Shanghai 上海[8]:Souvenirs 纪念品

What is travel without souvenirs? Be it for your own remembrance or for friends and families. I recently realized that bringing souvenirs from business/holiday trips are a girl thing, boys really couldn’t care less and I’m sure their mates feel the same.

With globalization, is harder and harder to find unique souvenirs that represent the place you’ve visited. In Shanghai, we stumbled upon a traditional folk art: Shadow Puppetry (皮影戏). I didn’t know Chinese has such art, as far as I knew, Malay (Malaysian and Indonesia) has such folk art and is called Wayang Kulit, I’m amazed with their similarities. I was immediately attracted by it colourful and elaborate designs, and promptly bought several for my own collections and as souvenirs for friends. I even stayed to watch a short performance by an old master.

Another item which really caught my eyes are traditional folk art of 蓝白印花布 (Blue and White Dyed Cloth). The cloth base colour is dark navy blue with white floral/animal prints, then it is used to make everything and anything, from clothing to toys. I bought a whole series of handmade Chinese Zodiac Animal made of these unique prints. I love it!

Such unique findings have complete my trip to Shanghai. It will not only decorated my home, but with travel stories to share too!

Shanghai 上海[7]: Funny Friendly Signs 有趣友情提示

Some funny signs we saw around Shanghai,
interpretations are entirely up to your imagination!

Shanghai 上海[6]: I eat, I eat, I eat eat eat！ 我吃，我吃，我吃吃吃！

Food, Food, Food, glorious food!
From the street corners to 5-star restaurants,
From modern fusion to hundreds year-old recipe,
need I say more?
The only problem is my tummy is too small!

Shanghai 上海[5]：Old Town WuZhen 千年水乡乌镇

We went for a day trip to an old town WuZhen (乌镇), which is a thousand years old and it was a town famous for its many scholars and high ranking officials. It is situated mid-way between Shanghai and HangZhou (杭州), 90 minutes bus ride. The town now is a tourist town with much of its original architecture pretty much intact and well preserved, only less than 5% of its original population remain.

WuZhen is build along a river, like many old city, where there’s river, there’s life! The river and its many arched bridges, riverside benches (美人靠) made this town very romantic and scenic! No wonder scholars lived here, ancient Chinese scholars are considered to be a romantic lot; their scholastic work always drew inspirations from the romantic environment. We definitely felt inspired while we walked through streets made of rectangular rock slate.

It cost us entrance fees to visit this town, so I told hubby that they should make this town into a theme park, akin to Disneyland; where there are hired actors and actresses dressed in period clothing going about their every day lives, bustling business like old times, etc. Instead of just appreciating the town, we get a feel of lives during that period. It may sounds cheesy, but I think it’s a great way both persevering the history and culture of this old town and keeping it alive.