China Trip 2024 – Day 2

by Caroline Keefe

Today started off with breakfast at the hotel, which featured cuisine from both China and France. Although I wasn’t certain what certain items were, it was fun try try them. At around 8:30 (after a game of foosball) we took the bus to get to the Bund.  During the bus ride, our guide Christina told us about the meaning of 上海, where “shang” means up and “hai” means sea. However, the word shanghai can also mean kidnapped in certain contexts!
The Bund used to be part of the British concessions in the 1800s, and now it’s one of the most prosperous cities in China (above Hong Kong!). The river pictured in the photos is the huangpu river, which is a part of the large Yangtze river. Christina also told us about the dialects of China, and how fu jian is the oldest as well as the most widely used, especially in Chinatown.

After that, at around 10am, we walked around and came across a statue of a bull. Christina told us how the bull symbolized the Chinese stock markets as well as their success and resilience. On the other side of the street was a bank which we went into. Inside, there were intricate mosaics on the walls and ceiling, as well as figures pictured on the walls.

In Yu Gardens, we noticed that there was a lot of bamboo and other natural plants. The scenery was beautiful, with traditional temples, mountains, and koi ponds. It was really cool to see how the traditional mahjong tiles, zhu, ju, lan, and mei were incorporated into the temple. We learned a lot about feng shui, which is the practice of organizing a space to align with one’s chi. I loved the feel of the space, as it was built in 1554 during the ming dynasty and remains similar to the architecture at the time. In addition, there are many animal sculptured posted around the gardens. The dragon on top of a mountain only has 3 talons instead of 5 because the builder wanted to honor the emperor, whose symbol was a dragon. The metal lions are also supposed to give luck to whoever touches it, so we all pet the statue. After leaving the yu gardens, we had some time to shop around the area. At around 12:30, we left the gardens to head to lunch. I really like the chinese way, where the food comes in large dishes and we can take what we want. We also ate like this for dinner, which again was very good.

After lunch, we went to Nanjing road to go shopping for a little while. The road was full of small shops and boutiques, all with colorful lights and microphones. It was a little overwhelming, but I ultimately enjoyed it. After dinner, we headed down to the Huangpu river to catch the river cruise. This was my favorite part, as even though it was foggy and rainy, we were still able to see the glowing buildings through the clouds. We were all really tired after a long day, so after doing our rose, bud, and thorns we headed upstairs to sleep.

One thought on “China Trip 2024 – Day 2”

  1. I really enjoyed all the details you provided Caroline! Feng Shui, a temple built in 1554, markets, cruise…wow!

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