Sites in Shanghai
Here were some of the spots I went to a few days in Shanghai:
Friday
Muslim food market
M50
Mao Zedong resident
Jing’an temple.
French concession
Polo/ baolo dinner
The Bund
Bund tunnel
Pearl tower.
- Muslim food market was a busy Friday market, the biggest line was for the lamb skewers.
- M50 was a pretty interesting art gallery area. There was one in particular that stood out to me, which was called island6. They combine digital art with various paintings.
- The Mao Zendong former residence was a museum, but unfortunately it was all Chinese so I understood all of zero of it. I tried unsuccessfully to try to use Google Translate to snapshot a few images.
- The Bund is probably the top destination and one of the cooler things I saw in Shanghai. At night, you can walk along the river and see the Shanghai skyline. It’s pretty cool. The Oriental Pearl tower and colorful lights give it a very unique view. Might be the best city skyline.
- There is also a bizarre tourist site related to the Bund which is the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. It’s a tunnel to get across the river next to the bund. You go in these little pod-type cars and go through a tunnel where there are sounds and flashing lights, it’s pretty funny.
This was another day of sightseeing.
Saturday
Propaganda museum
People Square
Marriage Market
Urban planning Exhibition
Yu Garden
- The propaganda museum was an interesting one. It’s old communist posters mostly from the 60s and 70s… it’s pretty easy to tell what they think of the US — they are not fans.
- We went to People’s Square and People’s Park, at the time we went on Saturday afternoon there is something happening called the Marriage Market. Tons of older Chinese people are there and they are basically talking with each other trying to set up their kids on dates to get married. Many sit on the sites with umbrellas and there are signs on the umbrellas that list some of the attributes of their kids. Bizarre.
- The Yu Garden was not what I thought it would be. There is a garden and park area. But also there is this whole shopping area, it’s almost a Chinese outdoor mall with old Chinese style architecture, and a tea house on the water.
- A highlight activity that I did was go to ERA, I think it’s part of Shanghai Circus World. Basically it was a circus and acrobatics show. It was great. So fun. There were a number of acts, some that stood out were these women who were doing tricks on bicycles. They ended the show with a metallic sphere, and they had motorcycles driving around inside, chasing each other. They started with one, two, three… up to 8 motorcycles in the sphere at a time. The acts felt dangerous enough that I genuinely felt a bit nervous for the performers. But it was a cool show.