The next 48 hours pt 1
Now, by the title you might be thinking that we didn't do much the past 2 days. Not true. Sunday was the most adventurous day of the all, so far. We awoke Sunday and planned to do trips to 3 places. YuYuan Garden, the Shanghai Museum and Art Museum, and the area called the French Connection. Elizabeth and I had planned this all on our own. M&K had early days for themselves, so they could not show us around. We were pretty thorough, but as the day turned out, not thorough enough. We began walking to the bus stop. On the way there, we had a baozi, a stuffed steam bun. Very simple concept, but also very delicious. We ate that with some soy milk and began our journey. First stop, YuYuan Garden. All we had to do is get off on the first bus stop and go to the subway (side bar: I must compliment Shanghai on their subway system. Very well organized and the displays allow one to get a sure feeling of where to go and which train to take. It did help it being in English also, but I think I could've gotten around either way.)
We got off on our stop, which was YuYuan, and began walking towards where we thought the garden would be. We came upon large gateway, pics to come later, and noticed a sign that stated the garden was this way. We continued on our journey. The word journey has a definition from Webster's: Travel or passage from one place to another, especially one covering a large distance or taking a long time. That part following 'especially' is why I call this one a journey. I stated earlier we were not as prepared as we thought. This is exhibit A. While there was no other sign pointing to the garden, had we just asked or looked around, we might have found it very easily. But instead, we barreled forward. No idea that we would be leaving the tourist trap that was YuYuan, lots of fancy buildings but one could tell it was more like Chinatown than China, and heading into its darker belly. We basically went were the people of China lived. Not many travelers were there. I stood ready for a pick pocket, but, thankfully, one never attempted on me. Here is my biggest regret. I wish I would have taken video of it. Because words cannot describe the scene. So many people trying to sell food or items. Had this been at night, I would have been concerned. But there are good people out there. They just want to make a living, not harm anyone.
We kept moving forward, assuming we would hit a major road to get us to our destination. It was until E noticed that the huge buildings, the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center, that were in front of us, were now behind us. So we began to turn left, trying to get to a major road. I saw sights and smelled foods that would confuse the senses, but I really feel like I caught a glimpse of real China. We walked through what E referred to as the Electronics division. It was a lot of refrigerators, coolers, stoves, and A/C's. We finally hit a road, we were actually almost to the Huangpu River. That was really out of the way. We turned around on this road and walked until we reached a park. Now, being the ignorant tourist I am. I stared to wonder if this was the garden we searched for. It had a beautiful pond and a bamboo 'forest'. The quotations will make more sense when I post a photograph. It wasn't until we sat down that we saw a sign stating 2 destinations. Toilet <--> YuYuan. We focused on the second one. We began walking seeing all variety of people. A tai chi practitioner, an older Chinese woman doing very unique exercises (clapping and chanting), and then just a lot of Chinese tourists. They aren't all from Shanghai. We finally leave the park to reach our destination, but it is just a huge wall. No entrance. We finally find the entrance and, here's the kicker, it was a block from the major gateway we originally went past. So when I said if we had looked around, we might have found it, that was literally the case. So we walk into the entrance, not specifically for the garden, and we encounter to wall to wall shopping. Very Chinatown-esque. We proceed through different entrances and finally arrive to this pond with a zig-zag bridge. In the pond were koi fish. I will not try to explain it. I got a lot of excellent footage. Moving on, we reached the end of the bridge, and found a ticket office. This was to buy tickets to the garden. Finally, we made. We went in, and it was very beautiful. And if it wasn't for all the darn tourists, it could have been relaxing. As stated b4, photos to come. One note of American Centralism on my part. There was a tour group of Spanish speaking individuals. They had a Chinese tour guide that spoke, at least to my ears, very good Spanish. My egotistical brain thought, "Oh, she must be from America, because how could anyone in China also speak Spanish?" You don't need to, I already smacked myself pretty hard. Stupid American. We had some fried tofu and a soup dumpling, they were okay. What would you expect from Chinatown? After 3-4 hrs of searching, finding, and exploring, we decided to head to our second destination, the Shanghai Museums. Little did I know the trap that would befall upon me.
We got off on our stop, which was YuYuan, and began walking towards where we thought the garden would be. We came upon large gateway, pics to come later, and noticed a sign that stated the garden was this way. We continued on our journey. The word journey has a definition from Webster's: Travel or passage from one place to another, especially one covering a large distance or taking a long time. That part following 'especially' is why I call this one a journey. I stated earlier we were not as prepared as we thought. This is exhibit A. While there was no other sign pointing to the garden, had we just asked or looked around, we might have found it very easily. But instead, we barreled forward. No idea that we would be leaving the tourist trap that was YuYuan, lots of fancy buildings but one could tell it was more like Chinatown than China, and heading into its darker belly. We basically went were the people of China lived. Not many travelers were there. I stood ready for a pick pocket, but, thankfully, one never attempted on me. Here is my biggest regret. I wish I would have taken video of it. Because words cannot describe the scene. So many people trying to sell food or items. Had this been at night, I would have been concerned. But there are good people out there. They just want to make a living, not harm anyone.
We kept moving forward, assuming we would hit a major road to get us to our destination. It was until E noticed that the huge buildings, the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center, that were in front of us, were now behind us. So we began to turn left, trying to get to a major road. I saw sights and smelled foods that would confuse the senses, but I really feel like I caught a glimpse of real China. We walked through what E referred to as the Electronics division. It was a lot of refrigerators, coolers, stoves, and A/C's. We finally hit a road, we were actually almost to the Huangpu River. That was really out of the way. We turned around on this road and walked until we reached a park. Now, being the ignorant tourist I am. I stared to wonder if this was the garden we searched for. It had a beautiful pond and a bamboo 'forest'. The quotations will make more sense when I post a photograph. It wasn't until we sat down that we saw a sign stating 2 destinations. Toilet <--> YuYuan. We focused on the second one. We began walking seeing all variety of people. A tai chi practitioner, an older Chinese woman doing very unique exercises (clapping and chanting), and then just a lot of Chinese tourists. They aren't all from Shanghai. We finally leave the park to reach our destination, but it is just a huge wall. No entrance. We finally find the entrance and, here's the kicker, it was a block from the major gateway we originally went past. So when I said if we had looked around, we might have found it, that was literally the case. So we walk into the entrance, not specifically for the garden, and we encounter to wall to wall shopping. Very Chinatown-esque. We proceed through different entrances and finally arrive to this pond with a zig-zag bridge. In the pond were koi fish. I will not try to explain it. I got a lot of excellent footage. Moving on, we reached the end of the bridge, and found a ticket office. This was to buy tickets to the garden. Finally, we made. We went in, and it was very beautiful. And if it wasn't for all the darn tourists, it could have been relaxing. As stated b4, photos to come. One note of American Centralism on my part. There was a tour group of Spanish speaking individuals. They had a Chinese tour guide that spoke, at least to my ears, very good Spanish. My egotistical brain thought, "Oh, she must be from America, because how could anyone in China also speak Spanish?" You don't need to, I already smacked myself pretty hard. Stupid American. We had some fried tofu and a soup dumpling, they were okay. What would you expect from Chinatown? After 3-4 hrs of searching, finding, and exploring, we decided to head to our second destination, the Shanghai Museums. Little did I know the trap that would befall upon me.