After our little mishap in the morning, we headed over to the Shanghai Museum. It is one of my favorite museums in all of China. My favorite exhibits are the Ancient Buddhist Sculptures, Chinese Calligraphy and Chinese Paintings – so beautiful. In addition to their already plentiful artifacts from the Silk Road, the museum also had a special exhibit on coins found along the Silk Road in central Asia. It was interesting to see Greek and Hellenistic influences along the Silk Road amongst the coinage used for trade.
A view of the Shanghai Grand Theatre (the weird looking building on the left) with Shanghai skyscrapers in the background from the Shanghai Museum.
The Shanghai Museum was built in the shape of an ancient Chinese pot.
A beautiful wood-carved sculpture of a Buddha from the Shanghai Museum
From the Shanghai Museum we headed over to Yu Gardens and the Old City. It was a great glimpse of the Old Shanghai from a bygone era. Yu Gardens has basically kept the old style architecture and converted the buildings into a glorified shopping center. It is quite the tourist location and a draw with all its shops and food stalls.
Old City
A pond in Yu Garden
Old City Architecture at Yu Garden
Mom at Yu Garden
I did a little research today on the “Shanghailanders.” My NEH readers know what I am talking about. I visited the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum today. The part of the museum is housed in a former synagogue known as the Ohel Moshe Synagogue. The synagogue is no longer active, but was restored to its original form in 1928. We arrived after closing time and they were generous enough to give as a private tour in English (yeah!) of the museum. The museum was restored last year by the Chinese government and cost over a million dollars to renovate. The renovations were beautiful and the exhibit was really quite enlightening and interesting. I found that the Chinese Ambassador to Austria, Dr. Fengshan Ho, along with Sugihara, gave out visas to Jews in Austria. He was responsible for saving over 30,000 Jews from dieing in Dachau. He was also recognized by the Israeli government in 2007, and was honored and memorialized at Yad Vashem. Dr. Ho was considered “the Chinese Oskar Schindler.” I also learned that when the Jews arrived in Shanghai, they were placed in a ghetto in the Hongkou District. If they wanted to leave the ghetto, they had to obtain permission from the Japanese governor because Shanghai was under Japanese control at the time. The German Nazis tried to encourage the Japanese to carry out the “Final Solution” in Shanghai as well, but, thankfully, it never came to fruition. The museum also has some beautiful sculptures from Canadian artists to promote peace and to honor the Jews in the Holocaust – so beautifully done. If you have any other questions on the Shanghailanders, let me know.
Dr. Fengshan Ho - the "Chinese Oskar Schindler"
The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum in the former Ohel Moshe Synagogue
Then we ended the day at Xin Tian Di, one of Shanghai's trendiest and hottest night spots. I love Xin Tian Di! It is one of my must sees when I visit Shanghai. It has great, but expensive by Chinese standards, restaurants, clubs and live music after dark. If I was with my friends, I would totally be there right now as opposed to blogging, but my mom is totally not feeling the night scene at Xin Tian Di. She likes the atmosphere, but isn't into the partying, so sad for me :-( There is always a next time!
Sites in Xian Tian Di
I updated the post below with pictures. I finally got the pictures to upload on photobucket.
No comments:
Post a Comment