Day 8, Thursday afternoon
Shanghai, Chinatown

Photo by Lucie Field

After the Maglev train ride we headed for Chinatown in Shanghai. It seemed funny to be going to Chinatown when we were already in China, but this was a tourist area where we could spend some of our remaining yuans before leaving China the next day.

To the west of the Bund, further away from the Huangpu river, is the oldest part of Shanghai. This area was originally a walled city but in 1911 when the Qing dynasty ended and the Republic began, the walls came down. This was an area where the foreigners never came in the 1800s and early 1900s because they had their own compounds in other parts of the city.

Photo by Gene Field

The area is a maze of narrow alleys and short streets and is a very busy place. In the middle of all the hustle and bustle is the Yu Yuan Gardens which is an area of calm in the center of the storm, a place to retreat, built in the 1500s.

By the front of the Gardens, in the middle of a lake, is a famous teahouse, the Huxinting (or Huxin Ting) Teahouse. To get to the teahouse, one must cross a bridge that twists and turns many times so that evil spirits, who travel in a straight line, cannot enter the teahouse.


Photo by Gene Field

One of my projects there was to find a mask for a friend who collects masks from around the world. I found one place down a short, narrow alley that had several different masks. I saw one I liked and was looking at it but decided to remember the spot and then look around to see what else I could find. The shopkeeper ran after me, lowering the price, begging me to buy. I said I would be back, but I know she didn't understand me. I never did find another mask as nice, so I later went back, retracing my route carefully, and purchased the mask. It wasn't more than 9 inches high, made of wood, and fairly light, so I had no packing worries.

I finally caught up with Lucie and Gene. They had been taking pictures all over the bazaar. Tired of walking, we went into a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream shop, sat down at a small table and ordered ice cream - the first we had had since leaving home - and rested our weary feet. Lucie had managed to find a little shop that sold pots of all kinds, including teapots. She led me there and I bought a small one, similar to the one she had bought earlier.

After walking around a bit longer, we worked our way to the entrance where we had to gather at a certain time for dinner. The place we had dinner, across the street from the bazaar, was a modern building with many floors. The first floors were like a department store for tourists and then up several floors was a large restaurant. Usually, the buses in our tour went to various places in a staggered pattern so we were not all at the same place at the same time. I think most of us had dinner at this restaurant though and most of the group had been to Chinatown. Those who had not gone on the Maglev train ride had gone earlier. This was our last dinner in China, and. like most of our meals, was superb.

When we finished, our tour guides led us outside to the waiting buses and many of us headed to the optional night cruise on the Huangpu River to see the lights of the Bund and the Pudong area. It was dark now and the lights of the Yuyuan Bazaar gave it a totally different look.