2024 World Cruise Leg 5: China

Welcome to China:   Where multiple drones orbit our ship as we dock.  Access to in-room viewing of BBC, FOX, MSNBC and other channels are mysteriously and temporarily unavailable.  We’re told that the government monitors the internet, as well as has impeded our access to Google, Facebook, WhatsApp and other communications of the free world. Curfew begins at 11pm until 5am.   Passports are scrutinized, and cameras are everywhere.   All Women’s public restroom toilets are now porcelain floor troughs, and you must remember to bring your own toilet paper. And sanitizer, as there’s never any soap.  (We sure do miss the Japanese bathroom engineering now!)

They must also have been worried about what we may be bringing ashore from our cruise ship, as evidenced by their “Welcome Mat”!

But on the bright side, we are here to discover the Chinese cities of Shanghai (2 days), Dalian and Beijing (2 days). 

Shanghai, a vibrant city of 24 million people with an electric nighttime skyline.  What better way to get a fast overview of this big city, than to take the Maglev train? This astonishing magnetic levitation train reached a speed of almost 200 mph as we took its 8-minute ride to the airport, 18.6 miles each way.  It was fast, smooth, clean and quiet! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_maglev_train 

After that, it only took us 44 seconds to go up 88 stories in the Jin Mao Tower for breathtaking views of the city.  Jin Mao is part of the Big 3 towers, all adjacent to each other.  

The Shanghai Tower has highest post office at 2,073 ft and its elevator goes 47mph. And not to be left out of the notoriety, the Shanghai World Financial Center building is known as bottle cap opener. 

A couple of views from the top:

Another unique mode of transportation was taking the Sightseeing Tunnel beneath the Huangpu River to get to The Bund on the other side.   A light and sound show plays during the 80-foot deep tunnel transit in a cable-car style train which takes about 5 minutes.  

To sum it all up, we traveled the fastest, highest and deepest all withing a 2-mile space in Shanghai!!  We were truly “Shanghai’d”!

The Bund is a waterfront area along the Huangpu River and popular destination for visitors, offering shopping, dining, entertainment, and luxury hotels, including the Peace Hotel and Waldorf Astoria.  We strolled it for blocks, finding lots of unique sights. 

Remaining in town after sunset was a quite a sight for the eyes, as all the buildings came alive!

Our second day, we set out for Shanghai’s Old Street to see how things were before high-speed trains and skyscrapers. 

We found a slower way of life:  artisans, craftsmen, rickshaws, incense, cooking vats on the street corners with various local delicacies. 

Our only disappointing surprise was that the batter-fried prawns we ordered were not shelled, beheaded or deveined.  We opted for the fried dumplings as a snack instead…. very tasty!

Dalian lies 500 miles north of Shanghai, giving us one sea day to rest.    Located on the southern tip of the Liaodong peninsula, it is not a typical cruise ship port, but we found it has a lot to offer. 

Sometimes visiting a city on a Sunday can be a benefit.  While many places may be closed, the advantage is that you get a clearer picture of resident lifestyles.   

Today, we found a very joyous atmosphere in Laodong Park (aka Labor Park), where families and friends gathered to socialize and be in touch with nature. 

Groups of people were performing traditional dances, some in full costume, others practicing Tai Chi, martial arts, playing instruments, enjoying card games, walking dogs… all enjoying life.  The entire 252-acre park seemed colorful with all the activities. 

We stumbled upon a ski lift style cable car that took us up to the rim of the city for a magnificent view.  From the top, folks could also take a “land sled” on a metal track back down the hillside.  We thought it would be a little more like a luge, so didn’t purchase that method, but in hindsight, it looked tame enough and we would have tried it.  Next time! 

Leaving the Labor Park area, we meandered some local streets and the hardware area of town before coming to Russian Street.  The architecture here is from former Russian rule, and shops pander to the tourists with Russian goods of nesting dolls, fur hats and shawls. 

We found a small café to rest and have lunch.  As we were the only ones there, the owners invited us, via broken English, to share red tea with them.  Sure!   They demonstrated placing the loose red tea leaves into a porcelain pot, poured in hot water, steeped for 1 minute before swirling and poured through a strainer into another porcelain tea pot.  Then poured into very small round mini cups and sipped hot.  It was a wonderfully friendly gesture!   Sometimes a language barrier is best served by friendly actions.  It seemed the four of us understood each other perfectly, with few words and many smiles.

We bid Dalian an evening farewell.

An overnight passage takes us the short distance from Dalian to Tianjin, the northernmost point of our circumnavigation.  Unfortunately, the commercial port lies 50 km from the city of Tianjin.  And further still, is the city of Beijing, another 100 miles beyond.  Therefore, over the next 2 days of our visit here, passengers will utilize LOTS of buses to visit the attractions:  The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and others. 

Beijing Day 1:  We set off aboard a comfortable coach bus on a hazy morning for a 12-hour day of touring The Great Wall of China and Ming Tombs.   Be it haze or smog, we’re not quite sure.  It will take 3.5 hours to our first stop. The highway from the port going inland was empty.  Sporadic clusters of high-rise apartments were interspersed with large tree farms.  

We were making good time.  Until we reached the Beijing city limits and its mandatory Police Check.  

Here, all 17 of Holland America’s excursion buses carrying approximately 700 people, were instructed to pull into a side lot for further scrutiny.  Apparently, the officials were declaring that we all require our actual passports, and not just the photocopies that were vetted and stamped by Chinese officials when we arrived in Shanghai.   An hour and a half later, we are released and allowed to proceed. 

Nearing the majestic mountains, we were awed as we came upon the sight of The Great Wall. 

Climbing the worn, uneven and often steep stone steps, we ascended to heights and breathtaking views of the Juyongguan section of The Wall.  Everyone wore a smile; delighted, despite the physical effort.   After all, we were experiencing one of the wonders of the world!

After taking in every step, view, photo, angle, and memory we could absorb, we reluctantly returned to our buses.  It was now well past 1pm and we all had worked up an appetite.  Our restaurant for lunch could handle hundreds of people in its large hall.  And was no surprise that we were all first paraded through their “conveniently located” jade and jewelry store before reaching the restaurant.  But growling stomachs were no match for their earnest store clerks, and we stampeded past the dozens of glass counters!

Each large round table featured an equally large lazy Susan, where a family style lunch was served.  Copious bowls of sticky rice, vegetables, saucy stir fry, kebobs and soup were circulated until emptied. With the mornings 1.5-hour police delay to make up, we hurried through lunch and continued our way onto the Ming Tombs Changling about 45 minutes away.  

Changling is the joint tomb for the 3rd Ming Emperor Chengzu (1360-1424) and his Empress Xu. It is regarded as the largest, earliest and best preserved one of the 13 Ming Tombs.

The structures glowed in the afternoon sun, as we walked through the peaceful, park-like setting.  The most ancient trees were tagged green if they were over 100 years old, and tagged red if they were over 300 years old. 

Dog-tired and happy to be back aboard again at 9:30pm after an exhausting 13-hour day of magnificent touring!   But another excursion is planned for the morning, so a good night’s sleep is needed.

Beijing Day 2:  It’s still dark when our 4:50am alarm wakes us.  A quick breakfast before meeting in the Excursion Staging area by 5:30am.  Several hundred of us are off the gangway by 6:00am for our days trek back into Beijing to tour Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven; a 10-hour excursion.  We are blessed with a gorgeous blue-sky day without smog, which locals say is a rarity. 

Upon entering Tiananmen Square, you are immediately taken aback by its vast space. Through the Jin Shui Qiao Gate on the north end, its 109 acres easily accommodates the massive structures of the Great Hall of the People, Monument to People’s Heros, National Museum of China, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and the Zhengyangmen Gate Tower, marking the south end of Tiananmen Square.  It was challenging to capture the scope of it into a camera frame.

Stoic guards dressed in green military uniforms stand watch.  And there is a liberal police presence also. And cameras, lots of cameras.

Hours passed quickly as we ambled the entire length of the square and all its iconic views.  It was a memorable visit, indeed.

The sprawling 247-acre Forbidden City (Palace Museum) holds many treasures within, including thousands of buildings that are amongst the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.   

The tour was proceeding easily until we approached the security area for scanning of bags and passports.  There were already thousands of tourists here, and yet our guides claimed that today’s volume was not unusual.  Per Wikipedia, this UNESCO World Heritage site received 19 million visitors in 2019.

The lines were quite long and growing quickly.  Very vocal guards, police and security personnel herded people to file into the roped ques that zig zagged to eternity.  After 1 hour of the exceedingly slow moving que, the lines became even more congested and compressed until finally, there was literally a human crush surging forward around the last choke point.  The larger men of our tour took position to safeguard our groups place in line while going around the last turn.  This was much to the rebuke of the other tour guides trying to shove their way in.  It was getting a little sketchy.  For the last 30 minutes in line, we were all compacted as sardines and it was quite uncomfortable physically and mostly, mentally.  I’m glad neither of us is claustrophobic, as it would have been impossible for anyone who was.

However, once we were through, we were rewarded with the beauty and tranquility of the Palace and the Imperial Gardens on the other side.  The scope of the opulent architecture was extraordinary.

Lunch finally commenced at 2pm, and we still hadn’t visited the Temple of Heaven.  Not to mention a 3-hour anticipated commute back to the ship.  All aboard time is 5:30pm today.   But, as many other excursions were also running late, communications between ship and tour operators advised that the ships departure would be delayed until all buses were back.

Temple of Heaven was built in 1420 and is really something to behold.  Maybe the biggest space yet, at 675 acres, it commands an enormous space within the city of Beijing.  It was the site on which emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties offered sacrifices to Heaven, prayed for rain and a good harvest. 

Two very long days in Beijing, but worth every step of the 13 miles we strolled through incredible sights and history.

Zuiderdam makes her way 1400 miles south through the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait towards Hong Kong.  This passage will give us three days to recover from a marathon tour of China this past week, as well as download hundreds of amazing photos.

Our arrival into Hong Kong is shrouded in fog:

Hong Kong may be the most frenetic city I’ve ever been to.  The dizzying vertical sprawl, compressed population, clamor, aromas, neon, the zooming pace of people, vehicles, scooters, bikes; everything in motion all the time.   With 7.4 million residents of various nationalities in a 426 square mile territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated territories in the world.

You would need more than a week to see it all; we have 2 days.  We begin with taking a tram up to Victoria Peak, 1811 feet above sea level. 

Unfortunately, the forecast is for 2 days of fog, not uncommon in the Spring.  At least we are back in temperatures of high 70’s/low 80’s. 

We have better luck at sea level in the Stanley Market area, where a strand of beautiful beach hosts quaint cafes and a renowned shopping district. 

The original fishing village of Aberdeen showed us how ‘it used to be’, complete with a sampan ride around the harbor. 

To get a taste of the colorful nightlife of Hong Kong, we taxi’d to Temple Street to witness the melting pot of people, bright lights and lanterns, every kind of street food, performers, and music. We snacked on Asian Cucumber Salad and Dumplings before taking a taxi back to the ship. 

Hong Kong Day 2:   We begin at the Peninsula Hotel and awe at its finery, including fleet of Rolls Royce cars.   From there, our walking route took us by the Starr Ferry terminal and up the Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) promenade, then uptown, through Kowloon Park.   We found ourselves back at Temple Street for lunch….more dumplings!  

Back to ship, we walked the vast upper park above the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Kowloon that interestingly used to be Runway 13 of the old airport.  The short runway was famous for very exciting landings in its day! 

Next Stop:  Da Nang, Vietnam, 527 nautical miles further south.   More to come on this exciting journey!