"Shanghai - the Oriental Paris" a Shanghai Travel Page by FreeCloud

Shanghai has always been a unique place in China. When a Chinese asks how New York City looks like, he/she often would get an answer from those who know both places well 'nothing too different from Shanghai'.

Many people visit Shanghai for its modern atmosphere, while others, exploring/searching for its past. In the PAST, when Hong Kong was still a small fishing village, Dame Shanghai was the Paris in the east, the Oriental Pearl. Its life styles (see old photos of Shanghai in travelogue later), culture and business development environment was insuperable by its Chinese peers.

Shanghai is among the most, if not the most, open-minded places in China. Shanghai people have the tradition of among the first to be aware anything new in the world, and adopt the new ideas fastest to their daily life. Shanghai peoples?lifestyle has been deeply influenced from the west (partly from their past colonial time) among their Chinese peers (Hong Kong is a different story).

That's why Shanghai developed as it is now, and that is why people need to pay attention to how it has been developed for the past 200+ years. Both from a small village, Shanghai’s history is indeed rather different from that of Shenzhen, Shanghai has a rich history.

The business environment is among the best in China as well (less bureaucrats etc). Since 1949, Shanghai has kept its top rank of GDP in the whole PRC for decades (not sure for now though).

The most touristy place of Shanghai would be the bund, the bank of the Huang Hu River. At the bund, many many old western style buildings still stand still dandy, showing to the world their grand and proud (or not so proud) history.

Other interesting places would be used-to-be colonial "foreign territories", where one can find western churches, residential areas.

Traditional Shanghai residential architecture areas, the so-called shi2 ku4 men2 long4 tang2.

Of course, no one could by pass the Yu Yuan Garden and Cheng Huang Miao traditional shopping streets.

For modern things, Shanghai has some world-class museums in China.

For nature lovers, Shanghai is not the best place to be. However, a short trip can take you to

1) Huangshan Mountain area national park (see Huangshan, Anhui sheng page) and the Hui culture villages/area nearby (See Xidi, Anhui sheng page)

2) Hangzhou (build along the Xi Hu - "West" Lake, see Hangzhou, Zhejiang sheng page)

3) Suzhou (with classical traditional private gardens, yet, different from royal gardens in Beijing); also a water town (oriental Venice, see Suzhou, Jiangsu sheng page)

4) Tai Hu Lake area (Wu Xi)

5) Watertowns such as Zhou Zhuang, Tong Li (see Tongli, Jiangsu sheng page), to name a few the most popular thus very toursity, and quiet ones like Xi Tang (see Xitang, Zhejiang sheng page), and Zhu Jian Jiao, Luzhi, Mudu, Nanxun, Wuzhen etc

Etc.

More information/photos related to Shanghai will be added later.

REVISIT, September, 2002
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I have been to Shanghai many times, but last time was October, 1995 when the new financial district was under construction.

This year, we will explore something old as well as something new. And meet a fine girl there!