Day four - China - Culture day!

So on our fourth day in China it was time to check out some of the art galleries and muesuems and become more cultured! I was quite excited about this, I guess when you have lived in New Zealand your whole life "old" is something from the 19th Century. China is of course MUCH older than New Zealand so I was looking forward to seeing what the muesuems had to offer.

We started of our day at the people's square gardens, I'm not sure if this area was a student are OR it was just because it was the weekend but a lot more people wanted to speak english to us in this area. Most people seemed to know where New Zealand was, and that Wellington was the capital and about Lord of the Rings. Which was all in good fun - the gardens at people's square we also pretty nice.





After a week look around the garden's it was time to hit the gallery, I think the main difference between art galleries in New Zealand and in China is that in China the gallery folk are perfectly happy for you to take photo's of the artists works. Which to me seems a little crazy! Even as I was taking the photo's below I was expecting some angry gallery type to come up and demand I delete the photo's I had taken - but no - it's completely acceptable. A bit of a change in mind set for me.













Once we had see all the art we needed to see it was time to head back out into the incredibly HOT Shanghai weather, have some lunch, and head to the muesuem.

On the way to the muesuem we stopped off at a hotel know as "Tommorrow's Square" as we had read in the lonely planet (or perhaps been told by someone in the hostel - I forget which) that the view from up there was pretty cool (and free!) and as you can see there was a pretty amazing view!

And also a view of the tommorrow's square building itself....
Once we had all taken in the view - we headed over to check out the muesuem.

By the time it came to leave the muesuem it was hitting dusk, so we decided to walk to one of the area's in Shanghai know as a bit of a shopping district.

The shopping district was a bit of a shock after our day of (sometimes pretty ancient!) culture at the muesuem...but after four days in China...I was already getting to the stage where the extreme contrasts didn't bother me too much!






So after a day of culture and shopping it was time to head home - but not before we checked out the Hero's Monumount on the Bund River. But here's a couple of things we saw on the way to the monument. Firstly - Brides!! The weird thing was - there was another couple standing next to these two couple - I just couldn't fit everyone in the shot!
I also found Chairman Mao along the Bund that night.....

Finally the Hero's Monument!



Phew! After all that it was time for a well earned sleep!

Day four in China - Jade Buddha Temple

Day four in China was the day that we spent visiting one of the places I had been looking forward to the most - the Jade Buddha Temple!

On the way to the temple though we stopped off to pick up our tickets to the Chinese Acrobats later on in the week.

We then headed off to see the amazing Jade Buddha Temple, and after avoiding all the people trying to sell us stuff outside the temple (and also avoiding the dodgy men who wanted the take us for a "tour" of the temple). The inside of the temple was really amazing - everything I had hoped it would be.














After spending time in the Jade Buddha Temple we tried to decide what to do next, eventually it was decided to go to an old refurbished part of the city which had art and antique markets. Whilst the art and antique markets weren't as exciting as I hoped - we did get our names put onto little kitty beads! Good times!

China - Day three - Century Park

So our third day in China was spent shopping, sweltering (the weather was very hot!) and at the park. Shopping and Sweltering arn't the most interesting topics I thought I would focus on the park - Century Park to be precise.

We made our way to the Park on the Metro and on the way we stopped at the "fakes" market which resulted in me spending far too much money on accessories. But then who doesn't need a tiara I ask you?

After the stop off at the fakes market we made our way to Century Park - the final walk there from the Metro Station was kind of cool as you had to walk along a long cobbled walkway which gave you a wonderful view of Shanghai.

When we made it to Century Park the next question was - what IS the best way to get around? We could have walked - but why walk when you also have the option of a little pedal car or a boat. Given the condition of the lake the boat was going to have to float on (it wasn't too clean) we decided on the pedal car. Which was great fun for us and for all the Chinese people hanging out at the park who thought three white girls in a pedal car was a great joke!

After the adventures in the park it was time for shopping, then on the way back we came across another interesting park area. You have got to love all the parks in Shanghai!

And finally - Shanghai is hosting the world expo in 2010 so this guy HAD to turn up some where in this blog! He's the mascott for the expo - but I'm not sure what he is?