As this was my last photo walk with my photography club students, we decided to go back to a place we have already been to decide how much it has actually changed since we took our photo walk in October.
Laoximen like mentioned before is one of the older neighborhoods in Shanghai that is still trying to keep up its appearance despite the rapid urbanization and gentrification of Shanghai. Unfortunately as mentioned before, it is rapidly rapidly becoming just like the city around it but still trying to keep its old school charm. The once old looking buildings from eons past have been replaced with facades to make them look newer. I have seen a lot of change since I first went there this year but I am happy that it is still trying to not modernize with the skyscrapers around it. Lets hope that perhaps they can still keep their old school charm as this is a disappearing aspect of China….
I decided to take them to Yu Gardens which I have been to once before which is a short walk from Laoximen, however I did not anticipate the weather being so nice, thus hundreds of people and busloads of tourists quickly descended upon the place. None of us decided to go in as people walking around was interesting enough for me to watch. It is amazing with all the nice structures around that people were just taking selfies the whole time no doubt feeding their narcissism. I watched two ladies for over 20 minutes getting different selfies of themselves. This was enough entertainment for me as the theme of this time at Yu Gardens was simply Shadows (people projected) and selfies…
