THE BUND . . .

The Bund is a famous waterfront and has been regarded as the symbol of Shanghai for hundreds of years.  It runs along the Huangpu River and is about 1500 meters.  It is considered one of the Top Ten Shanghai Attractions.   Before the 1840's the Bund was just a muddy narrow lane with tall reeds.  Shanghai was established as the trading port in 1846.  After that, a street was paved and the bank was reinforced.  Commercial buildings were built.  It was the center of Shanghai's politics, economy and culture, hundreds of years ago.  Consulates of most countries and many banks, businesses and newspaper offices settled there.

The Bund underwent a 2 year renovation and just re-opened at the end of March.

I told you about Tomb Sweeping Day earlier this week.  It's a holiday here in China.  For some unknown reason, we decided to visit The Bund ON. THAT. DAY!  Don't ask me what we were thinking, because we obviously weren't!  We spent about 30 minutes there and then took the underground tunnel back to Pudong.  We'd had enough!  You wouldn't BELIEVE the number of people there!

I was holding the camera up and just taking pictures.

 

Look at the amount of people!

 

 People EVERYWHERE!

 

 The red hat up in front of me is Ryan!

 Those are some of the buildings along The Bund

 

Unfortunately it was REALLY cloudy, so the pictures didn't turn 

out as well as I'd hoped they would.

This is looking across the Huangpu River.

This is the Pearl Tower.  It's on the Pudong side.  I'll tell you more about it later.  It's also called the "TV Tower"

What a ham!

This is on the Pudong side, looking over to the Puxi side.

I'm sure I'm a little biased, but what a cutie!

My little Princess!

Can you believe she sat still that long?!

YUYUAN . . . .

Yuyuan Garden is located in the center of the Old City and it is considered one of the most lavish and finest Chinese Gardens in the region.

We took Jack there his first weekend here.  Even though it was cold, it is still very pretty.  And there are people EVERYWHERE!

 

This is a picture Jack took in the car on the way to the Garden.

 This was taken by the entrance.

 This is the street called Fashion Street.

 

This is where we used the bathroom! 

 

The detail work on the buildings is amazing!

  

Not sure what this is, but it's another example of the details that you see as you walk along Yuyuan.

 

This is the Year of the Tiger.

 

The Tiger is in the middle of the Yuyuan Square.

  

More Details

  

Not sure what this is, or what it's made of, but it's pretty cool looking.

  

My little Angel!

  

Isn't she a cutie?!

  

This building has the little blue man and some tigers.  By the way, the little blue man actually does have a name, I just don't know what it is!  I'll find out though.

  

More tigers.

  

  

  

The Red Lanterns are part of the Chinese New Year Celebration.  This year February 14th was Chinese New Year.  Fourteen days after the New Year is the Celebration of the Lanterns.  I don't know what that entails.  I guess we'll find out on the 28th!

 

There is a pond in the middle of Yuyuan.  There is also a famous bridge that goes over the pond.  These statues are in the pond.

Another "float" in the pond.

 

  

  

  

The pictures don't do the statues justice.

  

  

Don't we all look so happy?!

 

  

 

This is the Jade Rock.  It is supposed to be very famous.

AMUSEMENT PARK . . .

While the kids were on their break from school, we did a few things around Shanghai.  We were going to go to Hong Kong, but it was supposed to rain all weekend and we didn't want to spend the money to be stuck in a hotel all weekend!  So instead, we stayed here.  

You heard Andrew's account of the amusement park.  And there's NO WAY I can top that, so instead I just thought I'd post pictures of our day there.

These are some of the girls that wanted their picture taken with Andrew and Jason.  So we decided we'd take their picture too!

Here's another picture of them.

These are the swings that Andrew didn't get to ride on because he wasn't tall enough.  He was mad!

Andrew and Sarah were riding this panda bear that moved around in circles.  She wasn't that thrilled.  But Andrew enjoyed riding it with her.

This is the first ride Jason and Andrew rode.

This was at the entrance.  This little blue man is the symbol for the Shanghai Expo that's coming in May 2010.