Golden Week Celebrations

May 1 is labors day and in China that entire week is off. Yep the whole week I was on a vacation here in China. Sadly I was in Shanghai but did a lot. I could not plan much for that week as my extension here in China was decided pretty late and you need to do all your bookings well in advance. But I had other things to take care of and that was being a tour guide for the people who were stuck here in Shanghai as they were not able to get tickets to fly to their countries. I am planning to start a Tour Operator business here for the people who come. I am sick of going to the same tourist spots again and again. I took my colleagues to Shanghai Museum. One of them was very interested to know and see the Chinese arts and history. This place I had to go around the same exhibits all over again for the second time. Boy o boy that meant lots of walking and standing and waiting, phew at the end of it I was dead tired and I was craving for a can of beer. During the golden week the Chinese take pride in going out seeing places and having fun. You can see a lot and lot of people on the streets. Anywhere you go you will find rush and never ending q. After we were finished with the museum we were hungry and had to cross the road to eat Pizza. The situation at the zebra crossing reminded me of Mahabharath serial, where in at dawn soldiers from both the ends are waiting to attack and once they are given the command to charge they just pounce on each other. At least here we did not pounce to kill each other. Hundreds of people on both the side of the roads was waiting to cross and once the signal turned we were attacking the other end of the road. That was a scene worth watching from the side and being part of it was fun. Before going to the museum on that day we went through the people’s park. It was such a beautiful park with all greenery and colorful flowers. Outside there was so much of noise from the modern machines that man created, but inside it was peaceful and calm. People were doing exercise, hanging out with friends and family and having fun and eating and drinking.

The second day we went to two different places. One was the Jinang Temple. It is a Buddha temple. A place bigger than the Jaded Buddha Temple but not as good as it. The architecture of the buildings was good. There was a tomb in the courtyard of the temple with some openings at different heights. People were throwing coins into these openings. I gues it was to make a wish and when your coin successfully gets into one of the openings then it will be granted. I also tried and it was fun to put the coins. Outside the temple there was a ban playing the bagpiper. The music was really good. They had attracted a lot of people to listen to them playing. It does take a lot of effort to blow air into the bagpipers. I could see that on the face of the artists who were blowing air into it. I would have gasped for air if I had to do it for the first time. Form there we went to the Shanghai Old Street or Yuyuan Gardens, This place has the old Chinese style buildings. More of a place where you can shop Chinese art and some souvenirs. The whole street is doing the same, attracting tourists to buy them. And to mention the food that they sell. Yummy I wanted to get some steamed dumplings, but the Q was so big that I did not feel like standing in it. We went the Yuyuan garden entrance to find that the place was closed at 04:00PM. Man that was bad. The garden looked beautiful from the outside. I wanted to go there desperately. Anyways I will go there again. After hanging out for some more time and doing some shopping we headed back to our hotel. The next day also was spent in shopping and most of the time I was at home.