Day 24: Shanghai, Tuesday 14th October 2025
Yu Gardens
28°, mirky/cloudy , drizzle
NZ$1 = Y4
Y1=NZ$0.25
Up at 9am, down for breakfast ( 1 breakfast was included in the room rate, but we just gave the waiter our room number and strolled on through ), this was a mixed buffet which was nice. Back to the room, grabbed a bag and then left at 9:45am, walked back to Hongqiao Station and caught metro line 2 ( of course our Alipay automatically switched our metro ticket system back to Shanghai for us ) and went to Songhong Rd ( only 1 stop but took 15 minutes ). Up out of the station and walked to Livat Mall ( about 15 minute walk through a business area with chain hotels ) and went to Decathlon for Liz to buy more yoga pants ( Y199 ). Waked around the mall a bit then through IKEA ( just for a look ) then back to the metro and back to hotel a 11:15am.
Packed out bags and checked out at 11:45am
Walked back to basement then through to the Railway Station and down to Metro again, this time for line10 to Yuyuan Gardens stop ( 14 stops ) which was the nearest stop to our next hotel. Up to street level and walked to hotel at arriving at 12:45pm. For some reason the streets around our hotel are closed to traffic today ( and the were for the next day as well ). Checked in to the Qiyu Hotel (Waitan City God Temple Branch ), NZD$433 for 3 nights, no breakfast.
This hotel is in a recreated traditional style building across the road from the Yu Gardens complex, which is why we picked it. There are shops / restaurants on the ground floor of the building and the hotel lobby is tucked around the corner and looks a bit like a shop. The area is quite touristy but had a more traditional feel to it than a lot of Shanghai. Our room had an outside window ( some rooms only had courtyard views ) but was still pretty quiet. We went up to the room ( 8422 - 8 for luck, floor 4, room 22 ) to rest a bit. BTW it is a running joke for all our hotel stays that they keep installing these big black screen things in our room, which we never use or even turn on; we assume they must be important if every hotel room has them.
Out at 2:20pm, walked across into Yu Gardens shopping area (also known as Yuyuan ), walked through Ancient Town style complex ( a bit of a maze ) with lots of craft shops, cafes, jewellery shops etc all aimed at tourists, but not too tacky. The complex takes up a whole block and appears to be expanding into the next block. We had coffee/cake at Peets Coffee ( Y100) and watched people through the window.
Walking through Yu Garden Shopping Area
One thing we immediately noticed now that we were back in the tourist areas; the number western looking men, by themselves, walking around but not looking at the buildings / shops. We assumed they were pickpockets so we were very much conscious of our belongs. We had not had any feelings of being unsafe like this for the last 3 ½ weeks, so it felt a bit of a return to reality.
It had started to drizzle when we left the cafe but we carried on walking around, passed the central lake area, into a small department store, then out of the complex on the other side to our hotel, walked to the food street adjacent to Yu Gardens, then back past our hotel to a Department Store and shopping area where Liz bought a small porcelain bowl ( Y10! ).
Back to hotel at 4:15pm for another rest after a quick look at the hotels rooftop garden.
Out again at 5:15pm, into Yu Gardens shopping area again to shoot buildings and the lake in the middle of the complex in a cloudy sunset. It was quite busy and we got the usual treatment when are out photographing; people stopping to look at what we were shooting, then pulling out their phone to take the same photo as us.
Left at 6pm, dumped our gear in the hotel room, then out for dinner at a restaurant across the street the street from the hotel entry; yellow curry and dumplings and beer Y80.
Back to hotel
Zoomable Map ( pin is located on our hotel location )