Day 7 - Shanghai

The WLSA parents continue to be extraordinarily generous. They have sponsored a weekend tour of Wuxi, a city on an inland lake one hour (by bullet train) from Shanghai. After an early morning and a maze of subway and railway stations and lines, we arrived in Wuxi shortly after 9 am, boarded a bus the parents provided, and were carried away to a site where several CCTV films are made, right on the shores of the third largest lake in China. Almost every structure is a replica of ancient temples and palaces (most of which would have been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution) all conveniently located next to each other as a series of “studios” open to the public when the Chinese movie industry isn’t filming. We saw a re-enactment of a battle between the three kingdoms, with warriors on horseback wielding long swords and soldiers marching around a stadium. We boarded a big wooden boat and steamed around in a circle on the lake. We explored replicas of the Emperor’s palace in the Forbidden City and several other such structures, saw a family of acrobats perform, and some of us (Mr. Creamer and Ibante) posed for pictures with some of the Chinese tourists.

We were generously treated to an amazing banquet for lunch; it was much more than we could eat, and we ate well. Then we visited a garden on the lake and walked all the way out to a point of land that juts out into the water called the Turtle’s Head. A bride and groom were having their picture taken on this spot, which is famed to bring those who stand on it good fortune for life. Each one of us made a pilgrimage to this point, so we should be all set. After this expedition, we went to the center of the city – a small city of six million people – to go shopping. Apparently people from all over China come to Wuxi for the wholesale shops, and several of us found some good deals at 80% off. After shopping, we went to our luxury lakeside hotel and were treated to another bountiful banquet. Then we checked in to our rooms and hope to get plenty of rest, for our adventures in Wuxi continue tomorrow.

John Capen

Forbidden City Palace Replica

Island Hopping

Lotus Lookout

In front of a palace