Location
of the largest city of China - Shanghai
The
largest city in China,
Shanghai
contains the most striking blend of oriental and western cultures and of
the past and present. In
this city, European-style buildings can
be seen standing alongside typical
Chinese structures and ancient temples. Modern ocean-going
vessels sail past junks. A
flourishing commercial and industrial center,
Shanghai has a population of over 16 million and a land area of 3,355
square
miles.
Although early records
indicate that a settlement was founded during the Song Dynasty (960-1380
AD), at a time when invaders from the north were retreating
to their own borders, it remained a small fishing village and did not
become a town until the mid-13th
century. Compared with other major cities in China it has had a
relatively short history.
During the Ming
Dynasty, many walls were erected to enclose the town and protect it from
Japanese pirates. The town prospered from foreign trade in the Qing
Dynasty. Prior to the outbreak of the Opium War
in 1840, Shanghai had grown into a port with 500,000 inhabitants.
After the Opium War,
Shanghai was forced by European powers to open as a "treaty port."
From that time on aggressors from many countries began to flock in and
the city became known as a notorious "paradise for adventurers."
Carving out their own spheres of influence, they settled there by
seizing their respective "concessions,"
which were
characteristic of this colonial period.
The Chinese response to
the
foreign dominance took several decades to become strong. During the War
of
Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945), Shanghai was occupied
by Japanese troops, and was reclaimed by the nationalist army after
the surrender of Japan. The city was seized
by the People's Liberation
Army on May 38, 1949. Since then,
Shanghai has changed from a consumer city of the past into a major modern
industrial city.
 Cultural activities
include theater groups, film studios, a symphony orchestra, the ballet,
opera companies, acrobatics and even a circus.
Due
to many years of foreign
influence, Shanghai, the first Chinese
city to open a disco for foreign visitors, is perhaps China's
most cosmopolitan city. It also offers the tourist art and history
museums tracing China's growth through the ages, and magnificent
examples of Chinese architecture in its temples and buildings.
THE BUND
The Bund (Wai
Tan) waterfront area is a sweeping area along the Huangpu River that
became the center of Shanghai’s foreign business establishment and the
symbol of Shanghai’s identity as a modern city.
The name “bund” is derived from an Anglo-Indian term meaning
“muddy embankment,” but after the 1920’s the area became a
showcase for foreign enterprises, with impressive Western-style banks,
trading houses, hotels, consulates, and clubs filling the shore, with
promenade along the river. British, French, American, German, Japanese,
and Russian facilities were built here, in styles ranging from
Neo-Classical to Art Deco, giving the area a pronounced European flavor.
Foreign enterprises and facilities were forced out after the
Communist victory in 1949, and many of the buildings were occupied by
government offices and banks. More
recently many of the stately old buildings have been renovated in
recognition of their status as historical and tourist sites.
NANJING
ROAD
Nanjing Road is Shanghai's busiest street. It starts at the Bund, south
of the Peace Hotel, and runs west. It is the city's main shopping area
with department stores, small shops, restaurants, theaters and cinemas
lining up the street. To the south of Nanjing Road is the Renmin
(People's) Park. To the west is
the Municipal Library, which was built in 1849.
YU YUAN
The Mandarin's Garden, as it is translated, was originally
designed in the 16th century by the provincial governor, Pan Yunduan, in
honor of his father, Pan En, who was himself a government minister.
Construction took over 30 years. It is ingeniously laid out to imitate
the style of imperial gardens in Beijing, and to create the feeling of
spaciousness within a small area.
Yu Yuan is a garden
within a garden. Divided into two parts, the outer garden contains
pavilions, rock gardens and ponds, and leads to the inner garden, which
is a smaller version of the outer one, consisting of many closely
packed pavilions. It suffered extensive damage over the years,
but was restored in 1956.
GARDEN OF THE PURPLE
CLOUDS OF AUTUMN
This park lies directly at the back of the Temple to the Town
Gods, and contains an ornamental pond with landscaped hills surrounding
it. Because of location, it is commonly referred to as the Inner Garden.
It was originally laid out during the Ming Dynasty, and later acquired
by a rich merchant. Finally, the town itself took over the park in 1736
as an addition to the Temple.
CHENG
HUANG
MIAO (Temple to the Town Gods)
The temple, or Cheng
Huang
Miao, is only a short distance from Yu Yuan. Once every city and
large town possessed a temple to the town gods, but few have survived.
PUDONG
NEW AREA
Located east of the Huangpu
River in an area that was devoted to farms and rice paddies little more
than a decade ago, the Pudong Special Economic Zone
occupies an area larger than old Shanghai itself. designed
to be the Wall Street of Asia, Pudong is the finance and business center
of Shanghai, and headquarters for most of the multinational corporations
and international banks active in Shanghai. Linked to the older Puxi
part of the city by two cable bridges, the Yangpu and Nanpu, supposedly
the 2nd and 3rd longest in the world; a new pedestrian tunnel; and the
city’s second metro line, Pudong houses dozens of new skyscrapers,
though much of the district is still empty. The new Pudong International
Airport opened in 1999. An eight-lane Century Boulevard provides a main
ground transportation artery, and
large expatriate housing developments are built or planned for outlying
areas.
Two Spots in
Shanghai Listed in Top Scenic Sites
Shanghai Daily May 25, 2007 -
Shanghai's Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Wild Animal Park were crowned as
two of China's top-grade scenic spot, according to a list today
published on the official Website of the country's tourism watchdog.
Among scores of China's tourist attractions,
the two Shanghai spots are included in the first batch of five-A graded
scenic spots.
The winners on the list have advantages in
12 aspects, including traffic, security, sanitation, postal service,
shopping, comprehensive administration and protection of resource and
environment.
The number of tourists is the key standard
when evaluating a five-A grade scenic spot. Every five-A applicant must
have received 600,000 visitors annually, including at least 50,000 from
overseas visitors, in each of the past three years.
The 468-meter high Oriental Pearl TV Tower
is the world's third tallest TV and radio tower, and is located in the
heart of the city' Lujiazui financial district in Pudong.
Serving the Shanghai area with more than
nine television channels and upwards of 10 FM radio channels, the tower
has a science fantasy exhibition on the ground floor. A hotel with
twenty-five elegant rooms and lounges occupies its five smaller spheres.
Tourists may have their dinner at the top "pearl" of the tower where a
rotating restaurant will bring them a panoramic sightseeing over the
city.
Shanghai Wild Animal Park, a 153-hectare zoo
in the city's Nanhui District, has over 200 rare species and over 10,000
animals from all over the world, such as giraffes, zebras, white
rhinoceros and hunting leopards.
The park is divided into two areas: one for
walking, and the other is accessible via buses only. The walking area
allows a close look at many animals on foot, while the buses take
tourists among zebras, yaks, bears, deer, elephants, and even lions and
tigers.
China has 671 four-A tourism spots.
Informaiton Links:
Consulates in Shanghai
More about Shanghai...
Shanghai Issues
Special 'Tourist Passport'
Shanghai Daily Feb. 2, 2007 - Shanghai issued a
batch of special "tourist passports" on Wednesday to provide
discounts, ranging from 10 percent to 50 percent, on tickets to the
city's tourist attractions.Shanghai tourism authority plans to issue
more than 1.2 million of the "passports" to benefit tourists from
foreign countries, neighboring provinces as well as local residents.
People can get these "passports" for free at
district tourism information centers. The authority will also hand
them out during promotional activities. (Click
for full report)
Shopping in Shanghai
36 Hours in
Shanghai (NY Times April 15, 2007)
Maintain Shanghai's Historical Past
(May 16, 2006)
Top
Ten Leisure Streets in Shanghai
China, Shanghai in particular, are latest must-sees
- Kay Cooper has been to Milan, Italy, and Tokyo, and as a Los Angeles
entertainment lawyer he often hears about the travel spots with buzz. This
year, he says, everyone's talking about Shanghai.
36 Hours in
Shanghai
New York Times, April 15, 2007 - On a cool autumn
night, Shanghai is drenched in light. Billboards are flashing,
highway lights are pulsing, and tall buildings seem to have been
converted into giant television screens. China's showcase city
appears to be showing off, decorating itself as though it's Asia's
Las Vegas. This is China's financial capital, its fashion center
and, clearly, its coolest metropolis. Be prepared for a city on
steroids, and one banking on long-term hyper-growth. In a country
increasingly populated by grimy, characterless cities, Shanghai is
also far and away China's most attractive city, particularly after
nightfall. (Click
for full coverage.)
More
Shanghainese Favor Shopping in Nanjing Road
Shanghai Daily, Aug. 4, 2006 - More than
60 percent of customers on Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall are
Shanghainese, a recent survey showed, overthrowing the old thought
that most guests on the road are from other cities, Oriental
Morning Post reported today. The survey, conducted by the Shanghai
Commercial Economic Research Center, is based on the information
collected from eight main shopping areas in Shanghai for a year.
It concluded that an average of 680,000 customers visited Nanjing
Road E. every day, topping the other seven centers. Among these
customers, 39.62 percent are from other cities and countries.(Click
for full report.)
City Tours Available for
Waiting Travelers
Shanghai Daily Oct. 20, 2005 - Travelers with a long wait at the city's
airports can now take a quick tour of Shanghai between flights. Both individual
passengers and tour groups can ask for the free tours, which are currently open
only to passengers taking flights on China Eastern Airlines. (Click
for full story)
Taxi Fares May Rise in Shanghai
Shanghai Daily, April 18, 2006 - Shanghai's
taxi riders may soon be feeling the pinch of higher fares for the first time in
seven years. At a public hearing yesterday on the effects of rising gasoline
prices on the city's taxi fleet, it became clear that some form of fuel-related
fare adjustment is on the horizon to take the burden off cabbies suffering from
an earnings squeeze. Taxi drivers may also get
some relief in the form of lower payments for vehicle use. (Click
for full report)
Shanghai Historic Sites Open Free on
Museum Day
Shanghai Daily May 17,
2005 - Forty important historic sites in Shanghai will
be opened to the public for free this weekend as part of weeklong activities to
commemorate International Museum Day, which falls on Thursday. In order to prevent the sites
from becoming overcrowded, as happened last year, the government will require
managers of heritage buildings to strictly control the number of visitors
allowed into any site at one time. Tour guides, some of whom can speak English,
will escort visitors around the 40 free sites this weekend. Last year, the city
opened 23 heritage buildings to the public for free, drawing 46,000 visitors -
far more than most of the sites could handle. The city has more than 4,000
cultural sites, mostly historic buildings. The government will also put on a
series of lectures at some of its 92 museums from tomorrow through May 25.
One Day in Shanghai
The Korea Times Dec. 29, 2004 -
Culture shock is always to be anticipated when
visiting a country polar opposite to ones own, even for someone weaned onto the
Asian way of life by a lengthy stay in Korea. That’s where Shanghai pulls the
rug right out from under you from the start because there is no culture shock.
(full
coverage)
Another 24 Parks in Shanghai Open
Free
Shanghai Daily
Jan.
10, 2005 -
Another 24 local parks will open to the public
free of charge this year, bringing the number of free parks in the city to 120,
said the Shanghai Greenery Bureau. The bureau also announced that construction
will begin on a botanic garden covering 210 hectares, equalling to 7 Yanzhong
Greenlands, in Songjiang District this year. Meanwhile, the city will build
2,100 hectares of greenlands this year, and the per capita greenland will amount
to 11 square meters, the bureau said.
Shanghai Mulls Taxi Price Rise
Shanghai Daily November 12, 2004 -
Shanghai's traffic authority is considering a plan to raise
prices for the taxi service following gasoline price hikes, a government
official said at November 10 press conference.
According to the plan, the service would keep the minimum charge of 10 yuan
RMB
(US$1.20) the same, but start charging more after two-and-a-half kilometers, he added. (full
coverage)
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