Shanghai
China
 
June 13, 2010
 
Dear Family and Friends,

Even with its pompous prose, sometimes, sometimes my guide book provides a colorful description to an eager traveler:

Yuyuan Gardens & Bazaar:  "With its shaded alcoves, glittering pools churning with carp, pavilions, pines sprouting wistfully from rockeries, whispering bamboo, jasmine clumps, stony recesses and roving packs of tourists, these gardens are one of Shanghai's premier sights - but weekends can be overpoweringly crowded." *