On the way to Yuyuan Garden our guide was filling us in on some Chinese characters. Shanghai is a city that can be represented by Shun and Po - it is difficult to draw them on here! The character for Shun has a square which means the north to south, east to west ring road while the circle around the square means the outer ring road - kind of like the M25 around the north/south circular. Inside the square is a good location, it is OK to be between the square and circle and outside the circle is considered to be the suburbs. Kind of like the Chinese Burgess Model! They also have ancient and modern characters, though to me the ancient ones make a little more sense. The ancient Shun didn't have the circle, probably because the road didn't exist! The modern symbols aren't as easy to explain due to the 21st Century being more (though not totally) equal, less religious and not as traditional. The ancient character for woman looks like a lady kneeling, this shows their lower status in society and the symbol for man has a circle representing the farmland and a how as the men do the work and farming is the main job. In ancient times the men also needed three things to get a bride, a bicycle, sewing machine and a maid - now in the modern day they need their own flat, car and a big diamond ring - sounds like common sense to me!
After the little lesson in Chinese characters we arrive at Yuyuan Garden where we walked through an extremely busy bazaar for a Sunday with lots of traditional and souvenir shops to the entrance to a peaceful haven in an extremely busy and crowded city. Lots of rock formations, ponds, traditional Chinese buildings eg. the Tea House, wind their way through the space encased by a wall with dragons heads and the tail that trails the wall. We had some time in the bazaar though it was no where near long enough. We decided that it'd be a good idea to get a frappachino for the next leg, much needed!
Walking back to the bus was passed some traditional poor quality housing - though when i tried to take a picture someone got in my way, so here is that lady!
All throughout Shanghai there are poor slum like housing next to massive sky scrapers. An interesting thing to explore further. We went for lunch at a Chinese buffet before boarding our vessel for a boat trip along the river. At night the boats are a glow with an array of lights. We travelled up and down the river to see the skyline from there. The river divides the city in half, the east Pudung is the modern area with very young buildings that are high, glassy or shiny skyscrapers and the convention centre that has a globe at each end. To the west is HuangPu, the older part with more European influenced architecture. We were then taken to a pearl factory - hmmm i think a little for their gain as this wasn't originally on the itinerary and had a talk about those before being guided into the shop and lastly we visited Xin Tian Di, a modern bars and restaurant place where apparently the younger Chinese people hang out. It was nice, cool, breezy, a mix of traditional and modern chique.
After a very full and busy day following bunny we ended our day at another Chinese buffet. The aubergine dish was really nice, though the people from our tour at our table for dinner were an interesting bunch - but we won't go there!
Time to move on tomorrow, i have enjoyed Shanghai, it is an amazing place, very busy, very big, very hot and very high! You feel tiny as only one in a sea of millions of people. It is so weird to be somewhere and have totally no idea of what everything says around you, normally in other countries you can kind of work out some words.
So now I'm packed ready to leave for another Chinese experience, i better get some sleeps, though if Sarah keeps making me kill with laughter with her recollection of the events of today i don't think I'll be getting much shut eye!
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