For those who want to know I am getting much better from my bout with bronchitis and am using some of the time to catch up on some experiences I had before I got sick also and before I had internet installed at home.
The last day of the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year celebration I got an invitation from my friend Tracey to go to Yu Yuan Gardens, a southern style garden in the older part of the city. I hadn’t had much time to explore Shanghai so I said yes and met up with a couple of other friends. Not having any idea what to expect I was pleased to discover some of the first classic buildings I have seen in Shanghai. The outskirts of the “gardens” are filled with a bizarre mix of vendors, jewelry and crystal shops mixed with antique stores, stores hawking imitation Picassos, and multiple shops selling statues of Buddha’s and fu dogs. My favorite store was the 10 things for 10 yuan store; forget dollar stores, these things are 7/$1!
Because this was the last day of the Chinese New Year, the place was packed. As a result of this they had instituted a fee to go into the center where the festive displays were. This meant that it was considerably less crowded inside the gates, which was nice. Inside the gates were more shops including take-away restaurants, some higher end shops selling silk and jade as well as many shops selling toys and touristy tchotchky’s, and yes even Starbucks. Inside the center of the grounds there is indeed a very small garden surrounded by a canal of water – I guess you could describe it as a moat that was filled with Chinese New Year decorations.
This was a touristy place and there were some westerners but the majority of tourists were Chinese from other parts of the country. I have gotten used to being stared at and getting a lot of attention from Shanghainese people but most of the attention is not so overt. Well this day I got a taste of what it might be like to go somewhere with no o expat community. I had purchased and was eating a soup dumpling; a Shanghainese specialty dumpling with very thin pasta shell filled with hot and steaming soup that you sip carefully with a straw. I do like these dumplings and was eating that and taking in the sites with my friends who were American and British. There were some Chinese tourists there with cameras snapping shots of the sites and then two of them turned around and started taking pictures of me. This started a trend and before I knew it, I was surrounded by a large group of people taking multiple photos of me, eating my dumpling. I was wearing a hat that day and my friend Tracey said, “show them what they want to see darling!” and she pulled of my hat. Well that really got them going and they took even more photos. Heck they could have been taking video for all I know because this lasted a good 5 – 7 minutes! I felt a little bit like an animal might feel at a zoo or a celebrity when dealing with paparazzi. I had a real appreciation of how weird it was to have people take photos you doing whatever it is that you happened to be doing at that time. In my case, I was just eating a soup dumpling. To my relief, the crowd did eventually dissipate and the calm returned.
My friends and I meandered for a bit longer, taking in all of the red lanterns which were strung all around the grounds. This was the last day of the festival that they would be lit and there were thousands of them. They were beautiful and I am glad that I got to see so many of them in this unique setting of old mixed with new.
The last day of the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year celebration I got an invitation from my friend Tracey to go to Yu Yuan Gardens, a southern style garden in the older part of the city. I hadn’t had much time to explore Shanghai so I said yes and met up with a couple of other friends. Not having any idea what to expect I was pleased to discover some of the first classic buildings I have seen in Shanghai. The outskirts of the “gardens” are filled with a bizarre mix of vendors, jewelry and crystal shops mixed with antique stores, stores hawking imitation Picassos, and multiple shops selling statues of Buddha’s and fu dogs. My favorite store was the 10 things for 10 yuan store; forget dollar stores, these things are 7/$1!
Because this was the last day of the Chinese New Year, the place was packed. As a result of this they had instituted a fee to go into the center where the festive displays were. This meant that it was considerably less crowded inside the gates, which was nice. Inside the gates were more shops including take-away restaurants, some higher end shops selling silk and jade as well as many shops selling toys and touristy tchotchky’s, and yes even Starbucks. Inside the center of the grounds there is indeed a very small garden surrounded by a canal of water – I guess you could describe it as a moat that was filled with Chinese New Year decorations.
This was a touristy place and there were some westerners but the majority of tourists were Chinese from other parts of the country. I have gotten used to being stared at and getting a lot of attention from Shanghainese people but most of the attention is not so overt. Well this day I got a taste of what it might be like to go somewhere with no o expat community. I had purchased and was eating a soup dumpling; a Shanghainese specialty dumpling with very thin pasta shell filled with hot and steaming soup that you sip carefully with a straw. I do like these dumplings and was eating that and taking in the sites with my friends who were American and British. There were some Chinese tourists there with cameras snapping shots of the sites and then two of them turned around and started taking pictures of me. This started a trend and before I knew it, I was surrounded by a large group of people taking multiple photos of me, eating my dumpling. I was wearing a hat that day and my friend Tracey said, “show them what they want to see darling!” and she pulled of my hat. Well that really got them going and they took even more photos. Heck they could have been taking video for all I know because this lasted a good 5 – 7 minutes! I felt a little bit like an animal might feel at a zoo or a celebrity when dealing with paparazzi. I had a real appreciation of how weird it was to have people take photos you doing whatever it is that you happened to be doing at that time. In my case, I was just eating a soup dumpling. To my relief, the crowd did eventually dissipate and the calm returned.
My friends and I meandered for a bit longer, taking in all of the red lanterns which were strung all around the grounds. This was the last day of the festival that they would be lit and there were thousands of them. They were beautiful and I am glad that I got to see so many of them in this unique setting of old mixed with new.