Yuyuan Gardens, Shanghai, China (Tuesday, August 28th, 2018)

Right next door to China Town was the classical Yuyuan Garden (Garden of Happiness) built during the Ming dynasty.  This beautiful and garden features pagodas, lakes and magnificent pavillions.  It was built by one of the Emperors for his parents so that they could enjoy the beauty of China without having to go out into the city.

Reflexology stones in many different designs all over the garden.  It really does give your feet a massage as you walk on them, but I wouldn't want to try it bare foot.

When we were done with our tour of the garden, we had about an hour on our own to spend more time in the gardens, or to go back out into China town to do some shopping.  Steve and I decided to sit for a minute in the garden and just enjoy the peacefulness.  But it didn't take us long at all to strike up a conversation with a girl and her mom who were sitting next to us.  

Once again, we saw so many amazing things, but our interactions with the locals is always our favorites.  We love understanding more about their lives and just enjoying their friendliness!! We did about 90% of this hour conversation using Google Translate.  What an amazing tool for traveling!