Today, four of my classmates and I took a trip to the Yu Gardens. Finding them was no easy task. The entrance to the Gardens is located in the middle of a maze of 400-year-old buildings. As you wind through the alleyways, vendors try to sell you everything from chopsticks to counterfeit I-Phones. Because we are clearly foreigners, the prices they quote us are about 300% more than they would quote a Shanghai native, but with about 10-15 minutes of bargaining, it is possible to pay incredibly low prices for anything you might want. After wandering for close to 40 minutes, we found the entrance to the Yu Gardens, which was located toward the back of a big courtyard containing a large tower surrounded by a moat.
Entrance to the Gardens was 40 Yuan, or about $5.5, and was completely worth it. The Gardens Have been around for hundreds of years and were built by a government official from the Qin Dynasty, restored in the 1950s. The trees in the Gardens have been trimmed so that the leaves and branches are perfectly flat. There is also a river that runs though the center. Overall the area is very aesthetically pleasing. I would highly recommend anyone who goes to Shanghai see the Gardens.
Today was only the first day we spent in Shanghai and there is so much to see, I feel like you would need a month to see it all. It is a very interesting city, and I would definitely recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to come here do so.
-- Francisco Hoyos
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