China Travel

For many, the Bund (Waitan to the locals) is the face of Shanghai. Even as the city transforms itself, growing upwards and outwards at a tremendous rate, the Bund's Art Deco and Neoclassical facades appear much as they did during Shanghai's previous heyday as China's most international city, way back in the 1920s and '30s. Of course, the surroundings have changed radically since then. There's no better place to take in the spectacular Lujiazui skyline on the east bank of the Huangpu River than from the Bund's river promenade or behind a picture window in one of a growing number of luxury bars, restaurants and clubs occupying the upper floors of classic Bund buildings. At the north end of the Bund, Nanjing Dong Lu cuts west, a neon-lit paradise for shoppers and gawkers, flanked by a mix of colonial-era edifices and contemporary high rises. The south end of the Bund terminates near... more »

Though no longer China's tallest building, having recently been eclipsed by the neighboring World Financial Center, the Jin Mao Tower (Jin Mao Dasha) remains Shanghai's most elegant and distinctive skyscraper. It also still proudly houses the world's highest hotel, post office and bar. Situated in the heart of the Lujiazui financial district, the Jin Mao's design is based on the lucky number eight: 88 floors soar upward, divided into 16 segments, each 1/8 smaller than the preceding one. Architecturally a blend of the monumental Art Deco of the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings and the balanced composition of the traditional Chinese pagoda, the Jin Mao renews the long-standing Shanghai tradition of blending Western and Chinese styles, resulting in a dynamic hybrid that beautifully compliments the Bund's colonial-era façades across the Huangpu River. The interior is as... more »

Rising above the Huangpu River and Pudong skyline like something out of an old science fiction flick, the Oriental Pearl Tower holds a special place in Shanghai's recent history. Before the early 1990s, the east bank of the Huangpu was a low-rise jumble of warehouses and muddy settlements. The erection of the tower, completed in 1995, served as a symbolic declaration of Shanghai's future-forward orientation and grand ambition. Its quintessential Shanghai retro-futurist architectural kitsch set the tone for much of the high-rise hijinks that have since come to define Shanghai's active skyline (lots of flashing lights, rooftop ornamentation running from the sublime to the ridiculous). As Pudong's more recent giants—the Jin Mao Tower and World Financial Center—show, Shanghai's architecture is maturing, favoring cool international grays and sophisticated glass and metal ... more »

Yuyuan (Yu Gardens) is a classical oasis—albeit a generally crowded one—in Shanghai's relentlessly modernizing cityscape. The gardens, completed in 1577 by the aristocratic Ming Dynasty Pan family, retain their original grace and elegance even in the face of throngs of tourists and the commercial hubbub of Yu Bazaar just on the other side of the garden walls. Situated in the midst of the Old City near the City God's Temple, the gardens make an excellent and restful stop in a walking tour of the area. The famous Mid-Lake Pavilion Teahouse sits right next to the garden's main entrance, reached by way of the zigzag bridge across a large carp pond. An excellent example of Ming-era garden design, Yuyuan's paths, corridors, rock formations and carefully arranged greenery lead visitors through a space that is much smaller than it appears, past limpid carp ponds, up atop cle... more »

The sight of the Buddhist Longhua Temple pagoda rising into the sky against the backdrop of Shanghai's 21st Century high-rise skyline can be both jarring and sublime. As the city's largest remaining pagoda, the 40 meter (130 foot) tower stands as a monument to China's traditional culture, which so often seems lost in the thicket of Shanghai's metastasizing glass-and-steel high-rise developments and freeway flyovers. At the same time, the pagoda and the busy temple grounds surrounding it illustrate a deep and vibrant continuity between China's past and present. The location is reputed to have been a temple site since 242 AD; Longhua Temple (Longhua Si) itself goes back to 977 AD and the Song Dynasty. Many of the complex's buildings are more recent still, dating from the rule of Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu (1871-1908), and the entire site was renovated in 1954. In addition to the... more »

The Taoist Temple of the City God (Laochenghuangmiao), tucked away within the Old City alongside the Yu Gardens and Yuyuan Bazaar, is the home of the local deities (there are actually three, all derived from actual historical personages) responsible for the well being and wealth of Shanghai residents. Going by Shanghai's booming economy, he's done quite a good job in recent years, and you can see citizens making offerings of incense, candies, fruit and other goodies fit for a City God in order to keep the good times rolling. The temple and city haven't always been so lucky. Since its founding during the Ming Dynasty in 1403, the City God's Temple has been destroyed several times; the current temple was built in 1926. During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai during World War II, local merchants, cut off from the original temple, were forced to build a secondary temple in the In... more »

Cité Bourgogne (Bugaoli to the locals) is a unique example of the shikumen style lane house dwelling constructed across the city during its early-twentieth-century heyday. Located in the former French Concession, one can stroll through the narrow lanes of this block-sized complex completed in 1930 and get a bit of a sense of yesterday's Shanghai. A blend of European and Chinese architectural features, the shikumen (which translates as "stone gate") neatly balanced the demands of density with those of privacy, creating tightly knit communities with shared common space that still allowed residents considerable separation. Designed to accommodate 78 families, and currently occupied by some 450 households, Cité Bourgogne provides a glimpse of a way of life that is fast disappearing as old housing stock falls before the wrecking ball to make way for high-rise ... more »

When people mention Shanghai's Nanjing Road, they're probably talking about Nanjing Dong Lu (East Nanjing Road), a pedestrian shopping street running for blocks between the northeast corner of People's Square and the Bund. If you spend more than a couple days in Shanghai, you'll likely end up pushing your way through the crowds beneath the neon signs and signature Shanghai mix of brand-new high rises and late colonial-period architecture. The shopping is varied and good, though lacking the upscale brand-name cachet of Huaihai Zhong Lu or Xintiandi on one hand or the bargain-basement prices of "fakes" markets like the one at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum subway station on the other. Though it's a shopping street first and foremost, the real attraction is the parade of people: hustlers looking for easy tourist marks, Chinese families on holiday, foreign tour... more »

People's Square, like much of today's Shanghai, is a showcase. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum, where optimistic projections of boundless—yet carefully managed and controlled—growth take the form of an enormous scale model of future Shanghai and a 360-degree computer-generated city starring a manic animated flying pixie guide (you might want to sit this bit of digital theater out if you have a queasy stomach). The Museum's distinctive upside-down droid architecture joins a slew of other imaginatively designed signature buildings dotting the otherwise green expanse of the square (it's far more a park than a traditional square). On the southern side, the Shanghai Museum houses a quality collection of artifacts, from ancient jades to classical calligraphy and paintings in a building loosely designed on the model of a bronze-age c... more »

The Jade Buddha Temple (Yufo Si) was built during the troubled reign of the Qing Emperor Guangxu (1875-1908) and burned down after having been occupied during the 1911 revolution. The temple takes its name from the original two white jade Buddha statues that abbot Hui Gen brought with him from Burma—a sitting statue about 1.95 meters (almost 6 1/2 feet) in height and a smaller reclining Buddha. Today's temple also contains a third, even larger Buddha from Singapore. During the 1911 upheaval, the original jade Buddha statues were removed for safety. Between 1918 and 1928, the Jade Buddha Temple we see today was constructed on Anyuan Lu in the architectural style of the Song Dynasty. Composed of several separate buildings—the Hall of Heavenly Kings, the Main Hall, the Hall of the Sleeping Buddha and the Hall of the Jade Buddha—it is a working temple in which monk... more »