Shanghai, also
called in short in Chinese "Hu" or "Shen", situated in the middle of
China’s east coastline, is a gate to the Changjiang River valley.
Shanghai has a delightful climate with four distinct seasons. The
average temperature of the year is 15.7 oC and the yearly
precipitation is 1,200 mm. It is the largest economic and trade
centre in the country and a comprehensive industrial base. Shanghai
Port is the leading port in China. It is an open city along the
coast, as well as a famous historical and cultural city. Its total
area is 6,341 sq. km., of which the Pudong New Area occupies 523 sq.
km. Its total population is over 13 million.
Shanghai is well-known both at home and abroad not only for its
prosperous metropolitan feature and rich humanistic resources but
also for a number of tourist attractions with modern flavor that
have been developed in recent years. Varied and colorful tourist
festivities, like the Shanghai Tourism Festival, the New Year Eve
Longhua Temple Bell Striking, the Longhua Temple Fair, the Nanhui
County Peach Blossom Festival, the International Tea Culture
Festival, the Sweet Osmanthus Festival and the Orange Festival are
attracting an ever increasing number of domestic and foreign
tourists.
Shanghai is an ideal "shopping paradise"; Nanjing Road, known as
"China’s No.1 Street", the reconstructed Huaihai Road, Jinling Road,
East, North Sichuan Road, the Yuyuan Garden shopping and tourist
area, the Ever Bright City Commercial Centre, Xujiahui Commercial
Centre, and Zhangyang Road Commercial Centre in Pudong are packed
with rows of shops arrayed with large
collections of merchandise that are a feast to the eyes and meet the
demands of different classes of domestic and foreign customers.
Shanghai is also a paradise for gourmets. There are over a thousand
restaurants serving the famous 16 styles of Chinese food, such as
Beijing, Sichuan, Guangdong, Yangzhou, Fujian, etc. There are also
French, Russian, Italian, English, German, Japanese, Indian and
other kinds of foreign flavored cuisines, genuine Muslim food and
vegetarian food. In Shanghai you can have a taste of all the
different kinds of food in the world. Shanghai is well developed in
communications in air, land and sea, which render tourists with
fast, efficient and quality service.
The Bund
The Bund, which extends from Jinling Road in
the south to the Waibaidu Bridge over the Suzhou Creek in
the north, is on the western bank of the Huangpu River. It
is a 1.5-kilometer boulevard and used to be called the
Huangpu Shoal. It used to be a 10-meter-wide boulevard lined
with canopy-like sycamores. Cedars, cassias, and camphor
trees made the street green all the year round.
Flower beds were always in blossoms. Now it becomes
the favored place for the tourists to tarry and
enjoy the river scene and cultural activities going
on along the Bund. Walking up to the dam, you will
be fascinated by the sight of forest of masts, the
glittering waves, the impressive skyline, and
shadowy trees interlacing with beautiful flowers. It
is just like a magnificent scroll.
The Bund---known as a miniature museum of
international architecture with dozens of high
buildings standing along the shore and overlooking
the shuttling sailing vessels on the Huangpu River
amid the whistle blasts here and there.
Shanghai Museum
With a collection of over 120,000 pieces of
cultural relics in twelve categories, Shanghai Museum is
especially famous for its treasures of bronzes, ceramics and
paintings and calligraphy.
The new
Shanghai Museum has set up ten special galleries of bronze,
calligraphy, ceramics, furniture, jades, minority art,
numismatics, paintings, sculptures, and seals, together with
a special gallery of donated relics and three temporary
exhibition halls
Grand
Theatre
Since its opening on August 27, 1998
the Shanghai Grand Theatre has successfully staged
such shows and evenings as operas, musicals,
ballets, symphonies, chamber music concerts, spoken
drama and the Chinese operas.
It also has a
high reputation both at home and abroad as many high
officials and VIPs, both domestic and international, gave
the highest praises of the theatre for its perfect
combination of art and architecture after they visited the
theatre. Now it has become an important window of cultural
exchange between China and the world and a bridge of
artistic communication.
Yu Yuan
Garden
Yu Yuan Garden---the most famous
ancient structure in Shanghai, attracts millions of
tourists both at home and abroad every year. Its
exquisite layout, beautiful scenery, and the
artistic style of the garden architecture are where
the charm of Yu Yuan lies. At the same time, Yu Yuan
Garden is often frequented by shoppers who want to
purchase traditional Chinese products as well as
gold and jewels.
LonghuaTemple
Longhua Temple---the biggest and
oldest temple in Shanghai. Its main hall and all
other halls are stately and splendidly structured.
The chiming of "Longhua Bell" in the monastery is
one of Shanghai’s eight tourist attractions. The
Longhua Pagoda is equally an imposing and splendid
structure---with seven floors, in octagonal shape,
with upturned eaves, and the hanging bells on the
eaves’ corners.
Shanghai Old Street
Looking back to the old days and exploring
old Shanghai you will be brought by “Shanghai Old Street”
through the times-times back to 100 year ago. The rebuilt
Shanghai Old Street is 825 m long from Renmin Road to Henan
Road, divided into the eastern and Western section. The
eastern section runs from Renmin Road to Guanyi Street.
Shanghai Old Street is an important east-west passageway for
sightseeing in the Yuyuan commercial and tourist area.
