Sep 19 - Shanghai

We were ready to go at around 9 but looking at our itinerary for the day we decided to lighten it a bit and cross the Children’s Museum off the list.

We first went to the Jade Buddha temple. There was lots of incense, praying and prayer ribbons.

An interesting drum.

When we finally got to the Jade Buddha, there was a big crowd so Stuart popped his camera up over his head for a picture. Then the crowd cleared to show the sign saying “NO Photography”. Oh well.

Next we went to the Bund, which is a famous shopping and business are along the waterfront. The building were a very weird mix of very old and very new. We just walked along the boardwalk.

Across the river is all brand new buildings, with a lot of very tall ones dominated by the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

We think this was a mynah bird and Jennie had fun talking to it.

Next it was off to the Shanghai museum. It was a beautiful building.

 

We had screwed up Aaron’s schedule so we didn’t have a lot of time here but we are not big museum fans anyway. He stayed down in the lobby while we looked around. It didn’t take long before we were bored.

Lots of static displays.

Next was a long drive across town to lunch and another “tour” of a silk factory. Lunch was another duplicate of every other lunch and dinner we have had. Edible but not enjoyable.

This is the machine they used to use to get the silk off the silkworms.

When we were on the tour the room was full of women and the machine was running. Once we were in the gift shop Stuart poked his head back in to see that, as usual, it was all for show. Everything in the gift shop was too pricey for our taste.

Back across town we go to the Garden of Mandarin Yu Yuan. We saw this building being renovated using all bamboo scaffolding.

Again Aaron is trying to hurry us but we took our time as the garden was so interesting and beautiful.

We loved this dragon than ran across the top of the fence.

There was amazing detail everywhere. Notice the horseman on the rooftop.

Outside we couldn’t escape modern life.

Dinner was another in a long line of clones. Almost exactly the same dishes everywhere.

We were booked to see an acrobat show tonight but we had a bit of time to wander the well lit shopping district.

The acrobat show was actually very entertaining. We didn't get any good shots because it was kind of dark and they were moving very quickly.