After my massive weekend last week (as evidenced by the 3-part post titled 'Massive weekend'), I had vowed to spend a Friday, Saturday and Sunday alcohol free. I'm pleased to say that I didn't have a single beer for the entire weekend, and as a result got some sightseeing in.
Friday night I stayed in and got out my Lonely Planet Shanghai City Guide. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but I skipped through the various sections to find out what they had to say about places I had and hadn't been to. I decided that I wanted to spent a bit of time in Old Town, which is the area south of the Bund, still next to the Huangpu river on the Puxi side. I worked out where I needed to go, wrote down some details of the walking path I wanted to take, and waited for Saturday morning to arrive.
Which it inevitably did...along with a downpour. It rained fairly steadily most of the morning, but cleared up around lunchtime. I did a quick shopping trip and then hopped on the subway to get over to Puxi. I got off at East Nanjing Rd and walked 10 minutes down to the Bund (along with hundreds of other people), where I took a few pictures. I've uploaded a couple below:
A huge statue of Chen Yi, the first Communist Mayor of Shanghai.
The Oriental Pearl TV tower in Pudong.
One of the boats that you can take for a cruise along the river.
The Pudong skyline.
Some of the old buildings along the Bund.
I spent about an hour or so wandering along the Bund before I made my way over to the Old Town area. I started off at the Yuyuan Bazaar, which is a maze of laneways and shops selling every type of trinket you can imagine. Tourists abound in this area - looking for souvenirs and taking photos of everything in sight. With good reason; the buildings are a wonderful example of older Chinese architecture. The beautiful Yuyuan Gardens (I went there a few years ago) are right next to the Bazaar, but I didn't go inside due to time constraints. I'll go back another time.
Here are some photos of the Bazaar area and surroundings:
A dragon's head pops out over the wall of the Yuyuan Gardens.
The classic sight of two dragons guarding a building...surrounded by a Pizza Hut and Pepsi logo.
One of the buildings inside the Bazaar area.
Lots of people visiting on a Saturday afternoon.
Huxinting Teahouse, which was built back in 1784. Guests include Queen Elizabeth II, Bill Clinton and Andrew Smith (I had a meal there back in 2007, very nice food).
The Bridge of Nine Turns which criss-crosses the lake beside the teahouse. Supposedly built this way because evil spirits are unable to turn corners.
I spent about an hour or so in the Bazaar, and then went off on a wander around the other parts of Old Town. More photos:
Stores everywhere. There are bargains to be had but it's a tourist area, so you have to haggle.
The entrance to the Dragon Mall. There's a waterfall on each side of this structure, and every so often steam starts shooting out of it. Pretty cool.
Baiyun Temple. Open until 5, I got there just afterwards so couldn't go in. Next time.
Dongtai Rd Antiques Market. A few blocks away from the Yuyuan Bazaar and much more low-key. Still a few tourists looking around but a better place for a bargain I think. Much more pottery/ceramic focused though.
Just what I was looking for - a life sized statue with a detachable head. Awesome.
I went back via the Yuyuan Bazaar to make a trip to the Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant, Shanghai's most famous dumpling restaurant. Unfortunately, being dinner time, a lot of other people had exactly the same idea. I had to wait in line for about half an hour, but got to see the dumplings being hand-made, which was quite entertaining (when they get going you'd be amazed at how fast they put them together). When I finally got my hands on the dumplings, I was happy I had stopped by. They were delicious. I took a few more photos in Yuyuan and along the Bund before going home.
Yuyuan night photos.
Bund night photos.
Got home at around 9:30pm and resisted the urge to get changed and go out drinking. To be honest, I was pretty tired - I did a lot of walking yesterday. Just out of interest I jumped on to Google Maps and measured the route that I walked - when I add that to the 4km to get to and from the subway station, I walked a little over 16km for the day. Not a bad effort. And yes, I am a nerd.
Today I did another shopping trip (things like extra pillows and towels in preparation for visitors in a few weeks) and walked up past the office just because I (surprisingly) had the energy. I ended up doing about another 10km today. That makes me feel slightly less fat.
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