Good Morning to all… sending out a late ‘Happy Birthday to you!’ for my friend Sue… sorry I am a bit late… but wanted you to know I did not really forget!!!
Saturday was a big day in the park. We needed to stay close to home… we would be taking another language lesson at 6pm, so we planned to take in the sights of Century Park. It is Shanghai’s version of a Central Park. We would enter through the gate on Huamu Road.
On our walk there, we ran into a family from Kentucky that had been living here for over 4 years. They had three boys and had adopted 2 little Chinese girls. They filled us in on the good places to go for kids. This was important since we would have our 5 grandkids here this summer. They were on their way to the B&Q. We had wondered where the Chinese bought their home improvement stuff… we knew there had to be a place like this! It is Shanghai’s equivalent to Home Depot or Lowe’s. Up to this point, we had not seen anything bigger than a small store front about the size of a bedroom that sold either plumbing supplies or electrical supplies.
They also told us about the Metro Store… not to be confused with the Metro Subway. This is a big box store like Sam’s. We definitely would need to check this out when the kids come. The price of meats in the grocery stores would too expensive to feed our crowd… as are many others of the products that the kids would be willing to eat.
We parted ways at the Park with them heading on to the B&Q and we head to the ticket counter to enter the park… only CNY 10 for each of us or about $2.00 USD each. It was well worth it. This is a huge park. It is about 5 miles to walk the parameter… and we were determined to walk at least that distance. When we left the house, I had made a conscious decision not to take my backpack… Huge mistake!!! When I did that…I left the camera that is always stowed in it at home too!! So I apologize for the absence of the pictures I should have taken. But… we vow to go back and bring the camera!
The first thing we see once inside is a shed with bicycles for rent… not just your typical bikes! Yes, you can get a single seat bike, and a bicycle built for two. But… you could also get these little covered jobbers with a bench seat and steering wheels that…you guessed it… peddle power!!! They also came in a model for four, two bench seats and four sets of peddles. No one misses an opportunity to experience the burn!! We opted for the walk, but next time we would rent one of the bicycles offered.
The next encounter was boats. Perhaps you would rather view the park from the river systems that run through and around the park. Your choices are: peddle boat or electric boat outfitted for either 4 people or 6. It looked like fun, but we were more interested in checking out the park on foot. So we waved at them and moved on.
There were lots of couples in the park, sitting together on the many benches that dotted the pathways or walking arm in arm. It is amazing how dressed up the park goers were. Families were everywhere too. We were dressed for a power walk in the park… sweats and sneakers with a baseball cap. We were definitely under dressed compared to the other folks enjoying the park.
The park is really beautiful. It is still early for many of the trees and flowers, but the plum and magnolia trees are in full bloom. The pansies are planted all over and a blue/purple flowering plant that looks a lot like phlox, were all blooming. The phlox looking plant was like a sea of purple gently waving in the breezes. Everything was getting manicured and readied for spring.
Because there are so many people and the labor is very affordable, there are many workers in the parks and on the streets all the time, cleaning up the landscape, pruning and planting. I am sure this is why the city is so clean. It feels like there is at least one person sometimes several on every block… just to maintain the area. And this is going on 7 days a week.
We crossed bridges and walked along many different types of paths. Some paved, some rocks, some tiled, some gravel… it was amazing all the different surfaces used in the park. There were grassy areas that looked like the greens of a golf course, then moving just around a corner it would be natural and wooded… hedges clipped and trimmed to perfection and newly carved flower beds just planted.
There are areas for camping with a couple of brightly colored tents pitched along the tree line or on the water’s edge. A building erected in the center by the campers… it is a archive of a French doctor that played an important role in China during WWII, all donated by the French government.
We were following the signs looking for the sculpture of a head. We had no idea what exactly that was, but we were determined to find it. Along the way, we were crossing one of the many bridges, when a young Chinese girl with two of her friends was taking pictures. She stopped me and motioned the camera to take a picture. As I reached for the camera telling her I would be happy to… she said ‘no’… she wanted us in the picture with her two friends!! Here we were looking the worst in the park… and she wanted our picture??? But we figured, ‘what the hey?’, stepped up and posed for the photo with the friends and she snapped the picture. We laughed as we went our way…. we will end up in someone’s vacation album, that years from now someone is going to ask who these people are… and no one will know who these two American people are!! But it made them happy!
Onward to our quest… we are looking for the head sculpture!! We wound around and followed the signs, but so far no head sculpture. If we had not invested so much time already, we might have given up, but by this point… we were fully committed to find this darn sculpture!! Finally, as we made the next corner and there were lots of sculptured hedges. I laughed and told Michael that these hedges were probably trimmed in the shape of a giant head and the only way you would be able to truly see it would be from the air!!!! Then… there were a rounded row of tall evergreens shaped and tapered…laying out from the trees and rounded on the ground like a bib, was a flower bed of beautiful purple pansies. As we passed by, I happened to look back into the curved tall evergreens and nestled in there …… THE HEAD!!!! A big concrete head… not a Budda or anything, just a Chinese person’s head, about 6 ft tall. It was kind of a letdown to tell the truth…
With our quest over, it was time to figure out where we were and what we would see next… so we stopped at the next map of the park to plot our next move. It would be to make our way across the park. We started meeting people with bubble blowers and windmills and plastic flowers. There were these little convenience stores all over the park and we had passed a few, but none looked to be open. However, now we seemed we had entered into an area of the park that was way more popular. There was music playing and more people… oh my… an amusement park, a waterfront restaurant, a huge lake with paddle boats, wide paved areas for biking and walking and more rental places. This was clearly the ‘MAIN’ entrance to the park. It was swarming with families…and kids flying kites, taking in the rides or just squealing and having a blast.
There was a giant fountain or maybe better described as a concave area with holes that squirt water up. Every 45 mins this area would wake up and present a water show to music. We had just missed it!! But we spotted a convenience store that was open and hopping. We would try a little chocolate Chinese ice cream. It was more like a very thick mousse, cold and yummy, and hopefully would tide us over until we could get some late lunch/early dinner.
We continued to wander through the paths and enjoy our ice cream. It was this path, then that one and ultimately we ended up at the point we begin… Gate 7. It had been about 4 hours of pretty much none stop walking, but we were fairly close to the Metro store and the B&Q we had heard about. We still had time so why not… we headed to the Metro store to see what it had to offer us.
After checking it out, we noticed it was right by the metro subway AND the Maglev Station. The Maglev station is the train to the airport. We will actually be taking the Maglev to the airport Wednesday when we are heading to Chengdu in the Sichuan province. This was a perfect opportunity to get familiar so that we know what we are doing when we actually are going there with bags in hand
We had a bite to eat at Ajisen Noodles… I love this place. The food is so good and I can actually eat noodles with chop sticks now!!! It took some practice, but we shovel it in just like the natives.
We are both exhausted so we hop the subway and head for home… what a day! We had an hour before our Chinese lesson… just enough time for a quick nap! Huitou jian or ‘see you later!’
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