Inside People's Square are located several government buildings, the Shanghai Opera building and the Shanghai Museum. Many people walk through the park and visit the Shanghai Museum [the round building]. Looking north from the park you could see my hotel [the tall building with the large "cap" on top, which is a restaurant that rotates 360 degrees every hour to afford great views of the entire city.]
A short 20 minute walk from my hotel down Nanjing Road [a pedestrian only shopping street] brought me to the Huangpu River, which served as the entrance from the China Sea for ships carrying goods to and from Europe when Shanghai was governed by the British, French and Americans as a concession in the middle part of the 19th century. On one side of the river lies the Bund which was the city's Wall Street during the colonial period. Many of the original building still stand in this area.
On the opposite side of the Huangpu River from the Bund lies Pudong. In the mid 20th century Pudong was the poorest area of Shanghai filled with slums and farmland. In the 1990's it was declared a Special Economic Zone, and is now home to the financial center of Shanghai, filled with skyscrapers and hotels, and now the most vibrant part of the city.
Just a few metro stops from my hotel was the Jing'An Temple [Temple of Tranquility] which is one of the city's most revered places for ancestor worship. Originally founded during the Three Kingdoms Period, its current structures date to the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the 1930's it was Shanghais wealthiest temple. The temple was closed during the Cultural Revolution but has reopened to become one of the best examples of an active Buddhist shrine in the city. It is a popular place to offer coins and pray for financial success.
On another day I traveled to the Yu Yuan Gardens and Bazaar. The old style buildings of the Yu Gardens bazaar are not really old, and the shops here peddle everything from tourist souvenirs to traditional medicines.
The Yu Yuan Gardens were my favorite spot in Shanghai. Located in the Old Town area of the city, and built during the Ming Dynasty, the gardens are now surrounded by modern skyscrapers, but retain their tranquility in the midst of the bustling city. The gardens are a very popular tourist spot and can become quite crowded during the day. I got there early in the morning, and as I wandered through the six walled areas of the gardens, I often had the place to myself. The most popular spot in the gardens is the Huxingting Teahouse, built in 1794 by cotton merchants, it only became a teahouse in the late 19th century. The teahouse is approached by a zig zag bridge which protects the structure, as evil spirits cannot turn corners.
The various areas of the garden contained pools, temples, carved walls, rockeries, and beautiful floral gardens. These are pictures taken throughout the garden.
At the end of my stay in Shanghai I returned to the airport on the Maglev [Magnetic Levitation] high speed train which reached a speed of 247 mph on the short, but fast, 8 minute trip from the city to the airport.
I enjoyed my trip to Shanghai, and I look forward to returning again in the future to see several sights that I did not have time to visit on this trip.
