A Saturday Night on the Town- Part II

It was kind of strange how busy the first half of my walk had been.  At the end of Nanjing Lu, I came to People's square.  Once you cross the street through the underground tunnel, its like coming out to a different city. 

Although it is only the other side of the street, the difference is vast.  The park is tranquil and quiet.  There were a lot of open seats.  People were sitting and quietly chatting.

There are a few museums in the park.  The one below is The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall.



Arquitecture happens


When I was walking past city hall, a boss guard came out and straightened and corrected the two super still guards out front.  It really felt silly.



Arquitecture just keeps happening



Across the street from City Hall is the Shanghai museum.  It was already closed, so I will have to return next weekend. 

Waiting for the fountain

In fornt of the museum, there was a big fountain, with tons of people waiting around.  My time in Chicago had taught me that public fountains also double as swimming pools in the summer. 



And on the 15th minute of the hour, he said, let the water flowth from thy fountain

 You can't imagine the squeels of delight as the water started.  Kids and grownups rushed to run and jump around in the water.  It was great to watch.  Maybe after my visit to the museum, I will run in the fountain.

As I keep walking around, I find this:


Where does this go?  To the future?

It turns out that this road does not go to be future, but to the west.  Just underneath it, is the pedestrian bridge.

Cars to the future, or west



The future is now

The blue effect is from millions of tiny LED lights installed on the underside of the elevated express way.  It gives a really cool blue glow to everything for about half a block.

People on the pedestrian bridge wishing they were going to the future instead of the other side of the road

I took some photos from the pedestrian bridge.

View looking South from the pedestrian bridge

Old timey contrast to spankin' new

DINOS!  I want to go to there

View looking North from the pedestrian bridge

Look at this noble worker telling you to wear your PPE.  It sure beats the signs we have back in the states.

I think this sign says you need a hard hat to enter

There is always something to see.

This beautiful building seemed out of place



After a few hours of walking, I was HUNGRY!  So, I decided to head over to Yunnan Lu, a food street.  This is really more of a restaurant row than a food street, but either way, there were delicious food to be eaten.



Yunnan Lu Food Street

 I picked this restaurant due to the awesome pictures of crawfish in the window. 

I don't know what it says

According to my coworkers, this restaurant is called Shengxinreqiyangrou (pronounced like: shung shin jrou chi yang jroo).  It litterally means big golden hot steaming lamb, but it translates to Mongolian Hotpot.  Funny how Chinese works.  I didn't get the hotpot because I was on my own, but it did look really good.  It was the coal powered hotpot of Northern China.  I will need to go back and try it.  Instead I settled on:



Crawfish was the right way to end the night

The crawfish were tasty.  Unlike the mudbugs in the Gulf Coast, these little guys are cooked in an oily sauce.  It was still spicy and full of garlic, but it had a certain Asian je ne sais qui.  I had two tray fulls.  This is the night I learned to say "another."  In Chinese, "zai4 lai2 yi1 ge4" which translates closer to "encore" than any other word.


This was the last place I saw Saturday night.  It is a restaurant that has all these plastic rubbermaid boxes.  You can see them in front of the truck, on the ground.  They are full of water and sea creatures.  Some animals were crab, others loster, the occasional clam, and some that were mystery animals.  I watched people pick out the creatures.  The server would weigh them, and take them off to be cooked.  I suppose "fresh" has a very different meaning in China.



Should I eat here?