Today Tim and I woke up and headed into the city after breakfast to go to the Shanghai Urban Planning museum! We knew the general location of the museum, but we weren't sure of the exact location. Of course, we started looking in the farthest away possible, and we had to wander through the entire park looking at all the buildings before we found it all the way in the opposite corner that we started! They have so many big fancy buildings with crazy architecture that sometimes its hard to single one out.
When we finally found it, we got some tickets, and headed in. The first floor had a little model of parts of Shanghai, but we weren't extremely impressed so we headed upstairs. They had a lot of photograph series of Shanghai "then and now" which was pretty fun to look at. The part that annoyed me was how they presented the photographs; in order to look at them, you had to go up to these little cabinets and slide out vertical drawers that had the photos on them. The drawers didn't slide very nicely and you felt the wood grating on other wood, and after I pulled out a few drawers of photos, I didn't really want to go through the entire set. I did though, because the photos were interesting, but what an awkward presentation. It was especially weird because they didn't make much use of the space they had; it's not like they needed to conserve any space.
The next floor was much cooler; it had a huge model of ALL of Shanghai! Tim and I commented that the only thing that could make it even cooler was if it resembled night and day with the lighting. After we walked around staring at it for a while, the lights started dimming! Of course, they had thought of the same idea we had. The buildings slowly started lighting up as "night fell" and then you could see all the brightly neon lit buildings. It was pretty cool. They even had the expo modeled! The photograph below shows the view of the model's version of Pudong, all lit up just like the buildings light up!
When we finally found it, we got some tickets, and headed in. The first floor had a little model of parts of Shanghai, but we weren't extremely impressed so we headed upstairs. They had a lot of photograph series of Shanghai "then and now" which was pretty fun to look at. The part that annoyed me was how they presented the photographs; in order to look at them, you had to go up to these little cabinets and slide out vertical drawers that had the photos on them. The drawers didn't slide very nicely and you felt the wood grating on other wood, and after I pulled out a few drawers of photos, I didn't really want to go through the entire set. I did though, because the photos were interesting, but what an awkward presentation. It was especially weird because they didn't make much use of the space they had; it's not like they needed to conserve any space.
The next floor was much cooler; it had a huge model of ALL of Shanghai! Tim and I commented that the only thing that could make it even cooler was if it resembled night and day with the lighting. After we walked around staring at it for a while, the lights started dimming! Of course, they had thought of the same idea we had. The buildings slowly started lighting up as "night fell" and then you could see all the brightly neon lit buildings. It was pretty cool. They even had the expo modeled! The photograph below shows the view of the model's version of Pudong, all lit up just like the buildings light up!
This photo is of the expo at night. The only thing different is in the model, the rainbow bridge doesn't change colors. Lame!
This is a large part of the model during "daytime." The tall buildings in the top are in Pudong.
Neat, huh? It must have been pretty crazy to make each one of those buildings. They also had this little dome that you could walk inside, and watch a 3d show of Shanghai. It made me really dizzy. I'm fine with roller coasters and all those fast, fun rides, but if I'm standing still and something is making me think that I'm moving...I don't feel so well! They kept having sweeping shots where you swept down onto the expo and up and looked at it from above and I couldn't stand still or hold my body still and I basically wanted the show to end.
After roaming around for a while longer, we left the museum and met Dan to go to the yu yuan garden. I heard the word "garden" and was not expecting the "garden" to be a shopping plaza. It was more of the millions of shops full of junk and chemical smells and bustling vendors and shoppers and crowded walkways. It was pretty old fashioned in architecture, which was pretty cool. We found a place that had the traditional shanghai dumplings that we hadn't gotten to try yet, and ordered a few! We sat down to eat and man, were they wonderful! They are called Zaio Ling Bao (little dragons). They are a soup dumpling, so you have to nibble off a little piece of the wrapping, drink the scalding hot soup out of it, dunk the dumpling into some rice vinegar, and eat! It is so good. I spent a lot of time blowing on the dumplings though so that the soup wouldn't be so scathing.
After wandering around the market (and getting dizzy from all the chemical odors), we headed home. Dan had decided to make his chef confused by asking him to make us pizza for dinner. They don't have tomato sauce in China, nor do they really have any pizza. We ended up with little pieces of dough that were mounded with pineapple sauce, some sort of pepperoni and some sort of ham, but nothing else, really. They weren't bad, it's just funny to see how their chef interprets American meals!
After roaming around for a while longer, we left the museum and met Dan to go to the yu yuan garden. I heard the word "garden" and was not expecting the "garden" to be a shopping plaza. It was more of the millions of shops full of junk and chemical smells and bustling vendors and shoppers and crowded walkways. It was pretty old fashioned in architecture, which was pretty cool. We found a place that had the traditional shanghai dumplings that we hadn't gotten to try yet, and ordered a few! We sat down to eat and man, were they wonderful! They are called Zaio Ling Bao (little dragons). They are a soup dumpling, so you have to nibble off a little piece of the wrapping, drink the scalding hot soup out of it, dunk the dumpling into some rice vinegar, and eat! It is so good. I spent a lot of time blowing on the dumplings though so that the soup wouldn't be so scathing.
After wandering around the market (and getting dizzy from all the chemical odors), we headed home. Dan had decided to make his chef confused by asking him to make us pizza for dinner. They don't have tomato sauce in China, nor do they really have any pizza. We ended up with little pieces of dough that were mounded with pineapple sauce, some sort of pepperoni and some sort of ham, but nothing else, really. They weren't bad, it's just funny to see how their chef interprets American meals!
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