Yu Yuan Garden
During your Trip to Shanghai you will find that the city has a lot to offer, big buildings, museums, a lot of places to go shopping and a very distinctive gastronomy, but if you want to relax the best thing you can do is go to the Yu Yuan Garden, that is a stop you have to do in your Shanghai Tour.
It was built during the Ming dynasty, between the 1559 and 1577, but it was not built by emperors or kings, it was built by an official, albeit it was made in similarity to the Imperial gardens and it was built for a very altruist reason.
The official's parents were too old to travel to the capital, but they really wanted to see an Imperial Garden and that is also the reason why the gardens are called Yu Yuan (Yu means health and calm).
After the official's death the family fell in bankrupt and the garden was forgotten, it 
It wasn't until 1957 that the garden was completely restored (that also included a part of the neighborhood who was also built in the Ming dynasty) in 1982 the garden and the neighborhood were considered "national monument" and now is one of the most touristic places of the city.
The garden is two and a half hectares and has the principal elements of the Chinese garden building.
They search the perfect combination between buildings and nature, and they do that by combining very precisely shaped halls, artificial ponds and rivers and a very varied vegetation, placing the threes and the different kinds of flowers in the perfect position to have a very astonishing visual effect.
The Yu Yuan gardens are a must see in your Shanghai Tour and it's very convenient to go there and spend the day because in this area there are also lots of places to go shopping and lots of restaurants where you will be able to taste the typical food of Shanghai.
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