Shanghai (China) - Must see Landmarks, Tourist Spots and Sites

Shanghai is the largest Chinese city by population and the largest city proper by population in the world. It is one of the four direct-controlled municipalities, with a total population of near 24 million as of 2013. It is a global financial center, and a transport hub with the world's busiest container port. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the middle portion of the Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, and is bounded to the east by the East China Sea.

For centuries a major administrative, shipping, and trading town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to European recognition of its favorable port location and economic potential. The city was one of several opened to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War and the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking which allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between east and west, and became the undisputed financial hub of the Asia Pacific in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was reoriented to focus on socialist countries, and the city's global influence declined. In the 1990s, the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment to the city.

Shanghai is a popular tourist destination renowned for its historical landmarks such as The Bund, City God Temple and Yu Garden, as well as the extensive Lujiazui skyline and major museums including the Shanghai Museum and the China Art Museum. It has been described as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of mainland China.

Top Tourist Spots and Sites to Visit:

1.) Oriental Pearl Tower

The Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower (Chinese: 东方明珠塔; pinyin: Dōngfāng Míngzhūtǎ, official name: 东方明珠广播电视塔) is a TV tower in Shanghai, China. Its location at the tip of Lujiazui in the Pudong district by the side of Huangpu River, opposite The Bund, makes it a distinct landmark in the area.

Its principal designers were Jiang Huan Chen, Lin Benlin and Zhang Xiulin. Construction began in 1991, and the tower was completed in 1994. At 468 m (1,535 feet) high, it was the tallest structure in China from 1994–2007, when it was surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial Center. It is classified as a AAAAA scenic area by the China National Tourism Administration.

The tower is brightly lit in different LED sequences at night.

On 7 July 2007, Oriental Pearl Tower was host to the Chinese Live Earth concert.

How to get there:

By bus: 
Take bus 81, 82, 85, 774, 789, 795, 870, 971, 983, 985, 993, Cai Lu Special Line or City Sightseeing Bus and get off at Dong Fang Ming Zhu (Oriental Pearl) Station.

By subway: 
Take Subway Line 2 and get off at Lujiazui Station. Get out from Exit 1 and you can see the tower.

2.) Shanghai World Financial Center

The Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC; Chinese: 上海环球金融中心) is a supertall skyscraper located in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China. It was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and developed by the Mori Building Company, with Leslie E. Robertson Associates as its structural engineer and China State Construction Engineering Corp and Shanghai Construction (Group) General Co. as its main contractor. It is a mixed-use skyscraper, consisting of offices, hotels, conference rooms, observation decks, and ground-floor shopping malls. Park Hyatt Shanghaiis the tower's hotel component, comprising 174 rooms and suites. Occupying the 79th to the 93rd floors, it is the second-highest hotel in the world, surpassing the Grand Hyatt Shanghai on the 53rd to 87th floors of the neighboring Jin Mao Tower.

On 14 September 2007, the skyscraper was topped out at 492.0 meters (1,614.2 ft), making it, at the time, the second-tallest building in the world and the tallest structure in Mainland China. It also had the highest occupied floor and the highest height to roof, two categories used to determine the title of "world’s tallest building". The SWFC opened on 28 August 2008, with its observation deck opening on 30 August. This observation deck, the world's tallest at the time of its completion, offers views from 474 m (1,555 ft) above ground level.

The SWFC has been lauded for its design, and in 2008 it was named by architects as the year's best completed skyscraper. In 2013, the SWFC was exceeded in height by the adjacent Shanghai Tower, which is due for completion in 2014. Together, the SWFC, Shanghai Tower and Jin Mao Tower form the world's first adjacent grouping of three supertall skyscrapers.

How to get there:

By bus:

Take bus 1, 85, 454, 584, 783, 798, 799, 992, Tunnel Line 3 or Tunnel Line 4 and get off at Century Ave. East Hospital Station. Walk about 300 meters to SWFC;

Take bus 455, Shangchuan Line, Cailu Line or Airport Shuttle Bus Line 5 and get off at Lujiazui Ring Road East Hospital Station;
Take bus 86, 795 or Hunan Line and get off at Pucheng Rd/Dongchang Rd Station;
Take bus 85, 313, 630, 774, 783, 797, 799, 935, 981, 983, Tunnel Line 6, 8 or 9 and get off at Pudong Ave. East Hospital Station;
Take bus 82, 314, 339, 454, 584, 607, 783, 796, 798, 818, 977, Taigao Line or Tunnel Line 3 and get off at Pudong South Rd/Dongchang Rd Station;
Take bus 82, 583, 875, 961 or 985 and get off at Lujiazui Ring Rd/Pucheng Rd Station.

By regular shuttle bus:

Every 8 to 10 minutes from Monday to Friday, free buses are available from 11:30 to 13:30 between SWFC and Zhengda Plaza. In addition, there are regular shuttle buses between SWFC and the HSBC Building. These are also free of charge and leave every 60 minutes (30 minutes at noon).

By subway:

Subway Line 2: get off at Dongchang Road Station, get out of the station from Exit 4; or get off at Lujiazui Station and get out of the station from Exit 6. Then walk 10 minutes towards the building.

By Ferry:
Take ferry to Dongchang Road Pier and then walk 20 minutes to the building.By Tunnel:Take Sightseeing Tunuel at the Bund and walk 20 minutes from the exit at Pudong side to SWFC.

3.)  Shanghai Ocean Aquarium

The Shanghai Ocean Aquarium (Chinese: 上海海洋水族馆) is a public aquarium located in Shanghai, China.

Designed by Advanced Aquarium Technologies, the aquarium includes a 120-meter (390 ft) tunnel that takes visitors through a coastal reef, open ocean, a kelp cave, shark cove, and a coral reef, and is one of the longest such tunnels in the world.

How to get there:

By Bus:
Take bus 81, 82, 85, 583, 774, 795, 798, 799, 870, 961, 971, 985, 992, 993 or 996 and get off at Lujiazui Subway Station or Lujiazui Ring Road

By Subway:
Take Subway Line 2  and get off at Lujiazui Station. Get out from Exit 1. Shanghai Ocean Aquarium is about 200 meters (about 219 yards) from the station.

4.) The Bund

The Bund (simplified Chinese: 外滩; traditional Chinese: 外灘; Shanghainese: ngathae; Mandarin pinyin: Wàitān) is a waterfront area in central Shanghai. The area centres on a section of Zhongshan Road (East-1 Zhongshan Road) within the former Shanghai International Settlement, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in the eastern part of Huangpu District. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent areas. It is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai. Building heights are restricted in this area.

How to get there:

By Bus: 
Take bus 33, 37, 55, 65, 147, 305, 307, 317, 330, 921 and get off at East Zhongshan 1st Road / East Nanjing Road
Take bus 123, 135, 145, 576, 934 and get off at East Zhongshan 1st Road / Hankou Road
Take bus 576 or 868 and get off at East Zhongshan 1st Road / Guangdong Road
Take bus 220 or 939 and get off at Middle Sichuan Road / Hong Kong Road 
Take bus 42, 71, 311, 316, 320 and get off at East Yan’an Road / East Zhongshan 1st Road
Take bus 20 and get off at Jiujiang Road / East Zhongshan 1st Road
Take Tunnel Line 9, bus 26 or 926 and get off at East Jinling Road / East Zhongshan 2nd Road 
Take City Sightseeing Bus Line 1 and get off at the Bund

By Subway:
Take Line 2 or Line 10 to East Nanjing Road Station. Then walk about 10 minutes toward the Huangpu River.

By Ferry:
There are scheduled ferryboats between East Jinling Road Ferry Dock / The Bund in Puxi and Dongchang Road Ferry Dock in Pudong.  The ferry ticket costs CNY 2. Walk toward Huangpu River from East Nanjing Road and turn right to walk down along the Bund, East Jinling Road Ferry Dock can be seen soon. Dongchang Road Ferry Dock is about 10-15 minutes' walk south of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

5.) Nanjing Road

Nanjing Road (Chinese: 南京路; pinyin: Nánjīng Lù) is the main shopping street of Shanghai, China, and is one of the world's busiest shopping streets. It is named after the city of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province neighbouring Shanghai. Today's Nanjing Road comprises two sections, Nanjing Road East and Nanjing Road West. In some contexts, "Nanjing Road" refers only to what was pre-1945 Nanjing Road, today's Nanjing Road East, which is largely pedestrianised. Before the adoption of the pinyin romanisation in the 1950s, its name was rendered as Nanking Road in English.

How to get there:

To East Nanjing Road: Take bus 14, 33, 37, 65, 66, 108, 123, 135, 220, 251, 305, 306, 307, 314, 317, 330, 868, 910, 928, 929, 940, Tourism Bus Route 8, Subway Line 10 or Subway Line 2 and get off at East Nanjing Rd. Station.

To West Nanjing Road: Take bus 23, 24, 36, 57, 76, 109, 148, 206, 304, 323, 451, 738, 933, 974 or Subway Line 2 and get off at West Nanjing Rd. Station.

Take  Subway Line 1, Subway Line 2 or Subway Line 8 and get off at People's Square.
Take City Sightseeing Bus and get off Nanjing Road.

6.) The Lost Heaven Yunnan Folk Cuisine

If you fancy some different flavors from the typical Shanghainese cuisine, get thee to Lost Heaven. This restaurant, popular with expats and locals, serves cuisine from the Tea Horse Trail (primarily that of the Dai, Bai, Naxi, and Miao minorities of Yunnan Province in southwest China) with lots of Tibetan, Thai, and Burmese influences. Wooden floors and chairs, dark lighting, modern mood music, and photographs of Yunnan's minorities and snow-capped mountains create just the right ambience. There's a separate menu (with pictures) of house favorites, as well as good English explanations of the various mushrooms and mountains of Yunnan. Try the Yunnan wild vegetable cake, Jicong mushrooms with assorted vegetables salad, Yi tribe stir-fry spicy beef, and spicy cod steamed in banana leaf. The tasty "Simmered Vegetables in Tamarind Juice," a typical West Yunnan dish, actually comes with pork. Lost Heaven's original, smaller, outlet is in the French Concession.

Specializing in the tribal cuisine of China's Yunnan province, Lost Heaven has all the makings of a proper date restaurant: exotic cuisine, enchanted decor, atmospheric music and dim, flickering candlelight.

How to get there:

Address: No. 38, Gaoyou Road, Xuhui District (near West Fuxing Road)


7.) Shanghai Maglev Train

The Shanghai Maglev Train or Shanghai Transrapid (simplified Chinese: 上海磁浮示范运营线; traditional Chinese: 上海磁浮示範運營線; pinyin:Shànghǎi Cífú Shìfàn Yùnyíng Xiàn; literally "Shanghai Maglev Demonstration Operation Line") is a magnetic levitation train, or maglev line that operates in Shanghai, China.

It is the first commercially operated high-speed magnetic levitation line in the world and only the third Maglev line to be operated. The train line was designed to connect Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the outskirts of central Pudong where passengers could interchange to the Shanghai Metro to continue their trip to the city center.

Construction of the line began in 1 March 2001, and public commercial service commenced on 1 January 2004. The top operational commercial speed of this train is 431 km/h (268 mph), making it the world's fastest train in regular commercial service since its opening in April 2004. During a non-commercial test run on 12 November 2003, a maglev train achieved a Chinese record speed of 501 km/h (311 mph).

It cost $1.2 billion to build. The train set was built by a joint venture of Siemens and Thyssen Krupp in Kassel. The track (guideway) was built by local Chinese companies who, as a result of the alluvial soil conditions of the Pudong area, had to deviate from the original track design of one supporting column every 50 meters to one column every 25 meters, to ensure that the guideway meets the stability and precision criteria. Several thousand concrete piles were driven to depths up to 70 meters to attain stability for the support column foundations. A mile-long, climate controlled facility was built alongside the line's right of way to manufacture the guideways.

The electrification of the train was developed by Vahle, Inc. Two commercial maglev systems predated the Shanghai system: the Birmingham Maglev in the United Kingdom and the Berlin M-Bahn. Both were low-speed operations and closed before the opening of the Shanghai Maglev Train.

The line is not a part of the Shanghai Metro network, which operates its own service to Pudong Airport from central Shanghai and from Longyang Road Station.

How to get there:

Longyang Rd. Station: Surroundings: Shanghai New International Exhibition Center (SNIEC), Century Park, Longyang Road, Baiyang Road

Pudong International Airport Station: Surroundings: Pudong International Airport, Lingkong Agriculture Garden, Les Charmes Outlet Boutiques, Yingbin Avenue

8.) Super Brand Mall Shanghai

Super Brand Mall is a major shopping center in Shanghai. Located in Lujiazui in Pudong, it is one of the largest shopping centres in Asia. Its 13 floors offer a combined gross floor area of 250,000 square meters.

The Mall was developed by the Chai Tai Group, a major Thai conglomerate with Thai Chinese owners. The connection with Thailand is most visible at the front of the building, with a Thai Buddhist shrine located just outside the front door.

How to get there:

Go to Lujiazui Metro station then walk to the Century Avenue for about 10 minutes.

Until next time...Shanghai...

Please check also the expenses I incurred during my 5-day trip to Shanghai...