Enjoying The Bund!!!

To start with, let me say a bit more about the bathroom in this wonderful hotel. This control panel sits next to the toilet and controls how hot the toilet seat is, how warm the tile floor gets, and where exactly the Bidet cleans. I was too scared to see what the “oscillating” button stood for!!!!

This morning we had the taxi drop us off at the Bund District and we enjoyed a long walk along the Promenade. These were our views from across the Yangtze River…..

We enjoyed taking photos of each other……

….and two young men offered to take one of us together……

We were stopped by one family and the Father indicated that he would like to take a photo of us with his Daughter. We smiled happily as the little girl looked bewildered, wondering why she had to stand with these very strange people!!! As we walked away, we laughed and said that “we were a photo-op”!

At one end there was a huge statue of Mao Tse-Tung……

I loved this building, with it’s “flower petal” top…..

The view changed as we moved further down the walkway…..

This interesting building is the Oriental Pearl TV Communications Tower…..

After we had walked the entire shorefront and run out of “Bund”, we grabbed a taxi to the Jade Buddha Temple.

Once again the center was filled with smoke and incense burning worshippers. Most would bow three times in each direction of the courtyard.

These containers were used to burn out the incense once it had been used and the odor was amazing. We also saw a number of people placing pieces of paper and small boxes into the flames. We assumed that they were prayers that were being burned and sent up to their god.

As before, each of the smaller rooms contained one or more Buddha’s…..

….including some very angry looking gods…..

It makes me glad that my God is a God of Grace!!!!

To quote the sign, there was a “Reclining Buddha and Gift Shop”……

….and finally, after paying an additional 10Y each, the Jade Buddha. You were not allowed to take photos, so this one has been stolen from the internet….

We stood in this chamber for a long time and watched the worshippers as they came in. There were two attendants in front of the Buddha and they would sell bottles of a yellow fluid to the worshippers. The worshipper would hold this bottle in their hands and pray to the Buddha and then give the bottle back to the attendants. They would open the bottle and pour the contents into a bowl in front of the Buddha. As we looked, we could see a hose running from the back of the bowl so that the fluid could drain out.

We walked thru another store and visited the Happy Buddha. Supposedly, if you rub his tummy, you will have good luck……

As I was looking in one of the chambers, I finally looked up and saw the beautiful ceilings in the chamber…..

In other areas of the Temple, there were red flags hanging all around……

….including this one silencing the lion…..

There were several cool drums….I would have loved to hear this one…..

Our taxi back to the hotel had something that we haven’t seen before in China….a GPS. It allowed him to take some different, smaller roads and we enjoyed the trip knowing that he knew where he was going!!!

We returned to the hotel for a brief few minutes and then went out again to visit a Tea Market. We enjoyed doing a bit of shopping and, although we didn’t find any “tea stuff” to buy, we did find a beautiful vase that will make packing much more interesting!!!!

While we were waiting for the taxi, the concierge commented that there was a Typhoon that was supposed to make land on Monday so we decided to try to change our flights so that we would leave earlier. The concierge worked VERY hard and was able to make the change for us….it is good to have that off of our minds!!!

After a short rest in the hotel, we went out for our final meal in Shanghai. There is a building called “Three on the Bund” and it houses eleven very fancy and expensive restaurants. Michael did a little bit of research and found that we could go to “Mercato” and not spend our last penny, so he booked a reservation there. Mercato is run by Chef Jean-Georges who has been awarded THREE Michelin stars.

We had high expectations and were NOT disappointed.

The restaurant itself is rather rustic…..

….but the drinks are wonderful. Here is our first line-up, including the spiciest bread sticks that you have ever tasted!!!!

When we arrived at our table, we were served this lovely bread and thick Extra Virgin Olive Oil……

We ordered two appetizers. The first were these wonderful grilled Asparagus spears wrapped with cheese and bacon….

and the second was this MAGNIFICENT home-made Ricotta Cheese with a Strawberry purée…..

I really wanted to pick up this plate and lick it clean!!!!

The main course was a grilled chicken served over a bed of onions and potatoes….

The two sides were Broccolini……

….and fried Polenta cakes…..

My after dinner tea was served in this VERY heavy iron teapot….

After we had finished our wonderful meal, we took another stroll along the Bund Promenade. The buildings had all been transformed with lights and made for a gorgeous walk……

The view across the river had changed to this…..

….and brightly lighted cruise boats motored up and down the banks…..

As you can see from the photo, the crowds were even larger than they had been in the morning and everyone was taking copious photos. There were even lots of people with tripods set up.

With much sadness, we left our evening paradise and returned to our hotel for one last night in Shanghai