As I write this in the first week of December, the temperature in Shanghai is in the mid teens.  Having just got back from a three week trip to the England and Scotland this is warm, yet the locals are wearing their down jackets, thigh length boots and furry shoes.  Winter here, although cold and dingy doesn’t last long and after two months we shall have got through it and reached the Spring Festival, as Chinese New Year is known. People will be putting plastic sprigs of plum blossom in their houses in anticipation of the real thing arriving in full bloom by before the end of February.

Last year in the last week of February my dear friend, Ulrika, from Sweden came to visit us for a week and we tried to cram as much as we could into her visit brief visit.  We were generally successful, to the extent that by the morning that she left I had to stay in bed, exhausted, rather than go with her to the airport.  Richard went instead.

We did many wonderful things together, but one of the most memorable was to visit the Yu Yuan or Jade Garden at the north end of the Old City of Shanghai. My report of the Garden in my first visit a year or so before was very despondent.  I found the garden small and cramped and too busy and I didn’t understand it all.  But over the years, my knowledge and understanding of Chinese Gardens has grown immeasurably and I have now come to find pleasure in them.  Much like Hidcote and Sissinghurst in the UK they would be even better if the number of of people visiting along with you was significantly reduced  and the answer to that of course is to go first thing in the morning as the gardens open for the day.  We didn’t.  But we did go at one of the best time of the year, when the bonsai’d Prunus mume – were all in bloom.  Its common names include Chinese plum and Japanese apricot. The flower is usually called plum blossom. The reason for the seemingly at odds names from the two countries is that it is related to both plums and apricots.

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There are a large number of varieties of Prunus Mume  (over 300 cultivars in China) and their colours vary from pure white through to a deep pink.  Some varieties are especially famed for their ornamental value, including the hongmei (红梅), taigemei, zhaoshuimei (照水梅), lü’emei (绿萼梅), longyoumei (龍游梅), and chuizhimei (垂枝梅).  On bonsai’d trees the blossom flowers are dense and cloud-like. Delicate white stamens in all the flowers add to their beauty.

Not only are they beautiful to look at, but they also have a heady scent, which becomes trapped within the many small courtyards of the garden and intensifies their fragrance.

On a grey February Day the blossoming trees against the deep red paintwork of the many garden pavilions and the white and grey of the walls provide a beautiful contrast.  Richard who joined us for the visit was blown away and is determined to see them all again before we leave Shanghai for good next Spring.  In fact we both loved them so much that we have had one planted back in our garden in Kent whilst we have been away.  It is difficult to find many varieties in the UK – we ended up with a white one for the garden, which has been planted by our pond.

But when we return I think that we shall be trying to find a cheap way to have bonsai’d ones in pots on our terrace.   I did find one company, but they were hideously expensive.

In amongst the garden’s pavilions are a fish ponds.  The Koi Carp are huge and plentiful – we are talking of fish 1 – 1.5 feet long and are well fed by the visiting crowds.  At this time of the year the Camelias are also in bloom, adding their own versions of pink, white and red to the colour scheme.

After the heady time in the garden we ended up in a three storey Chinese canteen restaurant in the middle of the YuYuan Bazaar which sits alongside the garden.  Typical Shanghai food is available here – from huge soup dumplings with straws to drink the liquid, stinky tofu translated into Chinglish as Deep-fried Bean Curd of Odor, greens and other dumplings, lotus root steeped in osmanthus syrup, wonton soup, and custard tarts, spring rolls and sesame balls, squid and dragon boat festival food  – flavoured rice steamed in bamboo leaves.

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You take a tray, walk down the banks of food that surround the outside walls of the restaurant and you pick whatever you fancy.  Cheap, cheerful and authentic Shanghai food, totally unlike any Chinese food you might find in the Chinese restaurants in the UK.