Maritime Museum and Port of Shanghai

• The port of Shanghai(PoS), is the largest port in the world, overtaking Istanbul in 2010. 
• There are 125 shipping berths in the port. Of the 125, 82 of them can accommodate vessels that are 10,000 DWT. DWT stands for dead weight tonnage. Dead weight tonnage is a measure of how much mass the ship is carrying, or can safely carry. This does not include the ship itself. The dead weight tonnage is usually expressed in tons. (Long and/or metric)
•  Each month, over 2,000 cargo ships leave to transport goods to the rest of the world.
• Containerization: A system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (a.k.a. shipping containers) made of weathering steel. The containers have standardized dimensions so they can be transported by boat and train, and use the same equipment to move them. They can fit on trains and boats well. If they were all different sizes, then it would take so long to move them from boat to land to train and such. You would have to have equipment in all different sizes, and the containers might not fit on some trains, and then they do fit on others. This is just a much more efficient way to transport goods by trains and boats.

Jan 18
   Today we went to the C.Y. Tung maritime museum that is located on the campus of one of the universities in Shanghai.                                          

 It was not a huge museum, but the perfect size for a day trip. Not too much to do, but enough for a few hours. In the 2 rooms on the first floor, most everything had to do with the maritime history of China. They were really ahead of us in this category. They were sailing and had already discovered propulsion (man-made, or by an animal) when we were just discovering boats and sailing. There were lots of models of early ships. There were also examples of the first compasses. There was the original idea, which was a metal needle stuck through a reed so it would float, in a bowl of water. The end of the needle would point north or south. It was very interesting.

   The second floor was more about C.Y. Tung and his work. C.Y. was a shipping magnet, and the founder of Orient Overseas Line. He was a big believer in education. In 1970, he bought the RMS Queen Elizabeth, and converted it into a floating university. The new name was to be the S.S. Seawise University. Unfortunately, On January 9 1972, the ship caught fire and sunk in the Hong Kong harbor during refurbishing.
 Fun fact, the wreck was featured in the James Bond movie, The man with the golden gun.


C.Y. was not limited by this setback, though. He then bought a smaller liner, Atlantic, to complete the project.                                                   
Container services were revolutionary in the world's shipping industry when the Americans introduced them in the year 1965. In the far east, C.Y. Tung was one of the first people to provide container services. He started by converting his bulk carriers into semi container ships. Soon, there were many container ships throughout the east. Converted from ships that just carried crates and such, into ships that fit shipping containers on board instead.

Jan 25
Today we went to visit the Port of Shanghai. Unfortunately the smog was thick, and we did not get many good pictures or views. It is about a 1 1/2 hour drive, and 20 miles of that is on a bridge over the East China Sea.
.
 I did notice during our visit, that it did not smell salty or fishy. That is probably because of the pollution, we concluded. The port is located on an island, so there were huge hills. Not tall enough to be a mountain, but much bigger than just any old hill. There are stairs up and down them. I had woke up already sore from a workout yesterday, and when we climbed this thing, I felt really good. After the car ride back, I stepped out of the car, and oh boy!

 So today was the first hole-toilet of the trip for me. Memories came flooding back to me of our trip to Uganda in 2015. Almost all of the bathrooms there were holes. I am not complaining though. I am grateful that there were restrooms and they were clean. To be honest, I think it humbles you to go to a hole-bathroom. It certainly makes me think "Well, I feel like a jerk now complaining about this because this is what a lot of people use everyday, and they are completely fine and dandy".Wow, my supposed-to-be one sentence about hole bathrooms turned in to seven. Enough about that.

 Bob came with us up the hill for a little bit, but then went back down to the car. We passed a family on the way to the top, and they said hello politely, and we did too. They seemed excited excited about seeing us.On our way down, we passed them again, and the mom, and mom of the mom offered all of us some shelled peanuts. They gave us handfuls, and asked us how old we are, and those things. They lighted up my day just with their cheerfulness and smiles.(And the peanuts. They were delicious)

We climbed back down, and started the drive back. We passed the new Disney in Shanghai, and it looked amazing! We are supposed to go sometime while we are here. Today rekindled my "oh-my-gosh"feeling for this. :D