Shanghai: June 18: South Shanghai and Xujiahui

On Thursday, a shockingly clear day, I rode the metro across town to explore the neighborhoods of South Shanghai and Xujiahui. I took a variety of pictures this day.

In the morning, I walked this route. Note: the map is misaligned; mentally shift the lines to the points labeled actual start and actual end.

I first explored the Longhua Temple and Pagoda, the largest (and oldest) temple complex in Shanghai. Within the temples, I could see the interchange between Buddhism and Hinduism.

Next came the sizable Longhua Park. Besides exploring it, I visited within it the Martyrs' Memorial Museum, which presented an unabashedly patriotic look at the Chinese Communist revolution, mainly through photographs of or publications written by men who lost their lives in the revolution, or who were executed by the previous government. Also, near the museum is the old detention complex where these prisoners were kept, as well as the execution ground.

Several blocks from the park, I tried to stop by a gallery that turned out not to exist anymore -- it had moved to one of Shanghai's two main art complexes.

To save some walking under the heat of an unobscured sun, I grabbed a train to Xujiahui, which I planned to spend the afternoon exploring. Xujiahui is Shanghai's shopping district; it has shopping galore! As I observed over the afternoon, perhaps because this area lacks distinctive architecture, it felt like it could be in any city.

I found lunch in a large mall with lots of sit-down restaurants covering many cuisines. The western ones were often at American prices (US$10, plus or minus). I selected a vegetarian Chinese one; as the third such restaurant I've eaten at on this trip to Shanghai, I decided I could become Buddhist Chinese (i.e., eat Buddhist Chinese food every day).

After lunch, I walked this route around Xujiahui. First, I walked through the nearby, decent, medium-sized Xujiahui Park, with a large pond and several channels of water.

Next I wandered onto the campus of Shanghai's Jiao Tong University to visit its C. Y. Tung Maritime Museum (formerly at cytungmaritimemuseum.com). It's a decent museum with four galleries. Although it doesn't have many artifacts (but it does have more than a few model ships), it's made interesting by the density of information on shipping trade and ship design.

I tried to stop by a famous old library, the Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei, but it's only open to tourists for two hours each week. At least I got to browse the good Wan Fung Art Gallery on its ground floor. There, I found I liked how Dong Xianzhou layered so much oil on his paintings that they acquired depth. The leaves literally extruded from the canvas. Sorry, no pictures.

I stopped by the Saint Ignatius Cathedral, which was also closed. (It's open only during mass.)

As the last item on my list for the area, I wandered through the cute Guangqi Park.

For dinner, I met Di Yin to go to another Hunanese restaurant, Guyi Hunan. Recall how much we liked Di Shui Dong, another Hunanese restaurant we previously visited? Well, I'm happy to report our dinner at Guyi was also all good.