Temples, Parks, and Bikes

Recently Taylor and Jen discovered this Buddhist temple not far from their home.  It is down an alley way where they used to ride.  Now most of the housing around the temple has been torn down and it looks almost like a dump.  They are preparing it for new high-rise buildings.  This was a most interesting discovery.

People were sifting through this rubble.  We are not sure what they are looking for.

The monks were chanting and playing their drums and instruments with increasing vigor.  When Jen tried to video with her phone, one of them motioned to her to stop so she did.

 Our next stop was to a local slushy shop near the Specialized Bike Store.  We checked out both of them.  Slushies were so good that we went back later in the week for another round.

Tanner tried out several bikes for his parents.  Yes, we brought bikes back home at the end of our trip.

Our next stop was Century Park.  While Jen picked the kids up from school, we walked through Century Park with Taylor.  We had walked around a portion of the park previously but never through the park.  Because it was a holiday and somewhat sunny, it was very crowded.

The flowers were gorgeous and the people were enjoying the pleasant spring weather.

 The park is surrounded by tall buildings as you can see in the background.  In that respect, it reminded us of Central Park in New York but I don't believe it is as big.

 Just outside the park there were various vendors.  This muslim was grilling lamb kabobs.  Taylor wanted one so I tried one too.  It was very tasty.

A popular Chinese custom is to bring a tent and set it up on the park for the day.  Many picnic in their tents.  We thought about renting tandem bikes to ride through the park but decided it was too crowded.  Many people did ride the bikes.  In fact, I think that there were lines of people waiting to rent the limited bikes allowed.

Instead of riding in the crowded park, we went on our own bike ride with the kids when they got home from school.  It's been a few years since I rode a bike,  but I managed to get enough control to navigate the streets of Pudong with the experts.  We rode to a smaller park were the kids ran around for a few minutes while Jen took Tanner on a little loop that she enjoys. We made the most of some rare sunny hours in Shanghai.