Goji Island, Shanghai, and Suzhou Tour: The Mingling Plane Tree and New Internet Celebrity Spots
Mother Earth nurtures thousands of mountains and rivers, strange peaks and different ports, and people from generation to generation have contributed to it, using time to accumulate the beauty of the scenery. The tour of Goji Island, Shanghai, and Suzhou allowed me to feel the pulse of natural laws and historical culture.
Arrival and Initial Impressions
On 2020/10/26, I arrived at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport at noon (this was my second time in Shanghai, the first was five years ago, for the wisteria flowers, and this time it was for Goji Island). The airport was really large, and I was like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden, unable to find the guide’s pick-up spot. Since I didn’t have any checked luggage, I actually went out of the airport directly. Realizing it was the wrong way, I called the guide, who asked me to go back in and come down from the elevator. Finally, I met the guide at the luggage claim exit.
Itinerary and Activities
The itinerary was packed; in the afternoon, I visited three new internet celebrity check-in spots.
- Shanghai Happy Gathering: One of the new internet celebrity bookstores in Shanghai.
- Columbia Circle: An enigmatic area that has never been open to the public since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Shanghai Happy Gathering
The trees planted along the roadside are all of one kind, and as autumn arrives, their leaves start to turn yellow. The guide said they were French plane trees, but they do not come from France, but from Yunnan. It was one of the five things Chiang Kai-shek did for Song Meiling because of his love for her. That year, when Song Meiling said she liked plane trees, he sent people to Yunnan to buy 20,000 trees and planted them all over Nanjing, each plane tree a testament to Chiang Kai-shek’s unwavering love for Song Meiling. Subsequently, places like Shanghai also planted French plane trees.
This story is very touching, and it’s hard to imagine that Old Jiang had such feelings, so there is such a saying: to love someone, give a city; to love a tree, plant it all over Nanjing City. The original site of Happiness Place was the Shanghai Rubber Research Institute, later transformed into Happiness Place by designer Huang Quan, and the design of Happy Gathering also came from his hand. As an internet celebrity check-in landmark, it has attracted many literary youths and trend setters to check in.
