Tourists!

A truism of living in an amazing city such as New York or Chicago is: If you live there, you haven’t seen anything. Hannah feels quite sure she didn’t see the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building until at least the age of 20, and neither of us have ever stepped foot inside the Sears Tower (there was one unfortunate Architecture Tour experience…but that is another story).

Committed to turning over a new leaf in Shanghai, we spent the past weekend being tourists in our new backyard. Under the tutelage of a tremendous guide from Abercrombie and Kent, we were able to experience many of the sights, sounds and, yes, smells that have put Shanghai on the world stage. Interestingly, the weekend simultaneously pushed us out of our comfort zone, and helped us to feel more relaxed, and more at home, in this truly incredible city.

At one of our stops, the Yu Garden, we discussed the Chinese art of Feng Shui in planning green space. Not just about an optimal “flow” of energy, Feng Shui here means designing a small space into a big experience. And so in the spirit of this 2000-year-old art, we offer you a brief glimpse into our wonderful weekend, and hope that it inspires you to use your imagination, and realize that what was on the surface a minor weekend excursion, turned into a monumental chapter in our understanding of Chinese culture and the spirit of Shanghai.

Downtown Pudong – across the river from where we are living – is truly a city of tomorrow! The “Pearl” TV tower on the right has a beautiful story behind it; the design wass inspired by a poem in which the poet sat on a river bank listening to a tune so beautiful that it reminded him of “large and small pearls dropping into a lotus leaf.”

A magnificent picture of The Bund at night from our restaurant:

Yu Garden - the inspiration for this post. A quiet spot of tranquility and surprise amidst the bustling city:

One of our favorite details in the Yu Garden were the “Vase Gates” that were positioned to look like painted vases – when in fact the design was the landscape through the gateway. Stunning:

Let no one ever say that Hannah doesn’t know how to use the color function of her camera! But this is a wonderful picture that captures the history and the “old-world” atmosphere of the traditional water village that was the last stop in our tour: