XUJIAHUI PARK and FUXING PARK

I will repeat myself, I know, when I say that I love the parks in Shanghai, for they are so full of people totally enjoying themselves    March 10 was a quiet Sunday.  The sun was bright but not overly hot.  It was quite comfortable, and some time tin the afternoon, I decided to head out to the park.  It's not far, maybe almost a half mile, a block or two to the east and a long, long, long block to the south.  I've been there three or more times this trip, so I've combined the pictures.   You may recognize the swans from last year's photos.

Along the way, I pass construction.  There's been a project brewing since before I was here last year.  It's the equivalent of several US blocks square, but must be either apartments or more shopping--if that's possible for the area.  They are digging deep foundations and the dump trucks, like the ones on campus come roaring in and out.

Along the way, I pass construction.  There's been a project brewing since before I was here last year.  The walls have been up for privacy and safety, I suppose.  It's the equivalent of several several square US blocks, and must be either apartments or more shopping--if the area could possibly sustain more than it already has.

They are digging deep foundations and the drum trucks, like the ones on campus come roaring in and out.

Thankfully, they have people standing around to alert people of incoming or outgoing trucks.

The buildings to the right and south are all are malls.  The one to the left and south is a department store.  One of two or three on this side of the street.

I turn right and walk up Tianping Lu, where there is a mix of rather fancy looking places across the street from or next to what we might call an impoverished area of town.

Much of Shanghai seems to be a mix of very nice moments against a sea of distressed buildings.

I think this is the front door of a new apartment building.

And obviously an apartment building.

I hurry up the street--this is marked as one-way, which means only the motorcycles are gong south and the cars and other bikes are going north.

In the middle of the block a car decides he's going the wrong direction and decides to make a U-turn.   Of course, the car is too long and the road only two and a half lanes  wide, so he holds up traffic while he figures out how he's going to get the vehicle squared around.  It takes a few moments.   No tempers, however, just horns.




















As you enter the park a block to the east of Tianping Lu, you find this tree-lined walkway.




To the south, as we walk through the paths, we come to a little river and pool, but on the way there we pass these  two sculptures.

Here are two views of the second one.

  

Shanghai feels full of art, which appears in the most unlikely places.  

 There is always someone out taking pre-wedding photos.   And obviously, this day was no different.

And on this Sunday there was what I guess to be a community choir.  People had "music" and they sat and stood and sang their hearts out.   At first they seemed to have no leader, except the person playing an accordion.  I never saw him, but I heard him speak.  And then later, here was the lady, who you see in the video, leading the group.

I felt the shared energy of those singing.  It was transfixing, so much so that I walked around and came back a couple of times.

 I wondered about the sheet music, so I took a peek.

                                     

 The week before the kids were out in full force with their water cannons.  This little girl is      reloading and firing!

The park, however, has many personalities. Last year, at dusk and into the evening the ballroom dancers would come out and music would fill the air.

This year there seems to be more calisthenics.   Strangely, the numbers seem almost cult-like, and this evening they filled up much of the northeast corner of the park with two separate groups totaling maybe hundreds.

 There is an elevated walkway that runs  much of the length of the park.
I took these few pictures from there.

A playground for the basketballers. 

 A play center for the little ones.

 And the jumpers.

Near the entrance/exit was another beautiful pond and this waterfall.

In my usual backwards way, I've encountered the Northeast entrance to the park.



The week after I headed over to FUXING PARK.  It's farther away, and it meant taking the metro a couple stops to the east and then walking a real half mile or more.   I just wanted to see the roses and then headed back  The park itself is larger than Xujiahui Park, and has large areas for playing team games.

                              

 Unfortunately, the roses had finished blooming already and I caught only the last few blooms.

                           

Heading back to the metro, I passed another park.   I had seen it on the map.  Actually there were two of them.  One, just a little green spot with flowers, And then a block or two further to the west another park, one I said I would visit soon.   (I haven't yet).

And in the area, the UNIQLO store,   A department store devoted to a brand, one that is in the big malls in China, Japan, and coming the Bellevue.

The many faces of the UniQlo store:

                                                            

SHESHAN--the Cathedral and the Astronomical Observatory

One fine Sunday my friend Zhou Xiaohong and her husband Tong Hua were taking their daughter Ruby back to her university on the west side of Shanghai.   They invited to come along for the trip and the opportunity to visit She Mountain.

Here's Xiaohong and husband Hua

Xiaohong is a Highline exchange alumn from 2001-2002, when she worked with Larry Blades, if I remember correctly.

 I had no ideas what Sheshan was,except that Xiaohong told me that these five mountains (hills) were the only ones in Shanghai.   Now, Seattle has hills--we don't call them mountains--and we walk them as if they are nothing.  Seattle hills go up one side and don't come down on the other side right away, but Sheshan really did look like a mountain, a small one, yes, but a mountain.  The closest thing Seattle has to Sheshan is Queen Anne hill. Queen Anne rises a paltry 139 meters or 456 feet above sea level, and that's starting pretty much at sea level.    Sheshan is 97 meters or about 318 feet.  The internet tells me that there actually twelve hills in the forest ( I assume they are also fairly small).  The elevation of Vashon Island is 375 feet, which means that climbing up my bank from the beach is probably like climbing up Sheshan, but the truth is it looked much higher than 318 feet.

Here we start the climb.  The stairs quickly give way to an easy path after passing the pagoda.

The pagoda has an interesting history, which you can read here. 

 I had to make these pictures large because there beside us was an amazing bamboo shoot rising like Jack's beanstalk.   We were walking through a bamboo forest where interesting things happen.

 These leaves seem to be growing their own buds or pimples.  It looks like something is about to burst through.   My Vashon friend Saphire suggests these might be leaf galls.  Anyone know for sure? Post a comment, please.

 

Hua is leading the way up the winding path, most of which is quite well cared for and not as narrow as this portion. 

 As we near the church we we pass the fourteen stations of the cross.

to 

 Here is the entrance to the National Shrine and Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Sheshan, or simply the Sheshan Basilica.   Originally built in 1863 and demolished and rebuilt from1925 to 1935.

 Below the cathedral were these buildings, which I assume are living quarters for the members of the church.
  And as we walk to the north (I think) we have views of the countryside. 

A little below the cathedral is the astronomical observatory.

 

The Sheshan Observatory may be the oldest in China.  It was built in 1899.  Here is the big telescope.

From the observatory, one can look back at the cathedral.

This interesting item is designed with dragons but is meant to look into the sky. My memory fails me but I would guess the original might have been made around the 14th century.   It was used to measure the location of celestial objects.

After walking down the mountain--a nice leisurely hike on gently descending trails through beautiful bamboo forests, we headed to town in the Songlian district, where Ruby met us for dinner.   We went to a Northwestern restaurant, meaning the menu was filled with food from that part of China.  We had lots of noodles, mutton (I think it was the foreleg, roasted), tofu, and vegetables.  It was an interesting assortment with little or no soy sauce.    The northwest is where the mu slims live and I assume this mean was based on this style of cooking.  It was, however, very different from what we see when we go to a Mid-Eastern restaurant.

First they had to figure out the menu:  

There was more food; I just did not get it all!

And, of course, here's Ruby.

The garage was fully packed.  And these stalls seem to have a special innovation added.  It looks as if you could park a second car above the car on the main level. There are chains and pulleys, but no one seemed to know how it actually worked, nor was there a stall with the system in use.  

THANK YOU XIAOHONG AND HUA for a great afternoon and dinner!