Nancy’s Big Adventure

I arrived Shanghai early Thursday evening. I was having a hard time planning what to do, as Shanghai is a huge city with lots of options.  I decided that best approach was a hop-on-hop-off city tour on Friday morning, probably the best way to cover a lot of territory in a relatively short period of time. And here is what I saw:

The Bund, also called Zhongshan Road, is a famous waterfront and has been regarded as the symbol of Shanghai for hundreds of years. The Bund houses 52 buildings of various architectural styles. A great way to visit the Bund on a nice day is to start at the Peace Hotel and walk south, ducking into buildings along the way. The Bund is really a beautiful and special place worth visiting.

People’s Square is the center of Shanghai, were two of the metro lines and several bus lines seem to converge.  It is also the theatre district.  People’s Square is surrounded by hotels and shopping complexes, which creates a city center that is part park, part concrete plaza.

Nanjing Lu (Nanking Road) was historically “the shopping area”, featuring Shanghai No. 1 Department Store and blocks of other stores and a pedestrian mall. However, the Nanjing Lu area has lost some of its significance for retail with huge malls everywhere in the city.

Jingan is known for the Jingan Temple, a local Buddhist landmark. Jingan is the “downtown” area of Shanghai, home to prime retail and office space. There are also at least three HUGE malls dedicated to high chic and high spending.

The best attraction of Old City is the Yu Garden and Yu Bazaar.  While kitschy, the Yu Garden area is a fun place to explore and wander through the lanes and alleys and find everything you might want from silk pajamas to chopsticks.

Xintiandi is a relatively new complex of high-end shops and restaurants, with a mix of retail, entertainment, and commercial office space. It reminded me of a planned village center so popular in the U.S. Not far from Xintiandi is Dong Tai Road, lined with stalls and shops selling all that is junk and treasure. You can find all kinds of items including Mao memorabilia, porcelain, old wooden rice buckets and brightly painted opera masks. It’s worth a wander around just to see.

The French Concession is one of the nicest parts of Shanghai because it feels like you are just in a local neighborhood. Trees line both sides of every street in the area. Old villas and lane houses have been renovated and turned into lovely shops and homes. It is fun to wander the winding streets and watch oldies chatting on the sidewalks and vendors market their wares. As you walk down Taikang Road there are street vendors selling pancakes and fruit, kids scampering about and women hanging up laundry. Fuxing Road is a great place to have a two to three hour stroll.

Pudong is across the Huangpu River from the Bund and features the sci-fi city skyline of towers and skyscapers. Here you will find the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Jin Mao Tower (which I think is still the tallest building), and the Grand Hyatt. There is an observation deck on the 88th floor of the Jin Mao Tower where you have incredible views of the city.

Overall, I was satisfied with the brief overview of the city and felt confident to strike out on my own on Saturday.  I rode the metro lines all over the city and returned to some of the places I had visited the day before.  I was lucky to return to my hotel just as the skies began to darken and the rain began to fall – in earnest.  The streets were soon flooded and traffic was a mess for a couple hours, but everything was back in order by nightfall.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 5:47 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.