Tourist Monday

So Monday was my first day as a proper Shanghai tourist! I started the day off by retracing my steps from the day before and rediscovering snack street. I managed to find it – but definitely got lost first in the underbelly of the back of the market, where all the locals live. I felt a bit intrusive, as all the locals were just having breakfast, old people were playing mahjong (Chinese game) and cards around small tables, with babies running around in the special Chinese baby trousers that show their bottoms.

I finally found some brunch and went on my way to the first tourist attraction of my day, which was ‘The Propaganda Poster Art Museum’. Despite the slightly sinister location in the basement of an apartment block, the gallery itself was really good. It was divided into seven chronological sections and had English signs explaining everything like the slogans and seismic events such as ‘The Great Leap Forward’ and ‘Cultural Revolution’. I really enjoyed it. There was a gift shop at the end, where you could buy original items that had managed to survive the Cultural Revolution – where the government burned most propaganda, literature and art, closed schools and buried 460 scholars alive!

Following the museum, I headed over to the Jade Buddha Temple. This is a really pretty temple with a pair of jade Buddhas that were brought over from Burma more than a century ago. One of them is in the left teahouse of the temple, which seems a bit random, but the other is in its own private staffed room, where you cannot get closer than around 3 meters away from the Buddha, which is behind glass. It is a very enchanting room. You were really not allowed to take photos though, so there isn’t one of this.

However, the thing that charmed me the most, whilst I was at the temple, was whilst I was in the gardens. There was a lovely pond with multicolored lily pads and flowers, and there was a beautiful, elegant, young Chinese girl who was feeding the koi fish in the pond, however she wasn’t just feeding them, she was also stroking them, and the fish were letting her! I was so enthralled, I watched her feed the whole pouch of fish food to them, it was such a graceful thing to witness. I was also shocked to find out that koi fish generally live to be 200 years old and the oldest current living Chinese koi fish is 226!

 

After the temple, I made my way to an area called ‘M50’. It is a cultural zone that has been created from a former warehouse district into a really trendy art hub. M50 is on the banks of the murky Suzhou Creek and its exposed brickwork is deliciously raw and grimy. I was really surprised as I entered the place, that there was graffiti, as there isn’t any anywhere else in Shanghai! 

There is so much amazing modern Chinese art and sculptures. There were hand made porcelain items, artists working in dusty corners of workshops and also exhibitions. It was awesome! Some of it had quite political messages which I thought was interesting. I also saw a wish tree.

Whilst I was here, I decided to get some jasmine tea, which arrived inside a gorgeous porcelain teapot and ‘chabei’ 茶杯 (teacup) – the lady serving me told me how to say it in Chinese! She explained that ‘Cha’ is tea and ‘bei’ (pronounced like baby) is cup! She gave me her card and told me that if I was in Shanghai again, to give her a call and she would help me to learn Chinese! Everyone is so friendly here! Here I read my book and relaxed for a while!

After wandering around the gorgeous galleries, during my commute home, I walked around the market in people square metro, I just loved all the kitsch, girly, blingy items like the phone covers, there was even one which had a little “Louis Vuitton’ handbag complete with charms! So funny! I feel like I’m being such a Chinese adolescent with all these things!

So difficult to type my blog though!