Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Shanghaied in Tuscany!
A day of contrasts
| Something old and something fake, A pick-me-up that hampered. Somewhere French, a scrumptious lunch, And bodies duly pampered. |
Oh my, I seem to have taken a mysterious poetic turn - not sure what brought that on! Hopefully all will become apparent as the story unfolds!
The two main sight-seeing objectives today were Nanshi, the Old Town area, and Luwan, better known to Westerners as the (former) French Concession. After a reasonably early breakfast, we walked the short distance to the Old Town area and quickly arrived at the first line of my little introduction. Yuyuan is a classical Chinese garden dating back over 400 years. More recently, the entrance to it has become surrounded by a somewhat Disneyfied recreation of traditional Chinese streets, which is actually not as bad as it sounds, the highlight being the Bridge of Nine Turns.
When we had seen enough of the Old Town area, we took a cab to Luwan. It proved easy this time, as we discovered a couple of pages in Bruce's guide book with lots of potential destinations written in Chinese. We pointed to the Cathay Cinema, the driver instantly nodded, and we were on our way, feeling that we were well up on the day's outline schedule. Reflecting its history, the area did have something of a European feel to it, with attractive tree-lined streets. I really liked it, yet I have few photographs; it was more a question of overall atmosphere than specific sights. After a lengthy stroll, we found ourselves on Donghu Road, which was lined with cafes, bars and restaurants. Feeling like a well-deserved rest, we went into a rather trendy-looking bar where red featured heavily in the decoration and, sticking to the theme, ordered a Campari & Soda each. They turned out to be quite unbelievably strong, even after attempting to dilute them with some sparkling water!
When we eventually decided to move on, we both found that the supposed restorative had instead sapped our remaining energy - not what was intended at all! It hardly mattered, though. We soon found ourselves back beside the little Russian Orthodox Church that we had seen earlier, and in the side street beside it was an attractive looking restaurant. We decided on an inside table as the sun was very strong again and had the most delicious oriental lunch.
After a leisurely meal, we returned to the Westin using Metro Line 1 and our old friend, Line 2. After a short spell of lounging around, it was time for the next item on the agenda. In a bout of self-indulgence, we had booked spa treatments for late afternoon. Well, why not? It seemed like a good way to unwind after all the walking, humidity, traffic fumes and intensive sight-seeing. It did indeed prove to be an incredibly relaxing and therapeutic experience. Later, we had dinner in the hotel's Eest restaurant, the realisation dawning on us that our time in Shanghai was rapidly drawing to a close.