On 21st. August 2018 I flew to Shanghai via Bangkok to join
Majestic Princess on the 24th. for her maiden repositioning voyage to Sydney, for the southern summer. The 22 day cruise was excellent - a beautiful and comfortable ship, great food and the highlight, as always aboard Princess ships, excellent service, friendly, obliging and efficient, throughout. A great voyage.
Shanghai - pre-cruise.
From the airport, I caught the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) train for the 7 minute, 30 km trip to the eastern edge of the city. It was then a long haul by taxi onwards to my hotel which was on the western side. The Longemont hotel was very comfortable and my very good friends from several previous cruises, Jules and Phil Garvin, arrived the next day. We had a couple of interesting outings but because of its spread and congestion (2018 population - 24 million), it's a difficult city to get around.
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| Aboard the Maglev train. |
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| A small part of the Shanghai sprawl - from my hotel room. |
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| A deceptively quiet Shanghai side street. |
A very worthwhile attraction to visit is the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre. It contained superb displays of the city's past and present, including photo displays, dioramas and an astonishing large-scale model of the present city.
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| Photos of old Shanghai. |
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| A photographic display of today's Shanghai. |
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| An ingenious montage of old Shanghai doorways. |
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| This enormous model of the city was beautifully detailed. |
