Barb and Bill take their first tour of China together, along with Kate Garrett and her Mom, Mary. This post covers preparations and the first stop in Shanghai.
From the time we got married, Barb and I wanted to arrange a trip back to Hong Kong and to see China. Any serious planning was deferred until we were both working and could earn sufficient money and vacation time. We talked about it with friends over the years, and one of Barb’s law school buddies, Kate Garrett was interested in joining us if we ever got things together. In fact, it became something of law school dream for Barb and Kate to walk together on the Great Wall someday. By 1988, the stars aligned and we figured the time had finally come.
We spent a lot of time daydreaming about the journey, considering different tours and itineraries. One didn’t up and travel to China in those days, you had to be part of an organized tour or business trip. We collected lots of articles and researched different tour groups.
Since I’d been to Beijing and Shanghai and figured I knew at least the basics of getting around, we looked into the possibility of independent travel (but still with a guide). The price of nearly $10K (equal to $20K now), however, was out of our league.
We settled on a group tour and decided Pacific Delight had the best options. We finally chose a 17-day “Scenic China” itinerary at a bit more than $6K for the two of us. We agreed with Kate on a start date of November 4 and she convinced her mother to join us so she didn’t have to pay the single supplement (and so she’d have a buddy).
We put down our deposits and received a more complete itinerary. Then we lined up our flights through Minneapolis to Seattle, overnighting there before heading to Shanghai via Tokyo. We also submitted our visa applications through the Chinese Embassy, which involved my making a trip to their office in Georgetown for faster service.
One of Barb’s work colleagues, Stan Olesh, had recently been to China so she got advice on what to bring. His advice about being nice to the national and local tour guides as well as the local tour bus drivers was very helpful.
Advice in hand, Barb put together her own helpful lists of China hints, pre-trip shopping needs, to-do’s before leaving and chores for Fred and Louise who were looking after our house and cats while we were gone. Shackleton would have done well to have Barb provision his Antarctic expedition.
Thursday, November 3, 1988
Finally, November came and we started our travels. We met Kate at Washington National Airport (before it was Reagan National, thank you), fortified ourselves with a snack and caught our flight to Seattle, via Minneapolis on Northwest. Barb was no fan of the food on the plane but was very happy to find a McDonald’s at the airport in Minneapolis, one of the first ones we’d ever encountered in an airport.
Checking in at National 
A snack at National 
A better snack in Minneapolis
Friday, November 4, 1988
We overnighted in Seattle at the home of Kate’s uncle and met her Mom, Mary. The next day it was back to the airport to meet with most of our group and embark on the flight to Shanghai. Here is the list of tour members with Barb’s shorthand notations, including “very shy,” “incommunicative,” “senile,””cold people,” “China snot,” “Giants fan,” and “yuppies.” Not too judgey. I’m glad she didn’t put down any labels for us. We also got our tour group tags and buttons. We were forever designated group “041105.”
We flew a Northwest 747 from Seattle, stopping at Tokyo’s Narita airport for a few hours. I think it may have been Barb’s first time on a 747. It was an experience, though we were tucked into the cattle car section.
Excited for a 747 
Our happy band of travelers 
Mary, Barb, Kate
Saturday, November 5, 1988
Eighteen hours or so later, we landed in Shanghai (in what I recall was a dingy old airport at night) and were whisked in a jet lagged blur to our hotel, the fancy new Hua Ting Sheraton (now no longer new and no longer a Sheraton). All these years later I honestly cannot remember a thing about it. I’m sure that we were glad to be in a modern hotel, glad to get a nice shower and crash in bed with CNN on TV.
View from our room, the aptly named Shanghai Indoor Stadium
Sunday, November 6, 1988
While our hotel was new, not a lot else had changed in Shanghai since I’d been there in 1982, and in fact not a whole lot had changed since the 1930’s. The post cards and brochures of the city could have been done anytime from the 1950’s-1980’s.
Nanjing Road 
The Bund 
Bund at night 
One unfortunate fact of our itinerary is that we were given only one day to tour Shanghai. Even though I’d been there before, I was eager to see the proper sights and have a guide to explain their history and significance. That wish was dashed by the reality of loading on and off buses to multiple sights with 30 other tourists on the first day of getting to know our guides.
Our tour started off easy with a Children’s Palace, effectively a showcase elementary art school designated as a tourist stop. Even though it was a Sunday, we saw a full complement of students learning a variety of crafts, from needlepoint to model airplanes and a music concert. The kids were most excited by a playroom with some rudimentary video games and a riding horse. The kids were certainly cute but it immediately raised questions about a state ready and willing to exploit children as a top asset to show off for tourists, and why this was deemed the first place we should visit. (Parenthetically, the Children’s Palace pictured in the brochure above was originally the Kadoorie family’s mansion but that’s not the one we visited.)
Next we headed to Yu Gardens, or Yu Yuan, a Ming Dynasty garden and complex of buildings originally started in 1559 and restored multiple times, most recently in the 1960’s. I had never made it there when I was in Shanghai before so was looking forward to seeing one of the few pre-20th century sights in the city.
The garden itself was pleasant enough, laid out with zigzag pathways to confuse evil spirits, but the overwhelming sensation was the crowds of people pressing in everywhere.
The place was packed, especially with Chinese couples and families parked in every available space. I think partly it was because it was Sunday, the one day off each week for most working folks. But the gardens seemed to be crowded all the time, and had become a place to gawk at foreign tourists more than a place to find a semblance of quiet nature. It was an odd sensation, not at all pleasant.
As it turned out, this was one of the few places on our trip where we were on more or less equal footing with regular Chinese people. For the most part, we were given privileged (quarantined?) access to areas specifically for foreigners.
We made the best of it, taking the requisite photos, and winding our way back to the bus without getting much of a sense of the history or attraction of the place. Two stops down, many more to go.
We motored over to the Bund riverfront but were given only a few minutes to hop off the bus and snap some pictures from a single vantage point. So much for strolling the waterfront or learning anything more about the buildings and their pre-war European legacy.
Postcard photos would have to do. The Huangpu River was impressively busy with all manner of watercraft, some barely afloat. It was odd to see the large billboard for Kent Cigarettes, one of the only examples of foreign advertising we saw on the trip. The sign is on the far bank of the river, where the towers of Pudong began rising just a few years later.
For contrast, here’s a current shot of the Huangpu and Pudong from the Bund, on a rare clear day. This in the space of 30 years. Enough said?
That incipient future was not dreamed of or discussed in 1988. Instead, it was back on the bus for another short ride to the Swallow, a restaurant overlooking the river. The meal was pretty terrible, but the view was good.
For the afternoon, we were given the option of heading back to the hotel for a jet lag nap or head to a temple and several factories. I opted for the nap. Barb braved it and continued on the tour.
Next stop was the Jade Buddha Temple where Barb made the error of making a wish without paying the recommended fee. So she paid the fee and made another wish. She would have to tell you whether either wish was granted.
Then on to a carpet factory where they watched carpets being made entirely by hand, including hand knots and cuts.
One more stop at a jade and ivory factory where again nearly all work was done by hand. The working conditions were appalling but the resulting pieces were exquisite. Note the English name on the machine “Ivupy Shulpiure Machine.” Also, not sure where he got the pennant from the 1984 L.A. Olympics. I doubt he was there.
Our first day was capped off with a terrific performance of Chinese acrobats. There were almost as many animal acts as humans but they were all pretty remarkable. The panda was the biggest hit. Hard to believe it wasn’t some little guy in a panda suit.
Monday, November 7, 1988
The next morning, still dealing with jet lag, we woke up to catch the Redskins playing the Saints on (U.S.) Armed Forces TV. It was like we never left home, notwithstanding it being 6am on Monday and the question of why the Armed Forces TV channel was available in China.
Before long it was time to get packed up and out the door. Time for a train trip to our next destination, Suzhou.
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