Our last touring day in Shanghai was spent with Peter and Fiona in the old city area, of which the highlight was definitely Yu Yuan Garden, a Ming Dynasty construction not far from the Huangpu (Yellow River). The word "garden" is really not adequate, because although plants, water features, rocks and pathways are the essential elements, buildings and bridges are equally important. The buildings range from gazebo-sized to conference-center sized. And as I hope you can see in this picture, walls between features sometimes take center stage. This is one of many dragons that grace walls and surprise and delight the visitor around every corner.
Pictures don't do it, but here's a suggestion, anyway, of one of the many, many vistas created in this space. We took over two hours, and didn't see it all, and even all that we saw we couldn't entirely take in.
This is the prize photo of Peter and Fiona from this day. I'll post more when there's time. Right now, we're dashing to get the train to Suzhou, which is the REAL garden spot. More later!