The only thing about Shanghai that I had heard of was the Bund, and it is the Number 1 tourist attraction. So we went there via the Nanjing Road East metro station, about 4 stations east of Jing ‘An, and it runs along the Suzhou Creek tributary of the Huangbo (Yellow River). It was where all the Western (mostly British) companies built their grandiose headquarters during the first half of the 20th century. We saw the headquarters of the opium selling company, the Peace Hotel, where Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw and Edgar Snow (author of “Red Star Over China”, the first definitive account of the 1949 Revolution) all stayed, and the Waldorf Astoria. We had a very expensive coca cola on the top floor of an expensive restaurant, which gave us a beautiful view of the Bund.
The highlight of the day was a visit to the Yu Yuan (Yu Garden), created during the Ming Dynasty over 400 years ago before Shanghai really existed. It consists of inter-connected pools with huge carp swimming among the weeds, magnificent rockeries and ginkgo trees, all from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Qing emperors built the Dianchun Hall and the Grand Theatre which was financed by merchants from Fujian Province. The top of the stage is a sunk panel built in the form of a dome intersected by 22 layers of circles and 20 pitch arcs. The centre of the dome is a mirror, surrounded by 28 golden birds with spread wings.
Significant events included the Swordsmen’s Uprising during the decline of the Qing dynasty. There are a pair of iron lions created in Henan Province during the Yuan Dynasty, stolen by the Japanese during the Second World War but subsequently repatriated. A fragment of rockery named “Jade Peak”, but not actually jade, was salvaged from the ruins of another garden in the Jiangnan region of Shanghai.
We could only exit the Garden from the south gate, and the route took us through a series of traditional Chinese buildings which look very old but are actually modern copies of buildings destroyed during WW2 or the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese are trying to re-create the old China in the centre of cities like Shanghai and Chengdu but it is hard to avoid the impression that they are primarily tourist attractions.
View from hotel
Something for Sabine
Bank of China building from the Colonial Era
Suzhou Creek as seen from a restaurant
Entrance to Yu Yuan
The “Exquisite Jade Stone” is the most valuable treasure of Yu Yuan and one of the three most famous stones in the south of the Yangtse, Yu Ling Long was said to be the limestone relic of the reign of Emperor Huizong in the Song Dynasty, more than 1,000 years ago
Yu Hua Hall was built by Pan Yunduan, owner of the Garden, during the Ming Dynasty, to appreciate the Exquisite Jade Stone.
Jing Guan Hall was once the HQ of a private bank in the Qing Dynasty
The Ancient Stage
The Stage
Reconstruction of old Shanghai