Shanghai - Day 1

I now return to my trip to Shanghai, which I mentioned in my train post a few days ago.  The first day was super-busy because I thought I was going to go on a day-trip the next day to a nearby rivertown.  After I woke up, I wandered off into Shanghai in search of a french cafe I'd read about in the book.  It was somewhere in this cute European-style courtyard full of cafes and bars, but I couldn't find it! I ended up having German-style sausage for breakfast instead.

After breakfast, I stumbled upon the house where the Chinese Communist Party was born.  There were many many signs like this, as well as pictures and personal objects that belonged to the party founders.  There were also life-size wax replicas of the founding fathers, including a young-looking Mao, in the upstairs room where the first meeting took place.

In general, many historic or touristic sites in Shanghai had a very anti-Western and anti-colonialist theme to them, with dramatic language denouncing the humiliation and defeat that China experienced at Western hands.  I guess this makes sense since Shanghai was the treaty port that was originally divided up by colonialist powers after the Opium Wars.  It has led to a mixed identity in modern times however; they seem to express resentment towards foreign powers but also are very happy to be the most modern city in mainland China and to have a recent history of trade and progress.

While Shanghai did feel very modern, there were plenty of scenes like this still as well; he is cleaning oysters.

After the Communist party museum, I headed to Yiyuan Garden, an ancient Qing garden in the old part of Shanghai.  The garden itself was surrounded by a warren of alleys and courtyards, filled with people selling all sorts of 'ancient' and not-so-ancient Chinese souvenirs and products.

Inside the garden, there were many beautiful lakes with trees, flowers, and rock formations.  It reminded me of parts of the Summer Palace in Beijing. 

One of my favorite parts was the intricate stonework on the floor, with forever-changing patterns:

In the garden, there be dragons:

After escaping from the bazaars surrounding the garden, I made it out to another famous part of Shanghai, the walk along the Bund.  The 'bund' is an old word to mean embankment, and is the stretch of river in Shanghai where the British, French, and others built many of their most important buildings.  Today, it is an impressive stretch of scenery with cool old architecture on one side, and the river and cool new architecture on the other!

These are some of the most famous skyscrapers; the one on the far left is a TV tower, while the one on the far right is the Shanghai Financial Center.

I went across the river and up inside the Financial Center, which has the world's tallest observation deck on the 101st floor!

Here is the view from the top of the Financial center.  I was there just as day turned into night, so I got to watch the progression as lights came on all over the city.  It was pretty impressive and was the perfect thing to cap off my first day in Shanghai.