Day 9 - Blogabond

First a trip to the Jade Buddha Temple – our first real temple. It was crammed full with people, mostly Chinese and most actually praying. Lots of interesting people and customs – incense burning, coins being placed on a bell, parents teaching their children how to pray. But with all the tourists and children, it was hard to take this as a serious place of worship, which it was (complete with monks). As for the architecture and idols, they were interesting but not spectacular – it was really the people who were worth looking at.

Then it was back to the hotel to check out and off to the boat, with a quick stop at Yuyuan Bazaar and Wuxingting Teahouse (the adjoining gardens were cloed). Again, it was the sidestreets that were most interesting – laundry hanging from balconies, men sitting in doorways, etc.

We got to the boat in plenty of time, were escorted to our cabin and were asked to pay for our meals – dinner and breakfast. At this point we realized the boat was definitely going to take longer than expected – about 12 hours longer. Oh well.

The boat was definitely divided by classes, with sentries at the stairs and gates on the decks. We weren’t on the boat more than 10 minutes when laundry began hanging from every conceivable place. The only interesting people in our section were three guys from southern China, one of whom worked in Hong Kong. They were definitely three cool dudes, jeans and sneakers, but spoke very little English so the afternoon was spent making very laborious small talk. But they were very friendly – one even challenged me to arm wrestle and I did okay. Traveling with them were two crickets which Barbara named Tarzan and Jane. It took a while but they eventually got it.

Unfortunately, the only scenery was factories and boat – dinner was a welcome diversion. While we were the only two who paid for the special meal, it was well worth it. Quite good but,even more surprising was how it looked – gorgeous. A fish with its tail up, a rabbit made out of eggs, really an unexpected treat. (Locals brought their own bowls and shared community noodles – quite usual in China.)

written by

shoshtrvls on August 9, 1987 from Shanghai, China

from the travel blog: Around the World (1987)

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