded our airline flight at 7:45 AM bound for Chicago - the first leg of our journey to China. Our plane reached the runway promptly, but there we set for 90 minutes or more because of an electrical storm. When we ultimately left the ground, we realized we were going to miss our connecting flight in Chicago, which was to depart at 9:30 AM.

In Chicago, we had been rescheduled for a later flight and had no time to dilly-dally. It was leaving right away and if we missed it, we would also miss our trans-Pacific flight from San Francisco to Shanghai. Were we sweating blood! 

We arrived in San Francisco with little time to spare before our flight for Shanghai took off at 2:00 PM. 

Our seating on this plane was the pits. We were both in the same row, but Bill was on one side of the plane and I was two aisles away on the other. The plane was full. There was hardly room for the carry-on luggage. This was life for the duration of this 13-hour flight.

Fortunately, I sat between an older Chinese lady and a young Chinese man. The woman, on the aisle side, was very friendly. She spoke in broken English, but well enough for me to understand. She taught driving in a Shanghai high school. I had a list of Chinese phrases that I was struggling with and she offered to help me. When I mispronounced something, she corrected me with a sharp "no!". It was like I was in school again.

Ken, the young man on my window side, slept except to eat. He knew how to endure this long flight.

MAY 18, 2001 - FRIDAY

Flying westwardly, time nearly stood still, but when we crossed the International Date Line, suddenly it was Friday. From here on, we simply didn't know what day it was ... nor did we care.

We arrived in Shanghai about 6:00 PM. We should not have been surprised to learn that we were on one plane and our luggage was on another - not necessarily bound for the same destinations. Our Tour Manager spoke to various personnel from the airline for quite some time. He spoke in Chinese, but to us, it was Greek. After being reconciled with the fact that our luggage was not to be with us today, we were rushed off to the Hilton International Hotel to spend the night. Here we were, strangers in a city of 14 million and no luggage. Fortunately, on the advice of my cousins and experienced fellow travelers, Carl and Glenda, we had a change of togs in our carry-on bag - just in case. Good thing! Those we were wearing were stinking already.

MAY 19, 2001 - SATURDAY

After some well-needed sleep, we went to the hotel's breakfast buffet. There were eggs, bacon, some kind of sausage, bread for toasting, croissants, all kinds of fresh fruit, donuts, cereal, tea and coffee. Also included were several Chinese foods - unlike Chop Suey, with which we were familiar.

When we finished eating, we boarded a local tour bus which would take us to the Bund (waterfront). Our local guide's name was Ge Ming. The ride took us past many, many residential areas where there was laundry hanging from nearly every window. Ming said that this is quite normal because many Chinese people like to air-dry their laundry - they do not trust clothes dryers. I have asked Bill to put up a clothes line for me at home because I like my whites to be sun-dried - he hasn't yet.

At the Bund there were people everywhere we turned - many visitors from other countries as well as vendors who were selling everything from postcards, fans, figurines, etc. Most of the items sold for $1 US. 

The skyline was quite sensational with many tall buildings and lighted signs. There were many beautiful shrubs and flowers and a large statue of Shanghai's first mayor, Chin Yi. The Chinese are very proud of their Bund. 

From the Bund, we traveled through the city and stopped at what looked like a bazaar. This was quite an exciting experience. We left the bus and wandered down this narrow street with small shops on both sides. One could buy just about anything you could imagine - including many kinds of food. I bought a small trinket for my granddaughter and a pair of sandals for about $2 US. As it developed, these inexpensive sandals were my footwear of choice for most of the trip. 

Our next stop was at the Oriental Pearl Centre. Here a young man showed us the difference between real and fake pearls. From an oyster shell, he retrieved about 13 or 14 pearls, tiny but real, and passed them out to the ladies in our tour group. Behind the counter, a young lady was stringing pearls into a necklace that would be sold in their retail store. The retail store was very large and contained pearl jewelry in every form.

At our noonday meal in a local restaurant, we had our first real exposure to Chinese food. Bill is fascinated with China - the people, the culture, the artifacts - but he just would not eat anything that he didn't recognize. He's that way about fish even at home.

Next, we visited bustling NanJing Road. There were many government-owned stores here. We were given 45 minutes to shop for whatever we needed to tide us over until our missing luggage materialized. We entered an enormous department store, the New World Department Store. Surely, at least one million of those 14 million residents were inside this store. None of the clerks spoke English and we were unable to make them understand what we needed, no matter how loud or how carefully we enunciated. Even our sign language efforts were fruitless. To our surprise and delight, a beautiful young Chinese student named Pure came to our rescue. But we told you this story previously in "Treasure from ZhouShan Qundao". 

At 5:00 PM, we boarded the Victoria Princess for our cruise up the ChangJiang, or as we Americans know it, the Yangtze River. The Victoria Princess can by no means be compared to the luxury cruise ships that travel the oceans. On the first floor there was a lobby, the front desk, a gift shop and a beauty shop. There were a few guest rooms forward and the Dynasty Dining Room aft. There were guest rooms only on the second and third floors. The crew's quarters and engine room were below.

On the fourth floor, there were observation decks as well as the Yangtze Club. In the Yangtze Club there were two bars, numerous chairs and small tables, a nice-sized dance floor that also served as a stage and Tai Ji exercise area, a reading room, Ping Pong table and several tables for playing Mah Jong and other games. We spent a lot of time in the Yangtze Club.

The ship had it's own artist. He painted beautiful pictures and I was lucky enough to win one of them -- it's now hanging on the wall in the center of our home. On the other side of the fourth deck, another room displayed kites made onboard. They were pricey, but they were a cut above what you find in your favorite hobby shop.

The guest rooms were small, but each had a large window that made it very nice. There were two twin size beds, two chairs, a table and a closet. The shower in the bathroom was really different. When one showered, the water sprayed directly onto the floor, running into a trough at the base of the walls. After showering, it would be necessary to squeegee the remaining water into the trough. Cold showers were new to me, but that's what I got most of the time. Not luxurious, but it was to be home for the next ten days.

Bill learned about junks and sampans in elementary school. We really hadn't though about it and I guess we were a little surprised to find that some sampans are nearly as large as some of our river barges and they are motorized. One mystery that plagued Bill was that the loaded sampans were usually headed upstream. That's contrary to the norm on the Mississippi.

Our first dinner aboard ship was at 7:00 p.m. in the Dynasty Dining Room. Our group of 36 was assigned to the same four tables for the entire cruise. The pace had been somewhat hectic - now dinner was a good chance to become better acquainted with others in our group. Of course, Bill was elated that the menu was exclusively Chinese. He didn't complain - he just declined.

Cindy Wang was our server. Little Cindy had as much trouble with English as we had with Chinese, but she tried so hard to please. No one could ever justly complain about the service on this ship.

After dinner, we headed for our stateroom to consider our laundry options. The latest word is that our luggage will meet up with us at Wuhan on the evening of the 23rd - still four days away. What will we wear for the Captain's Welcome Reception tomorrow evening? And the dress-up dinner? Looks very much like it will be jeans and tee shirts Ugh! We had been warned about making the Captain unhappy.

We hit the sack early. Tomorrow will be another day.

(to be continued)

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