Shanghai in Review
Located at the centre of the mainland’s coastline, Shanghai is China’s biggest and most important economic centre. This attractive and trendy city, often dubbed the Paris of the Far East, has a history as rich as any other big city in China and offers its visitors a riveting mix of cultures, architectural temples of art, fabulous dining and contemporary urban living.
The Bund area, a boulevard of old architecture, is the centre of the city and a symbol of both old and new Shanghai. At night, the Bund is a gem of urban beauty with and beautifully illuminated PuDong skyline across the river. Many different types of architecture from Gothic and Baroque to Classicism and Renaissance ornament this waterfront area, including the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building and the Oriental Pearl Tower, the highest tower in Asia.
Other highlights are the Jade Buddha Temple, Lupu Bridge (the longest arch bridge in the world) and the wonderful Yu Garden which is crafted in the classical style of the Ming Dynasty and attached to a fabulous market where you can bargain for the best handicrafts and antiques. Trendy Shanghai is known as a shopper’s paradise, complete with China’s number one pedestrian shopping street, Nanjing Road which is well on its way to become a world-famous commercial destination like the Champs Elysees in Paris and Fifth Avenue in New York.
Colourful, fashionable and energetic, Shanghai is the best place to catch the pace and contradiction of modern China.
- From our editor T.Ireland – Australia