« China Day 17 - Total Solar FiascoCardiff at night »

China Day 18 - Holiday ends in Shanghai

Added: November 10, 2009

Tags: China city garden photos temple
Thursday 23rd of July is our last full day in China. 18 days passed really quickly, I would like to stay for longer. But that's not possible.

Today we plan to see Shanghai. Heidi, our local guide, told us 2 days ago that Shanghai is nicer during night than during day. After travelling through it by bus yesterday and today I can only agree with that.

Morning in the Shanghai

We plan to see Jade Buddha and to visit Yuyang Gardens. Plenty of photo opportunities are waiting ahead, only if the sky was blue.

Jade Buddha Temple

Who would guess that nice Buddhist temple like Jade Buddha Temple is in the middle of city. When we stepped off the bus we were on normal street with shops, traffic light, cars, bicycles and everything. But behind the corner - the temple.

We came here to see famous Jade Buddha sculptures (sitting and reclining). They both are wonderful. It is pity we could not take pictures, but you can google it up (but most photos I have found had bad colour balance).

Rest of Temple is OK, but we have seen so many of them before.

DSC_8359_raw

DSC_8389_raw

DSC_8391_raw      DSC_8397_raw

DSC_8364_raw

DSC_8368_raw

DSC_8373_raw

Yuyuan area

Before we went to Gardens we visited (probably mandatory) tea room. While still in bus Heidi and Rich told us a few things we should be aware of. For example pickpockets are very good in this area so we were encouraged to keep backpacks (if we need them) in front of us. Heidi with serious face told us We cannot guarantee pickpockets. Rich started to laugh No, we cannot guarantee them. They are not in our program :-)

With this information we headed out to overcrowded streets.After a few turns we came to tea room. It was on the first floor. We sat around the table with prepared tea flasks, cups and all that cannot be missing for tea ceremony.

It was very interesting, how complicated it was. I still don't understand why so much of tea needs to be spilled out. I guess the visit paid off for them, because we ended up buying 6 doses of different tea :-)

DSC_8413_raw

DSC_8425_raw

Refreshed with tea we were back to streets. All others went to lunch. Zuzka and me decided not to waste time and look around the place.

We went into crowd and competed with other tourists in getting into good spot to take a photo. An interesting sport...

After some time I realized I am only member of the crowd with the backpack on my back. Everybody else had their in front of them or they were without it. Immediately I imagined long row of pickpockets queuing behind me. Scary. So I had moved it to front with resolution I will not be ignorant of good pieces of advice next time. Fortunately the pickpockets were lazy on that day. Maybe that heat...

That's the place with good Spring Rolls.
DSC_8430_raw

DSC_8432_raw

DSC_8440_raw      DSC_8441_raw

DSC_8460_raw

Old and new
DSC_8448_raw      DSC_8465_raw

DSC_8458_raw

Yuyuan Gardens

After we met again at the defined place we went to Yuyuan Gardens. It was amazing place, with water, rocks, houses and everything Feng Shui asks for, but we did not have enough time to enjoy it thoroughly or to take photos of each other. Plus that weather... If I was in Shanghai again I would probably want to see it again (with better light conditions of course).

DSC_8470_raw

DSC_8475_raw

DSC_8480_raw

DSC_8485_raw

DSC_8512_raw      DSC_8516_raw

I really do not see the point of those ugly chairs.
DSC_8489_raw

DSC_8501_raw

DSC_8505_raw

Back