Shanghai Museum and the Bund

Last Saturday during our Shanghai adventure we went out to see the city with a couple of students. They asked us what we wanted to see and we thought that the Bund area would be essential because it is such a symbol of Shanghai. But it was cold and rainy, so first we went to the Shanghai Museum. Here is a shot of the exterior.

Unfortunately, this was the first weekend in the Museum's history since it switched to free admission. So we waited in line out in the rain with a few hundred people for about a half hour to get in. It was really a lovely museum. Many of the pictures that I took didn't come out well, but the quality of the pieces was very high.

The quality was high in two senses. The pieces were very well preserved, unlike some of the artifacts you often see that are usually quite worn down or damaged. But even more, almost all the items had an intriguing quality that separated them from many ordinary museum pieces. Facial expressions were very captivating, as you can see on the musicians above and this supernatural beast below.

A special attraction is the "oracle bone" that you see below. Ann had a read a book about China before we arrived that discussed both ancient and contemporary China through the discovery of oracle bones. I think that was the title of the book in fact.

They were discovered in the 20th century and gave proof to the early civilization of China that until then had only been legendary. The bones have characters carved into them and they are the earliest (I think) record of Chinese characters.

Unfortunately, you can't see the characters in the photograph. In fact, you have to look pretty hard to see most of them on the bone. They only display one at a time. Below, you see a print of the bone with the characters. I was fascinated, and was sorry that Ann couldn't get to see it.

The oracle bone was in a gallery devoted to calligraphy. Below is a more typical scroll. I think it was from the Ming Dynasty (so, about 500 or more years ago). Of course, there were artifacts throughout the museum from all the different periods including pottery from 10,000 years ago.

We were very tired, so although the museum is not large, we decided to see just one more gallery and we let Thomas pick which one. He wanted to see the seal gallery with ancient and modern seals or stamps. These are very common in China and it is also common to have a seal made for yourself when you travel in China. They carve characters for your name in about 5 minutes.

Here is a series of photos in which you can see the size of the seal behind Thomas.

And then notice that it has a magnifying glass in front and a mirror underneath to inspect the design more closely.

And here, by taking a photo through the magnifying glass, you can just make out that it is filled with characters. Thomas liked this one the most. In the museum, you can really see the characters much more clearly through the glass and we were amazed at the precision necessary to make these tiny but detailed characters.

After the museum we went out to lunch for some local Shanghai dishes. As I mentioned last post, the food is very sweet. There were also a lot of dumplings. Below are the students who took us out. As you might guess, they are a couple.

Sun Ning, the boy, is in the second year of his Masters Program and next year will write his thesis on George Santayana's philosophy. He plans to go to the US for graduate school and we discussed different schools he might apply to. Chen Xing, the girl, is also a Masters student who will write her thesis on John Dewey's educational philosophy. So, you see I finally landed in the American philosophy zone of China. By the way, in China, all Masters programs in philosophy take 3 years, and all doctoral programs take another 3 years. It's a pretty strict timetable and a very different system from the US.

After lunch we walked down into the Bund area by the harbor. The Bund is a fairly sizable strip of western buildings built in the early 20th century when Shanghai was a major western concession. But it was so rainy and foggy that it was a little disappointing. As you look across the harbor you can see the famous Pearl tower just disappearing into the fog.

But it was still a worthwhile trip with interesting sites. The walkways were packed even though it was a cold and rainy Saturday in March. We were a little surprised at how many beggars there were, and very young ones and very aggressive ones as well.

Here we are in Shanghai!

We were glad to go back to our hotel after this. Thomas had a blister on his foot that then got soaked in the rain and I wasn't feeling very peppy myself.