a full day in Shaghai
We started out early to take tour buses to the Shaghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. (We had 3 buses since there were about 90 people in the tour group.) On the way, we drove past parts of the downtown with its interesting architecture. The first picture is taken from the bus at a roundabout similar to the one in yesterday's post. Notice, especially, the tops of the buildings. Again, the road below is less crowded than in general.
The highlight of the Exhibition Center is a scale model of downtown Shanghai. Our tour guide said that they have to keep changing the model since Shanghai is changing so rapidly. Shanghai sits on the Yangtze River delta.
Then after touring the Exhibition Center, we went to what our guide called "China Town". It's also called the Old City and is an area within Shanghai with older architecture. In the background are a couple of skyscrapers. One has a hole in the middle to let the evil spirits pass through. In the foreground is Ha'ba (the blue figure), the symbol for World Expo 2010. Ha'ba can be seen almost everyone around town.
Here is another picture of the area. The pink bridge is not straight in order to protect against evil spirits crossing. (We had lunch in the area -- dim sum. The food throughout the trip was excellent.)
After we crossed the bridge, we came to the Yuyuan gardens. A high-ranking official of the Ming Dynasty began construction on the gardens in 1559. The gardens occupy about 5 acres with several buildings and several garden areas. They fell into disrepair over the years until the Shanghai government restored them. In the morning people go into the gardens to do Tai Chi.
In the afternoon, we toured the Shanghai Museum. A person could spend a whole day there. There were exhibits of jade, furniture, coins, calligraphy, paintings, etc. Pictured is a chair and screen.We ate supper at the hotel.
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