The delegation experienced Shanghai's culture during a visit this morning to the serene Yu Garden, which borders Old Town and is filled with stone dragons, pavilions and goldfish ponds.
The delegation also had the opportunity to further explotre Shanghai's culture during a visit to the Jade Buddha Temple. In the western part of Shanghai, a very modern and flourishing city, there is a venerable and famous Buddhist temple, Jade Buddha Temple. In 1882, an old temple was built to keep two jade Buddha statues which had been brought from Burma by a monk named Huigen. The temple was destroyed during the revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty. Fortunately the jade Buddha statues were saved and a new temple was built on the present site in 1928. It was named the Jade Buddha Temple.The temple is located in the northwest part of the city and is famous for two rate statues of the Buddha, each carved out of a single piece of white Burmese jade. One depicts the Buddha at them moment of his enlightenment, and the other as he is passing into Nirvana.
The two precious jade Buddhist statues are not only rare cultural relics but also porcelain artworks. Both the Sitting Buddha and the Recumbent Buddha are carved with whole white jade. The sparkling and crystal-clear white jade gives the Buddhas the beauty of 
sanctity and make them more vivid. The Sitting Buddha is 190 centimeters high and encrusted by the agate and the emerald, portraying the Buddha at the moment of his meditation and enlightenment. The Recumbent Buddha is 96 centimeters long, lying on the right side with the right hand supporting the head and the left hand placing on the left leg, this shape is called the 'lucky repose'. The sedate face shows the peaceful mood of Sakyamuni when he left this world. In the temple there is also another Recumbent Buddha which is four meters long and was brought from Singapore by the tenth abbot of the temple in 1989. Furthermore there are many other ancient paintings and Buddhist scriptures distributed in the different halls of the temple.
Although the history of the Jade Buddha Temple is not very long, the old-time and classical architectural style makes the temple unique and inimitable in this modern city. Devajara Hall, Mahavira Hall and the Jade Buddha Tower make up the main structure of the temple and at sides are the Kwan-yin Dian Hall, the Amitabha Dian Hall, the Zen Tang Hall, the Dining-Room and the Recumbent Buddha Hall. The Sitting Buddha is in the Jade Buddha Tower and the Recumbent Buddhas are in the Recumbent Buddha Hall. More than 7,000 Dazang sutras are kept in the Jade Buddha Tower; these are all the inestimable culture relics.
Important note: Out of respect for the temple, which is active, no pictures were taken of either jade Buddha as photography was prohibited inside the temple. The picture found on this web blog was downloaded from an official photo from the internet.
The evening was topped off with a scenic drive on the Bund. Known colloquially as Waitan (outsider's beach), and officially as Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, the Bund's name is derived from the Hindi word for 'embankment'. For the Chinese, however, it stands as a residual reminder of nation's mid-19th-century surrender to colonialism, which saw the British, French and Americans, and later the Japanese, conquer Shanghai and divide it into self-governing concessions.
Huangpu River, the most important shipping artery of Shanghai, wriggles like an undulating muddy dragon from the mouth of the Yangtze River in Wusong to the East China Sea. The yellow and ice-free Huangpu River is 114 kilometer (71 miles) long, 400 meters wide and has an average depth of nine meters (30 feet).
Huangpu River joins 29 kilometers (18 miles) north of downtown Shanghai and divides Shanghai into two parts, east and west. Cruises are available everyday, including the shorter cruises (navigating the main waterfront area between the Yangpu Bridge and the Nanpu Bridge) and the complete cruises (meandering eastward along the golden waterway, over a distance of 60 kilometers or 37 miles). Whether it is in the daytime or at night, the views along the river are the same beautiful. The great modern skyscrapers and the characteristic buildings in different architectural styles are the best records of the development of the city and the Huangpu River, the birthplace of Shanghai, is the faithful eyewitness.
The most famous and attractive sight which is at the west side of the Bund are the 52 various buildings of different architectural styles including Gothic, Baroque, Romanesque, Classicism and the Renaissance. The Bund was the centre of Shanghai's politics, economy and culture hundreds of years ago, consulates of most countries and many banks, businesses and newspaper offices were settled there, and that's why we have these art-like buildings. Although they were not designed by the same person or built in the same period, the architectural pattern is similar.Today several of its buildings are being renovated into luxury dining, shopping, and entertainment venues - though each much retain the red Chinese flag that flies atop.