Parks in Shanghai
During the “Ching Ming” festival long weekend, we didn’t manage to go to Hangzhou (where the west lake is the most famous lake in China) as planned. So I was “determined” to still do things touristy and green while being in Shanghai. Here was our itinerary:
“Yu Garden” – as the name suggests, it should be a garden. That was what we expected until we saw a million people in a “market” – it was more like the “ladies market”! You could have imagined how “bored” Michael looked sitting in his stroller!
“Gu Cheng Park” – after being pretty disappointed, we walked to another nearby park and again there was another million people at the park (there are ~20 million people living in Shanghai). However, in this park, every patch of grass was pristine and beautifully manicured. Naturally we wanted to explore the grassed part of the park. However we were a little suspicious as nobody was walking or sitting on the grass. So we checked all the signs for whether we were allowed on the grass. Since all the signs were in strange Chinese quotes (like “the grass doesn’t have feelings but you do so please cherish it”), we let Michael go rolling around the grass. Suddenly an uniformed officer blew his whistle to tell us to get off! We ran fast before we got caught and possibly put into the Chinese Jail!
“Century Park” – after the diasterous experience the previous day, we (rather I) had to re-correct the image of Shanghai and decided to stay on the Pudong side (which is supposed to be the “quieter” side of the river) and go to a park that costs money. At Century Park, we saw the third million people. Since you pay to get into this park, you are allowed to walk on a little bit of the grass. However, at the grassy patch, there were “tents” (yes real camping tents) spread around doing “picnics”. It was madness. Ian frowned the whole morning, while Michael just cruised along wondering how come his world was suddenly so populated! Ian even commented that we could have done our picnic at the backyard of our apartment complex! (and annoyingly he was right!)
So the lessons we learned were as follows:
- no visiting parks on the weekends (especially long weekends!)
- China is the most populated country in the world. It is unlikely we can find a place that is not heavily populated (so manage your expectations!)
- Michael as a toddler just doesn’t care where he is, as long as his mama and dada are around!
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| Michael’s Album – 17.5 months |
Until next time, love from Shanghai,
Ian, Stacey & Michael (who answers “Noooo” when we asked if he is a baby!)
