Shanghai: June 20: Lu Xun Park and more

On my last full day in Shanghai, some friends, D and B, who were living at the time in Beijing, came to visit. Oddly, we ended up staying close to my apartment, perhaps because it was a soggy, rainy day. (The following day Di Yin took them to some famous Shanghai sites.)

Though I didn't think we did much this day, somehow D took a large number of pictures. I, in contrast, took very few (perhaps because most of the neighborhoods we were walking through I see regularly). D's pictures continue from that first one (to which I linked) through to this one (the tire kitty). You might as well stop browsing the album when you see the tire kitty; the rest of the album covers the rest of D's visit to Shanghai, but I wasn't there for any of it, as by then I'd flown out of town.

They arrived before lunch, so we brought them to Shanghai Restaurant, a local decent Shanghainese restaurant we visited before.

On the way to and back from the restaurant, we stopped by our local cultural street and its museums/galleries as well as our local park. Lu Xun Park, which Di Yin went running in regularly but I'd never walked through previously, is large, with multiple bridges, a large pond, and an amusement park. It had big, loud groups of people; one played blues; others karaoked.

Near Duolun Road Cultural Street, we stopped by the Osage Shanghai Gallery. One of the artists in the gallery had an interesting shtick: he would paint in trade for deals. For instance, if you "bought him the highest point in Shanghai" (whatever that means), he'd make you a painting. Also, if you wanted, you could buy everything he'd make in the year 2019 for 300k RMB (44,000 USD). He guarantees he'll produce at least six pieces that year. It's a good but not extravagant salary; I wonder if he got any takers.

We also stopped by Duolun Museum. It had a motley assortment of student work and felt like a party; I think it was the day of the show's opening.

Otherwise, Duolun Road wasn't an exciting street. Nearby, however, we found a market street.

On the way home, we got soaked, then spent a few hours relaxing and drying off.

For dinner, we headed to a Yunnanese restaurant, Southern Barbarian, that was on my list of places to try in Shanghai. Because we had a sizable group, we took a taxi there, a nice trip because we got to drive by the Bund and see Pudong at twilight. There, we were joined by one of Di Yin's friends. Though the food was good overall and everyone had his or her own favorite dishes, nothing in particular was awesome and I left disappointed that I still didn't have a great idea of what Yunnanese food is.

Incidentally, the restaurant's beer list is impressive.