Tourist day in Shanghai

As we didn’t have any classes on Monday, we decided to spend the day as ultimate tourists here.. I, Ville and Philip from the Philippines went to the Yuyuan Garden right after breakfast. It’s one of the most lavish and finest Chinese gardens and it’s located in the Old Town of Shanghai. The entrance fee was 30yuan so it was pretty cheap also. There was a lot of fancy rockery with cliffs and caves, small ponds and rivers and pavilions. As a grey, late-winter day in February the garden wasn’t surely not that beautiful as it’ll be in the spring or summer. 

After the garden visit we saw a very long line of people waiting for dumplings (xiaolongbao here in Shanghai). We had heard from a friend that they’re the best xiaolongbao in Shanghai so we wanted to try them. After waiting almost one hour we all had the opinion that they were not worth the long and cold waiting. They were good, though. If the line isn’t that long next time I’m close to the garden, I’ll definitely eat them again :) 

In the afternoon Alix joined us and we drove for about 25 minutes with the metro to a district called Qibao. There was a small, really Chinese area with lots of tiny shops and street food places on the roads. We thought it’d be kind of a tourist place too but we seemed to be the only western people there. It was nice to see a place like that after Shanghai’s international centrum. We walked there for a good hour before taking the metro back. Alix and Philip wanted to go home shortly before our Monday evening tradition ‘Malone’s’. Ville and me wanted to walk for a while on the New Pudong area instead of going home for one hour before returning. I’ve to say that the skyscrapers look pretty nice there.. In the evening it was Malone’s time! It’s the best burger place in whole China according to many people and every Monday there’s any burger and 1 pint for 55yuan.. and the burgers are really tasty and big!