Shanghai Friday April 13

Today we travelled by bus and then took a rickshaw ride to the Chinese Old Quarter, wandering amongst the small streets and markets where the locals buy their fresh food supplies. Homemade noodles and steaming buns are for sale, but most stalls sell fresh produce and herbs, beans, and spices. The array of enticing vegetables was vast - most of them we have here or at least can buy at a Chinese grocer or market, but there were a few which we had not seen before. There were also live eels, frogs, and various different kinds of fish, all still swimming. One interesting stall was selling live Rhode Island Red Fowls (fully grown), still alive with their feet tied together. Once the purchaser has selected the preferred bird, it is weighed and its throat cut with a razor blade and passed to the assistant to complete the process of preparing it for the pot. It doesn't come fresher than that!!
Next was a local bird and flower market, including also plants in pots. The birds are in cages, but the market also sells a wide range of other "pets" to purchase - crickets, cicadas, miniature tortoises, and tiny insects in a plastic box to put in your pocket for good luck (that superstition/spiritualism again!!)
A visit to a "Children's Palace" school (commercially run) which provides extra-curricular lessons for students was an eye-opener. Because competition in China is so high, parents with the financial resources to do so enrol their children for creative courses which run seven days per week outside school hours. Activities include painting, calligraphy, opera, drama, chess, music, piano, musical instruments, and traditional Chinese instruments. Some of the creations we saw were of an extremely high standard, and the performance by four 14-year old girls playing traditional instruments was of an astonishingly high standard and played with a passion which we do not seem to see in our children. One 14-year girl stated that she had been learning the instrument for more than 8 years. It seems that there is basically very little time for these children to do anything else other than study and aim to achieve - there is little or no "playtime" or socializing time in their weekly program. Some of the mothers even attend the classes with the child for encouragement and supervision - usually between 3 and 5 times per week.
Our trip now over, we flew by Dragon Air (wonderful airline) to HK, where we had a very short overnight sleep and caught an early morning Qantas flight home.