Shanghai has so many things to do, and it really is overwhelming to plan, so we didn’t. This day, we decided to go away from the city, and visited the Hanxiang (Water Expo) Garden, which actually was a bridge garden. By that I mean, and you’ll see, that it was a constructed park with many ponds that had a variety of bridges from different Chinese eras going back thousands of years, to the Qing, Ming and Republic of China eras, but all built in the recent past. We did not know that was what it was when we made the trek however; we were expecting a flower garden, silly us. But the park surprised, in the best of ways.
It was truly out in the country, as we passed many green fields and farms, and were getting a bit worried that we would have a problem finding a ride back. It is not well visited, that was for sure, as we saw only a handful of other visitors that cloudy day. The first thing we saw upon entering was a huge tree, estimated to be over 6,000 years old. It was truly massive. The white on the bottom of the tree is lyme to keep bugs away, and is found on almost every tree in China.
There were pale pink cherry blossoms right by the entrance. The pale pink variety were all over Shanghai, as opposed to the bright pink ones we saw in Kunming.
The bridges were so cool, and here are just some of the many pictures we took while exploring the park (and it was a big park!).
Us on the various bridges:
There were a few kind of dragon/lion creatures used as post toppers on the bridges, and they had a cool perspective of their own.
One bridge also had all the creatures/animals of the Lunar New Year, with my Rooster and Jessica’s Horse, but the horse head had been broken off sadly.
There were a couple cool statues as well, one of an old man contemplating, another of a famous landscape artist, and a huge rock.
We did see some beautiful flowers and flowering trees, so that was a cool bonus.
Another rainy day we visited the Jade Buddha Temple, which is closer to downtown Shanghai (as you can see by tall buildings in the background). It is a very nice temple, with dark wood buildings, and beautiful Buddhas. This temple felt new, but there was no entrance fee for it, we figured it must be in a nice area to collect donations. We were even lucky enough to see a ceremony with many monks, chanting, and beating drums.
Of course, there were a few bonsai trees as well.
Maybe it was the rain, or maybe it was the newness (as there is a more reverent feeling being in a religious structure that is old), or just maybe we had just seen too many temples in our 2 months in China, but we didn’t stay too long at the Temple. We didn’t even find or see the Jade Buddha. Oh well, maybe next time. More wanderings around Shanghai forthcoming!
Phil's WayPastCool 