2011-5 Old Shanghai & Luyuan Gardens, Shanghai, China
Hello All,
For our first adventure in Shanghai we visited “Old Shanghai,” sometimes referred to as “Old Town,” with its traditional style of buildings and architecture. We found it absolutely fascinating. With the modernization of China taking place they are getting away from their old traditional styles. That’s a shame. There’s no other place like it in the world outside of Asia. In our humble opinion it would be wonderful if they would work their unique traditional styles into their new modern buildings--but nobody asked us.
Vehicles and bicycles are not permitted on the narrow lanes of Old Shanghai which opens them to pedestrians. The lower level of buildings consisted mostly of shops and fast food establishments while the second and third levels housed various restaurants. It was as if we were in a giant ancient mall. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the sights and sounds of the area.
For our first adventure in Shanghai we visited “Old Shanghai,” sometimes referred to as “Old Town,” with its traditional style of buildings and architecture. We found it absolutely fascinating. With the modernization of China taking place they are getting away from their old traditional styles. That’s a shame. There’s no other place like it in the world outside of Asia. In our humble opinion it would be wonderful if they would work their unique traditional styles into their new modern buildings--but nobody asked us.
Vehicles and bicycles are not permitted on the narrow lanes of Old Shanghai which opens them to pedestrians. The lower level of buildings consisted mostly of shops and fast food establishments while the second and third levels housed various restaurants. It was as if we were in a giant ancient mall. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the sights and sounds of the area.
Note the American fast food
chains in the following photos--Dairy Queen, Starbucks further down the alley,
and of course McDonalds.
And they have their own fast food
establishments. The one in the photo below specialized in “crab with
pepper.” You could get a meal in a
bucket, a plate of food, a basket of food, or skewers of deep fried crab with
pepper. It looked wonderful.
Since Miss Barb collects turtles, she fell in
love with this dragon-turtle. Just couldn’t figure out to how to get it into
her suitcase.
Just never knew what to expect around the next
corner--perhaps a pond with fountains and a large school of Koi in it.
A lovely Teahouse was situated
over the water.
Our next site to visit was the
Luyuan Gardens--an excellent example of classical Chinese gardening. It was
built during the reign of Ming Emperor Jaijing (1559) as the private gardens of
Pan Yunduan, an administration commissioner of Sichuan Province. He spent
almost 20 years perfecting the gardens. Over the years, they fell into
disrepair until about 1760 when bought by merchants, before suffering extensive
damage in the 19th century. In 1842, during the Opium Wars, the
British Army occupied the Town God Temple for five days. During the Taiping
Rebellion the gardens were occupied by imperial troops, and damaged again by
the Japanese in 1942. They were repaired by the Shanghai government from
1956-1961, opened to the public in 1961, and then declared a national monument
in 1982. With an area of nearly five acres the gardens are famous for a number
of architectural marvels and precious cultural relics.
Here our tour guide is explaining the gardens to us. He is talking into a little red instrument in his hand called a vox. The vox is a transmitter and each member of our group had a vox receiver with an earpiece. It worked wonderfully for us, as we could wander around taking photos while still listening to the presentation. When the volume started to fade or breakup we knew we had to catch up with our tour leader.
Here our tour guide is explaining the gardens to us. He is talking into a little red instrument in his hand called a vox. The vox is a transmitter and each member of our group had a vox receiver with an earpiece. It worked wonderfully for us, as we could wander around taking photos while still listening to the presentation. When the volume started to fade or breakup we knew we had to catch up with our tour leader.
Winding paths took us over bridges, through
grottos and to pavilions containing ancient artifacts. There were many
indigenous plants new to us.
We couldn’t go inside the many
halls and chambers but could look inside at the ancient artifacts and carved
wood furniture. Buildings had but one entrance and mirrors were placed in the
far corners both to the left and right. It was their belief at the time that
evil spirits trying to enter would be reflected back out the door. Halls were
originally built to entertain guests. Later they became a place to hold
ceremonies.
Paths had some amazing stonework. It appears
that each small stone was hand placed to form an attractive walkway.
Fences in the gardens were
capped with dragons. Occasionally the dragons would meet facing each other
above an arch over the paths. We found this feature quite lovely.
Unique rock formations lined
the waterways and pools.
As you can see, our morning
was filled with learning more about the Chinese culture and enjoying
photographic opportunities. It was a wonderful experience. We will continue
with the rest of our day later.
Until next time,
Dave & Barb
The Traveling Browns
Until next time,
Dave & Barb
The Traveling Browns