Yuyuan Garden----- the Happiness Garden

With a long history of more than 400 years, the Yuyuan Garden, also known as the Yu Garden, is the most celebrated classical Chinese garden in Shanghai. The garden is located to the northeast of the old town, not far from the Bund. The garden is typical of the gardening art south of the Yangtze River and is famed as "an architectural miracle in South China".

Located beside the City God Temple in the northeast of the Old City of Shanghai, Yuyuan Garden was built during the Ming Dynasty (1577), 400 years ago. There is a impressive story about the garden. It is a residential garden built by Pan Yunduan, minister of finance in Sichuan Province during the Ming Dynasty. Pan built the garden to "please his parents and let them enjoy themselves in their late years". In ancient Chinese "Yu" means "pleasing", hence the name of the garden.

The garden was inherited by Zhang Zhaolin, Pan Yunduan's granddaughter's husband, and then passed to different owners. A section was briefly organised by Zhang Shengqu as the "Academy of Purity and Harmony" and the Ling Yuan ("Spirit Park"), today's East Garden, was purchased by a group of local leaders in 1709. A group of merchants renovated the increasingly decrepit grounds in 1760 and in 1780 the West Garden was opened to the general public.

A centerpiece is the Currow ancient stone, a porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. Rumours about its origin include the story that it was meant for the imperial palace in Beijing, but was salvaged after the boat sank off Shanghai.

When you penetrate deeper, it seems you are getting lost in a maze: the landscape seems to wind on forever as the gardens are purposefully designed to distort space and distance. And the elegant wood carving or engraving you come arcoss, are the obvious characteristics of the gardening style of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The more you step inside, the more you get fascinated for Yuyuan Garden, a maze of houses, grottoes, pavilions, lotus ponds, and zigzag bridges crossing streams, a maze in a Chinese way.

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Xintiandi

Xintiandi is a car-free shopping, dining and entertainment area of Shanghai. The look and feel of the place resembles a bit of Covent Garden in London, minus the eccentric street performers. This is the place where lots of expats and even local executives hang out. First time goers will definitely be awed with its welcoming atmosphere with fountains and all. It features an area of restored traditional shikumen ("stone gate") houses on narrow alleys, purely old Shanghai style and very nice to see.

The district is composed of an area of reconstituted traditional mid-19th century shikumen ("stone gate") houses on narrow alleys, some adjoining houses which now serve as book stores, cafes and restaurants, and shopping malls. Most of the cafes and restaurants feature both indoor and outdoor seating. Xintiandi has an active nightlife on weekdays as well as weekends, though romantic settings are more common than loud music and dance places. It is considered one of the first lifestyle centers in China.

Xintiandi is the location of the site of the first congress of the Communist Party of China, now preserved at the Museum of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Also nearby are the Shikumen Open House Museum and the site of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea when Korea was a Japanese colony.

There is a modern shopping mall with a posh cinema, too. Nightlife flourishes there, though romantic settings are more common than loud music and dance places. Xintiandi is a must-visit 'hang out' place in Shanghai, and also suitable for honeymoon vacations.

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The Bund----- an Epitome of Shanghai's History

The Bund is a waterfront area in central Shanghai. The area centers on a section of Zhongshan Road (East-1 Zhongshan Road) within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent areas. It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai. Building heights are restricted in this area.

The Bund is also an epitome of Shanghai's history. Dating back to the time from the 1840's to the 1930's, many foreign businesses snatched the Bund to establish concessions, banks, headquarters, and consulates and so on. Hence, Shanghai, a small seaside town one hundred years ago, rose to be the largest city in China. It also earned the reputation of "The Oriental Wall Street". Even today, visitors can still feel the prosperity of the old Shanghai, when looking at those old buildings at the bund. 

To the west of the Bund, there are group of magnificent buildings standing in various styles, Gothic, Baroque, Rome, Renaissance, Classic and the combination of Eastern and Western style. Although these buildings were completed at different time and are in different styles, the main elements of these buildings are fairly unified and the overall outline is well coordinated.

Near the Nanjing Road intersection stands what is currently the only bronze statue along the Bund. It is a statue of Chen Yi, the first Communist mayor of Shanghai. At the northern end of The Bund, along the riverfront, is Huangpu Park, in which is situated the Monument to the People's Heroes - a tall, abstract concrete tower which is a memorial for the those who died during the revolutionary struggle of Shanghai dating back to the First Opium War.

Strolling on the Bund at night is an amazing experience, as the skyline on both sides of Huangpu River is illuminated, including the grand buildings at the Bund and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the skyscrapers arcoss the river.
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Shanghai Zoo with Panda

After half a century of development the Shanghai Zoo has become one of the best ecological gardens in Shanghai. The zoo houses and exhibits more than 6,000 animals, among which are 600 Chinese animals that include the giant panda, golden snub-nosed monkey, South China tiger, hoopoe, black bulbul, scimitar-horned oryx, great hornbills and Bactrian camels. Animals from other parts of the world include, the chimpanzee, giraffe, polar bear, kangaroo, gorilla, ring tailed lemur, common marmoset, spider monkey, african wild dog, olive baboon, mandrill, Canadian lynx and maned wolf. The zoo is constantly developing and improving the animal enclosures in order to provide better environments for the animals and a pleasurable experience for visitors.

The original golf course design has been basically preserved. There are a total of 100,000 trees with nearly 600 species planted in the zoo. The green areas and lawns cover an area of 100,000 square meters. The zoo endeavors to create an ecologically-friendly environment for the animals - the 'Swan Lake' with its natural reed clumps and trees providing shade for pelicans, geese, black swans, night herons and other birds, is a perfect example of this.

The Shanghai Zoo provides areas for amusement and leisure, opportunities for visitors to increase their knowledge of the various animals and combines this with scientific and technical research to help people better understand and protect animals. Since the zoo was established it has been host to over 150,000,000 visitors

When you visit the zoo, you mustn’t miss panda. The cuddly fluffy black and white bears are super stars in the zoo. They are very lovely, especially their smoky eyes, though their eye shadows seem a little bit too heavy. And they appear shy, even coy, covering its face with a paw or ducking its head when confronted by an approaching stranger or camera. Yet, they are very playful when they are tracing each other or eating their favored bamboo. 

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The City God Temple

The City God Temple or Chenghuang Miao is a temple located in Shanghai, China, within the old walled city. Today the "City God Temple" not only refers to the large temple complex, but also the traditional district of commerce in the city, surrounding the temple. There are over a hundred stores and shops in this area, and most of these store buildings are nearly a century old. The temple connects to the Yuyuan Garden, another landmark of the old city.

The temple is colloquially known in Shanghai as the "Old City God Temple", in reference to a later "New City God Temple", which no longer exists.

The City God Temple in Shanghai originated as the Jinshan God Temple, dedicated to the spirit of Jinshan, or "Gold Mountain", an island off the coast of Shanghai. It was converted into a City God Temple in 1403, during the Yongle era of the Ming dynasty.

During the Qing Dynasty, the temple grew popular. Residents of the old city as well as nearby areas visited the temple to pray for good fortune and peace. The temple reached its largest extent in the Daoguang era. The popularity of the temple also led to many businesses being set up in the area, turning the surrounding streets into a busy marketplace.

With a rich history of nearly 600 years, City God Temple of shanghai is the most significant Taoist temple in Shanghai. The lofty temple consists of 9 halls where various statues of immortals that are believed to be in charge of certain aspect of human life receive endless worship. With the temple as the core, the old town of Shanghai (in contrast of the modern Pudong New Area) has formed a well-known City God Temple Scenic Region. Inside it there are the representative classic Yuyuan Garden and world of handicrafts and traditional art works Yuyuan Market. They both are a step away to City God Temple. As a result, the locals and visitors usually go to the temple and the market after they finish touring Yuyuan Garden.

To foreigners, City God Temple of shanghai strongly helps mirror the concepts of immortals of Chinese people. Just have a look at what immortals are being worshipped at the temple - Huo Guang, a famous general in Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 24); Guan Yu, the most respected general in period of Three Kingdoms (AD 208 to 280) and the national martial icon for centuries; the God that blesses Shanghai along with his parents and wife, the immortals in charges of wealth, fame, literature, luck of voyage, age and so forth.

Perhaps City God Temple of shanghai attracts the visitors with all kinds of tasty snacks around rather than the statues of immortals inside. There is a big snack square next to the temple. Hundreds of the local snacks and great treat to the taste sense are right here to tempt visitors who want to probe into the real Shanghai gourmet. The most famous snack shop at City God Temple snack square is Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant around which there is always a long queue.
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Shanghai Museum

The Shanghai Museum is a museum of ancient Chinese art, situated on the People's Square in the Huangpu District of Shanghai, China. Rebuilt at its current location in 1996, it is often considered China's first world-class museum.

The museum was founded in 1952 and was first open to the public in the former Shanghai Racecourse club house, now at 325 West Nanjing Road. In 1959 the museum moved into the Zhonghui Building at 16 South Henan Road, which previously housed insurance companies and bank offices.

Shanghai Museum owes much of its current existence to Ma Chengyuan, its director from 1985 until his retirement in 1999. When the museum was omitted from Shanghai's five-year reconstruction plan in 1992, Ma lobbied Mayor Huang Ju for its rebuilding. After seeing the dilapidated rooms of the Zhonghui Building, Huang agreed to allocate a prime site on the People's Square, but the museum had to raise its own building funds. Ma raised US$25 million by leasing the old building to a Hong Kong developer. He also made many trips abroad to solicit donations, mainly from the Shanghai diaspora who had fled to Hong Kong after the Communist revolution, raising another $10 million. The money still ran short, but he eventually won another 140 million yuan from the city government to complete the building.

Unlike many museums in China, the Shanghai Museum is arranged by theme rather than by dynasty. Begin your tour on the first floor at the Ancient Chinese Bronze Gallery, which boasts a marvelous collection of more than 400 bronzes from the 18th to the 3rd centuries B.C. typically reserved for use only by nobles and royalty. Standouts include two wine vessels with animal mask designs, one in the shape of an ox (zun) and the other a traditional pot (he) used by the king of Wu, both dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.). There's also a typical food vessel on three legs (ding) from the Western Zhou Dynasty (1100-771 B.C.), the shape of which is said to be the inspiration for the museum building, which certainly resembles an ancient ding from afar. The Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery has sculptures spanning the Warring States period to the Ming Dynasty (475 B.C.-A.D. 1644), including a kneeling clay figure playing a bamboo flute from the Eastern Han (A.D. 25-200) and a Buddhist image of Sakyamuni in stone from the Northern Qi (A.D. 550-577).

On the second floor, the Ceramics Gallery contains many tricolor figurines from the magnificent Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) and delicately painted and fired pots from the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644) kilns at Jingde Zhen; the gallery is definitely worth a tour if you love your china.

On the third floor, the Painting Gallery contains many ancient original art works on silk scrolls, including landscapes from the Ming Dynasty and Buddhist scrolls from the Tang and Song (A.D. 960-1279) dynasties. Typical is the ink brush scroll by Emperor Zhao Ji (A.D. 1083-1135) of the Song Dynasty titled for its subjects, Willow, Crows, Reed, and Wild Geese. The Calligraphy Gallery shows the various styles of artistic "handwriting" developed in China over many centuries, with specimens as old as the Tang Dynasty. Altogether, the museum owns some 15,000 of these fine scrolls. The Seal Gallery has intricate carved chops in stone used by emperors and their courts to notarize official documents. On this floor, displays show the basic elements of calligraphy, explaining the relationship between Chinese painting and calligraphy, and demonstrating how the artists' tools were used.

The fourth floor has a splendid Jade Gallery, with intricately carved jade wine vessels, jewelry, and ornaments, some from as early as the Liangzhu Culture (31st-22nd c. B.C.). The Coin Gallery displays coins that predate the First Emperor's reign (221-207 B.C.), as well as gold coins from Persia discovered on the Silk Road. The Ming and Qing Furniture Gallery has elaborately carved screens inlaid with jade from the Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1644-1911), a six-poster canopy bed, and a wonderful folding wooden armchair from the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). The Minority Nationalities' Art Gallery displays some lovely costumes, jewelry, dioramas, and ceremonial creations from the more remote, non-Han Chinese reaches of the Chinese empire, most of them dating from the early 20th century.
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Nanjing Road----- the First Commercial Street in China

Nanjing Road is the earliest and most prosperous shopping street in Shanghai dating back to the 1840s. Regarded as "the first commercial street in China", Nanjing Road offers all-in-one shopping malls, gorgeous restaurants and spectacular night views.

Nanjing Road is the world's longest shopping district; around 5.5km long, and attracts over 1 million visitors daily. Nanjing Road occupies a surprising length of 5.5 kilometers. It is named after the city of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province neighboring Shanghai.

Today's Nanjing Road comprises two sections, Nanjing Road East and Nanjing Road West. In some contexts, "Nanjing Road" refers only to what was pre-1945 Nanjing Road, today's Nanjing Road East, which is largely pedestrianised. Before the adoption of the pinyin romanisation in the 1950s, its name was rendered as Nanking Road in English. Now the pedestrian street has become the most welcomed commercial area around Shanghai and the most famous among thousands of pedestrian streets in China.

Nanjing Road is also of historical significance, playing an important role in the development of the city. After the Opium War (1839-1842), Shanghai became a treaty port. And the Nanjing Road was a main road to reach the Bund, so it was important. The road was first a British Concession, then the International Settlement. Several standout companies established by Chinese businessmen later nestled their stores at the buoyant Nanjing Road, for instance, Wing On Department Store and East Asia Hotel (developed from Sincere Company ).

On Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street there are trolleys for tourists to ride on. Tourists can walk along Nanjing Road for 5 to 10 minutes and reach the Bund, which is another famous attraction that tourists do not want to miss for their Shanghai travel. To reach Nanjing Road, visitors can take Shanghai metro line 2 and get off at Nanjing Road Station.
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Pudong New Area

Pudong (Chinese: 浦东) is a district of Shanghai, China, located along the east side of the Huangpu River, across from the historic city center of Shanghai in Puxi. It is administered as the Pudong New Area, a state-level new area.

Pudong is home to the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone and the Shanghai Stock Exchange and many of Shanghai's best known buildings, such as the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Jin Mao Building, and the Shanghai World Financial Center. It is also the site of the future Shanghai Tower. These modern skyscrapers face directly across from Puxi's historic Bund, a remnant of a former concession in China.

Pudong refers to the land in the east of Huangpu River. Originally, the area was mainly farmland and countryside with some warehouses and wharfs near the shore. The parts closest to Puxi were administered by its districts, including Huangpu, Yangpu, and the former Nanshi District. The rest of the area was administered by Chuansha County.

In 1993, the Chinese government decided to set up a Special Economic Zone in Chuansha, creating the Pudong New Area. The western tip of the Pudong district was designated as the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone and was proposed to become the new financial hub of modern China. Several landmark buildings were constructed in Lujiazui to raise the image and awareness of the area. These include the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Jin Mao Building, and the supertall Shanghai World Financial Center. At 494 m, the last will be the tallest building in China of the nearby Shanghai Tower, which is projected to reach 565.6 m in 2014.

On May 6, 2009, it was disclosed that the State Council had approved the proposal to merge Nanhui District with Pudong and comprise the majority of eastern Shanghai.

Pudong literally means "East Bank". Pudong is bounded by the Huangpu River in the west and the East China Sea in the east. Pudong is distinguished from Puxi ("West Bank"), the older part of Shanghai. It has an area of 1210.4 km² and according to the 2010 Census, a population of 5,044,430 inhabitants, 1.9 million more than in 2000. Currently, at least 2.1 million of residents of Pudong are newcomers from other provinces or cities in China.
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The Shanghai World Financial Center

The Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC; Chinese: 上海环球金融中心) is a super tall skyscraper located in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China. It was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and developed by the Mori Building Company, with Leslie E. Robertson Associates as its structural engineer and China State Construction Engineering Corp and Shanghai Construction (Group) General Co. as its main contractor.

It is a mixed-use skyscraper, consisting of offices, hotels, conference rooms, observation decks, and ground-floor shopping malls. Park Hyatt Shanghai is the tower's hotel component, comprising 174 rooms and suites. It occupied the 79th to the 93rd floors, surpassing the Grand Hyatt Shanghai on the 53rd to 87th floors of the neighboring Jin Mao Tower. It is the second-highest hotel in the world after The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong, which occupies floors 102 to 118 of the International Commerce Centre.

On 14 September 2007, the skyscraper was topped out at 492.0 meters (1,614.2 ft), making it, at the time, the second-tallest building in the world and the tallest structure in Mainland China. It also had the highest occupied floor and the highest height to roof, two categories used to determine the title of "world’s tallest building". The SWFC opened on 28 August 2008, with its observation deck opening on 30 August. This observation deck, the world's tallest at the time of its completion, offers views from 474 m (1,555 ft) above ground level.

The SWFC has been lauded for its design, and in 2008 it was named by architects as the year's best completed skyscraper. In 2013, the SWFC was exceeded in height by the adjacent Shanghai Tower, which is due for completion in 2014. Together, the Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai Tower and Jin Mao Tower form the world's first adjacent grouping of three supertall skyscrapers.
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The Oriental Pearl Radio----the Second in Height in the World

The Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower (Chinese: 东方明珠塔) is a Tv tower in Shanghai, China. Its location at the tip of Lujiazui in the Pudong district by the side of Huangpu River, opposite The Bund, makes it a distinct landmark in the area.

With a height of 468 meters, the Oriental Pearl Tower ranks the second in Asia and the fourth in the world in height, merely behind Guangzhou New TV Tower, Canada's Toronto TV Tower and Moscow's Ostankino Television Tower. Although replaced by World Financial Centre as the tallest building of Shanghai, Oriental Pearl Tower is still standing erectly among those modern buildings complex in the Lujiazui area.

With Nanpu and Huangpu Bridge on its left and right side respectively, it looks like two dragons playing with a pearl. Together with the newly constructed Jinmao Tower and World Financial Centre, they reflect spectacular scenery of this international metropolis. The Oriental Pearl Tower has complex functions of observation, catering, shopping, entertainment, Huangpu River touring, meeting and exhibition, history display, travel agent, etc. All of these make it one of Shanghai's representative buildings and scenic spots. Now, it ranks the second only to France's Eiffel Tower in terms of touring population and revenue, numbering among world renowned tourist attractions.

Depending on its high-speed elevator shuttling among three nine meters giant pillars and the world's first 360 degree completely transparent three-track sightseeing elevator, the Oriental Pearl Tower gives every tourist a feeling of enjoying the endless vista brought by modern technology. With great fantasy, the designer make 11 different sized spheres scattered high and low fallowing from the blue sky to the green lawn. Highly propped up by two huge ruby-like eye-catching balls, the Oriental Pearl Tower creates an atmosphere of pearls, small and large, falling into a jade plate. In February 1994, the former president Jiang Zemin gave the title "Oriental Pearl Broadcasting & TV Tower" to the tower.

 

Standing on the tower and having a bird-eye look of Shanghai, you will feel that the whole city looks just like building blocks made arena by some architects whose wisdom are undoubtedly amazing. The city extends the height of human being and brings them together. This land constructed with steel rods and cement is destroying our surviving environment while protecting us.

Its principal designers were Jiang Huan Chen, Lin Benlin, and Zhang Xiulin. Construction began in 1991, and the tower was completed in 1994. At 468 m (1,535 feet) high, it was the tallest structure in China from 1994–2007, when it was surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial Center. It is classified as a AAAAA scenic area by the China National Tourism Administration.
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The Jade Buddha Temple

The Jade Buddha Temple (Chinese: 玉佛禅寺) is a Buddhist temple in Shanghai, China. As with many modern Chinese Buddhist temples, the current temple draws from both the Pure Land and Chan traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. It was founded in 1882 with two jade Buddha statues imported to Shanghai from Burma by sea. These were a sitting Buddha (1.95 metres tall, 3 tonnes), and a smaller reclining Buddha representing Buddha's death. The temple now also contains a much larger reclining Buddha made of marble, donated from Singapore, and visitors may mistake this larger sculpture for the original, smaller piece.

History

During the rule of emperor Guang Xu in the Qing Dynasty (1875–1908), Hui Gen, an abbot from Mount Putuo went on a pilgrimage to Tibet via the two famous Chinese mountains Mount Wutai and Mount Emei. After Tibet, he arrived in Burma. Whilst there, Mr. Chen Jun-Pu, an overseas Chinese resident in Burma, donated five Jade statues of Buddha to Hui Gen, who transported two of them back to Jiang-wan, Shanghai. Here Hui Gen had a temple built with donated funds, and died shortly thereafter. This temple was occupied during the 1911 uprising, and the statues were moved to Maigen Road.

An Abbot by the name of Ke Chen later had a new temple built on land donated by Sheng, Xuanhuai. Mr. Sheng Huaixuan was a senior official in the Qing court, and his father and his uncle were pious Buddhist disciples. They built houses with thatched roofs at Yizhou Pond by the Zhuanghuabang River in the northeast of Shanghai. This can be accounted as the predecessor of the monastery. The construction took ten years, and lasted from 1918-1928. Ke Chen also invited Reverend Di Xian from Tian Tai Mountain to come and lecture on Buddhism in a magnificent ceremony.

In 1956, a ceremony was held at the temple by the Shanghai Buddhist Association to celebrate the 2500th anniversary of Gautama Buddha's enlightenment.

In 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, the monks made a living by selling handicrafts.

In 1983, Shanghai Institute of Buddhism was established at the temple under the Shanghai Buddhist Association.

In 1985, Monk Zhizhi Xuan and others made a trip to Dunhuang via Xinjiang. Shortly after their return, regular scripture lectures, meditation and other features of temple life were resumed.

Highlights

The two precious jade Buddhist statues are not only rare cultural relics but also jade artworks. Both the Sitting Buddha and the Recumbent Buddha are carved with whole white jade. The sparkling and crystal-clear white jade gives the Buddhas the beauty of sanctity and make them more vivid.

The Sitting Buddha is 190 centimeters high and encrusted with agates and emeralds, portraying Buddha at the moment of his meditation and enlightenment.

The Recumbent Buddha is 96 centimeters long, lying on his right side with his right hand supporting his head and left hand placed on the left leg. This shape is called the 'lucky repose'. The sedate face shows the peaceful mood of Sakyamuni when he left this world.

In the temple there is also another Recumbent Buddha which is four meters long and was brought from Singapore by the tenth abbot of the temple in 1989. Furthermore there are many other ancient paintings and Buddhist scriptures distributed in the different halls of the temple.

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