Day 10, Sept 14 (Shanghai - Beijing)

Shanghai Museum

Today was the last day in Shanghai.  The last sightseeing point in Shanghai was Shanghai Museum.  It was a world-famous museum of ancient Chinese art.  The building was shaped with a square base and a round top attached with arches like a bronze Ding, indicating the earth was square while the sky was round.  In front of the building, there were eight imposing white marble statues of guardian lions standing.  Moreover, there were nearly 130,000 pieces of national treasures in the collection of the museum such as bronzes, calligraphy, paints, jade, and ivory work etc.  This was a good place to experience the brilliant history and enjoyed the fabulous artistic creation of China.



The willows dominate the painting creating a cathedral effect.
The painting dates from the Ming period

However, we only had an hour to walk around the museum, so I picked my favorite one, Chinese painting.  I did a presentation before about Chinese paintings when I had my class of Studies in Art.  Since then, I love Chinese landscape paintings.  It made me feel so relaxed and enjoyable.  When I looked at the paintings, it made me feel like I was into the paintings

During the Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese painting matured and fully developed.  Figure paints emphasized the internal quality of painting.  Landscape painting was divided into two major styles: the blue and green, landscape and the ink-and-wash landscape.  Many different regional styles emerged.  Various expressive painting techniques were created in flower-and-bird paintings: realistic meticulous painting with color, ink and wash painting with light color, and boneless ink-wash painting. 

After that, we headed to Hong Qiao airport to fly to Beijing.  The flight time was about 2 hours.  As this was a domestic fight, the weight of suitcase was limited in 44 pounds = 20kg.  I had to take out something from my suitcase and moved to my carry-on bag.  My carry-on bag was heavy and made my shoulder hurt.



Peking Duck



After we arrived at Beijing airport, we headed to taste the most famous local food in Beijing called Peking duck.  It was a pancake wrapping with a few pieces of duck meat, cucumber, green onion, and special sauce.  It was always good to try something different and special.  My Mexican classmate liked it so much because Peking duck is just like a taco.



Novotel Beijing Peace Hotel



After dinner, we checked in at the Novotel Beijing Peace Hotel.  Everyone was exhausted after such a long trip, so no one seemed to be interested to go out for a drink any more.