YY gardens

It's an old neighborhood that has been completely transformed. It was crowded. This, besides the bund, is another area of wealth, all the shops were gleaming and new and their only commodity is gold. This is the place to buy gold in Shanghai. The bund has banks, YY gardens has the goldsmiths. I have a few ounces of pure gold.

McD

I passed by a McDonald's and decided I needed a real coffee. Coffee is so rare in China. By this time I've already gotten tired of the instant Nescafe stuff I brought from home. They do the trick of satisfying my caffeine craving. The ones I bring from home comes from the Japanese supermarket near where I live and are made in Japan by Nestle. They come in little packets, some with creamer mixed in, others with sugar and creamer. They sell them in China too but the Chinese ones are disgusting. This was a crowded McDonald's.

YuYuan garden, Shanghai

This area is so vibrant, more so than even Beijing. The architectural style in Shanghai has more finese than anywhere in China. This area has been modernised and upgraded and it demonstrates the new China. It was a weekend and hordes of locals were out and about together with hordes of visitors. It's hard to locate the old Shanghai which was what I was there for. But it is there......tucked in little corners and alley ways.

Away from the crowds

A few yards away from the throng of visitors is a serene and idyllic part where the locals live. It is thoroughly modern and I can see myself living here and fitting in. I'd probably wouldn't miss anything that the West offer. Everything Western is available in modern Shanghai and its surburbs. Even in the early days of Shanghai, life was different from the rest of China. Here her foreign occupiers live a life not much different from theirs in the West. While the rest of China was still agrarian and the people were no than peasants, the Shanghainese were advanced in their lifestyle. Shanghai was known as the 'whore of the orient.' There were gangsters or mafia clans among the men. Their women learned from an early age to carouse with foreign men, to drink, swear, gamble and to fornicate. This was unheard of among Chinese women. Even as the Chinese left China for other parts of the world, those from Shanghai became more successful because they already have that can do attitude before leaving. Today's Shanghai is no different, there's a different vibe not seen in other Chinese cities even in Beijing.

Mulberries

I can't resist mulberries. I see them, I must eat them. I'm always happy to be in China and Turkey, two places where mulberries grow in abundance.

Water lilies

Here was a small patch of water lilies. With them being the constant object of Chinese paintings together with the lotus, one expects to see a greater profusion of these water blossoms. It is always disappointing to see these great flowers struggling to survive in poluted water.

It is ancient

The old and the new intermingle in perfect harmony.

Communist memorabilia

Remember those guys? The one on top, at first glance, I thought it was Mao. No, its Deng Shaio Ping. The one at the bottom is Zhou En Lai. I don't know who the middle one is. I don't expect anyone to regconise anyone of them now let alone even remember. Mao was the commie who defeated the Kuomintang, the government of China after the second world war. Members of the Kuomintang, including their leader, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan. Mao then annexed Tibet and all the areas in the Tibetan plateau. He more or less redrew the map of China and ruled with an iron hand. Till today the same borders that he carved out still hold.

Qibo

After a hard week at work, the residents of Shanghai is ready to decompress by spending time at Qibo. It's a very convenient metro ride away. I'm a jaded traveler and Qibo is OK, not great. But it's always great to see what the local people do on the days that they are not in the factory making things for the store shelves the world over.

Another water village

Just like the Los Angeles area where I live, it is one of the more populated cities in the world, Shanghai is crowded. On weekends every place of amusement will have hordes of people. We came to this little village on a weekend, the only day we had left. While there are numerous little villages along the numerous creeks in and around Shanghai, this one is easier to get to. One can access it by the metro, Shnaghai has a very extensive and efficient metro system which is very clean. The toilets are super clean. One can really enjoy Shanghai. It is thoroughly modern. Upon arrival, we see the shops doing a brisk business selling pastries. The Chinese does not scrimp on eating. Food is very important.

A wedding

 Suddenly there was this commotion and every body was running along the water's edge. I looked and saw a wedding party coming down the canal. I get cught up and ran with every one else. The groom was throing candy at everyone. The crowd wanted to know if it was a real wedding party or they were just horsing around. The groom said, it was real. He was getting married, Chinese style.

 The limo!

 The limo and driver!

Here the wedding party got off the boat and went to another place. It was a lot of fun having witnessed it.

Lunch, at last

A simple lunch of dumplings.

Another tea room

 This is a gorgeous piece of batik. Wax is applied onto the fabric in a very intricate pattern, then the whole piece is dyed in indigo. The wax is washed off in hot water and where the wax was applied, the fabric remained undyed and hence it looked like this. This area is famous for this kind of batik fabric.

 Here on the second floor is a sort of musuem and an area is cordoned off for a tea room. There's this beautiful view of the canal. Here some old ladies sings acapela to requests of old Chinese folk songs. She taps on this wooden piece to accompany her as she sings.

Others are waiting for their turn as this gentleman client sits, drinking his tea and makes requests for songs. It was a tremendous feeling to see this old form of entertainment still exists in China.

A tea break

 Bolts of old home spun fabric.

 It's an old house over the water, a museum, an antique store and a tea room. On the one side there's a fantastic view of the canal.

The old loom that was used to weave all those bolts of fabric.
We sat, drank tea, watched the action on the canal, wrote in our journal, took lots of pictures and whiled away the afternoon.