As we explored the city of Shanghai, moving from one place to another, sometimes walking and sometimes in a taxi, what struck me was the remarkably beautiful roadsides and the sparkling cleanliness of the city. Besides, it’s a paradise for flower enthusiasts. There was colour everywhere. Even the road dividers were flower pots having multitudes of seasonal flowers. The dull and dreary rainy day was completely subdued and splashed with cheer and brightness all around.
Yuyuan Garden (Yu Yuan)
Yuyuan Garden provided a glimpse of what life was like in ancient China. Built during the Ming Dynasty, the garden has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over the last few centuries and its latest restoration was completed in 1961. The place was bustling and overflowing with people. We jostled our way through the crowd of locals and tourists, as the aura of the place was transporting us to a different world.
The rock gardens, ponds, bridges, and pavilions stole the show and all the maneuvering through the crowd seemed worth the effort. Climbing onto the zigzag bridge passing through a pond of moss green water with plenty of orange fishes, we walked towards the mid-lake pavilion.
The classical garden stood up to its name, ‘Yu’ in Chinese means ‘pleasing and satisfying’.
The mid-lake pavilion was a fascinating elegantly designed 200 year old tea house. Being a tea-lover, this constituted the main highlight of Yuyuan Garden for me. If I had the time, I would have surely spent a couple of hours there tasting as many varieties of Chinese tea as I could. There is much more to the garden and I really wish I had more time to cover it all.
The 200 year old Tea HouseInside the Tea House, note the shelf on the right stacked with tins of different types of tea
City God Temple (Chenghuang Miao)
The City God temple is an ancient Taoist temple located in Old City and very close to Yuyuan Garden. We passed by the temple and saw it from outside.
A selfie with Miss Sunny in front of Chenghuang Miao
Yuyuan Bazaar
A cluster of shops randomly scattered through narrow alleys greet you as you step out of Yuyuan Garden. Also known as Yuyuan Bazaar, the shops here sell souvenirs, scarves, t-shirts, etc. One of the lanes offer a variety of street food, many of which looked alien to me. I would have liked to dig deeper into those stalls to know more but once again the luxury of time I did not have. I had to satisfy my curiosity only by ogling at the variety of stuff that was on offer with occasional knowledge inputs from Miss Sunny.
Stepping out of Yuyuan Garden
Shanghai Old Street(Shanghai Lao Jie)
We passed by the lanes of Yuyuan Bazaar, crossed a street or two and landed into Shanghai Old Street. It was a busy street lined with curio shops and teahouses. Miss Sunny informed that this was the center of the Old Chinese City and foreigners seldom ventured here during the Concession days. Presently, this place looked vibrant with a lot of activities and exuded a contagious old world charm that cannot be missed. The corridor-like straight road lined with attractive shops on either side was a shopping paradise and can instantaneously change your mood.
The dormant shopaholic me raised its ugly head and overpowered the sane me. The result was I ended up spending all the Chinese Yuan I had carried with me buying stuff from hand creams and face lotions to home decors, gifts and fake antiques. Miss Sunny’s expert advice came in handy in distinguishing the real stuff from the fake ones.
The laments and repents for my abrupt uncalled for action arrived sooner than expected when I was charged additional money for withdrawing cash from an ATM using my credit card.
The shopping paradise – shopaholics beware!
It was indeed a great way to end my 7-hour Shanghai sightseeing. Miss Sunny dropped a happy and satisfied me back to my hotel. Due to the short time, I had to pick and choose and couldn’t visit all the places or do all the things I wanted to do. Hope to go back some day again.
Here’s a list of things that I would like to do, if I am lucky enough to land up at Shanghai again:
Take a night tour of the city
View the city from Oriental Pearl Tower
Shop at Nanjing Road
Take a ferry ride at the Bund at night
Ride in the site seeing tunnel below the Huangpu River
Ride the Maglev
Visit the water towns
Experience the traditional Chinese way of life at Qibao
[This post is a continuation. If you have missed the first part of this post, it’s here.]
Exploring ‘Paris of the East’ on a Cold and Rainy Day
Clad in a warm coat and a beautiful scarf, Miss Sunny was there right on time. “I think you should put on something warm”, she advised with a look of surprise seeing me ready to leave in a jeans and light sweater. It was an April morning and I was inside the comfort of my hotel with no idea how cold it was outside. Though there was no sun and the weather looked bleak and gloomy. I hadn’t packed proper warm clothes as I wasn’t prepared for it to be this cold. However, I went back to my room, scanned my suitcase and put on two more layers. Layering keeps you warm, and two t-shirts is equivalent to one sweater – one of the many things learnt during my Himalayan treks.
I was in Shanghai for a 3-day work-related visit and was put up at Renaissance Shanghai Caohejing Hotel, which is situated in the business district and a little off from the main city. Miss Sunny was my guide and kind enough to come all the way to escort me to the city. Otherwise, with my zero knowledge of Mandarin, it would have gotten difficult.
My Shanghai trip was close on the heels of a trek to the Himalayas and naturally I wasn’t too happy. I hoped and prayed that it would be moved but that didn’t happen. As I was reluctantly getting my tickets and booking my hotel, the traveler in me suddenly woke up, just in time, to remind that this was an opportunity! How could I miss that! So, I added a day to my itinerary to see what I can of Shanghai. A little bit of research and I found Miss Sunny through Trip Advisor recommendations and contacted her. And, I highly recommend her (sunnyerday@qq.com). Getting around in China can get tricky if you have no knowledge of Mandarin.
As we stepped out of the hotel, I realized just how cold it was! It was raining too and I had to borrow an umbrella from the hotel lobby. I am so not a rain person! Anyway, there was little I could do. So, I made peace and was all set to get a taste of the ‘Paris of the East’ with Miss Sunny by my side.
Jade Buddha Temple
We took a taxi and headed straight to the Jade Buddha temple, which is situated in the heart of the bustling city of Shanghai.
The Jade Buddha Temple from the outside
The temple houses Buddha statues in two postures – sitting and reclining. The reclining one represents the Buddha’s death – the peaceful Sakyamuni. It portrays the sedate face of the Buddha and is also known as the ‘lucky repose’. There are two of these sparkling white and crystal-clear statues. The smaller one is the original famous Jade Buddha statue that was cut out of a single Jade and was imported by sea to Shanghai by Buddhist monks from Burma during the 1800s. The larger one is made of marble and was donated by Singapore. Miss Sunny mentioned that many people mistakenly think the larger one to be the Jade Buddha.
The original reclining Jade Buddha is kept inside a glass casing
The marble reclining Buddha, often mistaken as the Jade Buddha
The temple is large. We walked around its three halls and two courtyards as Miss Sunny kept enlightening me with small nuggets of information every now and then. An interesting thing that I learnt here was the feminine form of Buddha – the Mother of Liberation, known as Quan Yin in China and Tara in Tibet. She is the Goddess of Compassion, a symbol of purity of heart and spirit. The female Buddha was new to me, I hadn’t known this before.
The Golden Buddha
The Feminine Buddha
People’s Square (Renmin Guang Chang)
People’s Square is the main public square of the city with the main attractions being the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Grand Theater, and the People’s Park. People’s Square also has several tall buildings, fountains, and other structures. This place used to be a horse racing track before the Communist Revolution. Not much of a museum person, I decided to explore People’s Park instead.
Gorgeous flower beds at People’s Park
The park was beautiful with flowers blooming all over. The unexpected splash of colours was enough to light up the dull and dreary day. As we strolled on admiring the colours, a flurry of activities diverted my attention nearby, where a group of men and women had gathered around colourful umbrellas laid out sporadically. On a closer look, I noticed all the umbrellas had some kind of laminated paper pasted on the outer side.
And I learnt a fascinating story. This was Shanghai marriage market where parents flock every weekend to find a match for their children. The laminated sheets contain details of bride or groom. Parents stick that on the outer side of an open umbrella and sit beside it all day for other parents to come by and if they think it’s a match they get their children connected. Reminded me of our online matrimony sites, though that’s virtual but same concept. The Marriage Market was unique and made my visit to People’s Square a memorable one.
The Marriage Market at People’s Park
The Bund (Wai Tan)
The Bund is the waterfront area and has been the symbol of Shanghai for hundreds of years. It is located in central Shanghai on the banks of Huangpu River. Once again a splash of colours greeted us – the wall of flowers of various hues at the entrance. Infused with instant delight and happiness, I just kept gawking in awe.
Greeted by this stunning flower wall at the Puxi side entrance of the Bund
We were at the western bank of Huangpu, known as the Puxi side. We walked on the pedestrian promenade on this side admiring the skyscrapers across the river, on the other side, and watched big ships pass by toting the world’s goods. The other side of Huangpu, where all the skyscrapers stood, is known as the Pudong side.
The Puxi side is characterized by 26 buildings of different architectural styles – Gothic, Baroque, Romanesque, Classicism and the Renaissance. The river was like a connecting link for the old and the new. Having seen this place in so many movies, walking on it felt quite surreal. The weather was playing spoilsport and had marred the view to a great extent.
The hazy view was disappointing
Miss Sunny informed that there is a sightseeing tunnel of about 650 m. that runs under the river from the Bund in Puxi, to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Pudong. It is supposedly an interesting experience by a speed train through the tunnel with colorful radiating lights. However, we had other places to visit and couldn’t go to Pudong just yet. My hotel was also in Pudong side. Miss Sunny also talked about the fantastic night view with the colorful lights floating on the river and the flashing lights from the far side of the river. One can also take a ferry ride and view the city from the river. I missed night views altogether as I had to reach office early the next morning and I couldn’t afford to compromise with my call of duty in anyway.
Former French Concession (Tianzifang)
The Former French Concession has a very European feel with its gorgeous tree-lined avenues and villa-style buildings. True to its name, the French once ruled this part of the city and many of Shanghai’s expat population live in this area. “After the Opium Wars, the French, the British, and the Americans were administering certain pockets of Shanghai”, explained Miss Sunny.
Walking with the colourful umbrella along the tree-lined streets made me happy
The fountain is a distinguishing feature of this place
The area is marked by the presence of hip cafes and restaurants, concept bars, breweries, boutiques, art galleries and antique stores. We decided to have lunch here. I have forgotten the name of the place where we had lunch. Not just that, I can’t recall the names of any of the food items we had there other than Wulong Tea. And being the non-foodie that I am, I didn’t click any pictures of the exotic food! And, that’s making me feel awful right now! Miss Sunny had taken the trouble to explain each dish in great detail.
However, indulging in interesting conversations at the lunch table with Miss Sunny about life in general and the similarities and differences therewith in our respective countries was far more interesting to me than food at that moment.
Very pretty neighborhood of the French Concession
What’s China without some Chinese tea?
I was loving every bit of my tour so far. The rainy day and the cumbersome umbrella was a botheration but I couldn’t care less. The city of Shanghai was incredible and everything amazed and fascinated me. After lunch it was time to go visit some parts of the old city.
Seasons of Life! 