Jade Buddha and M50

We took the first suggestion from Amber and Jerome's list and went to the Jade Buddha temple just a short walk from our apartment.

The temple was cool. It's hard to compete with Kamakura, but it was cool to see nonetheless. It was interesting to watch the people, as this was very much an active site of worship. There was a lot of incense and lots of bowing and kneeling.

The complex itself was also interesting, because unlike the temples we visited so far, this one is squished into a small space in the city. There wasn't much space between or around buildings, you go past one and run right into another.

There were parts inside the temple complex that cost extra. (We learned that unlike SouthEast Asia, Chinese temples are more tourist attractions than places of worship, and they do their best to make as much money as possible, so there's often an admission fee to get in, then additional fees for cool stuff within it.) After reading reviews, we decided to skip the extras. What we saw was cool enough...

We went over to a park...

...and then to an arts district called M50, a collection of abandoned warehouses and lofts that have been converted to a vast center for artists to display their work. We found a lot of good stuff, but most of the really cool art galleries didn't allow photos. But this was one of my favorite works of art...

Along the way back to the apartment, we left the Shanghai we knew from last night and wandered through a wonderfully fun locals only area...

We ate lunch at the apartment and then headed out to the Central Business District, called Lujiazui, which gets its own post because it's that cool. :)

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