Shanghai -- October 17 - 18 2013

---

We have been to Dubai and were impressed with all the buildings, but after visiting Shanghai I have to downgrade Dubai to second place. Architects who designed these buildings like those in Dubai wanted buildings that said something. One big difference is that at night the buildings are lit up, some with changing lighting. Expressways have been brought into and through the city and so have traffic jams. Shanghai has 24 million people so there are high rise3s everywhere.

While other cities in China have histories that go back multiple centuries Shanghai is more recent, the big impetus was the foreign presence with the city divided into British, American and French sectors. Our hotel the Pudong Shanghai LA Hotel, (the French restaurant at the top is excellent but if they are busy you may not get your main course until you are ready to go to bed), was on the modern side of the river. On the opposite side is the Bund where the Neoclassical offices built during the 19th and earl 20th century to house foreign bank and trading houses. On the Bund side we visited the Temple of the Jade Buddha (after visiting Buddha Temples I realize that I don't have a clue about understanding Buddhism). We spent some time at the Shanghai Museum. In the evening we attended a performance of the Shanghai Acrobatic Performance. This is a don't miss. One woman was so flexible that she bent her body into positions that should have been humanly impossible and what the acrobats did was amazing (no wonder China wins so many metals in gymnastics at the Olympics). On the 18th we visited the Yu Yuan Garden in Shanghai's Old Town. It is a classical Chinese garden, behind high walls, has ponds, trees, rock gardens, flowers and pavilions.

---

Photos

DSC00415
There were a series of doors shaped like jars that one looked through

DSC00427
In the Forbidden City there were figures on the corner of buildings but they were not as lively as this.