Shanghai

Shanghai does not look like the rest of China. Useless to look for Summer palaces, temples wreathed in mist or incredible Buddhas hillside ...

If it preserves beautiful historic remains, identity is elsewhere. Shanghai has never been backward-looking: she looks to the future. For millions of Chinese, much more than a city, it is synonymous with change, opportunity and sophistication. When Beijing pulls the strings of the country, is born in Shanghai that future aspirations.

The Bund: Shanghai's famous boardwalk 

The Bund in Shanghai that the Great Wall in Beijing. This beautiful paved walk on banks which grew with the rise of Shanghai was impassive witness the decline and rebirth of the city. Continually immortalized by an armada of cameras, the towers of Lujiazui, the alter ego of the Bund, twinkle across the Huangpu. It is here that the symbols in decline of Western hegemony and evidence of growing Chinese power collide most skillfully. 

The Bund (pronounced "bound" or "East Zhongshan Rd # 1" from its official name), Anglo-Indian term for a dock, was originally a muddy towpath. Until foreign banks and trading houses decide to develop these banks raised, formerly squalid their ambitious vision concessions. Contemporary witnesses, majestic neoclassical and Art Deco buildings succession of former British consulate in the northern, McBain Building to the south. 

The economic interest of the Bund actually appeared in the late 1990s have since been rediscovered the unique potential of buildings, neglected and mummified during the Cultural Revolution, and now leased to wealthy tenants. Restaurants and chic bars jostle for a view of Pudong, while the five-star sweep for the remaining plots. The last major work has relegated most of the underground car traffic for pedestrian comfort. 

Detailed walk to discover the main buildings of the Bund and place them in their historical context. On site, street vendors mingle with tour groups, and the commercial nerve reflects the tourist boom in the country. At dawn, the followers of tai chi seized the premises; at night, we mostly just to admire the magic of twilight on Pudong. 


Walks on the Huangpu offer spectacular views. To further appreciate the charm of the Bund, dine in one of its excellent restaurants, where the magic of the framework operates fully. 

Shanghai Museum and Renmin Square: loitering on the People's Square 

Shanghai Meseum

Much less austere than the Tiananmen Square Stalinist inspiration, Renmin Square or People's Square, is also spared the paranoia that surrounds the famous rectangular plaza of Beijing. Crowded, it stands out as a must, since it focuses a giant train station, interesting museums, glitzy hotel, stunning views and cultural sites of the first order. Heart of the city, it is surrounded by some of the tallest skyscrapers in Shanghai. First stop: Shanghai Museum, whose remarkable collection of valuable Chinese works millennia has something exhilarating foundered the legs of visitors. Museum the most advanced in the country, he was the first to offer modernity to jaded fans exhibitions. 

This circular building (like ding, ancient Chinese bronze cauldron) combines an exceptional collection to a museum peak. The exhibitions present both the major stages of Chinese civilization bronzes, sculptures, ceramics, paintings, jade and calligraphy, furniture from the Ming and Qing and costumes of ethnic minorities. The exhaustive explanations in English, sun-filled atrium and well-appointed collections are invitations to cultivate. If you only visit one museum in China, go for it! 

On the other side of Renmin Avenue, the exposure of the Shanghai Urban Planning Centre delivers a thumbnail preview of the great metamorphosis experienced by the urban landscape of the city. You then head west to see the Grand Theatre and reassemble Huangpi North Rd to take a look at the Museum of Fine Arts and the aptly named Tomorrow Square (Place of Tomorrow). This vertiginous skyscrapers, the sharp point, is distinguished by a futuristic architecture. From the museum, walk along the North Renmin Park to modern building surrounded by greenery of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA Shanghai), which is worth a visit. 

PUDONG: GRAND Lujiazui

Lujiazui forms the most breathtaking views of Pudong. This set of monuments particularly ambitious, all glass and steel, would have choked Mao Zedong - who would probably have required the head of the mayor. But Shanghai has constantly compare themselves to Hong Kong and the skyscrapers of Lujiazui is the modern response to the Hong Kong business district, as seen from Kowloon. Nerve center of the Chinese economy, Lujiazui is constantly evolving. Evening is the best time to watch the iconic buildings in the country - the colossal Shanghai World Financial Center, the Jinmao Tower sparkling and impressive Oriental Pearl Tower (TV Tower) - but they are also appreciated at all times. If it is fine, toast in their honor on the terrace of the New Heights on the Bund, or enjoy, in Lujiazui, the panoramic view that spare Cloud 9 or highest observation deck in the world, in the World Financial Center. Remember, in the basement, the History Museum of Shanghai and AP Xinyang Fashion & Gifts Market. 

Shanghai Roaring Twenties: Art Deco gems Shanghai

Shanghai is like a living dedicated to Art Deco museum. The buildings of the century machines evoke the audacity of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s and the advent of modern cosmopolitan city. If the fashion of the time is gone, hotels, apartment buildings, private residences, cinemas and banks have indeed survived. Art Deco force chief Shanghai Peace Hotel is splendid. In the Bund, one may admire the Broadway Mansions, Bank of China, patchwork style to Art Deco influences and the Metropole Hotel and Hamilton House. Near the old racecourse (now Renmin Square) stand the sumptuous Park Hotel, a former top Asia building whose architect IM Pei was inspired in its infancy, and the Grand Cinema neighbor. Both are signed László Hudec, legendary Hungarian architect who was imprisoned in Siberia before fleeing to China in 1916 Other Art Deco buildings are also of interest. And include the Cathay Theatre in the French concession, the giant slaughterhouse in 1933, facing the Factory, and the Paramount Ballroom. 

French concession Shanghai on French time 

The trendy area of the former French concession is worth a look. 

Witnesses buildings in the country's political history to shopping, through the old haunts of gangsters and the high places of gastronomy, distractions abound at the option of the green lanes. Start the walk at Xintiandi, freshly renovated, through the pleasant Fuxing Park to the former residence of Sun Yat-sen. 

Sun made ​​it a base of the Kuomintang and his wife, Song Qingling, a communist bastion. To the north, the Russian Church St. Nicolas, 1934, has a unique history, as it was successively a huge sanctuary, a washing machine factory and a French restaurant. 

Further, art gallery occupies ShanghART twin villas 1920s decorated with a garden. Capture the Art Deco masterpieces that are around the Cathay Theatre and the Jinjiang Hotel, please dress in Shanghai's fashion in the shops of Changle Rd Xinle Rd and then watch the Moller House, one of the eccentricities Shanghai. After a break at Café Boonna towards the Chinese Printed Blue Nankeen Exhibition Hall and the Museum of Art and Craft of Shanghai, the highlight of which is undoubtedly the building itself. Finish in style with a dinner and a drink in one of the excellent restaurants and bars in the area: Lost Heaven, Baoluo Jiulou, Pinchuan or Little Face. 

Arts Center Taikang LU & Tianzifang: fashion and shopping in Tianzifang 

This seductive labyrinth of shikumen (石库门 "stone gate houses") and trendy shops is the perfect location to offer some window-shopping while soaking the elusive scent of Shanghai of yore. In this successful residential streets, cafes with Wi-Fi, art galleries and shops marriage, people still present to the ambiance. 

Also called Tianzifang (田 子 坊), this area consists of three main north-south streets (nos210, 248, 274) that intersect irregular aisles - which adds spice to the discovery. Modest art and design studios housed in old buildings galleries present both photos and posters of old Shanghai as thematic collections of international designers. The temptation to make a quick stop at one of the many cafes, but the yak wool scarf of your dreams then you might escape. Know this: we mostly come here for shopping. The recent boom creators Reserve interesting finds: Pu-er teas packaged in hand, ethnic embroidery, folk art, retro Communist dishes ... Also explore the yard No. 7 and the tangle of walkways between 248 and 274 streets , which nestle small cafes built in shikumen and well hidden restaurants. 

Xintiandi: BARS, RESTAURANTS AND shikumen

Created there are less than ten years, Xintiandi is already among the iconic places in Shanghai. Entertainment district upscale inspired lilong (alleys) of old, it was the first urban development project to demonstrate the economic value of the old architecture. Yet what might seem obvious emerged as a revelation in the twenty-first century China fond of bulldozers. Now, fans of high-end shopping and the guests on the terrace linger until late in the ideal place to provide a memorable meal or just enjoy shopping among the hippest Shanghai. 

The heart of the neighborhood, which is divided into two pedestrian areas (north and south), consists of traditional shikumen largely rebuilt and brought up to date with elegance. Within this framework that retains an air of old, time is not culture. Xintiandi has neither the cachet Art Centre Taikang Lu, still inhabited, or the outdated and clunky simplicity of the old town. Apart shikumen museum and home to the first Congress of the CCP, both interesting, especially in the area invite to shop, to stroll the aisles and embellished to dine or have a drink on the terrace in the summer evenings. Maps are available at the information center for foreign visitors Xingye Rd. 

Jade Buddha Temple: on the side of the sacred 

Despite the sharp clink of coins of visitors with the monks chanting and chirping of birds in the magnolias, this Buddhist shrine is the most sacred of Shanghai. 

Decorated with lanterns, pavilions and the saffron resplendent temple effigies and religious ornaments. They reflect the growing religious fervor taking place in China. In the Hall of Heavenly Kings, note in its green statue Weituo, back to back with that Milefo. The centerpiece is the jade Buddha (Yufo). Brought from Myanmar, the pale green statue of Sakyamuni brought in a niche carved wood is visible only from behind a barrier. On the ground floor, a reclining Buddha (Wofo) jade as refined supports his smiling face on one hand, the opposite arm is resting on its side in a feminine posture. A copy much larger and less graceful stone faced him. The main lodge, the Grand Hall of the Treasury, is devoted to the worship of the Buddhas of past, present and future, flanked by huge Luohan (Arhat) golden. The temple, particularly impressive during the Chinese New Year, has a good vegetarian restaurant. 

All this make me want to visit Shanghai and see it with my own eyes, anyone wants to come with me?