Day 2: Water Village & Shanghai Disneyland

Mackenzie was wise in getting us a club level room for the equivalent of a few extra dollars. Here we could enjoy breakfast (and we did) and unlimited waters and sodas, etc. as well as dinner and lunch. The breakfast was best with all sorts of interesting Chinese foods as well as familiar western foods. Sometimes they were a mashup of each like the Mexican eggroll which was a breakfast burrito. I really enjoyed the dumplings and they always had a salad bar with an awesome sesame dressing. 

After a full breakfast we met a different guide in the lobby for the days adventures. She took us to the train station and we took the subway/train for about 2 hours while we learned about some of the culture of Shanghai and how older buildings and farms were there along with high rises. Or guide was a teacher in a local school so we learned a little about the school system and her family as well. After the train we stopped at a quick shop where I bought some sunscreen that I thought was going to burn my face off instead of protect it (it had menthol in it :-) ) and she drove us through the backroads to truly see the farms and older buildings in the countryside. We saw lots of farms with rice fields with intricate irrigation systems and other crops like watermelon and grapes and lotus root. Our journey ended at a traditional water village. After parking we toured the streets of the village which were packed with food stands and and all sorts of different goods and touristy items. When we say water city most of the buildings were situated around a main river so it was kind of like the canals of Venice, but with semi Ancient Chinese architecture. We stepped into a garden you could tour that was the home and gardens of a wealthy family when it was built. We learned about the customs of different rooms to greet guests and different garden elements representing different parts of Chinese culture. It was also a great place to seek shade because, as we would learn, it is a different type of hot than even us citizens of the humid south had experienced. They also had a world champion paper cutting artist in residence where we got some very reasonable on the spot and souvenirs that he had made including Bailor’s Chinese calendar animal for the year he was born, the snake.

After the gardens our guide found us a place to eat where we treated like royalty/family (or it might have just been a dead day at the restaurant) as we were escorted through rooms and up a narrow staircase to a room overlooking the river. This room was very special because it had the air conditioner. :-) Our guide ordered for us from a menu that looked like it had volumes of dishes. There must have been hundreds of choices. We ended up with a ramen type dish, shrimp and tofu, sliced potatoes and green onions, water chestnuts and dumplings. All the dishes were piled high and way more than we thought us and our guide could eat. But we finished off the heaping bowl of dumplings and quite a bit of the soup and potatoes. All was delicious and homemade. We learned there is specific timing where we eat the noodles first at the specific point they are the best and other items accordingly and we learned a little bit more to our shaky chopstick skills as well as the general sharing of dishes and eating directly from those dishes instead of portioning out your own portion. 

After eating, which was only like $20 US for all of that, (and no tipping as it’s not a custom there. They will think you forgot your money and chase after you if you leave a tip) we checked out a few more shops and interesting stone bridges across the waterway and then took a short boat ride along the canal for a different perspective.

Then it was back to the car and we took the main highway back to the train this time. We saw folks selling the grapes and watermelon on the side of the road in little stands and nice communities as well. There were a few hills she pointed out that had older temples on top of them as well. We heard from our guide that many people work in Shanghai and live out in high rises and developments an hour or so out by train from the downtown area. On the train ride back our guide was awesome in helping us review some of the Chinese phrases we might need to best communicate with Bailor and helping us save some brain space with phrases or phrases that may be irrelevant to Bailor’s age in general. 

When we returned the dinner buffet was out in the club room so we grabbed some food and we decided we really wanted to see Shanghai Disneyland since it was it’s grand opening just a few weeks prior and it was an easy train route from our hotel that ended at Disneyland so it would be hard to get lost. There were lots of people pouring as we arrived so we didn’t feel like we missed anything. We had just enough time to check out the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride which in name only compares to it’s counterpart in the American parks. It was a crazy technological wonder and we loved it. Then it was back across the park as the fireworks show was going off in front of the enormous castle (for you Disney fans it’s the largest one and represents all the princesses). The way this park was designed there wasn’t a bad view and it was truly spectacular as the fireworks and video projections on the castle made it very magical indeed. On our way across the park we saw the Chinese calendar animals depicted by Disney characters mural and again had numerous views of the show. The reason we were moving during the show was to get across to what we hoped would be a decreased line for the Tron Light Cycle Power Run coaster where you become “one with your Light Cycle” (for those that saw the movie for those that didn’t imagine when you lean all the way forward on your bike to get as much momentum as you can on your 10 speed on an awesome hill) and then riding that as a roller coaster. Think Space Mountain if you were able to take your high speed motorcycle on the track! Then it was a quick trip to Remy’s Pattiserry (Themed from Ratatouille) for Mickey themed scones and macaroons and Mike Wasowski (Monsters Inc. eyeball guy) steam buns. :) YUM! And finally a quick trip through the shops for some commemorative grand opening souvenirs. Then a quickly paced walk to the train station to make sure we didn’t miss the last train. Which all was well until we got to our transfer station and realized that last train had just left the station. So we got to have an adventure of finding and explaining to the taxi driver where we were staying. It all worked out though as we got to see the other newer side of the city with all it’s high rises and lights(Pudong side or North of the river) as we crossed the bridge to the side we were staying on in older part of the city. Totally worth it. It was a beautiful Disney park and we hope maybe one day to check it out again if we’re ever in China and close enough to go see it. Then to bed for us.