Shanghai
Shanghai – a cosmopolitan city of contrasts. City, in which the ultra-modern and the ancient are intertwined. City, bathing in lights and dappled in colours. Even an year will be insufficient if you want to fully explore it. Yet – let’s submerge into it and reveal its secrets.
Situated on the banks of South China Sea and Yangtze river, with over population of over 24 mln, Shanghai in the biggest city in both China and the world. According to numerous financial experts, it is expected that by 2020 Shanghai regions will be the wealthiest economic region in the world. Shanghai is one of the 4 autonomous mega-cities in China. It is hosting the world’s busies sea port.
It is difficult for one to imagine the scale on the city and its population, until he/she visits it. Huangpu river divides Shanghai into two big districts. On the west bank is the old part of the city, containing the historical centre and temples. On the east bank is Pudong district containing the posh modern Lujiazui quarter, home of numerous breath-taking skyscrapers, among which is the second-tallest building in the worlds – Shanghai Tower (630 m).
Before you depart
Please check with the China embassy in your country whether you need visa for going there. This is the case for Bulgarian citizens. It is relatively easy and fast to get the visa. If you want to do it on your own, it will cost you around 80 USD. However, a prerequisite is to have an invitation from a Chinese citizen to visit the country. If you don’t have such contacts, you can easily use a travel agency to issue the visa for you. In this case expect to pay for the visa and the service around 150 USD.
How to reach Shanghai
Unless you are great adventurists and you have a lot of free time and will to travel by car, the only suitable option is flying. The flight from Sofia to Shanghai through Moscow takes 11 hours and a round-trip ticket will cost you 550-600 EUR.
Pudong Airport, that is hosting the international flights, is situated 30 km eastwards of Shanghai. You can reach the city via taxi, train or Maglev – currently the world’s only passenger train, using magnetic field levitation. Let the term “passenger train” not mislead you – Maglev reaches speed up to 430 km/h and takes the distance to the city in less than 8 minutes…
What to see
The Bund
(31.238579, 121.490097)
The Bund is a big riverbank promenade and a key landmark of Shanghai. It is a favourite place for a walk for thousands of people , ans also mandatory site for photography lovers. The Bund offers the best view over Huangpu river of the remarkable Lujiazui business district.
The Bund is several kilomoters long and it reveals part of Shanghai’s history. Here you can find European-style buildings due to the century-long tight relations with Great Britain and the rest of the big European countries. After the Opium Wars in China, it was the English capital that help for Shanghai’s fast economic development. Several decades later, the city is a world financial centre.
The longest trade street in China – Nanjing Road – start from the Bund. It hosts hundreds of fashion stores, electronic stores and restaurants. Expect to move slowly because of the constant crowds on the street.
The Northern part of The Bund end with the Monument of Heroes and a beautiful iron bridge. The latter is favourite place for wedding photo session of the newly-married couples.
People’s Square
(31.2321471,121.475726,17.25)
The central square of Shanghai is a vast open space in the heart of the multi-million city. The City municipality, the Museum of Shanghai and several malls and business skyscrapers are located here. It will take you 15 minutes walking to reach People’s Square from The Bund.
Lujiazui
(31.2293631,121.494523,14.5)
The ultra-modern district of Lujiazui is situated on a picturesque Huangu river turn, opposite The Bund. Here are some of the world’s most futuristic buildings, one of which is the symbol of the city – the Oriental Pearl tower. (31.2375791,121.4986356,17). With it 300 m height it had been the highest structure in Shanghai for years. However, today it is not even in top 3…
Until the completion of Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Shanghai used to host the world’s highest observation platform. It is 450 m above the ground on the 93rd floor of Shanghai’s World Financial Centre (31.2369713,121.5003092,18). Until recently this was the highest building in the Shanghai, known also as “The bottle opener”, because of its iconic shape.
In Lujiazui you can also see the Oceanarium (31.2384865,121.5004334,17.25) – enormous aqua-centre, home of thousands of exotic ocean species. Here is also the world’s longest underwater observation tunnel – 155 m.
Temples
Interestingly, Shanghai is the most atheistic city on earth (85% of the population claim they don’t belong to any religion). Still, it has hundreds of temples and pagodas.
Among the most beautiful are The Jade Buddha Temple and Longhua Temple. A remarkable landmark of the latter is an 8-storey high pagoda.
Yu Yuan gardens
(31.2263993,121.4910647,17.5)
“The Gardens of tranquillity” are an oasis in the heard of the urban jungle. Here you can enjoy a stroll between ancient houses, without leaving downtown Shanghai.
You can drink tea in the oldest still-operating tea house in the world. It was opened together with the garden itself during the time of Ming dynasty in XVI century. The tea house stands in the middle of a small lake and you can reach it via zigzag bridge. According to the legend, this design is preventing bad spirits from chasing the visitors of the tea house.
Markets
You cannot submerge fully into Shanghai’s vibrant atmosphere without visiting any of its colourful markets. It is here where you can touch the life and habits of local people and see things, unreachable during standard sightseeing guided tours.
The Birds and Flowers Market is located near one of the main boulevards – Renmin Road. From the main street one takes a narrow passage and enters a new world. Literally you will find yourself in a huge covered place, surrounded by stalls selling birds in cages, kittens, rabbits, turtles, different kinds of fish, scarily big grasshoppers. The songs of the birds and the sounds of insects is everywhere.
Despite its name, this market offers much more than birds and flowers. On the area of a small neighbourhood, you can find vast majority of antique stalls, where you can buy literally everything. The kaleidoscope of sounds and colours is overwhelming – so is the feeling when you step out of the market and back into the urban reality. This is what you see everywhere in Shanghai – the modern goes hand-in-hand with the old and traditional, the standard – with the strange and interesting (according to our perception). That is why Shanghai is so magnetic and worth visiting.
Food
The original cuisine of Shanghai is very rich and relatively spicy. It is much different versus the food in the Chinese restaurant is Bulgaria, where it is adapted to Bulgarian taste. The joke, that in China everything that moves is edible, is not far from reality. The choice of places to eat is also abundant – street vendors, circling around with carts and offering delicious local snacks; small family restaurants at the corner of every street; food corners in the malls. They give you wooden sticks as default utensils. Yet, in case you are not comfortable with them, head for the restaurants in the malls. Here the staff will offer you knife and fork for sure.
If you are looking for authentic Shanghai food, try spicy noodles or steamed dumplings with minced meat and onion.
You can see our post on how to prepare steamed dumplings – click here
In Summary
Shanghai is an exotic destination, a rich mix of colours, scents, tastes and experiences, which is impossible to fully describe in a single post. We are strongly recommending that you visit it and expand your horizons. If you dream of experiencing the magic of the East, Shanghai is just for you!
Useful tips
Make a preliminary plan of what you want to see.
Shanghai is a vast city, in which you can easily miss thousands of interesting places, if you don’t have a plan. A good solution would be to buy a sight-seeing guide in advance and to figure out what is the easiest way to reach the desired sights.
Use the subway
As per our experience, the best way of navigating through the city is by using the subway – Shanghai has the world’s biggest underground transportation net – 11 subway diameters, that will take you anywhere in the city. The subway trains are very frequent and usually arrive at every 2 minutes. The only relative disadvantage are the significant crowds of people trying to get n the trains – in the end Shanghai has 24 million residents, and they are aware how fast and efficient is using the subway 🙂 An interesting fact is that renting a car is practically impossible, if you are are not a Chinese citizen – it is forbidden to drive without a valid Chinese driving license.
Don’t rely that English is spoken everywhere
We are not saying that in order to visit the city it is mandatory for you to learn mandarin. Simply don’t rely too much that if you speak English, you will be understood everywhere. Despite the fact that Shanghai is the most “Western”- oriented Chinese city, you will be surprised how often you will find difficulties when trying to establish verbal communication. On the other hand, the English translations of almost all signs in Shanghai is an enabler for the foreigners. People are very hospitable and kind and the ones that speak English will eagerly help you find the needed destination.
Be very careful when you cross streets on pedestrian walk
What we saw is that the drivers in Shanghai are not very keen on stopping on red light. If there are pedestrians, the drivers find it sufficient to just slow down a bit and honk to announce their approach.
Try durian, but be cautious
Durian is known as “the world’s stinkiest fruit”. Its taste is interesting and distinguished, but its smell is so rich and intense, that it is forbidden to eat it in closed spaces, like hotel rooms for example. You will even find special signs showing you should not consume the fruit indoors.
Prepare to be a photo-model
The residents of Shanghai find European people exotic and very often you will sense that you are being looked at and taken picture of. On the other hand, we observed that most of the people are totally OK, if you do the same with them.
Avoid visiting Shanghai during bank holidays
Avoid visiting Shanghai during bank holidays. This is because The city is a magnet for people living in the neighbouring towns and during non-working days it gets really crowded, even for Chinese standards. This affects the time you need to move from point A to point B and you will need to adjust your plan for sightseeing. For example, such period is 1st- 6th May, when there are couple of national holidays and people are travelling a lot. On the other hand, May is a very good month for visiting Shanghai, as the weather is usually sunny and there is no rain.
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