Our second day in Shanghai started with a warm bath. The bath towels were so huge that I could wrap Sonya and Clara in one and still have enough of it to dry them up.
Our next destination was Yuyuan (豫园). We took the train from Lujiazui Station (陆家嘴站) to Nanjing East Road Station (南京东路站) on Line 2 and then walked to Yuyuan. I knew it was quite a long way to walk but I forgot about all the construction and traffic. It probably took us at least 20 minutes to reach there. Little feet don't walk very fast but we made it!
There were tons of shops all housed in old Chinese buildings (I think these buildings were recently built to look old while those within Yuyuan were actual buildings) around the actual Yuyuan.
So there were jewelery stores, craft stores, food stores and eateries like Starbucks, Diary Queen, KFC, etc but all housed in these chinese buildings.
There were stores selling custom made dough figurines on the spot. It took about 30 minutes per figurine I think. I was tempted to make one each of Sonya and Clara but then thought it was too expensive.
There was a man selling flutes and demonstrating how to play one. Totally fascinated Sonya and Clara :)
The most interesting one was the mini-theatre below. In the setup, there were 4 peep-holes, one for each paying customer. The operator changed the scenery according to the story and also sang and played instruments to complement.
There was also a store selling brushes, ranging in sizes.
We finally found the entrance to Yuyuan. Just outside the entrance, Sonya and Clara found this interesting railing with the 12 animals from the chinese horoscope.
Sonya was born in the year of the monkey...
Clara was born in the year of the pig...
Justin was born in the year of the ox...
And I was born in the year of the rabbit...
It was really beautiful inside Yuyuan. I had thought that Sonya and Clara would not be interested but they enjoyed exploring the area, looking for stone lions, bridges, ponds, streams, water features, archways, caves, etc and taking photos.
They were really delighted when they found carp fish in the ponds.
These tourists started feeding the fishes with something and it was quite a sight to see all the fishes hurried in their direction :)
Got someone to help take our photo and in return, I helped took his photo :)
When you are there, you should really open your eyes and look everywhere, including the roof tops else you would be missing all the intricate details!
Look at the furniture!
Sonya and Clara were getting hungry so we wrapped up our adventure (we lost our way and couldn't find a way out!) in Yuyuan to look for some lunch. We found a food court kind of place with lots of yummy food!
There were so many but we could only eat so much.
We got these buns steamed individually in little chinese steamers. They only had soup inside and you drink the soup with a straw :) Nothing very spectacular but a novelty :)
Sonya insisted she wanted these pan-fried dumplings but didn't ate them later because they had lots of chives inside. She preferred the pan-fried buns I chose and so did Clara. I also got some glutinous rice presented in containers made from real bamboo. There were half a hard-boiled egg, chinese sausages, fish cake and vegetables on top. Also, more of a novelty. As you probably guessed, we couldn't finish the food and packed them for Justin to try.
Outside the food court, there were even more food stores.
The one that caught my eye were these fruit pieces skewered and coated with melted candy. I was tempted to try but in the end didn't.
Then we came across another candy store. Sonya and Clara drooled at the sight but I didn't get them any because I still had candy for them in my bag and also they were just regular candies available everywhere.
The weather was really cold but the ice-cream store was still open.
While trying to figure out a way back to our hotel, we came across a very busy street selling lots of new year decorations.
After a little bargaining, I got 11 of these cute little tigers (next lunar year is the year of the tiger) for the price of 10. That was the best offer I got after enquiring from 3 different shops. Besides these tigers, we also got little things from peddlers during our stay in Shanghai. I was amused at how high their initial selling price were and how much they were willing to cut it just to get you to buy. For example, a woman initially wanted 30 yuan for a paper kite, then she reduced the price to 20 yuan and when we walked away, she offered 2 for 20 yuan!
It was quite a stressful time for me when we tried to find our way back to the hotel from Yuyuan. I had wanted to walk back the way we came but it was cold and started drizzling too. I gave in and decided we should just get a cab. When I finally got one, he asked me where I was going and then he told me I should cross the road and get one from there instead. The streets were crazy crowded with cars and the only way to cross the roads was to just brace yourself and go for it but with two little ones, it was just hard :( Well, we made it across the street without getting knocked down by the cars but had a hard time getting another cab. We walked and walked and eventually managed to get one. While in the cab, it went over a pot hole or hump or something and the trunk of the cab opened. I am sure the driver knew but he just continued driving all the way back to our hotel. When we reached the hotel, the doormen thought that I had some luggage or something in the trunk and cab driver had opened the trunk for them to help me with the luggage. They looked inside and couldn't find anything. They even came up to me and double checked with me that I had nothing inside. I was at a lost for words :)
After the usual afternoon nap (Sonya and Clara still suffering from jet lag), it was time for dinner with Justin.
We found this Old Shanghai restaurant next to the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower and thought we'll have dinner there. We asked to look at the menu from the waitresses the door. They gave us the menu to look at and when we said it was fine and we would like to have dinner there, they told us the restaurant was not open that day (probably had some private function or something)! We ended up at 干锅居 (literally translated meaning Dry Wok Place).
It was an interesting dining experience. They had a stove in the middle of the table. They served certain dishes in small woks, partially cooked and then finished the cooking at the table.
Many of the dishes were spicy so we ordered a chicken dish for Sonya and Clara (they didn't really liked it though).
They preferred these deep-fried rolls with sesame seeds. They each ate 2 rolls leaving none for Justin and myself :)
We ordered another dish which contained these snail-like things. Actually I am not sure if they were snails or some shellfish. Justin said, according to Darwin, they should be snails :) Now, before you start frowning, I am sure you have heard of escargots, a french delicacy.
Actually, they tasted fine, pretty much like an escargot or one of the many shellfish that you find in Singapore, except in some of them we found these little crunchy bits inside, kind of like diced fresh water chestnuts. We looked and the crunchy bits were actually baby snails! They didn't have much taste except that I felt guilty eating them. It was like I was killing a baby snail with every crunch. I don't think I would eat them again if I ever have another chance.
Next Place of Interest: Shanghai Aquarium
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