We then made the short walk to the Old Town (aka Yuan Bazaar) which has cobbled streets and traditional shops selling herbal medicines, handicrafts and Chinese teas.
This is the Jiu Qu Bridge (nine-turns bridge) - as I mentioned back in Beijing, number nine is considered an auspicious number and walking across this bridge is said to bring you good luck.
There are both terrapins and koi in the murky green water.
And a few water lilies.
This photo of Mum was taken here in 1998.
I don't know why the police van needs to be behind a cordoned off.
A few food items including octopus by the look of it.
Glazed strawberries which look delicious but I can't help wondering if the young lady is filming an audition for a soft porn movie!
And goodness knows what this one was photographing; the only things visible are her eyes.
We were a little early back to the meeting place so decided to see if we could find the pearl wholesalers Raymond had taken others to when we first arrived (we weren't interested in buying). It was in the depths of a shopping complex but we found it and had a good look around.
Mr Unimpulsive then surprised me once again by saying he'd like to buy me a pearl. We chose a lovely purple "black" one and upgraded the chain to a nicer, silver one. It wasn't overly expensive which means it'll get worn and remind me of our holiday.
Outside the area, it was still pedestrianised so we walked around a little more.
Raymond told us that the price for an average flat in Shanghai is around £800,000 and it is the groom's parent's job to pay for it, whilst the bride's parents give a dowry plus a car - I bet some must really wish the one child policy was still in force.
Great name for a restaurant.
There always seems to be a lot of sweet things on offer.
Just a few more roadside planting shots.
We passed this building every time we went out and I was curious to know if it really was falling down/ half built or it that was a design feature.
Definitely just half built.
We also passed this a lot, it's a sundial but any more info than that I can't find.
And back to our hotel.
I forgot to mention the other day that we found online there was an Aldi supermarket only about 5 mins walk away which had a very good selection of Chilean wines. We had to take a few of the group there afterwards as no one else seemed able to find the place and all were quite nervous of venturing too far.
A few internal shots.
With a couple of hours before dinner we thought we might have a swim but the pool area wasn't particularly inviting.
We have a fairly early start tomorrow as our flight leaves at 11:00 and so we made good use of the time finishing our packing. We were taken to a "special" restaurant for the last supper but the only difference I could see was that it was practically empty - the food was the same we've had all over. Ian's has said several times it'll be a long while before he fancies a Chinese again.
22 is a fairly large group and with one or two exceptions we've thoroughly enjoyed the company of our fellow travellers. I have contact details for most people but haven't yet decided whether to get in touch - sometimes holiday friendships are best left at the airport.
I think all those flying back to England, except Tom and Pauline, had taken advantage of the free Business Class upgrade and so we expected there to be a bit of a party in the lounge. But we got separated from everyone else at security because one of our suitcases got held back. When we finally got to the lounge none of our group was there and we can only assume that because we are Silver we got allocated a better/quieter lounge.
On the whole the tour was very good, we saw all the things we'd been expecting (albeit not always in as nice a fashion - cormorant fisherman) and it was very good value for money given that all meals were included.
We saw no obvious signs of oppression; yes there are security cameras all around and people generally don't break the law - but that's great as it makes for a safe and pleasant place to live. People are allowed and positively encouraged to better themselves - the old communist idea of a brain surgeon and a dustman earning the same wage is a thing of the past - free enterprise and self betterment is forging China ahead.
What we hadn't appreciated was quite how many people live in China and how popular domestic tourism is now that they have money in their pockets and so the crowds were a very nasty surprise.
We only really visited large cities full of concrete and people in Western dress and the overriding impression is that it just wasn't very foreign. Of course if we'd been able to go to more rural areas we might have found differently - I do wander what Tibet is like and might fancy a trip there in the future but China itself can now be scratched off.