PUDONG: New Area east of the Huangpu River

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I've already posted photos of Pudong. You may have seen them when I shot video from the Moon Boat building (Former Saudi Arabia Pavilion).

This day Xiaohong met me deep under the Gateway Center, where the metro line stops.   We boarded Metro line 1 for People's Square and from there transferred to line 2 to Pudong.  When we came up from under the ground we hit the rain we knew had been pouring all week.  We are in the Plum Rainy Season.  The plums are ripe and the rainy season has started.   It's the perfect ending to the 85 days of mostly sun I have been experiencing in Shanghai.  But today is overcast, low clouds hiding the upper halves of the taller buildings.

Pudong looks like it did the other day.   Here is what will be the tallest building in Shanghai, in the middle of this picture, but you'll have to take my word for it.   It's still being built.   Notice the curve?
We walked first, down to the water, and then back up to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, but first the view from the water.    And the showers begin.   Heavy at times, enough to soak you to the skin, if you don't carry an umbrella or wear Gortex.

I think this is the financial building in Pudong

The video shows the Shanghai side of the Huangpu River.   It's the Bund side that we visited back in early May or late April and posted here on May 8th.   At that time I looked across the river and saw the TV tower lit at night.
Here, we are heading back to the TV tower, but to do so, we pass by the Shanghai Convention Center (the globe, which we walked past.)
 

 The globe shaped building is the Pudong convention center.   We may see it again as we look down from the Tower.  

As we head to the tower,we pass a very fancy hotel, which Xiaohong said she stayed in for two nights right after she got back from Highline.  We went in to take a look. 

In the hotel is a jade store with some fantastic carvings on display.   After wandering around,we head for the Pearl Tower,

We will end up in the tower.

This is the line waiting for the elevators to take us to the observation deck.

The view from the tower is obscured by the clouds and rain

The Observation level, one floor below, had this special opportunity.

But the real area of interest is on the first floor of the Pearl Tower, which holds a historical museum.  The museum shows us life as it was lived by common people a century or more ago.   The life-size displays give me a sense of life of those outside of society.  We see the farmers, shop owners and others in the midst of the daily lives.                                                                     

Keeping the child warm during winter

 The museum also has models of  automobiles from around 1920.

A wedding sedan chair.

After the museum, Xiaohong called her husband, who picked us up and drove to a restaurant, where we had a feast with much food left over for them to take home.   Thank you for the delicious dinner.  And the ride all the way back to the hotel!

SUN YAT-SEN and the FRENCH CONCESSION AGAIN

I know, I keep going back there time after time.  Something draws me to the French Concession; I like to walk through there, and now, maybe I can without fear or concern for being lost. 

I remember the name of Sun Yat-Sen from my own college days, when I took a survey of Far East History one summer.   All I could remember for the longest time was how the instructor paced back and forth across the little mini-stage as he lectured for 90 minutes without notes.   I don't remember the lectures, but the fact that he could walk and talk, not talk and walk, was fascinating.   But Sun Yat-Sen always stood out as someone significant in China's recent history,  overthrowing the Qing Dynasty emperor and struggling against the  warlords, creating an organization that gathered political strength based on sound democratic principles makes him an important character, so it was that I determined, two months ago, that I would get to his place of residence before I left Shanghai. 

 The first house serves as a museum.   It has these artifacts in it. 

 The next house is apparently the former living quarter.  On entering, I put on plastic covers for the shoes.   The house holds the sharp smell of mold.   And there is no picture taking allowed.  Guides stand at every floor to be sure no one breaks any rules. 

                

Done for the day, these worker head for the gate.

See the half circle?

This apparently is a third house; it's undergoing repairs as you can see.   

After the stirring visit I had at Soon Ching-ling's house, I was expecting something of the same here, but I was disappointed.  Where I felt as if something of her spirit was captured in her memorial house, this seemed more a repository of a few artifacts, without the sense of who Dr. Sun Yat-sen was.  Of course history tells us, but the atmosphere I had hoped to find was missing.

On my way to Sun Yat-sen's former residence, I walked past what is becoming my favorite park.  The metro stop was to the east.  I opted to walk down Fuxing Middle Rd, west a couple blocks, then through the Fuxiing Park and then out a southwest gate to Sinon,  the next street.
I posted photos of the rose garden the first time I walked through the park.  This time, I stayed on the southern edge and ended up walking  past the rose garden again.
FUXING PARK

 This is a lovely pond.   Below, people are doing what they always do in the park: playing  cards.

 

This part of the park feels as if it might be part of any of the grand gardens I've visited in Hangzhou or Suzhou or even Yuyuan garden.     And then a short distance away, we get flowers!

 

Do you recognize "Brush Knee"?   Here's the oldest practitioner I've seen.   And people just walked by while he practiced.

And here are the roses, still blooming!

THE MOON BOAT RIDE, THE EXPO SITE, AND PUDONG AND THE RAINY SEASON

June 22.   I'm back at the Expo grounds, where I visited the China Art Expo last month.   When Expo opened, apparently one of the big hits was the Saudi Pavilion's Moon Boat.  People stood in line for hours.  Ding Yaping tells me her sister stood the whole day to spend 10 minutes in the Pavilion. Ding Yaping has never seen the pavilion, so she has volunteered to guide me through the metro maze.  We arrive with no expectations but what we get is something like Koyaanisquatsi, in full color to music richer than that of Philip Glass. If  you haven't seen this film, you may have seen Samsara, a more recent film clearly influenced by Koyaanisquatsi.   The show here is related to the films but is a full body experience, with a screen that wants to be 360 degrees, but makes almost 180 degrees. both horizontally and vertically so at all times you feel surrounded by sound and visual images or darkness.

After entering the Pavilion we walk around the outer wall of the pavilion in a slow ascent to the performance floor at the top level.  Here, in the dark we move forward.  There is a moving walkway that takes one through at a measured pace.  We step off and stand through the performance maybe four times.  I take some video, but the sections I take are too dark, and the images move too fast, ranging from midnight darkness to under the seas to the deserts and oil rigs of the desert nations and up into the stars.  It's a rich collage.  Moving on the walkway feels like being on the bridge of a moon ship (not a star ship). It's dark, the only light comes from the film itself, and sometimes it feels as if the ship is bobbing on a wave.

Trying to upload a second video, but it seems as if blogger does not want any more videos. Click the READ MORE button if it is showing.

SHANGHAI ZOO

My guidebook says that the Shanghai Zoo is as good as zoo as you will find in China.   Compared to the zoos in Seattle and San Diego (the two I know), the Shanghai Zoo is a half century behind. . . well, decades at least.  Woodland Park has been periodically remodeled or updated over the past thirty to forty years with many best exhibit awards.   In contrast, many of the Shanghai Zoo exhibits remind me of the displays I recall from the 60s and 70s in Seattle.  Still there are some captivating displays.   For example, the bird display of swans and pelicans in an open water section of the zoo provides a great setting for viewing the birds.   The rhinoceros display allowed a clear view of the animal as it moved through its area. And the grounds are beautiful    I spent three hours at the zoo, did a lot of walking, and tired my feet out.

Cost to enter the zoo was around 30 to 40 Y with a special price for kids and those  between 60 and 70.  I tried to pay, but they "waived" me through.  Too old to pay.  What a concept!

Layout of the Zoo

 

When I told Ding Yaping I was planning to go to the zoo, she said, "Go there in the morning.  If you go there in the afternoon the animals will all be asleep.  They are Chinese animals."   I got there before noon, and the mammals were passed out.  Pandas, tigers, lions--most of the big animals were out of sight, or barely visible in their reclining positions.   I found the only mammals awake to stand, much less visible while reclining, were the cattle, deer and antelope, zebras, the "vegetarians."

When I first got to the zoo I took the electric tram around the park to get the layout, and saw the swans.  I wanted to get back here, but it took almost 2 hours to find my way back since I trekked through the middle of the zoo instead of following the outer road. 

Pelicans

I see some online reviews have called for closing the zoo because of the state of some exhibits, primarily the sea lion exhibit, which I didn't see. 

This fella has a pretty big schnoz..   Can a Toucan get to close?   Yes, a Toucan can!







This big fella came up and started biting the fencing and making a big ruckus with his beak.   He was literally this close.  By the time I got the video going he had calmed down a bit.

Hippo harassing hippo.

Emu

On my way out of the zoo, I passed by a patio with a series of large clear cylinders that served as vertical outdoor fish tanks holding various gold fish

Three hours of steady walking and a metro ride back to the hotel!