Longhua Temple and Shanghai Zoo

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In our attempt to complete the guide we received titled “Shanghai’s 25 Best” we decided to see the Longhua Temple and Pagoda on November 7th and then the Shanghai Zoo on the 20th.


The Pagoda was originally built in AD977 (Song Dynasty) and has been rebuilt several times since. Being an “Old China” symbol it is considered a miracle that it survived the Cultural Revolution. Next to the pagoda is the Longhua Temple. The oldest temple in Shanghai, it is rumored to have been founded during the Three Kingdoms period (AD221-280) but more likely it was built during AD923-AD979. The current structures are from the end of the 19th century.


The Shanghai Zoo was really nice and I guess we are unfair to say that we were surprised but we had a nice time and always like to see animals. The only issue we found was that the Chinese do not seem to care about the “Do Not Feed the Animals” signs. They had bags of food that they were dishing out. Mostly fruit and crackers but we did see one monkey who was really enjoying a blueberry danish. The animals are trained well. They do not grab the food but take it gently. I guess they have learned how to get their daily treats. The workers did not seem to be anywhere policing the do not feed issue which seemed really weird to us. Oh well, still fun to watch.


Not much else going on for us this fall. Jason had to make a business trip to Germany and then several around China, close to Shanghai. We were apart for Thanksgiving again this year but will be in Singapore for Christmas so we can make up for it.

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Photos

Festival
There was a festival going on. We are not sure why and once the banging started we headed into the temple.

ATM
Talk about progress. An ATM has been built into the wall of the temple.

Posing
We thought it was funny how many animals seemed to be posing.