The Wishing Tree

The second day in Shanghai it still wasn't raining as the weather forecast promised, so we took advantage of the weather and went to the Yu Yuan Gardens and Bazaar.

It was about a 25 minute walk from the metro station but well worth it. It is a few city blocks of ancient architecture filled with shops selling anything you can imagine - silk pajamas, jade carvings, fans, paintings, wood carvings, jewelry, statues, name stamps, etc. The bazaar was packed with people since it was May 1st; there wasn't a moment I wasn't touching at least two other people.

There was a Buddist Temple filled with incense, smoke, and people. The Garden was very relaxing with huge pools of fish and a very cool caligraphy museum. The Chinese have an amazing ability to create serene and peaceful areas in the midst of chaos.

My favorite thing at the Bazaar was The Wishing Tree. In the middle of a square surrounded by shops was a huge man-made tree that looked quite real. The trunk and branches were a very dark brown while the leaves were shiny gold. At booths on one side people could buy wishes. The wishes were made of a piece of metal shaped like an ancient coin and tied to the coin was a red ribbon with Chinese characters for either family, luck, love, dreams, or fortune. Tom and I bought two ribbons each - one to throw and one to keep. Then we went up to the tree, made wishes, and threw them in.

The tree with its gold leaves and red ribbons hanging all over it wit the crowd of people below was stunning.