With another week standing between me and my job, sitting around at home gets boring rather quickly. I figured my time would be best spent exploring. A few days prior I had attempted to find the Yuyuan Gardens but failed so I decided that a second attempt was in order. The Yuyuan Gardens sit in the middle of Old Shanghai which possesses some of the coolest architecture to be seen in the city.
Upon exiting the subway at the Yuyuan metro stop I looked around and was unable to locate Old Shanghai. I wandered aimlessly for awhile until spotting the architecture popping up over the skyline. I took off through the side streets until eventually they opened up to reveal my destination.
At first, as I strolled through the area, the amount of shops selling souvenirs did not faze me. However as I continued to walk I realized "Old Shanghai" had been taken over with souvenirs and fast food. This was rather upsetting as I was expecting a more historical experience. As I continued to wade through all the shops, I eventually stumbled into the Yuyuan Gardens.
Thankfully the wall surrounding this area kept the businesses out and the history in. The area was full of bamboo trees and small historic buildings. A pond sat right in the middle filled with massive fish. When you clapped they came right up to you and some people touched them. The area was very peaceful and relaxing. Content with my time of relaxation I headed toward the exit.
Once back out in the shopping area I realized just how touristy this area was. In my two weeks here I have averaged seeing about ten to twenty foreigners in a day. There were easily hundreds of tourists in the area. This made me realize the desire for so many people to set up shop here with the amount of money these people bring in. Not wishing to spend any of my own money, I headed off in search of the subway.
