Shanghai, China – Part 1
Day 1-2 of our Shanghai surprise: China’s biggest city is our home for a few days before we fly to Hong Kong to begin a 4-week lecture series voyage through SE Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia. We were in Beijing last fall but this is our first visit to Shanghai and we are loving it. In the culinary world, Shanghai is known for its soup dumplings and we are getting our fill.
We began today with a tour of the Yuyuan Gardens, near the City of God temple in Shanghai. We meandered and did some shopping at the Yuyuan Bazaar, with beautiful Chinese architecture and hundreds of shops and soup dumpling vendors. We got a huge soup dumpling as a late morning snack! The dumpling is so big, you have to suck the broth out through a straw! Soooo good! We toured the Bund and took photos of the amazing city skyline.
From there, we traveled outside the city to the Zhujiajiao Water Town, a city of canals often compared to Venice. We wandered around historic gardens, took a boat ride down the canals and had an incredible lunch while overlooking the canals.
We encountered a few young women in traditional dress posing for photos in this ancient city. I snapped a few photos to capture their remarkable beauty.
China is a wonder. It is clean, organized, efficient and its people are curious, endlessly friendly and welcoming. The food is beyond expectations and we are looking forward to exploring even more of this incredible city over the next few days.
