Hello everyone! I'm at the Shanghai airport again and big surprise: my flight is delayed! They told me there is traffic and the plane is unable to leave to get to the terminal. I don't think the plane is coming from anywhere though, so the wait shouldn't be too long (fingers crossed). Interestingly, I was reading online that only 18% of flights in 2013 left on schedule. Apparently the problem is due to overly cautious air control and strict rules and regulations.
On the bright side, the delay gives me time to tell all of you what I did yesterday! I left the hostel around 1:00pm, and hopped on the subway. It had luckily stopped raining and so I headed to Yu Yuan, a beautiful garden in downtown Shanghai. The garden is built in traditional Chinese style, and was first constructed during the Ming Dynasty, in 1559. It was originally built by a government official, with the intention of being place that his father could go when he retired. The garden was passed from person to person and was privately owned for many years.
Unfortunately, in the 1800s and 1900s, the garden was destroyed a number of times. During the Opium wars, the garden was occupied by the British and used as a headquarters, and during the Taiping rebellion, the garden again occupied and most of the main monuments were destroyed. Yu Yuan was rebuilt during the Qing dynasty, but destroyed again by the Japanese during WWII. So, it wasn't until the mid-1950s that the Shanghai government funded the rebuilding of the garden to its previous style and glory. Yu Yuan was named a national monument in 1982.
Yu means "peace" or "harmony" and Yuan means "garden," and I really think that it lived up to its name. The garden, as I mentioned is an example of classic Chinese style, with winding paths, many small pavilions and temples and lots of ponds. I arrived around 2:00pm, and spent about an hour and a half wandering the garden. It's really neat to see so much traditional architecture and style in the middle of such a modern city. I think it's a little sad that so many great monuments were destroyed over the years, but I think it's really wonderful that the country has rebuilt so many of them. It's a way to continue and preserve the culture and history.
The garden lies in the centre of a huge tourist market, so once I had finished my visit, I spent some time looking at all the different souvenirs and trinkets. I had my first bargaining experience in Chinese, and ended up buying a nice set of calligraphy brushes! I also bought a selfie stick, which has come in very handy since then!
Near the garden is a road called East Nanjing Road, and this road is famous for being another pedestrian mall. However, it's more full of real clothing stores as opposed to being a tourist area. I spent a bit of time there, just checking out all the clothes as I headed back down to the Bund. The pictures I took on Sunday were from the East side of the Huangpu river, and yesterday I decided to check it out from the Western side. This gave me a much better view of all the super tall skyscrapers that Shanghai is known for. As I walked around, I was thinking about how the city is laid out. It's really interesting to me that even though Shanghai is so modern, they still put a lot of emphasis on maintaining their history. And even more than that, there's an emphasis on respecting nature. Every block pretty much has its own nature park, and all of them are filled with people. I guess I didn't imagine that a city so big would have so much green space.
I wanted to take the Huangpu river cruise, which would give a nice view of the city from the water, but I wanted to take the evening cruise. The reason for this is that the entire skyline of Shanghai is lit up during the evening, which makes the view even more spectacular. I bought my ticket around 5:30pm, and had a couple of hours left to kill before my cruise at 7:20pm. So I picked up some dinner and continued to explore the streets surrounding the Bund.
At around 7:00om I headed back to the cruise terminal and headed onto the boat. Luckily for me, my tour wasn't too full so I was able to get a spot on the top level of the boat, right by the railing! The cruise was definitely worth it. The lights were gorgeous without being overwhelming. It was really fun to take pictures of the classic cityscape everyone sees when they think of Shanghai.
It was a nice, relaxing day, but still full of adventure. It's nice to be able to just wander the streets and take in what it's like to live an "everyday" kind of life in Shanghai. I went back to the hostel a
round 10:00pm, completely exhausted, and fell right to sleep.
Update: this post was put on hold, as my plane started to board, around 2:00. It was about an hour late, which I wasn't even mad about, because anything is better than an eight hour delay. I've arrived safely at my hostel in the Wulingyuan district of Zhangjiajie, and am currently writing this post in the lobby area! I'll try and post an update tomorrow about my adventures in the National Forest Park! As always, thanks for reading :)
Update #2: I am trying to post some more photos of Shanghai, but the wifi here is too slow for them to upload. I will try again tomorrow!!
