June 18, 2009 Afernoon and Evening in ShangHai

Pictured above left: The Last Family at Yu Garden

Pictured above right: The Cleef Family at Yu Garden

Well, yesterday, June 18th, after a fabulous lunch above the embroidery shop, we headed over to the Yu Gardens, which are over 450 years old. Surrounding the gardens themselves, which are walled off and require a small admission price to go inside, is a shopping area with market stalls selling everything from Chinese art work to Starbucks coffee. It was very eclectic, feeling both ancient and very modern at the same time. The gardens were magnificent, and after our tour, Laura gave us some free time to roam around the market area.

This is a Dragon's Head, one of many ornate carvings we saw on the roofs and porticos of Yu Garden

It is a lucky thing that China is a very very safe place for foreigners because Hannah and Madeline did something that in many other big metropolitan cities could have ended tragically. They were walking through the marketplace together when they were approached by a young woman who asked them to come upstairs to a small art gallery. Guess what ..... they forgot all those lessons about "stranger danger" and they willingly went up into a strange building, entered a room with a stranger, closed the door, and stayed there a while to look at some art. Meanwhile we were running around like crazy looking for them.
All was well, and they returned at the appointed time and met up with us in front of the Starbucks. Now if this had been a different sort of city, they could have ended up on a milk carton and we might never have seen them again. Thank God ShangHai is a place filled with generous, honest people for the most part.
After our visit to the Yu Garden district, we drove over the Bund, a German word for marketplace. The Bund is located along the river and it is where the big ships used to dock at the turn of the 1900s to buy silk and jade, and to sell opium to the local Chinese people. Many European embassies are still located in the Bund and we saw magnificent old buildings built in the style of the country represented. The Russian Embassy is particularly lovely. Of course opium is not traded along the Bund these days, it is a financial and business district, and of course a historic district.
Next, we went to another shopping district, this time along the Nanjing Road, which is a 3.4 mile shopping area reminiscent of New York or downtown Chicago. Very upscale shops, lots of

Perrie and Hannah at Yu Garden

great clothes and shoes for sale. After trailing the kids through a couple of department stores, Paul, Cathy, and Marilyn opted to sit at a sidewalk cafe and down a few beers. Paul even got his picture drawn in charcoal by a local artist.
Back to the comfort of our air-conditioned van (it is quite warm and humid here), and we were taken to yet another excellent restaurant where we were presented with dish after dish after dish of delicious food served to us on a big lazy Susan in the middle of the table. At one point Hannah spun the lazy Susan so vigoursly that a few dishes spun right off onto the table tops.
After dinner we took a night cruise along the HuangPu River. Our boat was like a big yacht, with four decks, a bar, and even a magician performing in the downstairs lounge. The lights in ShangHai at night are sort of like the lights of Las Vegas. Everything is lit up with bright neon colors, and it seems like the architecture in the new part of the city is right out of The Jetsons, meaning ultra-modern and very cool to look at. There is a huge contrast between old ShangHai with its prim European architecture, and new ShangHai with its neon lights, floating barges that sport Jumbo-Tron TV screens advertising everything from Budweiser to baby food. We were very surprised to witness these giant barges that are equipped with Jumbo-Tron type TVs like you might see at a baseball or football stadium. The barges go up and down the river, day and night, with huge moving ads displaying products, services, and even financial firms in glowing color.
By the time the cruise was over and we were back to our hotel room it was after 10:00 p.m. and we all went to bed. Today we got up and enjoyed another delicious breakfast. Soon we will board the van for the long drive back to Pudong airport....in daytime traffic it may take us 2 hours to reach the airport. Then we will have one hour flight to NanChang, then a 3 hour drive to Mt. Lushan, where we will check into the GuoMei Hotel and begin the next part of our journey. The Lu Mountains are a national park, and they are located in the province that Hannah would have lived in if we did not adopt her.....we want to see what she may have seen had she been able to live here instead of joining us in America.