September 27 (Sunday) – Shanghai

We went to the Shanghai museum in the morning.



















Lunch was at an ethnic restaurant serving food from the Dai Ethnic group. Can’t say as the food tasted any different from the other Chinese food we’ve been eating. We were the only Caucasians there…it is rather fun going to places not heavily visited by Americans and Europeans, feels more authentic. There was a particularly good eggplant dish. Paul even liked it – probably all the oil and whatever spices they added.

There was singing and dancing during part of lunch. Apparently they were hosting company lunch or some sort of group gathering. The place was packed and there were occasional presentations/give-aways. The performances were very interesting.

   Video in new window, Dai Flutist

The Jade Buddha Temple is a small temple complex with all the typical buildings, gods and incense. The key difference was the two Buddhas carved from large single pieces of jade. They were brought from Nepal several centuries ago. The sitting Buddha was particularly lovely and was very large. The reclining Buddha was beautiful but much smaller. (Pictures were not allowed of the Jade Buddhas– sorry we don’t have any to show.)
























The Yu Garden was a private garden built by a well-to-do son for his parents. It took 27 years to complete (the son kept running out of money) and the father didn’t live to see the completed garden. The garden was dominated by large shapely rocks everywhere. One particularly large rock was riddled with holes. If water is poured onto the top of the rock it flows out through all the holes or if incense/smoke is lit from the bottom if flows out of all the holes. It is called the Jade Stone Peak or Exquisite Jade Stone and is one of the three most famous rocks in China. (The Chinese love their rocks.)
   





































We got to see a short concert played on porcelain instruments. The instruments included flute, drum, a violin type Chinese instrument, bells, a set of fan shaped plates, a set of pipes (sort of like chimes), fan shaped flat plates and a set of what looked like cups laying on their sides. The cups, bells, pipes and plates were of varying pitch and covered a good range of notes. The ladies played a number of songs, including Jingle Bells.
   Video in a new window, Musicians

We took a drive to the new side of town across the river. Apparently Shanghai was a fairly small sleepy city until about 20 years ago when the central government decided to turn Shanghai into a major business center and embarked on a major building endeavor. The new section has a dramatic skyline with the third tallest TV tower in the world and an office building that is also one of the world’s tallest. We walked along part of the New Bund, as opposed to the original Bund on the opposite bank. The Bund had a number of late 1900^th century European style buildings dating from when the European powers moved in after the Opium Wars. The river was very busy with lots of cargo and cruise ships.

We then walked along Nanxing Road, an upscale shopping strip. In addition to the stores (where you could buy real Rolex watches) and shops there were the usual folks strolling the streets selling all manner of items (including fake Rolex watches). After dinner we took a one hour river cruise. Many of the major buildings in the skyline and along the waterfront were ablaze with lights.
























Interesting tidbit – only a limited number of vehicle licenses are issued in Shanghai each year. The plates are auctioned off to the highest bidder. Plates with a lucky number, like 8, go for higher prices. Some plates go for as high as 30,000 RMG ($4,400) (some of the most economical cars sold in Shanghai sell for about 25,000 RMB – less that the cost of some license plates).

Shanghai Album