Shanghai

Last week was midterms so I got 4 days off and decided to go to Shanghai. Originally I wasn't very excited but after reading all of the books and websites I heard it was dubbed as the NY of China. It didn't quite live up to the hype, but I still had a good time.

These pictures are from Fuxi park in the city. Erik and I kinda stumbled on it on accident, it was pretty cool though, we ended up spending most of the day there.

A shooting game aimed to kill all of the endangered species. The funny thing was most of the kids couldn't even hold the gun up straight, I think it was for the parents really.

There was dancing in the park, some couples were pretty hard core about it. This lady was a bit crazy in the head and took to dancing with her red tea bottle.

Kids loved these row boats, I loved those plastic wheel things in the background. We were going to go on them but they were expensive. I think this is a genius idea if you have a rowdy kid. Kids would go on enthusiastically and within 10 mins would be lying down because they were pooped from running. We even saw a mom with her 7 month old baby go on, I don't know how she thought that would work out. I was picturing a human dryer scenario in my head, after a while she too gave up and took to lounging inside.

Shanghai museum. I wasn't too impressed, I feel like I have seen better exhibits at the Asian Art Museum in SF. Especially the Ming Dynasty exhibit my mom took me to before I left for China. I kinda feel like China sells itself to the highest bidder, like all of it's true masterpeices are somewhere else in the world because they were willing to sell it for a quick buck. I don't know if this is true, or if I am just jaded from the plethora of China history memorabilia I have been exposed to throughout my life. I liked the calligraphy exhibit the most, in some pieces you could see the different emphasis placed on different words from the abrupt brush strokes to the different sizes of each character.

A cute street in the French Concession, very colorful.

Finally, I am too tall for something! I knew China wouldn't let me down.

The Bund, Shanghai's famous skyline.

Yu Gardens/Old Town. This area furthered my conviction that China sells out, in this small complex there was traditional folk craft, (aka small clay figurines of your head, your picture etched on a stone, your name written in Chinese), a Haagen Daz, and 2 Starbucks.

The Shanghai World Expo 2010 mascot. Shanghai is doing crazy amounts of preparation! A good deal of Shanghai was under construction which made me really nervous to walk under anything and took away from some of the beauty. This guy was everywhere you turned, even at McDonalds!