Shanghai's Yùyuán Garden

2nd day in Shanghai, scorching hot! 

During the planning stage for our China trip, Qing, my chinese friend listed down all the destinations  within Shanghai that we can easily access since we will just be taking public transportation. In my opinion whenever traveling abroad the entire experience is heightened when one takes public transportation, in our entire stay in China we only took a cab when going to the airport since we had super early flights. Will save the public transportation stories for another entry.

One of the most notable tourist destinations in Shanghai is the Yùyuán Garden, the 20,000 sq.m garden was built by a government officer of the Ming Dynasty named Pan Yunduan specifically for his parents. Yu in chinese translates to pleasing and satisfying, the garden was completed in 1577, but since then had undergone major restoration since it has been seriously dilapidated after the Ming dynasty and severely damaged after the Opium war. The present day garden is an outcome of the restoration project in 1956.

I won't go and write into details the history of the garden, we have wikipedia for that :)  Surrounding the garden are shops that offer souvenirs, chinese crafts you know the works. This is also where I was able to buy Jades for the parental.

Here are a few of the photos I took during my visit.

The garden is surrounded by Ming Dynasty inspired buildings, these buildings are either malls or restaurants. We didn't bother going into one since our main destination was the Garden. 

The Welcome Arc to the Yuyuan Area 

Intersection. walking towards the garden

Buildings inspired by the Ming Dynasty

This building is actually a mall

Typical busy china town

Scorching Hot, that day!

Alley going into the " plaza"

Jade stores, Haagen Dazs -> overpriced as usual.

More stores

There were these Arts and Crafts stores that offer really neat stuff, I checked and went into a couple of stores, saw things I could get for my siblings and friends, but decided to come back for them since I didn't want to walk around the garden with shopping bags. Didn't happen! We weren't able to navigate back to this strip again.

Arts and Crafts section

Qing had to get the tickets, since it would be harder for me to do so. While waiting for him, there is always a queue in China, I took a shot of this, we didn't bother going to that side since it was crowded.

Entrance to the garden

As i have mentioned in my previous entry, I prefer taking pictures of scenes without any person in it. This proved to be quite a challenge in China, since most of the places are thriving with tourists, I can say about 80% local tourists, I hope its the same for us here in the Philippines.

Empty corridor

Almost empty scene

After about 3 hours inside walking in circles in the garden we decided to have lunch then move on to the next destination. While looking for a place to eat we heard this gong sound and saw this. Its a " parade " of some sort. Qing explained it to me but I was too hungry and too tired to remember.

I have decided to make Food an entire different blog entry since it is such an essential part of any travel.
After our late lunch Qing and i looked at some Jade. Pictures weren't allowed. After so much haggling with the chinese saleslady, I made a purchase let's just say I was down to half my cash and its just the 2nd day of my 8-day stay in China.

Alley,  on our way out of the Yuyuan Area

Shops, more and more shops.

Strips of Restaurants.

The garden is literally fenced by these beautiful old buildings that are now turned to shops and restaurants. next time I visit this area again, I will make sure to check these establishments out. I feel like I missed out on something..

More shops and restaurants

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All photos by JI unless otherwise stated.