The next morning, I had my first real breakfast on this trip. On all the other days on this trip so far, breakfast had been either porridge, some kind of bun, or half of a rice roll shared with my mom, and always have to walk a distance to get it. I was never full after any of those breakfasts and my body would often go into some kind of shock after a few hours where my hands would shake and my legs would feel like noodles.
The hotel we stayed in in Shanghai had buffet breakfast – east and west. It had breads, cakes, noodles, salads, etc. I stayed away from the salads because it’s common knowledge to never eat raw veggies in China. I ended up grabbing a large plate consists of a fried egg, ham, sausage, cooked veggies, and fried noodles, plus a shot of espresso. I may had over-eaten and over-indulged but at least, my stomach felt satisfied.
After breakfast, we set out once again in the direction of the Bund. I had wondered about peculiar building the day before but I wasn’t near enough to read what the sign said. It turned out to be the Shanghai Postal Museum.
This building was built in 1924 in the style of Roman architecture and what caught my eye was the door. There’s not many buildings these days where the door is right at the corner. It seems like doors these days will always be located after turning the corner.
We traversed the spiral staircase to the museum on the second floor. Of all the museum I’ve been to on this trip, this will be the only one that didn’t require tossing my bag on a conveyor belt to go through an X-ray machine. The museum was absolutely fascinating and possibly my favorite museum on this trip. Except for some of the 21st century stuff, most of the exhibits were translated to comprehensible English.
I loved looking at stuff like old mailboxes. It was hard to phathom that there were mailboxes in Qing Dynasty because all the historical drama I’ve seen only featured the Forbidden Palace. So it’s hard to imagine what life was like outside.
When we returned outside, I could immediately feel the humidity hit me. It’s going to be one of those days, huh, I thought as we continued walking down the road. Once again, my mom failed to mention where we were going. We just walked along the river. Along the route, I took pictures while followed closely behind my mom and her cousins.
I have no idea where I was when I took these pictures but I love how the modern city in the background is blended into this old-school architecture.
We had probably walked almost 2 miles before arriving at the Joint Trust Warehouse Museum. One of the bloodiest battles during World War II happened in this warehouse as you can tell from the bullet holes in the wall.
I don’t know a lot of details about the history as most of the exhibits in the museum wasn’t translated.
This building was built in 1935 and was the place where some 400 soldiers made a last stand to defend Shanghai against Japanese forces during the Battle of Shanghai in 1937.
Some of the horrific scenes in the museum brought back the horrible memories of when I attended elementary school in China and for our class trip, we were to sit in a dark theater and watch war films. I remember not being able to sleep for a week because of the bloody and horrific scenes.
I’m glad to report that this museum didn’t cost me any sleepless nights. In fact, I was so exhausted throughout this trip that I hadn’t been able to dream.
