We had mentioned a few days ago that the authorities were clamping down on (at least a few) cases of trademark infringement. We think we might have observed this in action. While we were looking at merchandise at one stall, a police officer on a motor scooter drove directly up to an adjacent watch seller, started examining the watches, and then got out an official looking book and started writing in it. The seller didn’t appear to be upset, so perhaps this happens frequently and just results in a slap on the wrist. Or maybe the cop just wanted to buy a watch? Genuine Rolex. Special deal for you, Mr. Policeman!
We eventually found the street we wanted. Only after almost wandering into a Buddhist temple which was in an open courtyard just off the street. Anyway, once we found the bridge, we realized we had been very close to it a few days earlier. This time the weather was sunny and warm and we took our time strolling across the bridge, and gazing down at the many multicolored carp.
At the far end of the bridge we saw a sign for the YuYuan Gardens. Other than the sign, the entrance was totally nondescript and we would have walked right past it. It turned out to be a 5 acre classical Chinese garden and the only example left in Shanghai. Tall white walls with black trim, shady pools of water, limestone rockeries, winding bridges with fantasy animal sculptures on the tile roofs. Looking up we couldn’t see any of the city’s nearby skyscrapers, so it was a great refuge. Deep inside the gardens we saw a sign for an antique shop. It was like a mini-museum. We bought a small carved wood panel of a boy riding a mythical beast, which had come from a demolished home. It has a wax seal on it, which means that while old and decorative, it is OK to be sold and go through customs. It’s not a national treasure, but we will certainly treasure it. We plan to hang it in our home in New Hampshire, leaving the wax seal on it for interest.
After this, we returned to the hotel area, stopping for a quick lunch at a local food court, about 5 floors high! Fast food on the ground floor leading to elegant dining at the top. We stayed at the bottom. Sue had a mango smoothie, while Bruce had a “Jaffa” flavor ice cream cone, which combined the orange and chocolate flavors of our favorite Jaffa Cake cookies from England. A good lunch, covering many of the important food groups! We (5 of us) then took a minivan cab out to the airport for not much more than the cost of a regular cab that wouldn’t have fit all of us let alone our suitcases. In that final cab ride to the airport, we gazed at the flowing traffic and reflected on all we had seen and learned in two weeks. It seemed like quite long vacation to us, as we had absorbed so many new sights and sounds every moment of each day.
Just in case, we allowed a good bit of extra time before our flight was scheduled to leave. But everything went smoothly. There were a number of nice shops at the airport to help us spend our time and our remaining Chinese money.
The flight back to Vancouver was an easy one. With a good tailwind, it was an hour or two shorter than the flight to China had been. Population of the airplane was almost totally Western this time, as were the meals. There was a bit of a crowd at customs and immigration getting into Canada, but things went smoothly there as well. The sensitivity on the metal detector at Vancouver must have been cranked up to the max, as it discovered for the first time that there was apparently some metal employed in putting Bruce back together after his heart surgery of a few years ago. He was cleared for the flight back to Edmonton after just a mild patdown.
Our layover in Vancouver was a bit longer than we would have preferred, especially being this close to home. It was a time for resting up in preparation for the excitement to come when we were reunited with the grandkids and the other set of grandparents, as described in the quick blog we wrote a few days ago on our arrival in Edmonton.
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