Walk to Old Town

I grab some of these fried street pancakes (filled with ground pork and spices) and head on a walk from the hotel to the Old Street and Yuyuan Gardens. I’ve been there before (in 2011) and it was too packed to be enjoyable, but that was at night and a different season, and I figured things have changed enough to give it another shot.

A relatively quick 30 minute walk southeast to get there. Along the way I see that there’s construction everywhere.  Luckily some of the building are so high I can use them to determine direction and was able to get back to my hotel without a map/nav.

Very hot – very muggy out today.

 

 

 

 

 

I totally remember the shopping street. It definitely has character. This was an old commercial district in the Ming Dynasty.

At the end of the street are the buildings that surround the Yuyuan Gardens.

 

 

 

Once inside the complex, it’s easy to lose sight of the upper parts of the surrounding buildings.

While I was photographing here several scammers tried to get me. The big Shanghai trick is the teahouse scam. You usually get a couple, or a bunch of girls, approaching you very friendly-like. In my case it was two couples, each at different times, both asking me to take a photo for them. After that, they ask questions, get to know you — very friendly — they are “tourists too.” There’s not really a easy way to tell if it’s a scam at this point. But as soon as they mention “We are going to head to the tea house and see a Traditional tea ceremony, want to go?” that’s when you know it’s a scam. Couple Number 1: I dismissed right after they dropped that line. Couple number 2: I asked if they can show me where the City God Temple was on the way to the tea house, and when they showed me, I just bought a ticket and went in. No need to say goodbye or turn them down. They are out to scam tourists. No need for pleasantries.

City God Temple of Shanghai

I believe it was 10 yuan to enter this temple, which wasn’t very costly.
I guess the place dates back to the origin of the old town  in the Ming Dynasty when this was the primary temple.
It seemed like an average Daoist temple to me. Nothing too special.

 

 

 

 

 

The line for the most popular dumpling restaurant was way too long for me, and I also had a suspicion that the dumplings were filled with crab juice. So I went to a smaller vendor to get my fix.

These are the Xialongbao dumplings that are famous in Shanghai. This particular vendor uses multicolored dough. Most of these are filled with crab juice soup and a pork meatball.  Not liking crab at all, I went right for the smaller pork soup dumplings.

Yu Garden

Not going to go much into the history here, but let’s just say it was built in the Ming Dynasty by some rich people for some other rich people. It has been open to the public since 1780 and since then has gone under several renovations. I was put off by the 40 yuan entrance fee, but it did keep the crowd down and the garden was a nice peaceful afternoon hour.

Just outside the gardens entrance.

 

 

 

 

The Chinese were crazy for these stone arrangements back then.

 

 

 

 

 

There are several pavilions throughout the garden.

 

I didn’t realize it at first: the tops of the wall surrounding the garden were carved into a dragon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stumbled into this courtyard where a band was playing on instruments designed like Ming china.

 

 

 

 

When I stitched this panorama together, I thought an error cause the bow in the bridge but it’s actually designed that way.

 

In the evening I just hung out, ate dinner, and walked around. It was way too hot.

 

Bonus

A terrible name for a pavilion next to the restrooms.