We arrived at 浦東, Pudong, Shanghai International airport at 8.45 a.m. on 10th April 2010. The pilot announced that the outside temperature was 12 degrees C. The China Eastern Airline's A320 airbus was very comfortable and I managed to get a few hours sleep. The man on the left, Kenny Cheah was our tour leader from KL Malaysia. He handed the flag over to the Chinese tour leader, on arrival at the airport.
We boarded a bus immediately and went on our way to see Movie World. The scenery along the route was interesting to me at first because it was so different from the green pastures of the Waikato. It soon became boring with endless miles of yellow Mustard flowers. Our tour guide explained that they were grown for making cooking oil in China.
The farm houses indicated to me that it is not such a bad life to be a farmer in China today. Most of these houses are modern in design and built of bricks or concrete. Some of them have solar panels on the roof providing hot water for the owners. Many have satellite discs on the roof; but I have not seen any motor cars parked in front of these farm houses on the road side. Apparently commuters are using bicycles and small
electric scooters for going to work. I saw very few private cars during our 4-hr bus ride from the airport to Wuxi. The main roads outside the city limits were not congested at all; mostly trucks, lorries and buses. I remember seeing a 3-storey bus full of beds! Some budget tours, apparently arranged for the tourists to sleep on the buses as they traveled between cities. What a great idea!
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