walking in sacred places: Six Days in Shanghai

Six Days in Shanghai

Our first stop on our trip to Asia was in Shanghai primarily to visit Fraser. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Fudan which is the area near Fudan University. Fraser's school is affiliated with the University and is near Fudan. We went to the Shanghai Museum where we saw beautiful bronzes and ceramics dating from 1100 BC to the 19th century. We saw a beautiful Monet exhibition jam-packed with young people visiting it. There was a replica of a Monet garden in front of the gallery. We went out to eat dumplings (a Shanghai specialty) at Fraser's favourite place and ate at his local Muslim restaurant. On April 26, our wedding anniversary, we had dinner at a beautiful Yunnan restaurant called Lost Heaven in the French concession area. The food was absolutely delicious, fresh and flavourful. We had the pleasure of meeting Jessie, Fraser's girlfriend. She's a lovely young women. We all had a fine time at dinner. http://lostheaven.com.cn/outlets-restaurant.aspx?type=restaurant-french

We did a fair bit of city walking and on our third day, we popped in to a place for a long foot massage to treat our aching feet. So restorative and relaxing!
We had one rainy day that kept us indoors most of the day. The city was very quiet as a result and when we went out in the evening walking in the narrow streets in the French quarter under our umbrellas it felt a bit like being on a movie set. I think it was just the idea of being in a big city when it is quiet and few people are out and about. It's a special feeling. On Sunday we went to Fuxing park and later walked around the French concession area to look at some of the architecture in the daylight. The gardens were very fresh looking because of the previous day's rain. The rose gardens were really beautiful - a whole walkway covered with fragrant climbing roses and many beds of different types of roses. We walked through the park and sat on benches just watching the world go by. We watched a few people flying their special kites. That evening we went to see the dress rehearsal of the school play at Fraser's school. It was impressive what these young students could do in a second language. We had one last dinner with Fraser at our hotel that evening and and then early on Monday morning we departed for Tokyo. Six days in Shanghai was a good amount of time to re-visit the city and spend a bit of time with Fraser.