It has been a while since last time we visited the Yangpu area. I spent my university life there, but after graduation I rarely go back. This area is a bit sleepy nowadays, with an aging population and less advanced industries. However, it had its glorious days in history; when most of China's hinderland still had no idea of industrialization at the begining of 20th century, it had already built large-scale shipyards, waterworks, powerplants, and so on.
Yestorday our first destination was World Skills Museum, which we had never heard of before.😅The building was orignially the warehouse of a textile firm in 1920s and now has been repurposed into this museum. It's not far from the subway station and located by the bank of the Huangpu River. After getting out of the station, we walked 15 minutes to get to the museum, enjoying the scenery all the way with an early summer breeze. In fact, this whole community has been gone through massive rennovations and renewals. We saw a few city cyclists riding in front of the backdrop of old industry buildings, quite a new sight.
The exibition in this museum is themed on Chinese ancient builidings: parts, structures, designs and their modern applications. What awaits the visitors at the entrance is a dispaly of structures. People can take apart and reassemble them(a good opportunity to observe the inner details and orgnizations of these structures). We had a little play there and it just occured to me how our ancestors liked to name these parts with animals, like dovetail tenon.
Then I stopped and watched the model of The Pagoda of Ying County for some time. It is like the Chinese wooden version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The expersts haven't figured out a good way to protect and recover it yet. It has always been on my bucket list. The first time I saw it in an documentary, I was stunned by its delicate yet powerful quality. I like the styles of the scripts on the platues hanging up on the girders. Unlike those after Song dynasty, they are featured with thick, bold strokes. You feel that this unrestrained vigor suit perfectly with the vastness of the Northwestern land where the tower itself stands for almost 1000 years.
After the exibition we took a turn from the museum to our second destination, the ferry. Although I've lived in this city for more than 10 years, it was the first time I took a boat yestorday, from East Bund to the opposite bank. And it was a 3 minute journey.🤣 Before I realized, we'd already arrived. But still, I would recommend it to my friends and family, since visitors can have a full view of the Bund and take pictures from a different angle on board. Bad news: it started drizzling when we got on the boat, so I have some hazy pictures like I'd been pasted on the Bund buildings.
We were expecting to see some birds after getting off the boat because there is a large greenland nearby. Unfortunatedly, it turned out the spring migration had tapered off. We only spotted some city birds: bulbuls, black birds and dotted turtledoves. They became skinner and lazier, not even bothering singing. I guess they are not summer fans, which I can understand.
Living in big cities at least has one advantage: you never get bored. Just go out. And I remember one of Seinfield's classic jokes:"We should go out.Let's go out.We never go out.""We're cranky, we're irritable, and we're dealing it with constantly changing locations."
