Millions Jam Streets to Get View of Queen in Shanghai

Millions of Chinese jammed the streets today for a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth II in one of the most tumultuous welcomes ever given a foreign visitor to China.

“I’ve never seen so many people in the streets,” said the queen’s spokesman, Michael Shea. “We can safely talk about millions in the streets.”

Two thousand children sang and danced for the queen when she arrived in Shanghai, China’s largest city, from Peking. The queen is spending six days in China, the first British monarch to visit the world’s largest country.

When she visited the 400-year-old Yuyuan Gardens near The Bund, Shanghai’s famous waterfront, police had to push back throngs surging forward to see her. At one point, a squad of motorcycle police roared through the narrow twisting roads of the Yuyuan Bazaar, the old city market surrounding the gardens, to drive back the crowds.

Onlookers waved and clapped as the queen strolled down the bazaar lanes, lined with tiny shops selling noodles, dumplings, duck blood soup, antiques and clothes.

The queen smiled and waved back.

Her arrival aboard a special Tristar jet and her stroll in the Yuyuan Gardens were televised live, and a color picture of the queen appeared in the local newspaper. Banners of welcome, streamers and strings of colored lights decorated the streets.

One local official said the reception was more elaborate than for any previous foreign visitor, including President Reagan in 1984.