The flight to Shanghai has a Chinese movie with sub-titles in Chinese characters and English. In each city, a local guide meets us at the airport, gets us to our hotel, takes us sightseeing and gets us back to the airport. All of our hotels on the northern tour are excellent. The oldest is less than two years old. One of the managers tells us that they had over 10,000 applications to fill 450 positions- obviously a desirable job.
Shanghai Shanghai is China's largest city and largest sea port.
Its access to the west is reflected in the architecture of its older buildings which all appear to be pre-World War II and its newer buildings which all appear to be post 1980. We use our experience on the bikes to convince our guide to let us walk back to the hotel. This gives us a change to see markets and shops and a bit of city life. In the evening the tour includes a Chines acrobatic show that is classic Chi- nese and fun. Shanghai is a bustling industrial and trading city with little to recommend it other than missing it would mean missing a part of China.