Wandering through the Yu Yuan Gardens and Bazaar

In the Old Town of Shanghai, the Yu Yuan Gardens are an example of traditional Chinese gardens built over 400 years ago by a government officer, Pan Yunduan, for his parents enjoyment in their old age.

The basic four elements of a traditional Chinese garden are

• rocks
  
  
• water
  
  
• plants and
  
  
• architecture

And here at the Yuyuan Gardens, all four elements are carefully interwoven, creating a strikingly beautiful space right in the middle of the city and which are a delight for a morning or afternoon stroll. We wandered through courtyards, fish ponds, bridges, rock gardens, moon gates and pavilions, all of which been painstakingly restored:

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Surrounding the gardens is the Yu Yuan Bazaar, one of the many Shanghai markets, housed in relatively newer "old style looking" buildings. The shops and stalls were full of all sorts of trinkets. This is a very "touristy spot" but it was fun and entertaining for all.

The kids had a good time haggling with the vendors. Grandma hit paydirt at the jade shops. Grandpa headed straight to the dumpling stalls and I found some nice paper cuttings and book marks to bring home. Finally we all met up at the Starbucks and enjoyed our iced lattes...

In between all the wandering and haggling, we did manage to take some video shots of the garden and the bazaar:

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Check out our Shanghai Map for this and other Shanghai Attractions locations.

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