Wednesday 13th March
After a foggy night we arrived a little later than expected in Shanghai and by the time we were allowed off the ship and walked about a mile in the terminal we didn't start our tour to the old town until 11. It was a cold, wet and misty morning so we were glad of our gloves and scarves. I even put on my hat! We were visiting two places the first was the Yuyuan Gardens. Just outside the gardens is the Huxingting Teahouse which is built on an island in a small artificial lake that is full of fish. You get to the Teahouse over a zigzag bridge- it is shaped like this to stop evil spirits that they believed couldn't turn corners! The Yuyuan Gardens were first laid out in the 16 th century and it is a classic Ming Dynasty garden home full of pavilions, ponds, bridges, rockeries and trees. The plum trees were just starting to blossom. Outside the gardens is the Yuyuan market. We had a short time to look around here so we took the opportunity to warm up with a hot chocolate!
The next place we visited was the Jade Buddha Temple. This the most famous Buddhist temple in Shanghai and was a wonderful experience. There were several buildings and courtyards. In one building the monks were sitting around a table talking, they seemed to be able to get on and not notice all these tourists around them! We saw many large Buddhas and local people were coming to pray and burn incense, many left gifts of food. In an upstairs room was the Jade Buddha which was beautiful. The room was very quiet and there was incense burning. We couldn't take photos in this room but were allowed to anywhere else in the temple. We return to the ship a bit wet but having enjoyed our tour of the gardens and particularly the temple.
After eating we noticed it had stopped raining so we decided to brave the cold and take the shuttle bus back into the city. We got there at 5.45 which turned out to be ideal as the daylight was just going and we could watch the city gradually light up. The bus dropped us at The Bund which is the waterside walkway in the middle of the city. The photo is taken from The Bund and shows the Oriental Pearl TV Tower lit up along with the rest of the modern part of Shanghai. All the buildings on both sides of the river were flood lit and looked really good at night and there were some lovely flower gardens at road level. Some of the walls of The Bund were covered with vertical flower gardens that looked and smelt wondekrful. We really enjoyed our walk along The Bund even if it was freezing!