We finished up our last day in Shanghai with time at Yu Gardens, Old SHanghai and the Shanghai Museum; now at the airport at 10 pm with 3 hours to kill before our flight leaves for Kuala Lumpur at 1 am> should be back on Sea Mist by 11 am if the flight from KL to Langkawi goes as it should.

Shanghai is a truly stunning city with all its architectural marvles in the stunning dozens of high rise  (make that: VERY VERY HIGH RISE)towering buildings on both sides of the Huangpu River. We had 4 days/3 nights in the city: we used the48 hour  BIG BUS sightseeing tours to see most of Shanghai via their 3 routes ….as well as getting to the 88th floor of one of the towers to take in a leisurely 360 degree panorama…..followed last evening with a Huangpu River Cruise to see the specatacular lights!!....also included were entrance tickets to a couple of remarkable Buddhist Temples (remarkable  "yes"..but not nearly so  striking as Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou…that was a true WOW!. The best temple in Shanghai was the Jade Buddha Temple but….as I said….it didn't impress us.

Shanghai has the impressive skyline …..big city lights….Huangpu River winding through it….lots of action!!!....23 million people….with over 10 million bicycles>and growing in numbers. …….compared to Beijing, Shanghai does NOT have the rich history and historical structures….and all the might of government and military that is present in the North in Beijing.  We enjoyed both cities very much….Beijing felt a bit smaller with 19 million people…and its green spaces/parks/gardens seemed to outdo Shanghai a bit.  Traffic was much worse in Beijing; it was really quite reasonable with now hiccups most of the time in Shanghai.

On our way out to the airport tonight we opted for the metro from the People's Square subway station (just across the street from our Pacific Hotel location) with a transfer to the Shanghai Maglev Train for the 2nd half of the journey to the airport. We wanted to experience the magnetic levitation train speed of 430 kph….its normal speed…but we were disappointed as for some reason the operator held it at 300 kph for the 7 minute run…..not too impressive as we had been on China's high speed rail lines running at 300 kph….and ever so smooth; the Maglev Train was not nearly as smooth….but it is the only operating train in the world using this technology.

Must sign-off now and get checked in….we will get some photos and other content posted once we get back on-board Sea Mist and have had some time to rest a bit

Cheers, John and Cheryl….the dozing crew of Sea MIst>>in search of sleep!!