Yuyuan Gardens and Town God Temple

The weekends have taken on new meaning for us.  With no lawn to be mowed, pool to be maintained or "Crusher" to be worked under, we have now found ourselves with considerable time on our hands.  We have finally hired a driver, Mr.Zhu (pronounced Mr. Jew)   and we have found ourselves venturing far outside the compound of our temporary housing.  At first it seemed rather odd to be driven around, but I will admit, it quickly grew on me and I have gotten rather comfortable with my new role of "Ms. Daisy."   

Our adventures today took us downtown Shanghai to a beautiful garden nestled in the middle of  a hustling city.  Yuyuan gardens (We called Yu gardens) is a  famous garden that was built over 500 years ago.  Attached to these gardens  is a beautiful temple celebrating three town Gods.

The garden was first established in 1559 as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost

20 years building a garden to please his father Pan en, a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, during his father's old age.  Over the years, the gardens fell into disrepair until about 1760 when bought by merchants, before suffering extensive damage in the 19th century.  In 1842, during the Opium Wars, the British army occupied the Town God Temple for five days.  During the Taiping Rebellion, the gardens were occupied by imperial troops, and damaged again by the Japanese in 1942.  They were repaired by the Shanghai government from 1956-1961, opened to the public in 1961, and declared a national monument in 1982. 

 Just outside the gardens are a ton of shops and restaurants.

 There was a lot of local foods available.... and as much as Garrett wanted to dive into a lot of these exotic dishes, I wasn't in a place to be a positive role model.

 The temples were beautiful... but as sacred as the place seemed to be for a lot of people,
Chris and I nearly melted from all the flames and incense.  People would light these large sticks that burned similar to incense and wave them in the air.  I am not clear of the significance, but everyone doing it seemed very peaceful after.

 This was Garrett's favorite God in the Temple.  We called him - the
"Youpushtomanbuttons God"

 We had a fantastic day exploring a unique part of Shanghai.

Counting our Blessings! 计算我们的祝福 (Jìsuàn wǒmen de zhùfú)