Touring around in Shanghai

0atwong • 15th Aug 2006 • Travel

Zhouzhuang: meaning “Zhou’s village”,named after Zhou Digong in Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD) who donated more than 13-hectare of his land as the field for Quanfu Temple. Famed as “No.1 water village in China”, with 900-year-old history, Zhouzhuang is an ancient town featuring great cultural traditions and unique architecture surrounded by water with many tributaries, stone bridges and old residences left from Ming and Qing Dynasties, where you can have a glimpse of particular charisma of Jiangnan(meaning south of Yangtze River).
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Grand View Garden
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Yuyuan Garden, a place of peace and comfort in the heart of bustling Shanghai, dates back to the fabled Ming Dynasty. Now a popular tourist destination, Yuyuan began as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years – and all of his savings – to build a garden in order to please his parents in their old age. That is why he called this garden ‘Yuyuan’ – because ‘yu’ in Chinese means ‘peace and health’.

During the past 400 years, Yuyuan, although restored and reopened several times, was most often in disarray. Due to the decline of Pan’s family after Pan Yuduan’s death, Yuyuan gradually fell into disuse. Although the garden was improved by the local signiors, several civil conflicts in the mid-19th century caused great damage. In 1956, after Shanghai’s liberation, the city government reconstructed the garden and refurbished its mien and beauty as in the old days. Yuyuan Garden was finally reopened to the public in 1961, and the State Department declared it a national monument in 1982. Now Yuyuan Garden attracts countless visitors at home and abroad every year.
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Old Shanghai Road
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Shanghai Tech Musume
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Huangpu River, the most important shipping artery of Shanghai, wriggles like an undulating muddy dragon from the mouth of the Yangtze River in Wusong to the East China Sea. The yellow and ice-free Huangpu River is 114 kilometers (71 miles) long, 400 meters wide and has an average depth of nine meters (30 feet).

Huangpu River joins 29 kilometers (18 miles) north of downtown Shanghai and divides Shanghai into two parts, east and west. Cruises are available everyday, including the shorter cruises (navigating the main waterfront area between the Yangpu Bridge and the Nanpu Bridge) and the complete cruises (meandering eastward along the golden waterway, over a distance of 60 kilometers or 37 miles). Whether it is in the daytime or at night, the views along the river are the same beautiful. The great modern skyscrapers and the characteristic buildings in different architectural styles are the best records of the development of the city and the Huangpu River, the birthplace of Shanghai, is the faithful eyewitness.

The Huangpu River and the Bund, ShanghaiThe Bund, also called the Zhongshan Road, is a famous waterfront and regarded as the symbol of Shanghai for hundreds of years. It starts from the Baidu Bridge, which is at the connecting point of the Huangpu River and the Suzhou Creek, to the East Jinling Road and winds a 1500 meters (less than one mile) length. Walking along the Bund, which is at the west shore of the Huangpu River, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower can be seen on the opposite side and also the Jin Mao Tower.Being one of the Top Ten Shanghai Attractions, the Bund is a really beautiful and special place which is worth visiting. The newly-built Flood Control Bank takes the function of preventing the oversize flood; the square with the statue of Marshal Chen Yi is an open air podium which gives new views of the Shanghai Plaza Culture; the Cenotaph which stands on the man-made island is a monument of people’s heroes; the riverside greenbelt, the Electronic Waterfall Bell, and the Great Mural Carving are all representatives of the Bund.
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