Shanghai: YuYuan Garden

The YuYuan Garden in Shanghai is about 400 years old. It dates to 1577, during the Ming Dynasty. The Garden was last damaged during the Opium Wars. The garden as you see it today is a result of five years of restoration which began in 1956.

More information on YuYuan Garden.

Just outside the garden is a tea house, fountains, a pond, little eateries where you can get xiao long baos and potstickers, oh and of course a starbucks. Potstickers.... Mmmmm. I ate at one of these places and a beggar came in pretending to be deaf. I did not give the guy anything, actually I didn't even notice him until he walked past my table. He knew I was not Chinese because I was speaking English. I suppose he was expecting something because it seems most Chinese people believe foreigners have money. I guess he doesn't read my blog so he doesn't know I'm jobless. As the beggar walked around the restaurant the owner started yelling "he's a fake, don't give him any money, he's a fake!". The beggar was upset and started to leave. As he left he spit on my table, probably in contempt of me because I look Chinese but I but I speak English so clearly I'm not Chinese. Ah well...






So anyway, let's head inside the YuYuan Garden

You will get to walk through many rock doorways.

Watery Jade

Zhao Wall

Yu Ling Long

Nice pagoda huh?

Chamber of 10,000 flowers... the only problem? There were not 10,000 flowers but that's because it's not spring time. If you visit when the flowers bloom you'll be in for a treat, or so I heard.



The area surrounding the garden is called Old Jiao Chang Road. You can buy plenty of cheesy souvenirs here if you like.