China Day 25: Urban Planning Museum, People's Park & Yuyuan Garden

Visited the Urban Planning Museum, which was AMAZING!! I honestly felt like a small child in Disneyland the entire time. The first time I had heard of the Urban Planning Museum, it didn't sound that cool to me. I mean...urban planning? Was it like an architecture museum? It sounded boring to me. Only after I was chatting with Wakefield did he tell me that it had models of what China and Shanghai were supposed to look like in the future and it was supposed to be pretty cool. Anyway, this museum was by far the coolest museum I visited in China, so I am SO GLAD I ended up going!! :) :)

Urban Planning Museum! <3

Close-up. :]

Cool designs!

I believe this is model Xintiandi! (新天地)

Model YuYuan Garden! (豫園)

Even in model form, the Bund (外灘) is gorgeous. :)

Love the lights! Magical~

Shanghai at night is equally beautiful in real life! <3

Here is Shanghai during the "daytime"

Still looks cool in the "day"! I spy the TV Tower in red. :)

Model airport! So pretty. :)

They had a lot of these interactive games you could play. Very fun!! :D

Another cool design. :)

This was the area near our motel (五角場). I suppose this is the station in the future! :)

Tall skyscrapers in China never cease to be awe-inspiring

You can see People's Park (人民公園) across the way! Which we visited right after.

You can see the Shanghai Museum (上海博物館)! Wish I could've gone~

After the museum, People's Park (人民公園) was right across the way in People's Square (人民廣場), so we decided to walk through the park too. Did I mention I love parks? And nature in general? Even though it was in the middle of the city, it did a pretty good job of immersing the person in a feeling of closeness with nature and the environment. I really loved it!

You can kind of see the pink flowers! 

Let's pretend my camera strap isn't in the picture...

I love the reflections in the water <3

Disappointing waterfall. :( If you're asking, "What waterfall?" Exactly.

Headed over to Yuyuan Garden (豫園) to grab Nanxiang Steamed Buns (南翔饅頭店) for dinner! These were the famous dumplings that were in Kat's guidebook and also from the place that had the ridiculously long line when we first visited Yuyuan. I never thought I'd be buying food from there myself!! :P They ran out of the traditional, classic flavored kind so we got the mysterious flavored one that was slightly more expensive called 蟹粉鮮肉小龍. We couldn't figure out what the first two characters were, and I guessed it was some sort of seafood...like shrimp. Turns out it's crab bits, so I was kind of close! Plus I thought it tasted like seafood when we were eating. xD Regardless, they were yummy. Food in China! Om nom nom. :)

Hello YuYuan, we meet again. :)

Nanxiang Steamed Bun restaurant! 

Om nom nom. :D :D

Photos of Yuyuan, while I'm at it.

Pineapple building in the back!

Also ended up doing some shopping at these shops along the street that sold things for 2 RMB, 5 RMB, and 10 RMB, which is kind of the equivalent of the US 50 cent to one dollar store. Anyway, I bought a few things, which was nice! All in all quite the adventure day. x)