Shanghai Part 1 (8-9)

Thursday was travel to Shanghai day. The bus from Xidi to Tunxi/Huangshan city took an hour. I was lucky and got a ticket on the next bus to Shanghai that left in an hour and a half. The trip to Shanghai took five hours. I’ve been on more comfortable buses, but it was OK. When the bus stopped for a break, I asked the young woman next to me—in Chinese—how long it was; she responded in English. When we were returning to the bus, she started to chat in English. She had worked in Shanghai for four years and recently quit and moved back to her hometown near Tunxi. She thinks she would like to stay there now. When we reached Shanghai, she asked about my hotel and then told me to get off when she did. It was a metro stop. She took me in, looked up my hotel on her phone, took me to the correct metro line and told me which stop I needed to get off at. That was so nice of her.

With further assistance, I reached the hotel. First, I got on the metro the wrong way. I knew we were at the railway exit but didn’t realize that there are two railways and had planned my trip from the wrong station. When the train reached the last stop, which happened to be four stops—the number I needed to go to my exit, I asked a young woman if that was my exit. She shook her head, not understanding. When we got off, she asked where I wanted to go and then took me to the train the other way. There were eleven stops until the one I needed, and the train didn’t have lights to indicate which stop we were at or approaching. Since I couldn’t always hear or understand the announcements, I had a hard time keeping track of where we were. So, as we got close, I asked the middle-aged men near me if it was my stop. They indicated that it was two more stops away. One of the men got off at the same stop. When I got out my hotel address to ask which way to go, he came over, looked at it, and walked me to the street. Then he checked to see which way I should go on the street before heading back to wherever he was going. Since that took several minutes, it was really nice of him. I don’t think I could have gotten there on my own even with others pointing the way as it wasn’t really close to the exit.  So I really appreciated his help.

Friday morning I headed back to the metro. On the way I noticed a line at a small shop selling steamed buns. So I joined the line and purchased breakfast. I understand why there was a line because they were some of the best I’ve had. This became my breakfast every day. On the way to the metro, I enjoyed the parks we had walked through Thursday evening. They are small but nice to have in the midst of the city. And people use them. On the metro I learned tickets are good only for one line, unlike in Chengdu where you can buy a ticket and change lines; so you have to purchase a separate ticket when you change lines. Shanghai has 13 metro lines.

My destination was Yuyuan Garden because I wanted to visit the Ming dynasty (16^th century) garden there. Mostly the area is a tourist mart full of shops. It was OK but I really wasn’t interested in shopping or looking. I did enjoy looking at the buildings for a while, though. 

I also enjoyed one of the back residential streets 

where vendors deliver their good via tricycle and houses are not renovated. 

The Shanghai City Temple is in the area. 

Also a monastery at which nuns and women were starting a chanting ceremony; so I enjoyed listening to that for several minutes.

At noon I came to a dumpling restaurant and decided that would be a good lunch spot. The huge crab pieces—with shells—looked delicious. They were.

The restaurant is in the square, a popular area. One side of the square is a pond over which there is a zig zag bridge that is a popular for walking across and photos.

After lunch I finally found Yu garden. As I had read, it is a huge rock garden with rocks that have interesting formations. 

The garden has many paths that go around; so it was challenging to make sure I saw everything. There are a couple pools, many trees, and many pavilions. 

One wall is called the dragon wall, as it has dragon heads over the gate and the wall is their long tails. 

Interestingly shaped doorways are also common in the garden.

Before leaving the area, I returned to the dumpling place for a dish of fruit, as it had looked good when I ate lunch and I needed to sit and rest a bit. When I finished, it was 3:30 and the area was packed, as usual. I was glad I’d been there earlier. 

On the way out I came to a section of stalls where people were demonstrating and/or selling traditional crafts. I ended out purchasing a picture of Huangshan painted with the artist’s fingers. I’d seen these before and they are amazing.

Next I headed for the Bund, since it isn’t far from Yuyuan Garden. It’s the historical area along the river. The street is lined with old buildings—classical European in style. 

The other side of the river has modern buildings. One wouldn’t know you are in China walking along this area. I was surprised to learn that the Bund is only about a mile long, as I had thought it was much longer before I walked its length. 

It wasn’t very crowded when I was there, but it was early.

Walking around, I encountered more foreign tourists than I’ve seen and a multitude of languages. It rained lightly most of the day. It wasn’t a problem for walking around, but dealing with all the umbrellas can be challenging.