When I left off last month talking about our trip to China, we had completed out visit to Beijing and were on our way to Shanghai. The air was clear of smog the few days we were there and Shanghai did not disappoint our expectations.

Shanghai reminded me of a beautiful European city with it’s 19th century British architecture and Parisian influence. It’s easy to see whey it’s called “The Paris of the East”. Our glorious hotel, the 5 star Fairmont Peace Hotel is located in a section of the city called the Bund.

The Bund was settled by the British and French during and after the first Opium war in the mid 1800’s. I picked up a book by Rena Krasno entitled “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai,” and she said that where she lived as a child in the Bund before 1949, hardly anyone spoke Chinese. English or Frenchwas all she ever heard. Today the neon lighted high rises reminds one of Las Vegas.

Our next stop was a 4 day cruise on the Yangtze River. The Chinese are very proud of the Three Gorges Dam completed in 2006. We were reminded many times that the dam was the largest in the world. It was interesting to see the cities along the Yangtze and to learn how different life is now for those