Fun in Yuyuan!

We've been having great fun with our cousins, and the weather has been gorgeous... what a blessing! Yesterday the girls enjoyed dressing up in these costumes and posing a bit in Yuyuan garden. For just 25 RMB ($3) you can wear the costume for a loose 5 minutes. Such a deal!

Rain and Grandparents in Shanghai

My parents are here! After a false start, my parents arrived six days after they were initially supposed to, and we are so happy to be together.

Unfortunately the weather isn't much fun for sightseeing right now, with day after day of rain, but we managed to grab a few dry hours today to get in a walk through the Old Town area of Shanghai. Very local housing, old style, narrow alleys, tiny doorways, laundry hanging overhead, dripping down on us as we walked. Lots of street food... we were adventurous and tried a number of different dishes~ fried dumplings, a noodle dish, various fried breads, and some chestnuts. It is always a scene to be a westerner in a place like that, where we so obviously don't "fit". We laughed about just smiling and waving, as if we are celebrities. Everyone stares mercilessly, but with friendly, open faces.

We ended up in Yuyuan, one of my favorite places, to see the beautiful display of plum blossoms in the garden. I didn't have my camera with me today...

but I found this picture I took last year of the plum blossoms in Yu Garden. The sky wasn't so blue today, but the blossoms were just as beautiful. Most are growing in small bonsai type form; short, thick, ancient looking trunks with beautiful delicate flowers, growing in impossibly small, shallow pots.

Later this week we will all be taking in Seth's performance in the middle school drama production. I have to be at school with him tomorrow morning at 7 a.m., to help with make-up application for the 95 middle schoolers in the play. They are doing a practice performance for the rest of the middle school tomorrow during the school day. Pictures to come!

At Yuyuan for Spring Festival

Although Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year) ended Monday night with the Lantern Festival, the beautiful decorations at Yuyuan will stay up for another week or so. Madelyn and I went to see them Tuesday afternoon, and they did not disappoint! Lanterns, lanterns everywhere... I've been told it is quite beautiful at night when they are all lit up! Have to see that one of these years.

Enjoying my soup dumpling (you drink the broth out of the inside with a straw before cutting or biting it open to eat the meat) with a friendly ox looking on!

You know it is the Year of the Ox... but did you know that dumplings are boiled with an entire ox skull, complete with horns, right in the broth? Check this picture out! I saw this at several dumpling stands, and I think it is a real ox head... but I can't be sure. Makes me wonder... surely there weren't rats in the broth last year!

Two Together

Another favorite photo from Brad and Sarah's visit... Uncle Brad and Madelyn hanging out in this traditional Chinese doorway in Yuyuan.

Afternoon in Yu Garden

Tuesay was a beautiful fall day in Yuyuan Garden... Brad, Sarah, Madelyn and I lingered there a long while, enjoying the sunshine, bright fall colors, and Chinese architecture. I love this place!

Yuyuan Garden

We are finally experiencing some weather that feels a little like fall. Yesterday was so pleasant, around 75 degrees, we thought we needed to do something outside to enjoy the day. We ended up at Yuyuan Garden, where we have been several times before. Scott and Seth hadn't been in the garden proper, however, so we did that and all enjoyed our stroll through this traditional Chinese garden, with all the little ponds, rockery, traditional Chinese buildings, and flowers. We talked about the next time we will visit this garden... when Brad and Sarah come in November! We have been discussing our plans for their visit here a lot... Yuyuan Garden is definitely on the list of activities. Hurry up, you two!

Again with the Costumes at Yuyuan

Yesterday we visited Yu Garden with Mark and Mindy. The girls were wild to rent the costumes for pictures again, and Mark and Mindy agreed to do it to please them. Mark was a little less than pleased to don his outfit, but I think he felt better later when we showed the pictures to Mr. Wu and he told us the symbol on Mark's robe meant emporer.

The garden was much more crowded than when the girls and I were there last month, so we gathered quite a crowd. Most of the people were tourists, and many of them were photographing us. Mindy noticed that several people were trying to get pictures of Gwen by herself... you know, Chinese girl in traditional dress!

Mindy and I especially liked our headdresses. They were made of metal and were fairly heavy.

Spring in Yu Garden

Costumed Pictures in Yu Garden

Yesterday when the girls and I were at Yuyuan, we went into the garden proper for the first time. It is a beautiful Chinese style, walled garden with all sorts of rockery, small caves, pagodas, ponds, etc, similar to the style of gardens in Suzhou. We enjoyed poking around in it, especially because it wasn't crowded with people like the rest of Yuyuan. We stumbled upon this spot where they had traditional Chinese costumes to rent for pictures. The girls were very excited to to this... and I had lots of fun taking their pictures in different poses in the garden.


We love these big hats!




I would have enjoyed wearing a costume too, but then who would have taken my picture?! A young Chinese student asked me if she could take some pictures of the girls with her camera, and then offered to take one on mine of all three of us. Maybe when Mark and Mindy come we should all get costumes... do you think I will be able to get the guys to do it?!