Kiri and I, standing on the bridge from the public park to the old garden.

A last look at the park.

Looking up South Main Street at the pagoda -- and they probably ought to change the name to "Old South Main Street." That building on the right side of the photo is a tea shop where we got a really excellent lunch.

We weren't totally gardened out, and visited one last estate -- Qiuxiapu Garden, the Garden of Autumn Clouds, in Jiading -- where we were startled to discover that the locals had converted the old reception halls into a makeshift Confucian temple, complete with a row of drums out front for incense and other burnt offerings.

One of many collections of small porcelain idols in the temple. I believe these are some of the 72 Sages, the disciples of Kong Fuzi (Confucius).

Most of the garden, though, is still garden.

Ornamental ponds, decorative bridges, yada yada yada.

This one was definitely more actual garden than some. It was really quite relaxing.

Good rockery. I wish I'd taken more pictures of various rockeries. The Chinese do great rockeries.

We did a good bit of just sitting and relaxing and enjoying the garden -- this was our last day in China and we were tired. Julie took advantage of this to take this shot of me...

...and this one of Kiri.

Hard to believe it was February in this picture, isn't it?

The Garden of Autumn Clouds is not considered to be really first-tier among Chinese gardens, but it had some spots that were just lovely.

The locals make use of the place, it's not purely a tourist attraction. Besides the temple, the local knitting club meets in one of the Ming Dynasty pavilions.

One last shot, and done with Jiading. Back to downtown Shanghai.

Early in the week Julie had bought some silk and ordered a tailored blouse, and Saturday night it was time to go pick it up. We approached Nanjing Donglu from the south.

Nanjing Donglu has some of China's best neon -- at least, outside Hong Kong.

Huh -- this is Nanjing Donglu, of course, but I'm not certain exactly which part. I think it's the north side looking east.

This is definitely the north side looking east, and Silk King, the world's most famous silk shop, where Julie got her blouse, is in the middle -- see that green sign saying "SILK"?

Nanjing Donglu looking west, toward People's Park. Note the Radisson's flying saucer in the background.

The stage and giant video screens playing "A Healthy City Is A Happy Song" on the southwest corner of the intersection of Nanjing Donglu and Fujian Zhonglu.

I have no idea what these say, but don't they look cool? And the two pictures below were taken about one second apart, to show how some of the neon is constantly moving and changing colors -- that display was about the most dramatically kaleidoscopic, but it had plenty of competition.

And finally, Sunday morning, we boarded the maglev train to Pudong Airport.

Yes, Shanghai has the world's first fully-operational magnetic levitation train service; it runs from the Longyang Lu subway station to Pudong International Airport, about twenty-five kilometers, in eight minutes. Most runs top out at 430 KPH or so; we were on the first run of the day, when they keep the speed down to a mere 300 KPH.

A science-fictional wrap-up to our fantastic stay in China!