Day 2

Hello, this is us on day 2 in this beautiful district of old town. Located to the south of the Bund, the old Chinese city was a walled fishing town when the British arrived in 1843. Modern Shanghai grew up around it. It used to be a maze of tiny alleys, but the streets have been widened in recent years and are crowded with tourists. At the center of the Old City are the Chenghuang Temple and the Yu Garden, in which stands the Huxining Teahouse, said to be the model for the design on the willow-pattern plates much loved by Europeans in another era. The Bridge of Nine Turns zigzags to make it difficult for evil spirits to get across (since, as is well known, evil spirits have problems with corners). The Yu Garden is a classical Chinese garden with over 30 pavilions linked by a maze of corridors and bridges over ponds. It literally means the Garden of Peace and Comfort.

The Yu Yuan Garden is over 400 years old and its owner spent all his savings and 20 years building it to please his parents. Over forty spots, divided by dragon walls, wound corridors and beautiful flowers, form an unique picture featuring “one step, one beauty; every step, every beauty.”

We then had jasmine tea in the Huxining Teahouse, the one with the zigzag bridge over the pond where thousands of Chinese tourists were eating their fast food - dumplings with chop sticks.

The teahouse is a very old pagoda and all its corners are used for romantic tables with a view to the pond all around the wooden building.

All around the garden there is this huge bazaar which is another maze of narrow shopping streets with tiny shops selling everything from sweet water pearls (I've seen this beautiful necklace priced at around 140 €, which in 2 secs would already be mine for half), silk dresses, jade, teas, traditional ornaments. One stand that made us stop was this one where what was being sold were cut-outs of red paper framed against a white background. These were the most exquisite cut outs I've ever seen, I wish we took a pic. The man was quickly cutting the paper and out of that a garden would appear, with all the details of trees, birds and all little things alike. If you only saw the tiny size of this, you'd understand me.

We just had time to come back home, slip into something nicer and off we went to have dinner at a Thai restaurant in a private compounds with a few buildings where a wedding reception was taking place in one of the many pavilions around. This restaurant, Lan Na Thai, is on the 2nd floor of this colonial house located in the heart of the city, behind bustling Mao Ming Road. It's a gorgeous old country house with a huge lawn that makes you feel like you're in some rural garden idyll. The old-world interior décor includes ancient South East Asian and Indian artefacts, arranged so tastefully you half feel you've stumbled into a Country Life magazine shoot. Offset this with handsome hardwood floors and the latest ambient/lounge tunes and you'll begin to sense a certain melding of eras, at Face bar. The owner was a British businessman, Mr. Morris who was a boss of the dog-racing course in the 1920’s (now the flower market).

After a gorgeous dinner, scrumptious indeed, we moved on to a very trendy club (Bar Rouge)where from the terrace we enjoy the city from the standpoint of an early 20th century citizen, mixed with views on all things modern that Shanghai is building. It's decadence at its best, with flaming buckets of Moet champagne and burning bars with real fire and Shanghai dolls looking for business among the hundreds of foreigners around.

I'll post the correspondent pictures later, the blog is against me! As usual...