Explore More Magazine Summer 2019

42 VIKINGCRUISES.CO.UK |

42 VIKINGCRUISES.CO.UK | SPRING 2019

TRAVEL POSTCARD from SHANGHAI Food writer and blogger Rebecca Wiggins set sail to Shanghai and wrote to tell us about her adventure PHOTOS: © ISTOCK Centuries ago in ancient China, before dynasties and emperors, legend has it that the people gathered in groups, identifying themselves with the symbol of an animal. When the snake people fought with the deer people and defeated them, they took the deer’s horn and added it to their snake to show off their great victory. Then, when they defeated the roosters they added the rooster’s feet to their strange creature with the snake’s body and the deer’s horn. When they, in turn, were defeated by the group whose symbol was a horse, the people took the deer’s horn and the snake’s body with the rooster’s feet and added the horse’s face. Slowly, slowly, the mythical dragon was born. Our Viking guide, Roy, tells us this magical story as we gaze at the breath-taking dragon wall that surrounds the five-acre Yu Garden, hidden away in the very centre of Shanghai – an oasis of koi ponds, pretty gardens and intricately decorated pagodas surrounded by the looming skyscrapers of the modern city. We arrived in Shanghai the afternoon before, dumping our bags and setting out from our luxurious hotel, the Portman Ritz-Carlton, eager to explore this dazzling city. As the sun sets, every street is lit with a million twinkling lights and people jostle along packed pavements (they eat early in Shanghai – the restaurants are heaving by 6pm). A friend who has lived in Shanghai told us to seek out the famous local dumplings, and following the crowd, we stumbled across the Wujiang Road Leisure Street, packed full of restaurants and food stalls where we found Yang’s – a bit of a Shanghai institution – and dined on fried dumplings. We also discovered that they contained soup which is like lava and has the tendency to burst out all over your shirt when you bite into them. It’s a testament to how delicious they are that you really don’t mind! It’s fun to explore, but we were glad to meet up with Roy, our guide, to properly discover Shanghai. After the beautiful gardens, we crossed the zigzag bridge to wander the neighbouring Yuyuan Bazaar, jostling shoulders with scores of visitors, marvelling at the incredible architecture and wandering the stalls selling everything from silk and jade to souvenirs and more dumplings (tempting). From the Bazaar, we wandered through the old streets to visit a silk workshop and watch a fascinating silk embroidery demonstration. Each embroidered picture can take up to ten months and I honestly couldn’t see the thread the artisan was using, it was so fine. The results are delicate, shimmering works of art, worth thousands of pounds. Our afternoon was spent discovering the treasures of the beautiful Shanghai Museum – itself a thing of beauty – designed in the shape of an ancient bronze cooking vessel. We pressed our noses up against cases containing everything from a stone slab carved with 1,000 Buddhas to ancient coins, precious jade artefacts and Ming vases (you can’t visit China without seeing a Ming vase). Once the sun goes down, the bright lights of Shanghai start to appear in all their glory. The atmosphere is electric, and we loved experiencing the city as it came alive in the evening. The next morning, we were up early to hop on a plane to join our ship, Viking Emerald, on the iconic Yangtze River in Wuhan. This taste of Shanghai has given us an appetite for more and we’ll definitely return to this dazzling city – if only for the delicious dumplings! A 15-day Imperial Jewels of China cruise in 2020 starts at £3,045pp vikingcruises.co.uk Clockwise, from opposite page: The ancient and the modern co-exist beautifully in Shanghai; Rebecca loved the epic cityscape; dumplings were a highlight; the city comes alive at night