We still had more to see around Shanghai! When we walked
outside that morning it was sleeting out. Yeah no true story, it was freakin
cold and the sky was dropping freezing ice on us, and the poor Australians were
so confused, it’s snowing! No, it’s hail! Ask the American she’s from cold
climate, Ashley is this hail or sleet? And where did we go site seeing on this
lovely day? Another outside garden! It was great though. This was the only
private garden in Shanghai and featured this big rock display that was about
two stories high. It doesn’t sound so impressive until our guide tells us that
Shanghai is such a flat area that 400 years ago when this garden was built this
little rock hill was the highest point in the entire region.
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| Highest point in Shanghai 400 years ago |
The garden also featured dragon guardians on the walls and
we learned all about the symbolism of the dragon. The dragon guardian on the
wall only had three claws because ultimately the dragon is the symbol of the
emperor and so only the dragon’s guarding the emperor are allowed to have all
five claws. The dragon always has a pearl in its mouth for the pearl is
actually the soul of the dragon and if it loses the pearl, it dies. But
sometimes there aren’t enough pearls to go around and you’ll see multiple
dragons circling a single pearl. They have to share it in order to survive.
Awesome story related to the dragon pearl. When we were in
Suzhou I took a picture of two dragons playing with a pepsi pearl. At the time
I thought it was just silly because it was a pepsi gimmick. Once I heard the
actual story about the pearl and I looked back at that picture it became so
much more amusing.
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| Dragons playing with the Pepsi pearl! |
We had some free time to wander around the markets that
surrounded the garden, except when it was time to go we were counting heads and
someone was missing again. Where’s Dorothy?! We lost Dorothy again! She turned
up but we gave her such a hard time she was never late again!
We visited all the high end shopping districts that
afternoon. Couple of notes of shopping in China. First of all, the fashions are
very plain. Conservative styles and plain colors. Secondly, there aren’t really
any big department stores. We did see a WalMart in one or two places but 90% of
the stores are small, privately owned and only specialize in a couple of
things. We walked down the main shopping street in Shanghai. This place was
packed and apparently is the place to be seen if you want to be cool and be
seen. Ryan and I called it the Queen’s Street of Shanghai. I found it to be the
place where you get harassed by street sellers trying to sell you roller
skates. And the older single men found it to be the place to be accosted by
young pretty Asian girls. This guy, Dave, in our group is this older British
gentleman with a bushy white beard. He told us within the hour we were there he
was propositioned no less than twenty two times! And after the fifteenth
proposition he was so amazed he went up to another guy in our group and laughed
about it, “I’ve been accosted fifteen times!” and this girl pops out of nowhere
and goes, “Fifteen dollar? I show you good time for fifteen dollar!”
For all you young men thinking this is the place to be, a
word of warning. Our Dave didn’t go along with any of it, but towards the end
of our trip we met another Wendy Wu tour group who was doing a shorter 10 day
tour. They said one of the men in their group went to the same place and was
dumb enough to take one of those girls up on their offer. She led him into a
back ally anndd instead of getting sexy times the dude got mugged and robbed.
Yeah. Stay away from those girls.
After dinner we went on a river cruise on the river between
the CBD and the Bund. It was gorgeous! The city lights up like Vegas. Buildings
have entire walls displaying lights and pictures. Both sides of the river were
lit up and stunning. Though Ryan seemed more amused by the Star Wars concept
art painted on the inside of the boat. But that’s okay. It was still a good way
to end our stay in Shanghai
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| Shanghai at night |
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