China - Day 2: Yuyuan garden, silk and skilled acrobats

Because we got in so late we didn't have time to sleep once we got to our hotel. We showered got breakfast and went out on our tour.

The first place our tour guide took us was the financial district of China. This area is filled with modern skyscrapers referred to as, The Bund. One of the weird facts we learned was that all of the buildings were owned by foreign companies at one time. He gave us time to look around and wander for a bit before taking us to Old Shanghai. It reminded me of Oakland Chinatown. My grandma said it reminded her of San Francisco Chinatown in the 30's. She claims she wasn't around then but she saw pictures.

After walking around for a bit we went to Yuyuan Garden which means garden of happiness. It was really crowded and hard to navigate a tour group through. This garden is listed as a must see when visiting Shanghai. The land in Shanghai is very flat and mountains in Fung Shui represent protection so hills were made in the garden for protection and pagodas were built on top. This garden was built during the Ming Dynasty and is the was the most prestigious garden at the time. It's separated into 6 sections and is surrounded by a dragon wall. 

There are a lot of places to shop and eat near the Garden. We were given free time to look around and went to a silk shop where they farmed silk worms, made and sold silk goods. We watched a demonstration on how some silk goods were made. They also taught us how to test the quality of silk and how to differentiate between real and fake. On our way out our local guide took us to a tea house that was a little ways away from the touristy area where locals like to buy tea. We were told this is the best tea in the area! it was a little expensive.

Before lunch we walked to a silk art gallery where they displayed and sold silk art. We were able to watch how silk embroidery was made. The gallery was quite large and arranged like a maze. There were lots of rooms and hallways. Some of the needle work was so fine that it looked like a printed photo!

We had lunch at a local restaurant that was in the same mall as the silk art gallery. Some of the items served to us didn't seem like authentic Chinese food. I wonder if they altered there menu for us Americans. Some of the food we were served was fried rice, pork buns and some sort of noodles.
  
We headed back to the hotel and went straight to bed for a nap before dinner. It was amazing! It was the first time we've been able to lay in a bed in at least 36 hours!

We had dinner at Elemental Fresh, a restaurant near the hotel. We had a choice between a fish, beef or vegetarian dish. I got the beef dish. It was pretty good.

After dinner we went to an Acrobatic show at a local theatre. They did similar acts to the ones at the acrobatic show at Global Winter wonderland in Sacramento. I liked the acts here better. They were more daring and had more flare. A lot of the performers were young amateurs who did acrobatics as a hobby while going to school.

After the acrobatic show we went back to the hotel to retire to the night. We have another flight tomorrow!