Traditional Markets and Yu Yuan Bazaar

Bird, fish, insect market

Turtles at Bird, fish, insect market

Inside the bird, fish, and insect market

Really hot rabbit at bird, fish, insect market

Mao badges

Large crickets

Crickets in bamboo cages

Dongtai Road Antique Market

Tea market

Daoist Monastery

Another view of Daoist Monastery

Dajing Pavilion

Busy street by Yu Yuan

Exercise area-couldn't resist!

Yu Yuan Bazar

More Yu Yuan

Zig Zag bridge at Yu Yuan-meant to keep ghosts from crossing

Yesterday was a very busy and exciting day.  After Chinese class in the morning, we took a trip as a group to visit three traditional markets: the flower, bird, fish, and insect market, the Dongtai Road "Antique" Market, and a tea market.  The flower, bird, fish, and insect market had a wide variety of small animals, fish, and crickets for sale.  The crickets came in small bamboo cages and many of them were very large.  Some of the crickets are used for fighting and others are singing crickets.  There were also kittens, puppies, and rabbits.  We then walked over to the Dongtai Road market which sells souvenirs, fake antiques, and some items from the Mao era.  At this market, I bargained for some items: a necklace of blue and white porcelain beads (popular Shanghai item), a Mao t-shirt for Thomas at his request, and a Mao badge from 1953.  Before coming to China, I read a book entitled Streetlife China that contained an article on the history of the Mao badges.  In the 1950s, there were thousands of different designs of Mao badges circulating throughout China that people would collect and wear on their clothing.  There were several types of badges including porcelain, bronze, plastic, and fabric.  There is a museum in Chengdu that houses the world's largest collection of Mao badges.  Anyway, after the antique market we went to a tea market, which was neat, but not really of interest to me since I do not drink tea.  I still tried a few varieties though including a fruit tea.  After seeing these markets, most of the group returned back home but I decided to stay out and see some more.  We read that there was a Daoist monastery nearby, so we decided to check it out.  When we got there, we realized it was closed for the day, but we still got some cool pictures of the buildings.  Since we were close to Yu Yuan Bazaar, we decided to walk there and check it out.  It was a beautiful area that really catered to tourists.  There were many souvenirs for sale and also many Western eateries including Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, McDonalds, Starbucks, and Hagan Daazs.  We did some looking around and picture taking and then I had McDonalds for dinner.  Its funny how places where you would not normally eat at home become very appealing in a foreign country.  After dinner, we rode the metro back to Wujiaochang, stopped at Walmart for a few things, and then walked home.  All in all a great day!