Compared to Suzhou Shanghai cannot be regarded as a home of classical gardens but it does have one Ming garden built in 1559. It has all the usual garden features. It is right in the centre of the city and is rrounded by an old bazaar area which has been restored and is full of shops oriented to foreign tourists. It is quite fun if exhausting and you have to bargain hard. We were geting thingd at between 1/10th and 1/3 of the asking price on the labels but I expect you could do better if you had the time and energy. There was also a second Marks and Spencer store in the area which seemed to act largely as an outlet shop with the sort of 90% reductions you never see on M&S in Britain. This was very popular with chinese tourists who were buying by the armload. There were a few teashops but no restaurants although there was a street market selling fast food nearby and small restaurants with the food displayed outside which they would cook for you. Very chinese and a bit of a challenge for westerners whose tours went through taking photos but not stopping to eat. We had prawns, much rounder beetle shaped than the usual, which came in their shells with buckets under the table to put the empties into but we found them an awful lot of work for a small reward.
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