After the ordeal that was buying our train tickets to Shanghai, it was finally time to check out what all the fuss was about. We had bought tickets for the new high-speed train, which was only brought into service in July this year. This new service shortens the travel time to Shanghai from 10 hours to 5 hours. We were glad not to have to take an overnight sleeper train, which had been our original plan. Some fast facts on this new train (courtesy of Dad!): it can reach a top speed of 380km per hour (our train reached a top speed of 330km/hr; the rail line cost $23 billion to build; the longest bridge on the line is 130km long. In no time at all, we arrived in Shanghai, ready to explore a new city.
Unlike Beijing, there aren’t really many historical sights to see in Shanghai (unless we missed them all!). Instead it is all about visiting different neighbourhoods and districts and soaking up the atmosphere. So, that is exactly what we did.
The city is separated by the Hungpu River, with Pudong, the financial and newly developed district being on one side and The Bund, the more historical and older area on the other. Pudong is full of high rise buildings, and from The Bund, the view of them in both daytime and nighttime is spectacular. When the sun goes down, all the buildings in Pudong turn on their lights and you are treated to an electric light show that you could look at for hours. One evening we went to a rooftop bar in The Bund and sat there with our beers enjoying the view on the other side of the river. It was beautiful.
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| View of Pudong from The Bund |
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| I Heart Shanghai |
Pudong is also home to the third tallest building in the world, The Shanghai World Financial Centre. It has 103 floors, at the top there is a giant hole and when the lights come on it sparkles blue. The world’s highest observation deck is also located here. We couldn’t give going 103 stories high a miss so we paid a visit around sunset one evening and were treated to great views over Shanghai city. It was so high that the clouds started surrounding the building shortly before we left.
We also took a stroll along The Bund itself, which is wide promenade that stretches for 2-3kms along the river. We visited it both during the day and night and looked at the beautiful old buildings that had been around since colonial times. From The Bund we walked along East Nanjing Road, which, when lit up at night, would give New York a run for its money. There were neon signs flashing everywhere. It was so colourful and good fun as there was a great atmosphere as we walked along.
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| The Bund by day... |
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| ...and by night |
Earlier that day we also paid a visit to Remnin Square, which is Shanghai’s version of Tiananmen Square. It is a lot more laid back than Beijing and really is a park which houses a few museums and art galleries. While we were there we decided to go to the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art. There was a really great exhibition going on celebrating 25 years of Pixar Animations (the creators of the Toy Story series of movies among many others). The exhibition consisted of different storyboards and originals drawings and ideas for many of the Pixar movies such as Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., Toy Story 1, 2 & 3, A Bug’s Life, Cars, Ratatouille and The Incredibles. It was interesting to be shown how an animated movie comes to life from start to finish. The exhibition was really enjoyable and an unexpected take on contemporary art.
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| Space Age buildings around Remnin Square |
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| Remnin Square |
Another area we visited was Shanghai Old Town, which is the most traditionally Chinese area of Shanghai. As we walked through Old Street and the Yayuan Bazaar, we marvelled at the old traditional buildings and the street sellers hawking all sorts of goods for the tourists and the locals. We then stumbled on the Yuyuan Gardens, which were a peaceful haven adjacent to the hustle and bustle of the market. The gardens were stunning, with beautiful trees and flowers and willows hanging over the ponds which were dotted around the gardens.
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| Yuyuan Market |
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| Yuyuan Gardens |
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| Playing in the garden |
The French Concession area is another neighbourhood in Shanghai. It is said to be the Paris of the Orient and this time the guide book didn’t lie. The avenues were lined with trees and the side streets contained French-style coffee shops and the odd boulangerie. We strolled around for a while and then walked into Fuxing Park and couldn’t believe what we saw. There was a small band playing music, an MC and about 100 elderly couples dancing the foxtrot, waltzing or just swaying to the music. It was brilliant just to watch the people dance away without any inhibitions. We certainly couldn’t see that happening in the middle of a park in Ireland!
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| Hiding in Fuxing Park |
In the middle of the French Concession there is an area that is known as Tianzifang. The area was ear marked for demolition a number of years ago as it was run down with many abandoned buildings. However, the local community, as well as a large number of artists came together and campaigned to have the area preserved on the condition that they would restore it, while maintaining the original old world feel of the area. As a result it is now a small area that is a warren of backstreets and alleyways and a community of art galleries, studios, boutiques, local craft shops, restaurants and cafes. Of the large number of galleries in the area, we visited the International Artists’ Factory, which is a multi-storey warehouse that houses about fifty small galleries. Some were good, others were bad, but it was great to see this community thriving in such a vibrant city. Unfortunately mistakes were made and we didn’t take any photos of Tianzifang (Claire was on strike!), but here are some Google images to show you how quaint and pretty the streets were.
It was in the French Concession that we also treated ourselves to a roast beef Sunday dinner in a local Irish pub. Big thick slices of roast beef, lashings of gravy, roast and mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, carrots, parsnips and broccoli – my mouth is watering even as I type now! It was delicious and a great treat on a Sunday.
Shanghai was also where we tried Chinese dumplings. The restaurant we visited was located in Pudong and had an incredible view across the river to The Bund. We were spoilt for choice with the variety of dumplings on offer but we were far from disappointed with our selection. In fact we had seconds and thirds! Apparently there is a particular way you are supposed to eat the dumplings in order to heighten the experience, but regardless of which way we ate them, they were still delicious!
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