China Guide
China Trip Planner
China Trip Planner

Home >>China Guide >>China Travel City Guide >>Shanghai

Shanghai Attractions

Shanghai's cosmopolitanism is most apparent through its eclectic buildings. A stroll of less than a kilometre can reveal an amazing spread of architectural designs: from Georgian to Gothic, Chicago to neoclassical, Spanish villas to imperial Chinese courtyards. According to Tess Johnston, author of A Last Look: Western Architecture in Old Shanghai, 'there is no city in the world today with such a variety of architectural styles'.

For many, the greatest pleasure in Shanghai is a random wander down the city’s side streets, tracking down the ghosts of the past. Like giant skeletons, these buildings are all that remain of old Shanghai and each holds its own tales and history.

Concession Architecture   Top

Early architectural construction hit some unusual snags in Shanghai. Because of the lack of qualified architects, some of the earliest Western-style buildings in Shanghai were partially built in Hong Kong, shipped to Shanghai, and then assembled on site.

Moreover, the glorious Bund was built (literally end metaphorically) on unstable foundations because of the leaching mud of the Huangpu River. Bund buildings were first built on concrete rafts they were fixed onto wood pilings, which were allowed to sink into the mud. Thus, the bottom entrance step usually originated 2m in the air and sank to ground level with the weight of the building.

In the British architectural firm of Palmer & Turner designed many of Shanghai's major buildings (13 buildings on the Bund alone), including the neoclassical Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, the Bank of China, the Peace Hotel, the Yokohama Specie Bank, Grosvenor House (Jinjiang Hotel and the Customs House, (apparently inspired by the Parthenon). In a remarkable stroke of continuity, the company that shaped so much of 1930s Shanghai has returned to design many of the buildings of the 1990s, including the Harbour Ring Plaza just off Renmin Square.

Old Shanghai's other main architect was Ladislaus Hudec (1893-1958), a Czech who eventually made it to Shanghai in 1918 after escaping en route to a Russian prisoner of war camp in Siberia. Shanghai's American Club, Moore Memorial Church, China United Apartments, the Green House (now Club La Bellel), Grand Theatre and Park Hotel (the largest building in the Far East until the 1980s) all owe their creation to Hudec. Fans might want to visit the small exhibition on Hudec on the mezzanine floor of the Park Hotel lobby on Nanjing Xilu.

Many of Shanghai's buildings were constructed in baroque, Neo-Grecian and neoclassical styles to affirm ties with the homelands of the British and French. The 1920s saw the introduction of Art Deco to Shanghai, particularly in theatres, providing a cultural link with New York. The buildings of the 1930s owed more to the USA Chicago style, reflecting rising American power. Fine examples include the Metropole Hotel, Hamilton House, Grosvenor Hose (JinJiang Hotel), Broadway Mansions and Picardie Mansions (Hengshan Hotel).

These vast buildings, with their imposing presence, provided a sense of security as well as reflecting the financial optimism of the time. In the end, though, after all the expense and effort, most buildings served their original purpose for only about 15 years before their owners were booted out in 1949. Communism successfully mummified rather than transformed Shanghai, and recently the government has begun to preserve and restore these architectural giants.

Those who are interested in old houses and backstreet architecture should contact the Shanghai Historic House Association (SHHA - subscribe@topica.com) for details of its twice-yearly programme of lectures and tours of old Shanghai architecture.

Longtangs   Top

What hutongs are to Belling, longtangs (or nongtangs) are to Shanghai: back alleys which form whole communities. Longtangs are Shanghai's major indigenous urban architectural feature.

After the Small Swords Rebellion in 1853, and subsequent civil strife, some 20,000 Chinese fled into the International Settlement. Sensing they could make a quid or two, the British decided to scrap the law forbidding foreigners from owning or subletting houses, and British and French speculators built hundreds of houses in what became Shanghai's biggest real estate boom. The result was the shikument (stone gatehouse), a unique mixture of East and West, of interior Chinese courtyard and English terraced housing, which at one stage made up 60% of Shanghai's housing. These were originally designed to house one family, but Shanghai's growth led to sublets of many families, each of which shared a kitchen and outside bathroom to complement the matang (chamber pot). For the Shanghainese, a single-family kitchen and separate bedrooms remained a dream until the 1990s.

One preserved, prettified example of the shikumen is the Open House museum in the Xintiandi complex, though there are hundreds more around town.

Modern Architecture   Top

In a rush towards modernity Shanghai is rapidly deconstructing and reconstructing itself. There is more construction and relative investment now than there ever was in the 1920s. Much of the city resembles a huge building site of ambitious new projects, forested by cranes and fuelled by migrant workers from Sichuan and Anhui.

The results are mixed, but Shanghai has undoubtedly become a test-bed of Western and Chinese architecture. It's interesting to note the completely different styles used to create three theatres. Compare the Chinese theatre in the Yuyuan Gardens with the 1930s Art Deco style of the Lyceum Theatre, then compare that with the millennial Shanghai Grand Theatre.

The Shanghai Grand Theatre, designed by French architect Jean-Marie Charpentier, has an interesting design, incorporating the sweeping eaves of Chinese tradition with a futuristic use of plastic and glass. This mix of East and West is nothing new to Shanghai, just look at the Chinese roofs on the otherwise foreign-inspired YMCA and Bank of China buildings.

The architecture of the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall echoes that of Grand Theatre. Its distinguishable roof has four ‘florets’ to symbolize four budding magnolias, the city’s flower.

The buildings in Renmin Square have an interesting layout. The three main buildings lie on an axis cutting through a circle formed on the north by Renmin Park and the south by Renmin Square creating what some say is the character zhong (centre}. All the main buildings face south, in line with Chinese imperial tradition and the tenets of feng shui, which are to create harmony order and a positive flow of energy. You can find more symbolism at the Shanghai Centre, which was built in the shape of the Chinese character shan (mountain).

The Bladerunner-style Pudong skyline forms modern, ostentations, hi-tech counterpart to the historic Bund. The gaudy flamboyance of the Shanghai International Convention Centre, with its neoclassical lines and giant glass globes, is rivalled only by the shocking-pink baubles of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Only the graceful Jinmao Tower can stand tall with the fine buildings of the Bund, tied as it is to their collective past with its own modern Art Deco twist.

The Shanghai World Finance Building, whose plot stands next to the Jinmao Tower, will total 101 storeys and exceed the height of its tall neighbour by 71.5m. The upper storeys will house a six-star hotel, and a giant vertical hole cored through the top floors will double as the world's highest open-air observation deck and a wind tunnel to alleviate structural stress. Construction was due to start in 2000 but was delayed by funding problems (the estimated cost runs to US$750 million), and is racing other planned building projects in Hong Kong, India, Sao Paolo, Melbourne and Chicago.

Traditional Temple Architecture   Top

Temple architecture in China tends to follow certain uniformity. There is little external difference between Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist temples, all of which are groups of buildings, arranged in courtyards, aligned on a north-south orientation.

The main entrance complex normally consists of two stone guardian lions, an impressive main gate adorned with calligraphy and two painted celestial guardians. A spirit wall blocks the passage of evil spirits, who can only travel in straight lines.

The most striking feature of the Buddhist temple is the pagoda. It was probably introduced from India along with Buddhism in the 1st century. Pagodas were originally built to house relics of the Buddha and later to hold religious artefacts and documents, to commemorate important events, or to store the ashes of the deceased. Gu lou (drum towers) and zhong lou (bell towers) are normally two-storey pavilions whose function is to mark prayer time. The most famous examples of these are at the Longhua Temple.

The Bund   Top

Originally a towpath to pull barges of rice, the Bund gets its Anglo-Indian name from the embankments built up to discourage flooding (a band is an embankment In Hindi) The Bund became the seat of foreign power in the early 20th century and provided a grand facade for those arriving in Shanghai by river.

The Bund was once situated only a few feet from the water but in the mid-1990s the road was widened and a 771m-long flood barrier was built (the river now lies above the level of Nanjing Lu due to subsidence). The road that was once jammed with trams and traffic from riverside jetties is now known more prosaically as Zhongshan Yilu, or 'Sun Yatsen Road Section One'.

There are plenty of things to see and do around the Bend: take a boat, trip on the Huangpu, enjoy the views of Pudong, visit the Bund Museum or shop at the Friendship Store. These delights are easily combined with an up-close visit to Pudong via the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel or metro from Nanjing Donglu.

The best thing to do is simply stroll and admires the bones of the past. See Shanghai Architecture for a rundown of the buildings on the Bund. This is a very beautiful area at night.

The ambitious North Bund Development Project is set to revamp the area north of Dianchi Lu to Suzhou Creek over the next few years so expect some changes and disruption in that area.

Huangpu River Cruise   Top

The Huangpu River offers some remarkable views of the Bund and river-front activity. Tour boats depart from docks on the south end of the Bund, heal Jinling Donglu.

Shanghai is one of the world's biggest ports end has been 1he largest in China since 1852 Today 2000 ocean-going ships and about 15,000 river steamers load and unload here every year The tour boat passes an enormous variety of craft - freighters, bulk carriers, roll-on roll-off ships, sculling sampans, giant cranes, the occasional junk and Chinese navy vessels (which aren't Supposed to be photographed). The 1930s saw the addition of cruise liners end warships.

There are several types of cruises. The one-hour cruise (RMB25 to RMB35) takes in the Yangpu Bridge; the two-hour cruise (RMB45) encompasses both Yangpu and Nanpu Bridges, and a less frequent service heads up to Pudong's Gaoqiao Bridge. The better but more expensive choice is the 3.5-hour, 60km round-trip cruise, which takes you up the Huangpu to Wusongkou, the junction with the Yangzi River, and back. Several classes are available for this service, ranging in price from RMB35 to RMB70; the more expensive tickets include refreshments on the higher deck. Depending on your enthusiasm for leading cranes, the night cruises are more scenic, though the boat traffic during the day is interesting.

The longer boat cruise takes in Suzhou Creek, the International Passenger Terminal, Yangshupu Power Plant, Fuxing island (site of Chiang Kaishek's last stand), the container pert area and Wusongkou (site of the battle between the British and Chinese in 1842 and where the early opium traders unloaded their cargo), You also catch glimpses of Chongming island and the Baoshan Iron and steel complex the largest in China.

Departure times vary depending on which Trip you take, but there are generally morning, Afternoon and evening departures for all three categories.

Yuyuan Gardens & Bazaar   Top

At the north-eastern end of the old Chinese city, the Yuyuan Gardens and Bazaar are, while arguably slightly tacky, one of Shanghai's premier sights and worth a visit. Try not to visit on the weekend though, as the crowds can be overpowering.

The Yu Yuan (Yu Gardens) were founded by the Pan family, rich Ming dynasty officials. The gardens took 18 years (1559 to 1577) to be nurtured into existence, only to be ransacked During the Opium War in 1842, when British officers were barracked here, and again during the Taiping Rebellion, this time by the French In reprisal for attacks on their nearby concession. Today the gardens have been restored and are a fine example of Ming garden design if you can see through the crowds. Though the gardens are small they seem much bigger due to an ingenious use of rocks and alcoves.

Things to look out for include the Exquisite Jade Rock which was destined for the imperial court in Beijing until the boat sank outside Shanghai, and the Hall of heralding spring which in 1853 was the head quarters of the Small Swords society (perhaps one reason why the gardens were spared revolutionary violence in the 1960s). Note also the beautiful stage, with its gilded carved ceiling and excellent acoustics. The two shiny pavilions in the eastern corner were added in 2003.

Next to the entrance to the Yuan Gardens is the Mid-Lake Pavilion Teahouse (Hu Xin Ting), once part of the gardens and now one of the most famous teahouses in China, visited by Queen Elizabeth II and Bill Clinton among others. The zigzag causeway is there to thwart spirits (and trap tourists), who can only travel in straight lines. Buy a packet of fish food (RMB2) and enjoy the sight of dozens of thrashing koi.

Surrounding all this is the restored bazaar area, where more than 100 speciality shops and restaurants jostle over narrow laneway and small squares in a mock 'ye olde Cathay' setting. It's a bit of a Disneyland version of historical China but if you can handle the crowds it's a great stop for lunch and some souvenir shopping.

Just outside the bazaar is Old Street, known more prosaically as Fangbang Zhonglu, another recently restored street lined with interesting shops and teahouses. If you can tear yourself away from the shopping frenzy, the Taoist Temple of the town Gods (admission RMB5), in the southeast of the complex, commemorates an ancient general, Huo Guang, and has some Fine carving on the roof.

Taikang Lu Art Centre   Top

Shanghai is light on artistic focus, which makes this new arts complex doubly welcome. It's a collection, even a community, of art galleries, studios and shops. The main multi-storey warehouse hides a handful of design studios, media companies and home decor boutiques, many of which front the small alley on the eastern side of the building. There is even talk of a kung fu centre, DJ shop and tattoo parlour.

Right on the corner of the alley, at 220 Taikang Lu, the Pottery Workshop exhibits and sells designer pottery made on site by visiting artists. There's a ceramic studio and two exhibition spaces. It also runs children's and adults' courses in pot throwing.

Further down the alley is the Deke Erh Art Centre, an impressive warehouse space with ground-floor exhibits and 1st-floor photos. The gallery is owned by local photographer and author Deke Erh, who also runs the Old China Hand Reading Room.

Further still along the alley, the Taikang Art Museum is a gallery/showroom with changing Exhibits in a barn-like space. There are several other galleries in the complex and you can expect more to follow.

Across Taikang Lu from the art centre is a small antique market, which might pick up the mostly empty stalls fill up. Half a block east is Taikang Antique market, which has two floors of small antique shops that are worth a sniff around.

Jinmao Tower   Top

Shanghai's most spectacular and beautiful building, visible from almost everywhere in the city, is essentially an office block (owned by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation), with the Grand Hyatt renting space from the 54th to 87th floors. the main thing to see if you are not lucky enough to be staying here is the stupendous view from the 340m-high 88th-floor observatory, accessed from the separate podium building to the side of the main tower time your visit at dusk for both clay and night views and while you're there send a postcard from what is officially the world's highest post office.

A food court and a display featuring the building's remarkable construction process are in the podium next to the main tower. Towering above Pudong like a 21st-century pagoda, the US$540-million Jinmao Tower is the tallest building in the People's Republic of China and, at 420.5m, the fourth-tallest in the world. Designed by the same team that built the Sears Tower in Chicago, the building is highly symbolic. Its 88 floors are auspicious (eight is a lucky number to Chinese) and its 13 bands are linked to Buddhist imagery. Furthermore, the segmented tower is supposed to symbolise bamboo, and also a pen, acting as a counterpoint to the open book-shaped podium. The name Jinmao, meaning 'economy' and 'trade', also carries the additional meanings of 'gold' and 'prosperity'.

The Grand Hyatt itself is well worth a visit and offers one of the city's most spectacular, splurges.

Shanghai Municipal Historical Museum   Top

Shanghai has been crying out for a coherent historical museum and now it finally has one, even if it is confined to the basement of the Oriental Pearl Tower. It’s a fun and well-produced introduction to old Shanghai, for kids and adults alike.

The exhibits start with some fine old cars (a Buick from the 1940s and then the 1990s) and even an early wheelbarrow taxi, once the main form of public transport in Shanghai. There are plenty of traditional dioramas (that old Chinese museum standby), depicting the Shaoxing wine shops and traditional salted fish shops that existed in real life only a few years ago, but even these are enlivened by clever use of video and sound. Check out the public phones that you can dial up to listen to old operas. Video screens depict the British race club and local cinema through period film reportage of the city.

Other highlights include the pair of bronze lions that originally guarded the entrance to the HongKong and Shanghai Bank on the Bund and a period map of the concessions, which shows an amazingly similar road layout to todays. The trip finishes up with scale models of Shanghai’s most famous buildings.

Photos aren’t allowed but no-one enforces the rule.

Ohel Moishe Synagogue   Top

This gutted synagogue (formerly on Ward Road), was built by the Russian Ashkenazi Jewish community in 1927 and lies in the heart of the 1940s Jewish ghetto (Read more on Shanghai’s Jews). There's not much to see in the building except for a few black-and-white pictures. The real reason to come is to take a tour of the surrounding streets with the resident guide Mr Wang. Eighty-four-year-old Wang has lived all his life in Hongkou and can bring alive many of the surrounding sites.

Shanghai’s Jews   Top

Shanghai has two centuries of strong Jewish connections. Established Middle-Eastern Sephardic Jewish families like the Hardoons, Ezras, Kadoories and Sassoons built their fortunes in Shanghai, establishing at least seven synagogues and many Jewish hospitals and schools. It was Victor Sassoon who famously remarked: ‘There is only one race greater than the Jews and that’s the Derby’.

A second group of Jews, this time Ashkenazi, arrived via Siberia, Harbin and Tianjin from Russia after anti-Jewish pogroms in 1906. The biggest influx, however, came between 1933 and 1941, when 30,000 mostly Ashkenazi Jews arrived from Nazi Europe by boat from Italy or by train via Siberia. Many had been issued with visas to cross China by Ho Feng Shan, Chinese consul-general in Vienna, who was honoured as ‘Chinese Schindler’.

Shanghai was one of the few safe havens for Jews fleeing the Holocaust in Europe as it required neither passport nor visa to stay. Gestapo agents followed the refugees and in 1942 tried to persuade and Japanese to build death camps on Chongming Island. Instead, in 1943, the Japanese forced Jews to move into a ‘Designated Area for Stateless Refugees’ in Hongkou.

The Jewish ghetto (stateless Russians didn’t have to live here) became home to Jews from all walks of life. It grew to shelter a synagogue, schools, a local paper, hospitals and enough cafes, rooftop gardens and restaurants to gain the epithet ‘Little Vienna’. Those Jews who held jobs in the French Concession had to secure passes from the Japanese, specially the notoriously unpredictable and violent Mr. Goya. Poorer refugees were forced to bunk down in cramped hotels known as ‘heime’, and had to rely on the generosity of others. When the wealthy Anglophile Jewish trading families left in 1941, the situation grew even tighter. Still, the refugees heard of events in distant Europe and realised that they were the lucky ones.

Today there are a few remainders of Jewish life in Shanghai, such as the Ohel Moishe Synagogue and the former Jewish Club in the grounds of Shanghai Music Conservatory, where concerts are still performed. A new Museum of Jewish Refugees to China is planned for the site of the former Ohel Rachel Synagogue. The synagogue was built by Jacob Elias Sassoon in the late 19th century and was recently restored for Hillary Clinton’s visit. Nearby are the remains of the school founded on the grounds by Horace Kadoorie.

Peace Hotel   Top

Next door to the Bank of China, the famous peace Hotel1926-29) was once the most luxurious hotel in the Far East and is still an Art Deco masterpiece. The hotel was built as the Cathay by Victor Sassoon, and originally occupied only the 4th to 7th floors of the Sassoon house. The guest list included Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward, who wrote Private Lives here in four days in 1930 when he had the flu. Sassoon himself spent weekdays in his personal suite on the top floor with its unsurpassed 360-degree views. You can just imagine him standing there, lording over the Bund. The suite later became a bankers' club.

Even if you are not staying at the Peace Hotel you can look around the wonderful lobby (only haft its original size) and visit the famous ballroom with its sprung floor. The main east entrance (next to the Citibank sign) is no longer in use but there are still some nice Art Deco touches around it. Now, as in the 1930s, banks make up part of the lower floor. The hotel was renamed the Peace Hotel in 1956. The Gang of Four used the hotel as an operations base during the Cultural Revolution.

24/7 Live Chat Support
24/7 Live Chat Support

Besides issuing invitation letter to visitors, China Guide also helps reserve hotel rooms for all guests. Since there is a strong demand for accommodation during the fair, the local hotels often risk an incredible high room rate despite government pricing regulations. Don’t get ripped off by the inflated hotel rate, consult with us now for the proper hotel rate.

Start Live Chat

Got a question
Got a question