Shanghai Shindig
Blog photographer at work, after the extravaganza
We were given a choice: Sign up for an expensive evening at the Chinese Acrobatic Show, or stay near the ship for a ‘free’ dinner-and-show-and-christening event right at our pier in the city. Most people opted for the latter. Many people wished they had opted for the former. A few souls stayed on the ship and probably had the best view.
Building the set on Thursday started at 6 a.m. and took all day. Striking it began at 6 a.m. the next morning and took all day. This photo was taken the morning of the event, as the Shanghai Philharmonic was practicing behind the plastic tent walls under the the three triangular pointy roofs.
The Frisbee®-shaped restaurant lit up, below. It was called the Sun Chateau — nothing to do with our being named the Sun — and was where 300 of us went.
It was a huge event: 300 dignitaries, specially constructed stage for the Shanghai Philharmonic and two opera singers, plus many speeches (all in Chinese) and tributes and the traditional breaking of the bottle against the ship — though in this case, it was a bottle of Norwegian Aquavit, not champagne. Only one person I talked to liked the food at the restaurant, and we concluded she/he might have been at the other buffet. We also concluded that the admin needed to get all of us off the ship to make room for the 300 dignitaries who must have had dinner on board, so they fed us across the street. There were many large TV screens simulcasting what went on outside.
Read all about it:
https://www.google.es/search?q=Viking+Names+Fourth+Ocean+Ship+in+Shanghai&oq=Viking+Names+Fourth+Ocean+Ship+in+Shanghai&aqs=chrome..69i57.1114j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Before dinner, assorted Chinese craftsmen were at work creating souvenirs for Vikings, e.g., hand-cut paper silhouette portraits (love his NY Yankees hat).
Our ship only looks green in this shot. As I was walking back to the ship alone (see Blogger photo above), I passed a plastic ‘tent’ with people going in and out. I went in. There was Viking founder and chairman Torstein Hagen, shaking hands with the ship’s ‘godmother,’ Ms. Yi Lu, who is big in Shanghai finance. Viking is heavily backed by Chinese money. On my left is Alastair Miller, Viking’s official photographer, whom I’d met at his talks on the ship. He goes all over the world shooting for them, mostly marketing shots. I was not supposed to be there. It was a bit of ambush journalism... very unlike me.
Everyone did get a swell swag bag just before we left the ship for the restaurant. Red umbrella, fan, book by the chairman’s daughter’s dog (who is descended from the golden lab who appears in the opening scene of Downton Abbey, which Viking sponsored), and a Viking longboat pin. #
