On THe Move To China - Day 5

How much can two women see in one day? It was our tour guides responsibility to make sure we saw everything in Shanghai – he succeeded. Remember, he is a male – and he doesn’t shop!!

We started the day In Yu Garden, which is walking distance from our hotel. Yu Garden is a beautiful house and garden, some parts preserved and some renovated from many many years ago. The buildings were beautiful and the garden even better. The amazing part – this little patch of heaven is surrounded by skyscrapers, roads and shops. From our hotel window you can see a little patch of green nestled in the concrete and wooden roofs. We left the hotel and went through the Yuyuan Market – not much stopping along the way, but the site of daily life was interesting – the people, food stalls, restaurants, and shops. The buildings were constructed in the “old style” but the modern lifestyle was all around us.

Our next stop was the Jade Buddha Temple. Wow. I loved walking around the corner to see all the incense burners and the people praying. It felt like home to me. This was Linda’s first experience. The temple is named Jade Buddha Temple because housed deep inside the complex is a jade Buddha brought here from Burma by a monk – many believe it is the beginning of Buddhism in China. Other buildings housed several golden Buddha’s and monks. The original temple was built in 1882 but was destroyed and rebuilt in 1928 – thank goodness the jade Buddha was not damaged!

We went to the Bund for a stroll along the rivers edge, the famous waterfront. The Bund is an area that looks European, which was built over 100 years ago and regarded at the symbol of Shanghai for hundreds of years. It was a welcome port for the visitors arriving by boat to visit Shanghai. We are staying in the “old city” and while standing on the bund, we looked across the river to Pudong – which is the new part of Shanghai. It was not developed 20 years ago and now it is covered in skyscrapers. I have to say it is a beautiful skyline.

An unexpected and my favorite stop of the day was the Confucian Temple (the Wen Miao Temple) located in the old city. The original temple was dedicated in 1296 but was moved several times before its current site in 1855. The current buildings were renovated in 1999 to celebrate the 2,550th birthday of Confucius. We toured the grounds – it was so quiet and serine. It was Sunday, so they were having a book swap in the entrance area of the temple.

Our next stop was Peoples Square. A former horse racing track, it is now the site of the municipal government, exhibition halls, theater, and. you guessed it – shopping! Shopping and HOARDS of people. We stopped in at one local food market – filled with people – locals and domestic tourist. It was fun to see a “local” upscale food store. The rest of our time, we just walked around – just a couple of salmon trying to swim upstream!

We left the Peoples Square and headed to the Old City. We stopped at the Dongtai Antiques Market – not sure how many were really antiques – we did enjoy watching the men play cards on the corner. Once we finished in the antiques market we went to Shanghai Old Street. What a hustling area. The area was small in comparison to Peoples Square but the streets were tiny but shop after shop along the road was filled with vendors cooking and selling afternoon snacks. The streets were full of local shoppers buying their goods for the night’s dinner. We loved the area, the faces of the people and the view of everyday life. The tiny side streets were filled with door ways to the locals houses – of course, there was no in door plumbing, so one the corner of most blocks were the public toilets and wash houses.

In contrast, we headed to The French Concession – the area where the rich Chinese and Expats live. Swank shops, amazing restaurants and no public toilets on the corner. We were in awe after the old town. Like all major cities around the globe – Starbucks was on the corner!

We were tired and hungry by time we reached the hotel. It was dark and we just couldn’t face anymore shopping. So after dinner we played cards to keep ourselves awake. We were so happy to hit the pillow at 9:30 pm – the time change is not fun!


Our new guides in Shanghai - Nick and Tru