Shanghai Holiday

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This morning we went to Yu Gardens, a 300-year old monument to tranquility built by a son in honor of his father after he retired from politics. Of course, the father footed the bill . . .

Since October 1 is the anniversary of the birth of Mao's China, everyone in China gets the day off. In fact, they all get 8 days off. And they all go to the city to see the big sights. Yu Gardens is a hot destination for Chinese people on holidays, and we were shoulder to shoulder with most of them. The views were a little hard to see, and walking was more like seething with the crowd, but it was beautiful and interesting. Most of the Yu Gardens are buildings, rocks, water, and walkways, all paved with beautifully arranged natural stone that is set edge-up so that if you walk these paths with bare feet you get a nice reflexology massage. They are very beautiful.

Our guide, Grant Qin, tells wonderful stories about how these historical events came about. He pointed out the dragon decorating the rooftop and said that the dragon is the symbol of the emperor and only the emperor has the right to use it. After building this beautiful garden for his father, the dutiful son realized that if anyone reported that he had used a dragon, he and his entire family would be killed. So, in China there is another animal that looks like a dragon, but is not a dragon. This animal has only 3 toes whereas the imperial dragon has five. So Dutiful Son had two toes removed from each of his dragon's feet, and, voila, no more dragon. No risk of death.

Then we took a short jaunt to see the Bund, the old strand that used to be the center of commerce before Pudong was built starting 20 years ago. While historical, the Bund was also a seething mass of holiday campers, and I was reminded of the movie Soylent Green. We all got hot and cranky and quickly decamped back to the air conditioned bus, and then off to lunch.

Lunch today was dim sum designed for American geriatrics. It was at a dim sum restaurant above a fascinating embroidery gallery. The dim sum was remarkable for dim sum. We were served bland egg rolls and then something that was a lot like chicken mcnuggets. A bowl of egg drop soup with corn, some noodles, and something that tasted like broccoli but wasn't. I tasted everything and then went back downstairs to see the amazing embroidery. Some of these pieces are copies of famous paintings. There was a Mona Lisa, I swear to god, that was absolutely gorgeous. I took a picture but it didn't come out, dang it. See other examples below.

We were going to go to the Shanghai Museum today, but because of the traffic we had to postpone until tomorrow so we can get a traffic pass to cross the river. Tonight we get to see acrobats. WooHoo!

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Photos

Poster
I just liked this

300-year old vine
Nice arbor with very old vine

King Rock
So named because it has 99 naturally created holes. This was apparently a great wonder of supreme interest to the male friends of the retired minister. It is the centerpiece of the extensive gardens.

Not a Dragon
See, it only has three toes!

Reflexology Walk
The entire garden is paved in different patterns of stones set to massage bare feet as you walk.

Street Vendor Offering
They told me these were mango seeds . . .

Soylent Green
A hint of how crowded it was on The Bund. Packed up the ramp like sardines on a humid, still day. We were all sweating like boys in the gym. One guy said he had seen fish dryer than he felt. . .

Embroidery Museum
There were women sitting at tables like this in the embroidery gallery, stitching away by hand. It was amazing to watch.

The Kiss
Klimt could have left out the gold leaf and just called the embroidery ladies . . .

Embroidered Mao
Seriously, this is all embroidery

Harvesters
More famous art, stitched

Comments

[Kasey]

Beautiful Pictures
Thanks so much for including me on your travel blog. The pictures are beautiful.

[Kate]

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