Today we visited the incredible Yu Yuan Garden. At the left is our group in one of the areas of the Garden and at the right is Felix, our wonderful Shanghai guide. Felix has been so helpful in arranging side excurions and helping us find the best shopping. It was a very nice bookend to our first day in China at the Great Wall.Yuyuan Garden is a famous classical garden located in Anren Jie, Shanghai. The garden was finished in 1577 by a government officer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) named Pan Yunduan. Yu in Chinese means pleasing and satisfying, and this garden was specially built for Pan's parents as a place for them to enjoy a tranquil and happy time in their old age. In the 400 years of its existence, Yuyuan Garden had undergone many changes. During the late Ming Dynasty, it became very dilapidated with the decline of Pan's family. In 1760, some rich merchants bought Yuyuan Garden and spent more than 20 years reconstructing the buildings. During the Opium War of the 19th century, Yuyuan Garden was severely damaged. The Yuyuan Garden you see today is the result of a five year restoration project which began in 1956. The garden was open to the public in September, 1961. Yuyuan Garden occupies an area of 20,000 square meters (about five acres). However, the small size is not a representative of the attractions of the garden. The pavilions, halls, rockeries, ponds and cloisters all have unique characteristics. There are six main scenic areas in the garden: Sansui Hall, Wanhua Chamber, Dianchun Hall, Huijing Hall, Yuhua Hall and the Inner Garden. Each area features several scenic spots within its borders.
Source: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanghai/yuyuan_garden.htm
This was an incredibly beautiful home with amazing architecture, stone paved walkways, decorative arches, and koi ponds. One of the highlights was having all of us clap to bring the fish to our area. When they hear the sound, they believe they will be fed. Luckely Tom had some
peanut butter crackers with him that we crumbled up and fed to the fish. Pat and Stephanie were luckey enough to actually put the food directly into the fish's mouth.
Another highlight was having Prof. Obi pull out his financial calculator when we were at the ATM to calculate exactly how much we had withdrawn.
The Yu Yuan Garden is surrounded by a fantastic market with architecture typical of the old Shanghai. The scenes and smells were amazing! We saw one child eating a fried frog. There was also something that looked like Chinese matzo ball soup that also looked delicious. It was a spectacular place to shop and people watch. There were even TWO Starbucks in this area.
It is particularly true that in this case a picture is worth a thousand words, so please view for yourself the wonderful scenes we saw today. I believe I took more than 100 pictures during this outing and it is SO hard to choose which ones best represent our journey. These are only a very FEW of the fantastic scenes. We hope it gives you a sense of what we've seen. Please remember that you can double click any image to enlarge it and see more detail!
After this exciting excursion, many travellers are resting up for our evening activities. Tonight is our farewell banquet and we will post more after that.
This was an incredibly beautiful home with amazing architecture, stone paved walkways, decorative arches, and koi ponds. One of the highlights was having all of us clap to bring the fish to our area. When they hear the sound, they believe they will be fed. Luckely Tom had some
peanut butter crackers with him that we crumbled up and fed to the fish. Pat and Stephanie were luckey enough to actually put the food directly into the fish's mouth.Another highlight was having Prof. Obi pull out his financial calculator when we were at the ATM to calculate exactly how much we had withdrawn.
The Yu Yuan Garden is surrounded by a fantastic market with architecture typical of the old Shanghai. The scenes and smells were amazing! We saw one child eating a fried frog. There was also something that looked like Chinese matzo ball soup that also looked delicious. It was a spectacular place to shop and people watch. There were even TWO Starbucks in this area.
It is particularly true that in this case a picture is worth a thousand words, so please view for yourself the wonderful scenes we saw today. I believe I took more than 100 pictures during this outing and it is SO hard to choose which ones best represent our journey. These are only a very FEW of the fantastic scenes. We hope it gives you a sense of what we've seen. Please remember that you can double click any image to enlarge it and see more detail!
After this exciting excursion, many travellers are resting up for our evening activities. Tonight is our farewell banquet and we will post more after that.
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