At that time visitors to China by �Westerners� was something of an event organised by local government officials. This turned out to be a full day�s itinerary which not only included a trip on the Hangpu and Yangtze rivers, but a visit to the tourist shop where only tourist currency could be spent, to the Yu Garden, the temple of Jade, and to a banquet in the evening with entertainment from the aerobatic theatre.
The only bar on photography was of military craft and installations.
The weather was not the best for such a photo opportunity, being rather grey and a bit misty but quality photos were taken of the 119 vessels (some claimed 127) in port that day. Ships were along side and offloading into �barges� whilst anchored in the stream. There were also views of shipyards and scrap yards along the riverside, and in floating docks. At that time the road and rail infrastructure was not as good as it is now and many passenger ships and cargo ships with substantial passenger carrying capability were seen. These were used to ferry people up the river and around the coast. A diverse collection of local craft was photographed, from tugs to dredgers, and fishing vessels to coastal craft. Whilst there was a lot of locally sourced tonnage the majority was second hand and built in a variety of countries around the world, Finland; Japan; Yugoslavia; Poland; Russia; Denmark and the UK, most notable being Hai Long ex Blue Funnel�s Centaur built at John Brown�s.
We thank Ken and Win for showing their collection of slides from this trip and for the research involved in finding vessel details, notoriously difficult for vessels that �disappeared� into China at that time.