We decided to try out Shanghai's public transport system today as the roads are quite busy and the taxis aren't as cheap as Suzhou. There is however, a new and shiny underground. We had to get a taxi to the station as we were staying out of the centre a bit then we got out tickets, much like the London underground, and went to the platform. The difference there was that everything was very clean and there were automatic doors on the platform that would open to let you board the train, a safety precaution I guess but it looked really futuristic, maybe the trains went so fast they had to protect you from the line. When the train arrived it looked like a standard underground but when I got inside I realised two things. Firstly it was spotless and secondly it felt very open and airy. The reason for this became clear when we moved off - there were no doors between carriages. The whole thing felt huge when you could see down the length of the train. After a small false start at the wrong station we arrived at our stop and headed for Yu Yuan Gardens. Paul made a quick pause at a street vendor for breakfast, meat on a stick, we managed to get some pictures of the squid on a stick - yuk!When we reached the area we were headed for the first thing that hit us was the crowds. Maybe Chinese New Year wasn't the best time to go to Shanghai as everyone else was also on holiday, but Paul and Kelly wouldn't have had time of otherwise. We battled the crowds with Vincent snapping away at the roof tops trying to get pictures of the amazing architecture, while I snapped away at the hundreds of people who got in my way J it wasn't a place for an easy stroll, on the plus side I couldn't fall over as there were people pressed in on every side. Paul, being about Vincent's height and blond, was very easy to keep track of so we charged around looking at the trinkets and souvenirs on all the tiny stalls. The most interesting was a stall that sold traditional Chinese style paintings that a man was doing with his finger nail. The detail was amazing although why he didn't use a paint brush I can't quite say.Next we stopped for lunch, which was the usual trials of trying to find something that was vegetarian and edible. I settled for 'corn soup' which appeared to be water with noodle and sweet corn in, while Vincent and Paul had mushroom soup, same gig but mushrooms instead of corn. Kelly chose meat, meat and a bit more meat and had probably the only meal with any kind of nutritional value.Next we wandered on through the crowds to try and get to the garden. Paul and Kelly stopped for snacks along the way. Chinese snacks you have to understand, are nothing like the crisps and mars bar you would expect. They ended up buying 'steamed bun filled with juicy crab meat and shark's fin' which I renamed 'yuk burger'. Basically it's a bread roll filed with 'stuff' and gravy that you are meant to suck out through a straw. See the pictures for Paul's face when he tried it, yuk burger was an accurate description!We carried on walking through the crowds and came to something that was pouring out loads of smoke. It turned out to be a Taoist Tea Temple.Originally the Ginshan Sheng Miao (Temple of the Golden Mountain God), it had been renamed as Cheng Huang Miao (Temple of the City's Gods) in the Ming Dynasty. Since then, the temple had foregone several severe damages, and had each time been properly restored to its former glory. During the latter years of the Qing dynasty, teahouses, street performers, and hawkers formed an extremely lively marketplace in front of the temple.
During the Cultural Revolution, the temple was thoroughly destroyed. The surrounding marketplace was given a new name, "Yuyuan Bazaar". The temple was again restored and opened to the public in 1981.It was a very traditional looking temple with an area inside that we went to look at where people were able to light incense to their specific God for money or luck or whatever. The smoke was because the incense was like the stuff we saw in the Suzhou temple - about 4 feet long and with a matching smoke production. I was disappointed it didn't smell nice but it made for some good pictures. We decided we had done enough of that area and went on to look at the ultra cheap designer label clothes market, Paul's choice. As we left Paul, Kelly and I decided that we needed candy floss so it was back into the throng until we each emerged clutching candy floss in pink, blue and red. We also saw a soup with meat balls that you could buy that was boiling with a cow's skull - mmmm tasty!The clothes shop was huge and we wandered through looking at all the fake designer stuff, Paul got himself a nice coat and I got cross because they don't cater for huge feet like mine in China and I found a nice pair of boots and had whittle the woman down to less than half price, but in the end they just didn't fit. Kelly, to my annoyance, found a lovely pair of brown suede boots that really suited her and got them at a major bargain as the store was about to close (and they had switched of most of the lights!)It was now getting on for sunset so we wandered up to the 'Bund' a kind of promenade along the side of the Huangpu River with views of the Oriental Pearl (a sky scraper made up of 3 blobs - see pic) TV Tower and Jinmao Tower. We got in some great pictures before the sun set and ended up walking the whole length of the Bund. Along the way there were the obligatory sales people hassling you and I ignored them until I found some selling the coolest light up wheels that attach to your trainers and make them 'heelies'. Yay!We then did the taxi, underground, taxi trip back to the hotel and settled down to relax after our busy day. Vincent and I got pizza in our room and watched a movie - which I fell asleep in, as usual J