Bumbling Through Shanghai

The new Shanghai Museum is a MUST. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower provides an excellent view, but go in the evening to avoid a crowd (and the waiting line...)

Quick Tips:

If you can bear to get up early (6.30-7.30 am), try walking along the Bund in the morning. We walked along there every day before breakfast and saw all sorts of activities going on - ball room dancing, aerobics, traditional fan and sword dancing, and this really cool rollerskating guy - probably 80 years old - who performed various stunts on a pair of rollerskates.

We would walk along the Bund until we got down to Fuzhou Lu and then walk back up towards the hotel on the other side of Zhongshan Road. There were various stalls on that side that sold Chinese snack foods like steamed dumplings. An excellent way to start the day!!

Best Way To Get Around:

The Shanghai subway system is pretty new and was being extended while we were there. I would definitely recommend it.

Formerly the Richardson Hotel (the first western hotel property in China!), the Pujiang Hotel is at the north end of the Baidu Bridge. It is known for it's excellent location (about 5 minutes walk to The Bund) and very cheap rates. Not surprisingly, it is another 'the place to stay', according to the Lonely Planet.

In the words of the hotel brochure:

'Pujiang Hotel is especially reputable worldwide for attending to budgetary knapsack guests'

The hotel does offer dorm accommodation, however we opted for twinshare rooms at Y330 per night. The room we got was very large and cool (despite the lack of real air conditioning), with an ensuite bathroom and television. It was on this TV that we came across the excellent, if rather melodramatic, program 'In Times of Peace' (it had English subtitles!).

The 1930's facade of the hotel very attractive, although admittedly the view from our window into the inner hotel courtyard was not so pretty. The hotel is honoured in having the Russian Embassy (a very pretty blue building) directly across the road!

I am always a little bemused when confronted with a tourist attraction that is renowned for its height. ‘Tallest in the (insert location here)’ buildings don’t seem so common in Australia (perhaps the height of our buildings is just too embarrassing to advertise). Yet certainly size does matter - the Big Pineapple and the Big Merino (just to name a couple!) are proof of that. But I digress - and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower does have credentials to be proud of. The tower was completed in 1994 and stands opposite the Bund in the Pudong New Area. The tower is 468 m tall and, at the time of its completion, was tallest TV tower in Asia (and third tallest in the world!). Unfortunately for Tower Buffs, it is no longer the tallest building in Shanghai. A new building of some 81 floors now stands nearby. But whatever its size, it does have a pretty good view of the city.

We caught a taxi to Pudong, travelling though a tunnel that crosses under the river. Extensions to the subway system were just being completed while we were there and so you may now be able to take that instead. We arrived in the early evening. There were only a few people around but it was obvious that the Tower must attract very long lines quite often! As we approached the building, we entered into a maze of barriers obviously designed to direct hordes of people into a neat queue.

We decided to get tickets just to the main sightseeing deck (Y40). You could go up to a higher deck, but it cost Y100. The sun was just beginning to set as we reached the viewing platform. Like most viewing platforms, the deck provided a full 360 degree view of the surrounding area, which was bathed in a rather spooky purple light (thanks to the lights on the tower itself). A rail around the platform pointed out the direction and distance to other cities in China. The view of the city, especially of the river and Bund, was spectacular. It inspired me to try some long exposure photography with my camera, which was a bit of a tragic mistake (can anyone say ‘tripod’??).

But despite the view, possibly the best part of the whole experience was the toilets. At that stage they were THE nicest toilets I had seen in China. They almost made me cry.

The Bund stretches along the edge of the Huangpu River, parallel to Zhongshan Road (aka Zhongshan Dongyilu). Bund is actually an old Anglo Indian term for the embankment of a muddy water front and, given the state of the river, is probably still quite appropriate (although water quality is apparently improving). At the top of the Bund lies Huangpu Park and a pedestrian walkway stretches along the river, raised up away from the busy road. This is a lovely spot to enjoy the scenery and bustle of the river and, of course, photograph the row of old European style buildings that run along the other side of the road. Many of the buildings once belonged to foreign concessions and housed international banks and trading companies. Nowadays, they house Chinese municipal offices and trade negotiators. Nanjing Road meets Zhongshan Road about three or four blocks down from the top of the park. On the corner stands the very exclusive Peace (Heping) Hotel, an elegant old building with a pointed roof and a rather colourful history.

The Bund comes alive early each day as locals gather to exercise and socialise. We walked through Huangpu Park and along the Bund every morning before breakfast and saw all sorts of activities going on, including ball room dancing, aerobics, and singing. Over several days we were able to follow the progress of a group of women practising traditional dances, perhaps for some up and coming celebration (such as the now rapidly approaching National Day). Mostly they practised dances using large red fans but we also saw them with swords! However, it was always the very agile, although elderly, man on rollerskates who was the highlight of the morning. He took obvious delight in impressing the crowd with his stunts. Unfortunately the pictures I took of him just don’t do him justice.

The new Shanghai Museum is located near Renmin Square (the Peoples Square) and holds an amazing collection of historical and artistic objects. The museum is relatively new, opening to the public at the end of 1995. It was probably the most modern building I saw in China, with floor space of 120,000 m and a collection of 123,00 pieces (and yes, I could wax lyrical just about the toilets!).

The museum is on 4 levels and the galleries lead off from a central atrium. The displays are divided into different categories, including bronzeware, chinaware, sculpture, coins, furniture, seals, jade, arts and crafts from ethnic minorities, and calligraphy. We found it impossible to see everything in one day.

Student could get a reduced entry price, so it was rather unfortunate that I had lost my student card that morning (!!). However, in one of those ‘flash bulb’ moments, I rummaged around and found a photocopy of the letter I used for my visa inviting me - as a student - to China. They accepted it!

We decided to split up and meet at around 2 for lunch. We had found out that you could leave the museum for lunch and then come back in later on. This was just as well as the prices in both the museum’s teashop and restaurant were rather expensive.

I wandered into the stoneware section on the bottom floor, while the other disappeared into other directions. For the next few hours I didn’t see any of my traveling companions and I did quite enjoy the time by myself. In each section the display is designed to show the evolution of art in China. As long as you start in the right place, you can follow the developments through of whichever craft you’re actually looking at. Unfortunately I didn’t realise this until halfway through the jade section (I don’t think it really mattered) While the paintings and the calligraphy didn’t mean so much to me, I really enjoyed the sculpture, bronze work, jade and seal galleries. The pottery section was also very interesting. There were models of different kilns that had been used throughout history and a young man demonstrated a traditional method for making pots. The lighting in the museum was really effective, quite dim, with spotlights highlighting individual pieces.

After lunch, I went back with Clare to the stoneware gallery to take a picture of a piece she had especially taken to. I had already taken one of a ‘Loka Pali’ that I had liked (he appeared to be having a great amount of fun). I think she was a little offended when I said I thought her bhodisattva looked like Queen Victoria. However, she ended up having the last laugh - my picture of the Loka Pali came out blurry, where as ‘Queen Victoria’ looks really good. Oh yeah - photography was allowed, just not with a flash.

The Yu Yuan Gardens and Bazaar consist of a traditional Chinese garden and a touristy shopping complex, where about 100 shops sell traditional goods and handicrafts. It is situated in the old town section of the city, just east of Henan Nanlu. If you are looking for more ‘traditional’ knickknacks, I think the Yu Yuan Garden Bazaar is a better option over Nanjing Rd. It is, however, a big tourist spot so you’re probably not going to find things that are really cheap there (though you can bargain).

We got there quite early in then morning and started at one of the restaurants, where we had tiny steamed dumplings for breakfast. As with most dumplings (perhaps ALL dumplings), they were yum. We spent a bit of time exploring the shops before heading into the Garden itself. Did I mention it is very tourist oriented? I bought some bracelets made out of cord and porcelain beads. I managed to bargain the lady down from Y30 to Y25 each. Later I saw similar ones in a department store in Beijing for Y10. Oh well.

We spent an hour or so in the Gardens before coming out and exploring more of the shops. Entry to the Gardens was Y15 and I also bought a map for Y1.50. The garden was originally built as a private garden in 1559 and reflects the typical architecture of South China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Like with many attractions, China’s long and colourful history means that the original gardens were destroyed quite a long time ago. The local government restored and repaired them in 1956 and they were placed under special protection of the state council in 1982. The promotional brochure I got claims that it is one of the best gardens in China. I have no idea if this is true but they were very striking and I found walking around them a generally serene and tranquil experience.

But did I mention it is very tourist oriented? Even inside the gardens you couldn’t get away from people selling things. In a lot of the buildings there were paintings and calligraphy for sale. They didn’t particularly do it for me, but one place sold Paper Cut Outs. These are exquisitely intricate designs cut out of paper and are very cool. I bought one of a dragon for Y80.

One of the more surreal aspects of the garden were the other tourist groups. We saw about 4 or 5 different ones during our jaunt and, as well as the standard English, we also saw some more esoteric languages, such as German French and even Swedish! (I think)