Shanghai - A Ghost Town?!

We went to Shanghai since Anthony had some business meetings to attend and we have friends there, thought it would be good to go visit and say hi. It’s about a 2 hour flight away. We arrived on Wednesday and were told ahead of time that there was some major convention or something going on and parts of the city would be shut down, including the around the Hyatt where we were staying. Sure enough, the roads around the Hyatt were EMPTY – completely empty. Shops, restaurants, businesses, they were all closed. We arrived by a Hyatt shuttle van from the airport and we were not allowed to drive up to the hotel entrance. We had to get out at the street and walk in. Yes, they had luggage porters to carry all our stuff. We entered the building and were greeted by a security checkpoint, just like in an airport. Up went the baggage, the stroller, the carseat, etc. Then we walked through metal detectors and got patted down – even the girls. The Hyatt in Shanghai is a beautiful hotel, with a lobby on the 54th floor.

http://shanghai.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/gallery/photos.jsp

Our hotel room was gorgeous – with 2 walls of the room being windows to view the city. It was a bit foggy so there wasn’t much to see, but I imagine it is spectacular when it’s clear. The bathroom was fantastic – Anthony thinks it’s the best shower he’s ever had. It was pretty nice.

Once we checked in and checked out our room, we decided to go swimming. We went to the pool, which had nice big windows. We were looking out the windows and were told to stand back – there were important people in the hotel and for safety we had to stay away from the windows (our assumption is for snipers) – then they closed the blinds on all the windows. Interesting huh? We found out in the morning’s newspaper that there were several world leaders taking part in meetings in Shanghai, in the area we were and some were most likely staying in the Hyatt, which was the cause for all the security measures.

This taken from the Shanghai daily news “The leaders taking part in the meeting are Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov and Uzbek President Islam Karimov…… The SCO, an intergovernmental organization that comprises the five countries and China, was established in Shanghai and is celebrating its fifth anniversary…… The four observer nations are represented by Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora…... Afghan President Hamid Karzai is attending the summit as a guest.”

That night, they had a big fireworks display put on for the leaders. The fireworks were going off right at about or a little below the 83rd floor of the hotel. How many people can say they’ve seen fireworks from above?! It was pretty cool – although with all the fog, we couldn’t really see them very well. It was very loud and scared Liz – Anthony took her out where you couldn’t see them or hear them so loud.

The girls and I left the next day to stay at our friends house since the security was just a hassle and nothing was open around the hotel. When we left, we had to take a shuttle bus to a designated spot outside the security zone where we could then get a car or taxi to take us elsewhere. It was just amazing to see a city like Shanghai with blocks and blocks where there were no cars or people walking or anything open. I can’t imagine that happens very often in a city of that many people.

We didn’t do much sightseeing this trip –we hung out with our friends and took the girls to the park in the complex they live. We ate out quite a bit, at Western food places, of course. They have some good ones there, we even had barbecue – at a new place that just opened up by a guy from Austin, Texas! It was yummy stuff! We also did karaoke one night, with the kids. Ryken slept through most of it and it took a while, but we got Ashley singing some kids songs. Liz didn’t really enjoy it, maybe she’ll warm up to it eventually.

We had a good time in Shanghai and hope to go back again at some point when the city won’t be deserted and we can do some more sightseeing.