Shanghai, 7 June 2010

  Shanghai Old City and The Yuyuan Gardens

 

The sculpted Yuyuan Gardens are so classically beautiful I thought they deserved their own page.  After a tour of the city we walked through the preserved and reconstructed Shanghai Old City on our way to  the Gardens.  Taking us back to a bygone era with its shops and markets it was touristy but well worth exploring with colours blazing and cooking aromas, some good some not so good, wafting from every direction.  The tightly packed shops and market stalls, each offering their own specialty - one shop selling only chopsticks.

 

  Shanghai Old City

To see a KFC sign on this beautiful old building is rather disturbing, don't you think?

 

 Yuyuan Gardens

  

The traditional Chinese Ming style once private gardens were first established in 1559 and finished in 1577 by a government officer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) named Pan Yunduan. Occupying an area of five acres and filled with pavilions, halls, rockeries, ponds and cloisters.  Yu in Chinese means pleasing and satisfying, and this garden was specially built for Pan's parents as a place for them to enjoy a tranquil and happy time in their old age. Falling in and out of various states of ruin they went under five years of restoration by the Shanghai Government in 1956 and opened to the public in 1961, becoming a national monument in 1982. 

Photo shoot

At one time this side of the walkway was only for men .... The women's walkway was on the other side of the wall.

Men and women could talk with one another through these windows as they walked along their respective paths.

There were several of these windows / openings and no two were the same.

Rock Garden

Shanghai, Monday 7 June, 2010

Our fellow tour members:  Anne and Chris from New Zealand,  Andrea and Arthur, Greek couple, from Melbourne,  Alexander and Caroline, a young Columbian couple, another couple from NZ,  Robyn and Neil from Oz and of course, ourselves.  A good group – just the right size. 

The making of a silk dooner

This morning off to The Silk Factory where I bought a silk dooner for 630rmb = approx $126au.  Andrea and Arthur bought one each for their whole family, about 6 in all.  Interesting watching the ladies extract the silk.   Silkworm cocoons are boiled. The heat kills the silkworms and the water makes the cocoons easier to unravel. Often, the silkworm itself is eaten ..... in China roasting is a popular method....yum.  Nothing is wasted.

My silk dooner bought at the Silk Factory, Shanghai.

Extracting the silk

From this

To this - yummy roasted silkworms

 

A busy day with a great lunch of Chinese dumplings in a famous Shanghai dumpling house, consisting of several floors and private rooms.  We were given one of the private rooms and out came the dumplings. They just kept on coming.

From L: Me, Paul, Andrea & Arthur (Melbourne), NZ couple, Aleander & Caroline (Columbia), Anne & Chris (NZ)

 Shanghai Sunday 6 June 2010
We were dropped off this morning in downtown Shanghai in the Nanjing Road area, the major shopping street of Shanghai, where we visited ‘Shanghai's No. 1 Department Store’, the first and only department store in Shanghai at one time, hence the name.  I was disappointed to find the prices were much the same as at home, but the colours and excitement of the street made up for it.

Nanjing Road

Shanghai No. 1 Department Store

Then headed for ‘The People’s Square’, south of Nanjing Road.  The People’s Square is one of the key landmarks of Shanghai and hailed as the ‘Green Lung’ because of its parklands.  It’s 140,000 square meters and the cultural and political centre of Shanghai.  Prior to 1949 it was a course for horse racing but became The People’s Square when the communist government banned gambling.  China’s history is incredibly rich and the museum in The People’s Square is four floors of Chinese artifacts and craftsmanship.  The building itself is a work of art built on a square base with a round top.  For me the handcrafted furniture dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the traditional village costume displays and virtual room displays of a time past, were fascinating.

Traditional Costumes

Too much culture needs some unwinding so after the museum it’s back to Nanjing Road via an underground arcade designed circa China 1930s. This arcade takes you into 'Old Shanghai' with a vivid recreation of an old style street of Shanghai in the 1930s with shops: smoking dens, a Parisian style cafe (Shanghai was known as the Paris of the East).  An amazing transportation into a past era.   

Witnessed a funny incident in this underground tunnel world …. some Chinese setting up illegal portable market stalls to be chased through the tunnels by Chinese police on those motorised stand-ups.  I am not exaggerating when I say the stalls packed up in 1 second and everyone running for safety.  

 From here it’s shops, shops and more shops.  A bit disappointing to find no bargains here - as mentioned earlier prices were much the same as at home.   The buy of the day was several pairs of roller blades.  Paul thought it a good mode of transport for us to get around Shanghai quickly and easily – he must be kidding.  A quick way to break a leg no doubt.  We settled on buying them for the kids at home.  From here we took a  Chinese taxi a little like a motorised rickshaw, to the Bund, the financial centre of Shanghai.  What fun…. Hooting around the Shanghai streets facing backwards, not knowing what’s in front and hanging on for dear life.  I swear those drivers go twice as fast for the tourists to get a good laugh. 

The Bund

After walking the Bund and imagining Paul’s father entering the many commercial buildings that run parallel along The Huangpu River, we went for lunch, and can you believe it, in an Italian restaurant.  And why not, if the Chinese can’t cook spaghetti, nobody can, and it was very good.  As a matter of interest, Paul’s father was born in Shanghai and only left before the war started in about 1939 but after the Japanese had invaded in 1937.  He was descended from the original Portuguese settlers in Macau.  But that's another story.

The Bund

Huangpu River

Huangpu River

 













Back up the Nanjing Road to meet Anne and Chris, our fellow tour travelers from New Zealand.  We were picked up and dropped off at the Expo again.  We only had time to visit the Spanish pavilion and then caught the metro back to the hotel.  Quite an exercise as all the signage is in Chinese, of course.  Just as well  Paul knew to count the stops!! 

Chinese Street

Now ... back to that purchase Paul made of the roller blades.  There is high security everywhere these days where there will be multitudes of people and entering the Expo was no exception where Olympic level security measures were in place.  Unfortunately for Paul they pulled him up with the roller blades accusing him of trying to sell them at the Expo (all two pairs that he was carrying) … after much hand waving and many loud expletives he had to leave them behind.  To say that he was ‘pissed’ is an understatement and  Anne, Chris and I having already passed through the gates are standing to one side expecting to see him hauled off at any moment to the Chinese jail cells for 'people who try and smuggle roller blades into the Expo'.  The irony of it and just to add insult to the wound, I had already gone through with 2 pairs of these mobile transports in my bag as well…. Yep, went through the cameras with not even a wheel showing.

Smoggy Day in Shanghai