"Chinatown" in Shanghai

so after lunch we headed to the old Chinese area of Shanghai and the Ming dynasty era Yuyuan Garden which is located within this old city area known as the Yuyuan Bazaar (which is recently built but in Ming style)- We walked through the bazaar area to get to the garden- toured the garden and then went back through the bazaar area- to see more food and shops...

these giant soup dumplings looked so appealing! - you sip the soup through the straw and then have the meat filled dumpling! oh yum!!!

 
the map gives an idea of how big an area this is and how much shopping and food surround the garden which is a fairly good size in itself-

the whole bazaar are is built in the style of the building shown below-

 
we enter the garden-

 

a regular sight- we are not the only tourists here- despite the fact that we tend to think all Chinese are local- LOL

we exit the garden and return through the bazaar- where as you can see below- we encounter more food!

and more shopping streets-

we skirt the boundary of the garden to see the famous tea house-

there are many unusual and unrecognizable food objects- and sometimes we are grateful not to know- LOL

and of course no heavily populated area would be without them-  - - the golden arches- shown here in Chinese characters so you will recognize it in the future- LOL

we head back to the hotel and then later, after dinner at the fabulous Lost Heaven, out for a walk along the Bund which is lit up until ten o'clock.  It is our last night in Shanghai and we have barely scratched the surface of what it has to offer- we all agree we loved our time here and would return in a flash... tomorrow we move on to Hangzhou on a morning fast train.  But tonight we take time to really enjoy the evening out with many others just strolling the Bund- with the views of Pudong all lit up and creating a light show nearly as spectacular as the one we saw in Yangshou...on the Li River...

below I have a series of photos that show how the building lights in Pudong change over the course of minutes- there is a never ending combination of views-

so off to packing and then bed in our fabulously luxurious hotel - the time in Shanghai has been one of the highlights of the trip... we have been to Hong Kong in 2002, 2005, 2009, and 2013 - and for the 2005 trip we were there for five days... so we know Hong Kong fairly well but Shanghai has previously required a visa and so we shied away from visiting- but now there are several new factors that make it much more likely to be a destination of choice- 1. getting a visa in Chicago is not too difficult since we have a consulate there- 2. we can get a non stop flight there from Chicago- and 3. we now know what we have been missing all these years only using Hong Kong as our multi-day transit point... further - now China has a 72 hour no visa policy for those who come through Shanghai for points onward in Asia.... so- we will be back!!!!!!