2012-02 Shanghai

 The first few days in Shanghai, I stayed on the western side of town near the Hongqiao Train station.  This was  a new part of town for me, so I took the opportunity to explore the area.  there were many parks on this side of town with both sculptures and nice landscaping.  This time of year, many of the trees are bare, but one particular tree that is very common has white bark that stands out as they line the streets.  Many of them had been trimmed back almost to the trunk, so it would be interesting to see how they grow in this spring.

One interesting thing I was was how one of the local phone company was using their telephone booths as WiFi hotspots that could be accessed along the streets and in nearby buildings.  There still are many phone booths and pay phones around, but I never saw anyone using them





On Sunday evening, I went XinTanDi for dinner.  It is a combination of some older buildings housing many restaurants and a large new shopping complex.  Outside the complex was a year of the dragon sculpture made up of metal and lights.

My last sop for the evening was at YuYuan Gardens.  Besides the gardens, which were already closed, are many shops selling local souvenirs and goods.  It is a fun place to walk through and enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of Shanghai.  As I approached the area I was asked to take a picture of a young couple in front of one of the brightly lit building.  I complied and we started to chat.  They invited me to a tea tasting event nearby, but I declined.  On the way home, another couple asked me to take their photo in front of the same building.  We chatted, and they too asked me to go with them to a tea tasting event nearby, so now I figured this was one way that they were trying to get tourist to come and buy some stuff making it look like just a casual meeting when it was all staged