Get It in Writing

While it is probably the single most iconic image of Shanghai, this television tower is a strange piece of architecture. Lonely Planet, in its China travel book, best describes it as “an inverted hypodermic� that is “a uniquely uninspiring piece of architecture.� While there was no rush to visit the structure, the promise of a panoramic view of the city was appealing.

The serendipitous coincidence of a sunny weekday afternoon and being caught up on work was enough to take advantage of this low tourist traffic time to visit the Pudong area and ride the elevator to the second bauble 267 meters above ground.

Unfortunately, what the view showed most, was the ubiquitous Shanghai haze. A twenty-minute stroll around the bauble for a 360 degree view was enough for this tourist.

The trip to Pudong began with a ride on Bus 55 along Siping Road to the Bund. The next, and most interesting leg was on the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, a futuristic train which carries passengers between the Bund and Pudong under the Huangpu River. The five-minute trip passes through a psychedelic tunnel of love with some haunted house features thrown in. At the end of the ride passengers get a good view of a roundhouse operation like railroads use to turn locomotives around, as the pilot-less car is spun around and onto the return track.

The return home, via subway and light rail became an extended trip as a result of getting on the wrong train and taking a circular route back to Pudong.

View image View image View image View image View image View image View image

Posted by Ron Corio at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Located north of Suzhou Creek in the Hongkou district and once called Hongkou Park, Lu Xun Park was renamed in honor of a major Chinese writer in 1988.

Lu Xun (1881-1936) is regarded as the founder of modern Chinese writing and was a revered scholar and teacher who lived in Shanghai for the last 8 years of his life.

Lu Xun's tomb is located at the western end of the park. Hailed by the Communist Party as an advocate of Social Realism, the respect he earned from the CCP is marked by an inscription written by Mao and a tree flanking his tomb that was planted by Zhou Enlai.

At the eastern end of the park is the Lu Xun Memorial, which has recently been transformed into a contemporary museum and has imaginative displays of samples of Lu's work and relics of his life.

Copyright 2000 chinaetravel.com.
http://www.chinaetravel.com/attraction/att02p.html

For more on Lu Xun, read Bruce Kennedy's Sunday in the Park with Lu Xun

View image View image View image View image View image View image View image View image View image View image View image View image View image View image View image View image

Posted by Ron Corio at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jade Buddha Temple, located in center-city, is one of Shanghai’s few remaining active Buddhist temples and it attracts large numbers of tourists from China and overseas (China Lonely Planet 2005). That was evident on a crisp and sunny Saturday when trusty guide and adventure companion Rita and your correspondent visited. Bus 942 took us to Shanghai Central Railway Station and a cab ride covered the last leg of the trip to the temple. View image View image

The temple and its grounds make a large footprint and the narrow streets surrounding it teemed with visitors. A central courtyard greets visitors upon entering and today it was filled with people, many of them worshipers queued to an oil drum fire for their opportunity to light some incense to honor Buddha. In a large room with an opening off the courtyard, robed men and women were intoning chants. The air was filled with incense and soft chants backed by a drumbeat. In a smaller room off the courtyard a group of robed and head-shaven monks were doing their own intoning, again with a metronomic gong beat. View image View image View image View image

Nearby was a gift shop laden with souvenir items, many of them jade jewelry. In another shop one could purchase incense, scrolls, and packets of small-squares of foil, which people, seated in toted folding chairs, deftly folded, origami-like, into Buckminster Fuller-like domes. These folded domes were then placed in red, gift bags, which are stapled shut then offered to Buddha as tribute. View image View image

Long passageways radiated off the central courtyard to, among other things, a lodge that appears to be solely for novitiates and a small courtyard off of which was a stairway leading to an upstairs room that houses the Jade Buddha. This Buddha, two-meters high and weighing 1000 kilograms was purportedly brought from Myanmar (Burma) via Tibet to China by a monk, who then went off to raise money to build the temple. (China Lonely Planet 2005). While photographing other Buddhas was premitted, no photographs of the Jade Buddha are allowed. Off of another hallway is a vegetarian restaurant. View image View image

Posted by Ron Corio at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

View image
After two weeks of wet weather and overcast skies the sun finally showed its face and beckoned people outside, offering an opportunity to explore Shanghai. Lonely Planet, in its China travel guide describes the Shanghai Museum as stunning and calls it a “must-see.� At the bus stop in front of the Main Gate of Fudan University, trusty adventure companion and guide Rita and your scribe boarded Bus No. 139 to commence an afternoon at the museum. At Lu Shun Park a transfer to Bus No. 18 put us on the last leg to People’s Square. People’s Square, like Times Square in New York City teems with people and vehicles under the sparkling edifices and neon lights of a major commercial and financial center.

The walk from the bus stop to the museum afforded blue-sky background views of the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall and the Grand Theater, themselves works of art. The circular museum structure is surrounded by a spacious plaza and park, a pleasant buffer to the commotion of people and vehicles in People’s Square.

Urban Planning Exhibition Hall (foreground) View image
Grand Theater View image

Inside, the galleries are spread throughout four floors that gird a central atrium.
View image View image View image View image

There are seven galleries: Bronze, Sculpture, Ceramics, Coin, Chinese Minority, Jade, and Furniture. The Furniture Gallery was closed. After a cursory view of the six open galleries, the Chinese Minority and Sculpture Galleries were selected as the afternoon’s project. The Chinese Minority Gallery, exhibited costumes, engravings, sculptures, and masks from the many minority nationalities in China.

Chinese Minority Gallery View image View image View image View image View image

Sculpture Gallery View image View image View image View image View image

Posted by Ron Corio at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)