Bund – Old Customs House

There are pics today. This was the last day touring. We were very lucky. We had a cold day with rain yesterday while we were touring museums. Today we had beautiful weather — sunny with mildly warm temperatures. We started out seeing the Bund area. This is the area where colonial powers built their Shanghai offices in the early 1900s. It’s the area where there were signs posted saying things like “No Dogs or Chinese Allowed”. The Chinese have preserved and repurposed these buildings. And every one of them flies several prominent PRC (People’s Republic of China) flags. The picture you see here is of the old customs building. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a good picture of the row of all the Bund buildings flying their flags. It’s too bad, because it’s an impressive sight.

Bund – New Buildings

Yu Garden

In 1900, the sidewalk I took this picture from was a tow path where Chinese pulled boats upstream. There was farm land across the river. The area was artificially created (much like Miami, FL; but 100 years earlier). Today, the scene across the river has Shanghai’s tallest and most modern sky scrapers. Foundations run 65 meters deep to find bedrock. The tall building with a square hole in the center is a Japanese building. Originally, the hole was supposed to be round. The Chinese objected because it looked too much like the Japanese flag. (Feelings against the Japanese still run deep.) The Japanese resisted. The Chinese stopped building. The building sat incomplete until the Japanese changed their plans.

Yu Garden

Our next visit was to the famous Yu Gardens. These were built by Pan Yunduan starting in 1559. I’m including several pics. The Dragon Wall has an interesting story. Only the Emperor was permitted to have a dragon statue or image. Pan thought this would not be a problem because Shanghai is so far away from Beijing. But the Emperor went on a tour of southern China. When he visited the garden, he demanded to know how Pan dared use the dragon likeness. Pan was quite clever. Under the dragon’s head is a frog. If you blow the picture up, you can just barely see the frog in relief. Pan said he was the frog, and the dragon was the emperor. This wall was a symbol that he would forever be the subject of his emperor. After lunch we had a visit to the very un-inspiring Shanghai Planning Center. Tonight we will have our farewell dinner. Tomorrow we travel home.

Yu Garden

Yu Bonzi Trees

Yu Fish

Last of the Fish Food

Dragon Wall

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