Shanghai is only a short 2.5 hour flight from Tokyo. We took the convenient and fast bullet train Shinkansen Nozomi 700 from Nagoya to Tokyo before taking off to China. We spent five days in sunny and super hot Shanghai where we visited the World Expo, Yuyuan Temple and Gardens, the modern Pudong district, the Bund and the Unesco World Heritage Sites of Suzhou.
The World Expo site is majestically located along the Huangpo river in the middle of Shanghai, easily accessible via river ferry, subway or taxi. The outside shape of almost all Pavilions is architecturally very interesting, so it was still a delight for the eyes even though the long wait held us from getting into some of the Pavilions (10 hours for Saudi Arabia, 7 hours for Germany, 5 hours for Korea, 4 hours for Japan). Luckily, some pavilions offered priority entrance for families with babies. We were very lucky to get quick access to the China Pavilion which normally requires reservations one day in advance. The security guards let us into the Pavilion only because they thought Maximilian was cute! One could easily spent 10 days visiting all Pavilions since they all have interesting exhibits, great authentic restaurants and souvenir shops. While we enjoyed the outside architecture of all pavilions we were only able to visit the inside exhibits of China, Australia, Italy, Africa, Cambodia, Philippines, Cuba, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mexico, Chile, USA and Japan's Corporate Pavilion in two very long days. The Chinese really loved Maximilian and stopped very frequently to take pictures of him - he felt like a star!
Our hotel was in walking distance of the beautiful Yuyuan temple and gardens of the Ming and Qing Dynasty. A picturesque and vibrant local shopping district, where our friend Asarel helped us bargain for low prices, was near our hotel as well. Asarel, whose husband is working as an expatriate for Bosch in Wuxi and who used to live in Nagoya, invited us to celebrate Father's day at her new home in Suzhou. Suzhou is one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze basin, founded in 600 BC and is referred to as "The Venice of China" with its interconnected waterways and Unesco World Heritage river walk.
We viewed Shanghai from the Sky Walk located on the 100th floor of the Financial Center. The Sky Walk floors and side walls are made of glass and are currently the world's highest observatory! We took a romantic evening river cruise along the colorful night lights and strolled along the Bund, Shanghai's international waterfront (it's architecture reminded us of Paris' "Rive Gauche"). These vibrant and colorful impressions of Shanghai left us feeling nostalgic, thinking that we will return someday to see the many other sites that this city, with its historic vicinity, has to offer. Nevertheless, we were also looking forward to getting to our next destination – Hainan Island.
Hainan is known as the Hawaii of China and deserves to be China's number one honeymoon destination with its tropical vegetation, warm climate, soft beaches and clear warm waters. Yalong Bay is a very nicely manicured resort area with lush green vegetation and beautiful tropical flowers. The gardens of the Hilton resort have lots of Mango, Papaya and Banana trees. We enjoyed fresh coconuts directly from the resort's garden every morning. The pool and lagoon area was beautiful and we thought Maxi would grow webbed feet since he spent many hours in the pool every day. The beach was bright and the ocean was turquoise blue and warm. We were fortunate to meet the Hilton resort's General Manager who even cooked dinner for us at the best restaurant on location and invited Tony to play golf in a nearby private golf resort. We had a really relaxing and nice time in Hainan Island and did not want to leave at all. Luckily we had one more interesting stop on our way home waiting for us: Hong Kong.
Hong Kong greeted us with great weather. We had a fantastic view of its impressive skyline and picturesque peaks and bays during landing. Hong Kong is a perfect merger of East meets West. It has lots to offer with its vibrant business and harbor district on one side of the island as well as its quiet and lush seaside. We enjoyed the nightly light show and Soho's nightlife along the world's longest escalator as well as a relaxing seaside afternoon in Repulse Bay. Three days were not enough to enjoy all of Hong Kong's sites and we hope to be able to visit again.
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