Day 221: Hanging Out in Shanghai with Randy

So most of the day today I hung out in Shanghai with Randy. Poor Kerry had to stay behind because he wasn't feeling well. He ended up going to the International Hospital near Pudong; he managed to call for an appointment and got one at 4:30. It turns out he has a bronchial infection; over 500 bucks had to be spent at the doctor. I hope Blue Cross will reimburse us.

In the meantime, Randy and I ran all over Old Town Shanghai. Long ride to get to Yu Gardens area--bus to Line 3 (Hongkou Football Stadium) to Line 8 (Siping Road) to Line 10 (Yuyuan Gardens). I had a map, and we followed some street signs, so we managed to get there okay. We were okay, so we first went to a steamed bun restaurant. Very, very tasty: it was the same place we went to with Mark and his family last term, but in a different location. We had buns stuffed with pork and some others stuffed with shrimp and pork. We also had some broccoli, which was cooked in soy sauce and also quite tasty.

After eating, we went to Yu Gardens, which was busy, but not too overly crowded today. I have been here before (last October), but I still had a good time looking around. Before we knew it, an hour had gone by. It was so interesting to hear so many different languages spoken here: Japanese, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, and English. Lots of tourists, obviously. I loved looking at all the beautiful rock formations and all the gorgeous foliage...and then especially contrasting all that beauty with the snow in Minnesota right now. Today it was 82 and sunny--really stunning. Also, I enjoyed looking at the ponds with huge koi fish and turtles...on one bridge they tended to gather and come right up to the people, presumably to be fed. It was cute!

Once we were done at Yu Gardens, we headed to the City Temple of Shanghai. It was 10 RMB. Not bad. I liked it better than Jing'an Temple--so impressive!  There were a lot of statues of gods with offerings next to them: fruits, sweets, and red ribbons as indulgences. I also saw the usual temple features: elaborate buildings with statues, incense burning, a lot of people praying. The smells of incense were wonderful and pervaded the entire temple. We really enjoyed it.

Being the Westerners we are, we made a brief stop at Dairy Queen. I ordered a Cheesecake Blizzard after I was told that they have no regular ice cream (??!). Oh well, how very China. The Blizzard I was given was basically an Oreo Blizzard with two little pieces of cheesecake. Sigh. And Randy's Rum Raisin one unexpectedly had nuts in it. Odd.

I did a bit of shopping in the bazaar area, nothing major. A hat for myself, a panda for Kerry (to ease his pain from being sick), and a couple postcards. Randy only got some postcards as well. One annoying thing about the Yu Gardens area is the constant tourist harassment: several times, people tried to entice us into buying beers, or tea, or watches?  Thank goodness I was warned about the "tea scam" at the Fulbright Orientation; I was very on my guard about this. One girl asked Randy to take her picture: he obliged, but then asked if we wanted our picture taken, too, which was suspicious to me.  That's often how a "tea scam" begins. The scammer tries to be nice and friendly, asks you to tea, and then leaves you with the bill.

The ride back was long and crowded, not surprisingly, but we survived. I made spaghetti for Randy and Kerry when I got home.

Tomorrow, Randy and I will go to Xi'an. Kerry is too sick to join us after all.  :(

Pics from the day:

Randy eating steamed buns.

Koi fish at Yu Gardens, seen on the walking bridge.

Nice shot of what Yu Gardens has to offer.

One of the most beautiful shrines at the City of God Temple.

Ceiling, City of God Temple.

Yu Gardens Bazaar.