Maglev Train

Busy day today. The first stop was at the Shanghai Museum. It is superb and I could have spent hours there. I started on the fourth floor but all too soon the time was nearly up and I had to speed look to finish in time. The costumes were superb, the embroidery breathtaking.




I was very surprised to find that a plant I have at home is all over this city
(note: later on found it all over China)

Next off to the Silk Factory. With the exception of those selected for reproduction of eggs, the cocoons are treated to preserve them intact. The silk worm spins the cocoon with one continuous thread forming a figure eight so the chrysalis must be killed without damaging the cocoon. The end of the cocoon is found and then several are threaded onto a machine to collect the silk. A single thread of silk can measure up to 4,000 feet in length. The quilts made from the cocoons are fabulously light and warm.

Hmmm I think we may have visited the Yu Garden after lunch. Very beautiful, and took 28 years to create then the guy lost it all in one night at a card game. It was built with Feng Shui in mind, man created mountain behind and water in front with some beautiful pavillions.

A bit of a change of plan here as we all wanted to have a ride on the Maglev train. This train travels at 431 K/H for 1 minute, the rest is speeding up and slowing down! It goes from Shanghai to the international airport (approx 30k) and it takes 7 minutes and 20 seconds. A train passed us going the other way and all we knew of it was a whoosh and a bit of a buffeting of air!

We went across the Nangpu bridge (our local guide, Peggy, told us that this bridge was designed by a 7 year old girl who is now an architect student) and up the tallest building (Jin Mao Building) in Shanghai.

Can we keep up this pace!

There was more to come because it was also the birthday of one of our group, Mick. Many happy returns and the cake was shared by all!

Oh and guess what even more as we had a night cruise on the river to see the night lights of Shanghai, the power bill must be horrendous, thank goodness I don't have to pay it!!