Shanghai surprises

Although the impressive Shanghai skyline was visible when we arrived it had disappeared into smog as we prepared to sail back out the river way. Two surprising Shanghai experiences were a visit to a 2,000-year-old temple that survived the Cultural Revolution and a delightful visit to a neighborhood kindergarten for two- to six-year-olds away from the city's center.

The active Buddhist temple is a minority enterprise in a country with seven million Buddhists and 1.35 billion people. Chou En Lai, who was from Shanghai, saved it by ordering army troops to guard it. (He also limited the fate of Deng Xiaouping, the author of China's economic liberalization, to merely house arrest during that era.)

The children were delightful singing and dancing "for the foreigners" as our guide translated the teachers' exhortations. The Chinese man in the Santa suit in the picture of the dance is the principal. The children and we sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."  A recording let them give a karaoke-style performance. They sang and danced a number of other songs in Chinese.

The school's stairs illustrate the importance placed on English education. Each riser has an English word with accompanying picture. Our guide says he practices English with his four-year-old in the evenings.

Unfortunately, the activity at which we spent the most time was sitting in traffic getting to the places we visited. Cars are mostly late model possibly because a license plate costs $15,000, limiting car ownership to the affluent, even if it is good for as long as the purchaser wants. Nonetheless, they are issued by an annual lottery system, according to our guide.

In a city of 27 million, the now-familiar high rise apartments dominate the cityscape as they did in Hong Kong.