We began our morning rather early, and after a hearty breakfast of eggs, congee and spinach-noodle soup, we were picked up by Shaun at our hotel at 9AM sharp. I was really impressed with Shaun's punctuality.
We drove down to Yu Yuan Gardens, an extensive Chinese garden located beside the City God Temple in the northeast of the Old City of Shanghai. The area abutting the gardens were quite touristy, with shops selling all kinds of knick-knacks and souvenirs, the kinds that tourists would take back home. At 9.30AM, the place was teeming with people, most of them were localities, Chinese, revelling in the heritage of their city. But then there were quite a few foreigners around, mostly Spanish (clearly recognisable by their obvious Latino looks and their loud, pronounced and sexy guttural Spanish conversations - yes, I do remember a bit of Spanish that I learnt a few months back), Americans, British and French.
McDonald's is ubiquitous in China!
An intricate ceiling in the market surrounding the gardens...
A balcony recreated with the old world charm, and a mannequin standing in it....
Pandas everywhere....
This is the world renowned Ding Tai Fung, a restaurant renowned for its dumplings...
The Chinese, like us, revere the lotus!
And finally, we enter the Yu Yuan Garden....
The garden was first conceived in 1559 during the Ming Dynasty by a civil servant, the governor of Sichuan, Pan Yunduan, for the comfort for his father, Pan En, in his old age.
The gardens suffered damage numerous times during the 1800s. During the First Opium War, the British army used the Huxinting Teahouse as a base of operations for several days in 1842. During the Taiping Rebellion, the Small Swords Society ran its headquarters in the Dianchun Hall. By the time Qing troops recovered the garden, the original structures had nearly all been destroyed. They were damaged again by the Japanese in 1942 before being restored by the local government from 1956 to 1961.
The gardens were reopened to the public in 1961 and were declared a national monument in 1982.
An interesting window...
Green and placid...
Interesting passage...
This was fun... only women can put their arms through the holes in the rock and make the hands meet!
Dragons and warriors on the rooftop...
The overpriced souvenir shop!
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