Shanghai

Shanghai -- the city of the future! It has the largest population in China (take that, Beijing!) within a small amount of space, thus making the squished together high rise apartments necessary. It reminded me of a scene from Fifth Element (yes, I know it's modeled after New York... sue me).

Not a very good illustration of the architecture, but check out the smog! 

Shanghai, as compared to Beijing or Xi'an, seemed much more metropolitan and international. I think this is largely due to its status of major trade center. Also our hotel was apparently able to bypass The Great Firewall as I was able to (if only briefly!) check Facebook for the first time the whole trip. 

Shanghai became a major port city for China, leading to British occupation during the First Opium War in the mid-1800s. Various treaties allowed for French, British and US concessions, amongst which the French portion still vaguely exists in an area highly desired by ex-pats. During the mid-twentieth century China eventually took back control of Shanghai, and today it remains an important trade center.

Our first stop was the Jade Buddha Temple, built in 1881 and featuring two pure white jade Buddhas from Burma. The Cultural Revolution meant the jade Buddhas would likely be destroyed, so the monks ingeniously placed a picture of Mao across french-style doors. This worked because people would have to tear the image of Mao to open the doors and this was considered a pretty big no no. The safety of the Buddhas was ensured. 

Sadly, my camera was not authorized to take photos of the reclining jade Buddhas, so use your imagination (or Google).

We were then whisked away to the Yu Yuan Garden and Bazaar. The bazaar was as you'd expect, with more of the same fun little tourist trap trinkets and complete with a KFC. The Chinese love KFC, Starbucks and McDonalds. The western invasion will not be complete until I see a Wal-Mart on every corner.

The garden hidden within was beautiful and spring wasn't even in full effect yet. Originally built during the Ming dynasty by the son of a government official, it is now enjoyed by locals and tourists alike. I was hoping to see some old women ballroom dancing in the courtyard like I was promised by brochures, but no such luck.

The dragon here was not really allowed, since it is supposed to symbolize the Emperor. However, for reasons I couldn't understand from the tour guide, the use of three claws and something else allowed it to remain untouched.

Some of the door frames were shaped like vases, flowers or peaches. The below two doorways are designed to appear like painted Ming vases (if you use your imagination, you can pretend like the backdrop is the painting).

I've failed to mention the rather unspectacular lunches included in all tours. They seemed to be what Chinese people think Americans think Chinese food is... They've got nothing on the Hunan's Buffet in Pensacola! Sadly, no cream cheese wontons. That is the real crime.

The Bund, in what could only be an architect's wet dream, is an embankment upon which is a row of buildings of various architectural style. At first unimpressive when compared to the skyline of the Pudong, it really came into its own at nightfall. The Bund is named due to its position along the Huangpu River (bund means embankment), and prior to the British invasion (not the Beatles) was nothing more than weeds. When Shanghai established itself as a strong port, the British created a paved road and promptly built banks and other financial institutions. As the Communist party took over, most of those banks were forced to move until their return in the 1970s. Today it is now enjoyed by young couples who like to walk hand in hand and dream of love.

Pudong is on the eastern side of the Huangpu River and prior to 1993 was nothing but marshland. The Chinese government created a special trade zone there, and viola! Tall skyscraper after tall skyscraper was built and continues to be built to this day (the tall building in my photos is not even finished yet). If you look closely you might see James Bond swimming to release some stress, pursuing Patrice or trying to assassinate someone. I think you should note the lack of super tall building in this clip...

The French Concession was home to the Shanghai Fashion Week while we were there. We witnessed stick thin models getting their photos taken while wearing high fashion. It made me feel a little bad about eating that burger and beer, but not that bad.

The Monument to the People's Heroes (found on the Bund), to commemorate revolutionary martyrs. It's meant to look like three rifles leaning against each other. 

Lastly, I leave you with the Garden Bridge -- the only remaining camelback truss style bridge in China (I have no idea what that means, but isn't it pretty?).

And that is the end of my visit to China. Sure, the firewall thing was quite odd and I couldn't shake the ever present paranoia that I was going to jail for some sort of thought crime, but overall I was left with a good impression of the people of China. Besides the Peking Duck bit, of course.