YuYuan Garden and People's Square

   It was another beautiful weekend, cold and sunny. Almost needed the sunglasses :) I figured that it would be good to spend as much time outside as possible so I checked out all my park and garden options in and around Shanghai before deciding to visit the Yuyuan Garden. Not visiting this garden before I move back to Portland almost seemed like a crime plus Trisha made it there when she was visiting ans had good things to say about it. Yu Garden is located in Old Town which is only about 5 subway stops from my apartment. I've visited the bazaar around the garden many times, it's always busy with tourist and Saturday was no exception. If you can blow up the below picture you will see just how busy this area was.

Yuyuan Garden Bazaar located outside the actual garden

Yuyuan Garden entrance

   Yuyuan garden is an excellent model of a Chinese classical gardening architecture protected by the state. It was built during the reign of Ming Emperor Jiajing (1559) as the private garden of Pan Yunduan, an administrative commissioner of Sichuan Province. With an area of over two hectares, the garden is famous for many Chinese architectural marvels.

Even with all the crowds I was able to get some good photos :)

This is the Naturally Hollowed Jade Boulder (famous at the garden),
although it just looks like a big rock with holes. It doesn't look like jade to me.

Yu Hua Hall, a study used by the original owner of the garden

Plum blossoms are a big deal here in China (like Cherry blossoms are in Japan).
They are starting to bloom!

   Left, a very cool opera stage with a beautiful inner ceiling that has a bright round-shaped mirror in the center. It was designed to give perfect acoustical effects. Right, the Chinese dragon is such an important symbol and can be seen in the roof line in part of the garden.

A large zig-zag bridge.

Left, more dragons! Right, the famous Big Rockery...a giant pile of rocks. At some 

point it was apparently the tallest point in Shanghai and one could see the Huangpu River 

from the top (this is the river that divides the 2 parts of Shanghai (Pudong and Puxi).

Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant

   I hadn't really planned on it but since I was hungry after walking the garden I decided to wait in the long line that is always outside the Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant which is within the Yu Garden Bazaar. I ate here with Trisha and Shawn but we ate inside to try some of their fancier buns instead of waiting for the to-go window buns which is super popular. The picture on the right shows a sign annoucing the prices, for the first hour of business 16 buns costs 12rmb ($1.90) then it goes up to 20rmb ($3.18) for all hours after that. I hopped in line and waited...and waited...

...and waited some more. After about 30 minutes I was getting close to the ordering window.

   I finally got to order and received my tray of 16 mini steamed buns. I doused them with vinegar then went to find a place to sit and enjoy them (and take a picture to share!). When I was at the front of the line people that weren't in line were harassing those that were to buy them buns (i'm not totally sure but I thing they were offering more money then they really cost). I think that everyone in line was ignoring them due to the sole fact that we all waited so long for ours that we weren't going to help those not willing to wait in the same long-line. After scarfing my snack I decided to walk off my full belly by walking up to People's Square. Just like Yu Garden I had been to the People's Square many times but never really wandered the entire park. Today was the perfect day to explore.

People's Square

   Turns out there is a full on park in the city square. I had been around the parameter with Donald when I first  arrived to Shanghai but had later heard that there was a lake in the center so I was determined to see it.

You can see the skyscrapers surrounding the city square.

The lake turned out to be a pond but was still kind of nice.

    Another thing that I was determined to do on Saturday was spend an hour or two relaxing at the Shanghai Library, the largest public library in China. I made it there just as the sun was going down and was excited to visit the foreign publications on the 4th floor... to enjoy some newspapers and magazines that would be available. Seems that a couple of things weren't going to work out. The first, I had missed the Reader Registration by an hour and a half...who knew that you couldn't just get a library card at any point during business hours. The second thing to go wrong was once I wandered to the 4th floor to just view the foreign publication room (since I couldn't get in without a reader card) that it wasn't even open... apparently, this must not be a popular section, they close earlier then the rest of the library everyday!

Left, the dark forth floor. There was a couple there that were also hoping to get in.

The view from the library :)

   On the way out I noticed that they had a 24 hour self-check out stand along the street outside of the library. Certain titles were available at this booking vending machine...they were all Chinese books though. Maybe there aren't enough foreigners that would take advantage of this service. Do we have this service in the states?

   Since I had some extra time and wasn't ready to head home I walked the 10 minutes to the Avocado Lady for my last visit before leaving Shanghai for good. I stocked up on veggies that would last me until close to my leave date. Only 8 more days as of today...can you believe it?!