In the next morning, we went to have breakfast in a small place which was very close to the hotel. And if I had to judge it by the way that restaurant looked, it definitely wouldn’t have been my first choice… BUT the Beef Noodles soup was really good and very filling! 🙂

Then we took a bus and went to the first attraction point: the Old Town Bazaar.

It is in one of the oldest parts of Shanghai, which was closed from foreigners for almost 400 years. And although the buildings aren’t 500 years old but they do represent the ancient traditional Chinese architecture, which creates a very nice atmosphere.

Probably one of the biggest mistakes that I’ve already made is not bringing any travel guide with me to China so I can’t really tell many things about beautiful places and things that I saw… But I’m fixing it as soon as I have some free time to go to Shanghai (some time this week) and find a bookstore, where I could purchase one. And for now, you can enjoy the photos 🙂

Oh, I know at least something about the next picture. The building is a Teahouse in the middle of a lake full of koi (common carps) and you have to pass a zigzagging bridge with nine turns to get to the other side of the lake near the entrance to the Yu Yuan garden. The reason why the bridge has nine turns is to protect it from evil spirits, which, apparently, can only go straight. 🙂

And of course, it wouldn’t be called Bazaar if there weren’t any real people who sell things. Almost all the streets are occupied with little shops where you can buy tea, herbal medicine, sweets, souvenirs, even clothes:

I was told that Shanghai is the most expensive city in China so I decided to reserve my money and bargaining skills for buying souvenirs in some other places that I’m planning to visit.

And finally, after wondering around a little bit we bought a ticket ( ¥30 or ~£3) to enter the Yu Yuan garden, which I’ll tell more about in my next post. 😉