Punching our "Shanghai Tourist Card"

Saturday was packed with Touristy adventures! While there was no official "punch card" like for Subway sandwiches or something, it felt a little that way as we checked things off our list.

First punch in our tourist card, was the recommended trip to the Shanghai Urban Planning museum. The recommendation to visit this museum is to see the model of the city that gives a greater appreciation for the scale and progress of Shanghai. (see pictures below) We found the model to be interesting as well as all of the pictures of the evolving landscape, streets, etc in rapid fashion over the past century and even more recent decades. We checked out the first 3 floors then headed on our way to our next stop… Fast forward to later that evening:

Lindsey (friend who has been here over a year): “Wasn’t the model of the city amazing?”

Matt: “Yeah, it was really cool to see when you first walked in how everything was laid out.”

Lindsey: “Wait, what do you mean when you first walked in”

Matt: “The model is right at the entrance”

Lindsey: “No, the model is on the 4^th floor.”

Matt: “We didn’t go to the 4^th floor”

Lindsey: “Then you didn’t see the model”

Matt: “What?!?!?!”

Needless to say, we are fresh meat and now have to pay the $5 to go back to the Urban Planning museum to see the actual model (the whole reason people go to said museum.) Hahaha! Oops!

Well, we were naively off to our next stop: People’s Square. Matt had already been here since for the first month, his home was the Le Meridien Hotel, which is pretty much on the corner of the square, but I had yet to enjoy all that it had to offer. It was a spectacle of sights.

1.   Matt found the solo carnival stall and since he successfully won a gigantic teddy bear, now thinks that he in the only person in China to have “tricked” the carnival industry. (Don’t worry said teddy bear was gifted to an adorable little girl and her super appreciative parents.)

2.   We almost bought a bunny… from a bicycle cart.

3.   Matt got a “coffee drink” from the mini mart. Then promptly went to Starbucks. :)

4.   Then we came upon the marriage market. Whoa. We knew the marriage market was located in People’s Park, but we were expecting some families congregating with their children mingling about and just socializing with the opposite sex. WRONG. So when we happened across what to us looked like signs demonstrating peaceful protests or a flea market of paper, it took us a little while to realize what was going on. This section of the park was filled with family elders calmly seated or standing behind umbrellas used as tables or walls filled hundreds of pieces of paper, my guess is describing in detail their marital offerings. To be clear there were no actual boys or girls in said marriage market, and rarely a couple photos. I’m not totally clear on how this transaction works, and when actual couples are physically introduced to each other, but it sure is interesting!

For our 3^rd punch card stop, we walked to Yang’s Dumpling to grab some fried soup dumplings for lunch. We were actually trying to get dumplings at 2 places and compare the 2 but "Jia Jia Tang Bao" sold out at about 1:15pm and we were the 5th people in line. Anyways, luckily, Matt was smart and we divided so he was already in line at Yang's. It's about $1 for 4 dumplings and they were tasty! Of course, this wasn't quite enough food for Matt so we were off for a little walk and picking up more "snacks" along the way.

4th stop (not really a stop so much as a street) we walked through the popularly crowded pedestrian street of Nanjing Road. This area was absolutely crowded, and I think some visitors who have been here longer will laugh at me, but I did not find it more crowded than any US shopping mall during Christmas. Perhaps, my expectations on the infamous crowds and lack of personal space were dramatic, but so far, I have yet to find Sardine-like experience. Although I have not taken the subway during rush hour... Anyways, along this path we stopped at a little counter that Matt had been to before to grab some pork buns. Another tasty treat!

Stops 5 & 6: Chenghuang Temple & Yuyuan Gardens. Certainly a touristy location, but I still enjoyed seeing all of the kitschy, celebratory Chinese New Year lanterns hungs admist the classical Chinese architecture (these are replicas of the Ming era buildings). Again, I know it was touristy but among all the buildings were little stalls selling local Chinese crafts, which of course, I loved!! Within the maze of streets and shops we found the Yuyuan gardens. They were quite serene set behind a large stone wall, separating them from the bustle of the shops. Touristy none the less, but made for some nice photo ops. Unfortuantely, we did not actually find the entrance to the Chenghuang Temple (especially since we didn't look for it and didn't know you could go in it, until after we got home... and I saw this online "A saying goes like this: one can't boast that he had been to Shanghai if he did not pay a visit to Chenghuang temple") Touristy fail #2. Grr! I promise I'll get better before all you visitors arrive!

Stop #7: The Bund. I was craving afternoon refreshment and Matt was absolutely still hungry. We made our way through little side streets out to the Bund. We popped into the luxurious Indigo Hotel and made our way up to grab a bite & drink in their lounge. It was the perfect spot to take a breather after being on our feet all day.

All in all, for a day packed with activities, I'm surprised we only failed twice... well 3 times, if you count the dumplings being sold out... and I guess that's all the fails we know of for now... We will probably learn about more later. :)

Urban Planning Museum

"The model" that we saw in side.

Another "model" still not "THE model"

View of the city's progress. (Top to Bottom: late 19th century, 1984, early 21st century, 2010)

Another "model" in the museum. This one of the Yuyuan gardens...

Matt's curbside "coffee drink" and subsequent expression

 Outside People's Park

Matt soon to win one of these gigatic bears

Bunny bicycle

People's Park

The Marriage Market... interesting, right? 

  

 

Yang's Dumplings!

Nanjing Road

Afternoon pork bun snack

  "Old City" gate 

Yuyuan Bazaar / Garden / Temple area. (Not completely sure where one stops and the other begins)

 

 
 

 

Yuyuan Garden

 

This was going to end badly... concussion, splash or potentially both. Miraculously, he stopped.

 Now, here is something that deserves a note. Apparently, in some areas diapers are not common & too expensive. Therefore, parents dress their toddlers (and maybe babies?) in buttless pants as seen here. Their parents will then hold them over a trash can when they need to go (or so I'm told). I've heard that this can be a "faster way of potty training" [insert baffled expression here]

I'm reserving judgement here, but my guess is that 99% of the people reading this are thinking the same thing...

I think that's where I'll end for today. :)