My Shanghai: Our Local Park

When I was about 10 years old, I uttered the phrase "I hate nature".  And do you think my family have ever forgotten this most ridiculous of sweeping statements?  Ah no. I have been reminded it of it at every opportunity.  "Look Mary, it's a beautiful view. Oh, but you hate nature. Never mind."

I think I made my nature-hating statement when asked to go on a 10km bushwalk in a national park on a Sunday morning. As if.  I had mixtapes to make, music videos to watch, movies to dissect, newspapers to read. What pop culture-loving 10-year-old would choose nature over that?

A decade later, I left Australia and moved to London in the tail end of winter. Hmm. I'd grown up in a Queenslander house with a big back garden. Now I was living in an apartment surrounded by concrete and grey skies. But then summer arrived and I fell in love with public parks. Regents Park and Primrose Hill to be exact. I used to go walking every morning and evening. On weekends I would sit on a parkbench for hours, read a newspaper under a tree or have picnics with friends. At lunchtimes, I would escape the office and sit in a deck chair and soak up the rays.

I've never lost this love for public parks. In fact, it's essential when living in urban environments. In Singapore, I had the Botanic Gardens. In Sydney, I lived across from Centennial Parklands. I love the freedom that living in an apartment brings but I do love being surrounded by greenery. When it's absent, I really miss it.

And so, when we found our apartment in the French Concession, I thought we'd sacrificed access to a park in favour of a more central location. In my immediate area, I could only see private gardens behind brick walls of consulates and in bigger residential compounds.  Surely there had to be a park closer to me?  Duh. There is. It's called Xujiahui Park. And it's gorgeous. And only a 15 minute walk from my front door.

Check out the shoes on the dog!

Another find: a wonderful restaurant with a sun-soaked courtyard

My Shanghai: my neighbourhood

The view from our apartment.

I have completely fallen in love with Shanghai. And it's mostly because we are living in a gorgeous part of the city known as the former French Concession.  

Here's some quick snaps I took this past weekend on my iPhone.  Excuse the quality - I still can't find my camera battery in our many unpacked boxes! 

Spring is in the air, the sun is shining and the days are starting to warm up.  Soon we'll have green leaves on all these bare trees.  I can hardly wait. 

Encompassing the districts of Xuhui and Luwan, the former French Concession is on the west side of the Huangpu river called Puxi.  On the east bank of the river is Pudong with its futuristic skyscrapers and shopping malls.

But it's the leafy boulevards and distinctive Chinese-European style architecture in the French Concession that appealed. Plus the boutiques, bakeries, cafes, restaurants, bars, pubs, fresh fruit and vege, street vendors, spas... And this is just one tiny pocket of one district in a city of 20 million people.  

It can also be a surprisingly quiet oasis. Except for Sunday mornings when the congregation at the Church next door start belting out off-key hymns from 7:30am.  Just outside our bedroom window. Oh well. A tiny price to pay.