13 July 2018, Friday

It was our second day in Shanghai and we started it by having a very sumptuous breakfast at the hotel. That is one of the good things about staying in a hotel – you don’t have to worry about finding food early in the morning or the night before, and you start the day on a good note with a buffet spread of your favourite things.

Once we were well fed, we headed out at 10am and proceeded to our first destination – Yuyuan (豫园), or Yu Garden, about 10 minutes’ walk away from our hotel. We paid CNY 30 (S$6.26) for standard admission while the seniors in our group enjoyed a discounted rate of CNY 15.

Yuyuan was a private garden built in 1559 and it belonged to Pan Yunduan, a government official during the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). It is an excellent model of classical Chinese gardening architecture. The garden occupies an area of over two hectares and it contains numerous gardens, pavilions, bridges, rockeries, decorative halls and lakes.

Yuyuan is divided into six scenic areas – Sansui Hall (三穂堂), Wanhua Chamber (万花楼), Dianchun Hall (点春堂), Huijing Hall (会景楼), Yuhua Hall (玉华堂) and the Inner Garden (内园). After entering via the main entrance, you will tour the six areas in a clockwise manner so it is pretty straightforward.

Being in Yuyuan was like stepping back in time 450 years ago. Surrounded by the magnificent gardens, beautiful pavilions and classical buildings, it is easy to forget that you are in the middle of a bustling metropolis that is modern Shanghai, with the illusion and tranquility shattered only by the din from the throngs of visitors. I particularly liked how the ends of the sloping roofs were upturned even more than usual. I also loved the dragon walls and intricate sculptures on the roofs.

We spent about an hour at Yuyuan and continued our visit at the Yuyuan Bazaar, located right next to the garden. There were plenty of shops selling traditional crafts, snacks, souvenirs and more. The bazaar comprised of many small lanes and shops so we went our separate ways for some free-and-easy shopping. It was touristy for sure, something like our Chinatown in Singapore.

After regrouping at about 1:15pm, we had a quick bite of Shanghai pan-fried buns, which were pretty tasty. Following that, dad and I proceeded to buy our Huangpu river cruise tickets while the rest of the group continued with their shopping. They later went back to the hotel to deposit their shopping and take a break. The heat was unforgiving as the mercury reached a sizzling 33 degrees, though it felt much warmer than that.

From Yuyuan, dad and I walked to the ticket office at Shiliu Pu Pier/Wharf (十六铺码头), about 10 minutes’ away on foot. The Huangpu river cruise runs hourly from 11am to 10pm and it costs CNY 120 (S$25) for the 50-minute tour. There is no discount for seniors. We bought tickets for the 8pm slot as we wanted the sky to be sufficiently dark so that we could have a nice night view of Shanghai.

After securing our tickets, dad and I took the Metro from Yuyuan and alighted at Shanghai Science & Technology Museum station, five stops away. Our purpose of coming here was to recce the so-called “Fake Market”. According to a brochure that I read, this is the only remaining market left in Shanghai selling counterfeit goods, hence its nickname “Fake Market”.

It is an indoor market with hundreds of stalls selling clothes, bags, shoes and more. Our intention was not really to buy fake items, but more to see if the place was worth making a trip down for some affordable shopping, something different from the high-end department stores. We decided that it was worth a visit after all, and relayed our intelligence report to the rest of the group as we made our way back to the hotel. We would come back here tomorrow with our shopping bags and wallets ready.

We then spent the afternoon resting in the comfort of our rooms, because it was simply too hot outside. The heat was really draining, even for us Singaporeans, who are used to having summer season all year round. At about 5:15pm, we headed out again for dinner before making our way to Shiliu Pu to get ready for our river cruise. We arrived at 6:50pm, an hour before our cruise was due to begin. We spent the time taking photos and watching the sky turn steadily darker as the sun set.

As we stood on the waterfront admiring the beautiful skyline across the Huangpu River, it was remarkable to know that the whole Pudong area used to be farmland less than 30 years ago. Indeed, during my first visit to Shanghai in 2001, many of the skyscrapers didn’t even exist. What a huge transformation in just a short period of time. China is really progressing at a frightening pace. Here are some more throwback pictures from 2001:

At 8pm, our cruise started. Unsurprisingly, the ship was quite full as the night river cruise is one of the must-do activities in Shanghai. We toured the Huangpu River in an anti-clockwise direction, first going close to the Pudong side and sailing up to the Yangpu Bridge before making a U-turn and coming back, close to the Puxi and Bund side.    

On the Pudong side, the obvious highlights were the three skyscrapers – Shanghai Tower (632m), Shanghai Financial World Center (492m) and Jin Mao Tower (421m). The twisting, sleek Shanghai Tower holds the distinction of being the world’s second tallest building, behind only the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Not to be outdone by the three buildings, which came later, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (468m) remains the original skyscraper and the most iconic building in Pudong. Its distinctive shape makes it one of the most instantly recognisable buildings in the world. The two large spheres and thin columns reminded me a little of the Atomium building in Brussels.

Many of the other buildings on Pudong also sport fancy LED facades and lighting displays. It looks like the future has already arrived. No wonder Tom Cruise chose to film Mission: Impossible III here, and that was back in 2006.

Over on the Puxi side, we saw the Monument to the People’s Heroes, a 24m-tall structure with three pillars, representing three rifles leaning against each other. It was erected in 1993 to commemorate those who died during the communist revolution. From afar, it looked very much like our Civilian War Memorial in Singapore, which was built in 1967 and has four pillars to represent the four major races.

For the last part of the cruise, we sailed past the Bund. From the ship, we could see all the 52 buildings stretched over the 1.5km-long waterfront. The colonial era buildings came in a variety of architectural styles, including Gothic, Baroque and Neoclassical. It was truly an impressive sight, especially at night with the lighting.

Following the end of the cruise, we slowly made our way back to our hotel. As we walked along Renmin Road, we came across an open plaza in front of Yuyuan Erdos Plaza, where we saw dozens of locals dancing. There were three different groups blasting music and people were dancing away happily.

Naturally, my parents, uncles and aunts joined in. I must add that my parents have been practicing ballroom dancing for over 20 years and they are excellent dancers. I always love to watch them dance. My uncles and aunts have also been social dancing or line dancing for years, so it was a wonderful way to end the day.