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Sightseeing Overview
Shanghai boasts a rich and often troubled history and has kept many relics of it intact, with municipal conservation policies preserving certain districts of colonial architectural heritage. Add to this a city government that has implemented grandiose urban planning on an unprecedented scale and the result is China's most futuristic, cosmopolitan and eye-catching city.

The Huangpu River separates west (Puxi) and east (Pudong) Shanghai, with the historic Bund promenade on one side and the futuristic Pudong New Area on the other.

The Old Town contains some cultural delights, such as the Yu Gardens and Bazaar, while People's Square (formerly a racecourse, and in the 1980s a location for protest) is once again the focus of the city's cultural and entertainment scene.

But perhaps the most exquisite pleasure is strolling aimlessly along the tree-shaded streets of the former French Concession, snapping the European-style villas and stopping for a drink in one of its atmospheric cafes.

Tourist Information
Shanghai Tourist Information and Service Center
303 Moling Lu (West-South Exit of New Railway Station)
Tel: (21) 5123 4490.
Website: http://lyw.sh.gov.cn/en

Other offices are at: 1699 Nanjing Xi Lu, by Jing’an Temple (tel: (21) 6248 3259); 561 Nanjing Dong Lu (tel: (21) 5353 1117) and 127 Chengdu Bei Lu (tel: (21) 5386 1882). The Jing’an Temple office can book day trips to Hangzhou, Suzhou and nearby canal villages, as well as sightseeing day trips around Shanghai. Hotels also offer excellent tourism information.

Passes
There are no sightseeing passes currently available in Shanghai.

Key Attractions:

The Bund
Shanghai's most popular tourist attraction, the Bund features a 1.6km (1 mile) strip of dozens of historic riverfront buildings, separated from the Huangpu River by a raised terrace embankment. The word ‘bund' is an Anglo-Indian construction meaning ‘embankment', recalling the flood barriers that used to line it.

The grand remnants of colonial power are crowded along the Bund. These include the Customs House (with its famous bell ‘Big Ching'); the former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank HQ (now Shanghai Pudong Development Bank); the Peace Hotel (though it is currently closed, this is one of Asia's art deco masterpieces and a favorite of Noel Coward's); and the former Bank of China. Four buildings (Numbers 3, 5, 6 and 18) have been lavishly refurbished and now contain high-end retail, arts and restaurant complexes. This parade of Shanghai's past faces-off with the futuristic skyline of Pudong on the opposite riverbank.

Known in Chinese as ‘Waitan'
Free admission.

Shanghai Museum
Rebuilt in the shape of an ancient Chinese bronze ritual vessel in 1994, the Shanghai Museum houses over 120,000 historical and artistic treasures and is one of the city's cultural gems. Its four storys present a chronological and stylistic tour of China's greatest artistic traditions, with bronzes, sculptures, ceramics, paintings, calligraphy, jades, coins, furniture and ethnic minority folk art, as well as special exhibitions. Particular highlights are the display of ancient bronzes on the entrance level and the Chinese paintings on the floor above. Given the size of the collection, only some 3% of the museum can be shown at any one time. Audiophone guides area available.

201 Renmin Dadao, Renmin Square, Huangpu
Tel: (21) 6372 5300.
Website: www.shanghaimuseum.net/en
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1700 (last ticket sales 1600).
Admission charge.

Yu Gardens and Bazaar
Yu Gardens and Bazaar cover several blocks of the historic downtown area, where souvenir shops and eating houses are packed together in brightly colored alleys. A haven of tranquility after the throngs of tourists in the bazaar, the Yu Gardens were founded by a family of Imperial officials in 1559. Although looted by the 19th century Western colonialists the gardens still preserve an exquisite catalog of tunnels and grottos, a stone boat for staging river parties, quiet pools, a fine Chinese opera stage and a hall that became the headquarters of the Small Swords Society (a political and military organization affiliated to the Taiping Administration, which occupied most of the Chinese sections of Shanghai in 1853). Outside this walled tranquility, the Mid-Lake Pavilion Teahouse and Nine Twists Bridge have become attractions in themselves, with queens and presidents ceremoniously taken to visit.

Old Town, from Fuyou Lu to Fangbang Dong Lu
Opening hours: Daily 0830-1700.
Admission charge.

Former French Concession
Lined with French colonial-era architecture that survives remarkably unspoilt in the heart of this dynamic city, the former French Concession is a great place to wander aimlessly and typifies Shanghai's international sophistication and style. Particular gems include the grounds of the Ruijin Guest House, 118 Ruijin Er Lu (formerly the Morris Estate), complete with a variety of restaurants, and the art galleries, designer boutiques and cafes of Taikang Lu and Fuxing Xi Lu. Fuxing Park and has its shady walks and bar strip and there are many delightful old residences along Sinan Lu (including ones belonging to the revolutionaries Sun Yatsen and Zhou Enlai), Gaolan Lu and Xianshan Lu and some fine colonial-period hotels, especially the Okura Garden Hotel, 58 Maoming Nan Lu, and the Jinjiang Hotel opposite.

French Concession, Puxi
Free admission.

Museum of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party
One for the history buffs, this site stands as testimony to Shanghai being the nursery of Chinese Communism. Here, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formed, in a room belonging to one of the delegates, Li Hanjun, on 23 July 1921. Another delegate, Mao Zedong, was one of only two of 13 that ever served in the first Chinese Communist government, formed in 1949. The modern museum occupies the whole building and documents the formative years of the CCP, incorporating delights such as a life-size wax diorama of the first meeting, with Mao center stage, at his most idealised.

374 Huangpi Nan Lu
Tel: (21) 5383 2171.
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1600.
Admission charge (free on Sundays).

Shanghai World Financial Center observation deck
Shanghai officially upstaged Toronto when it opened the world's tallest observatory in August 2008. The 474m (1555ft), 101-story obelisque towers over downtown Shanghai, the Huangpu River and the Bund. Three levels, the 94th, 97th and 100th have transparent glass floors and full-length glass windows so visitors can ogle the cityscape in all its glory. It is the world's third-tallest skyscraper after Burj Dubai and Tapei 101, making its sister Shanghai skyscrapers, the Jin Mao Tower and Oriental Pearl, seem positively miniscule.

100 Century Ave, Pudong New Area
Tel: (21) 3867 2008.
Website: www.swfc-observatory.com/en/  
Opening hours: Daily 0800-2300 (last ticket sold 2200).
Admission charge.

Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center
While urban planning is a dreary, cliché-ridden bore in most cities, Shanghai is not 'most cities.' The physical transformation of the city since the early 1990s has been astonishing. And the work continues. As the city prepares to host the 2010 World Expo, the infrastructure, personality and skyline of Shanghai will continue to evolve at warp speed. This fascinating museum reveals how and why Shanghai embarked upon such a massive-scale engineering makeover. The prime exhibit is a 500 sq m scale model of Greater Shanghai, featuring all buildings of six floors or higher as it will look in the future.

110 Renmin Da Dao (inside People's Square)
Tel: (21) 6318 4477.
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1600.
Admission charge.

Further Distractions:

People's Square
An unmissable central landmark, People's Square's crescent shape betrays its former function as Shanghai's racecourse (the neo-classical clock tower was the former Jockey Club, and now houses the Shanghai Art Museum). In the 1960s, it was the site of massed Red Guard demonstrations and, in 1989, Shanghai's own civic protests. Now it is the setting for grand scale reconstruction. The Shanghai Grand Theater and Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall flank the Shanghai City Hall, while the Shanghai Museum (see Key Attractions) stands in the center. Despite the mass of new concrete edifices, the magnificently brooding art deco Park Hotel still stands proud and aloof.

Renmin Dadao, Puxi
Free admission.

Hongkou Park
A pleasant park with a boating lake and a quiet atmosphere, Hongkou Park also holds the Tomb of Lu Xun, which gives the park its other name, Lu Xun Park, and the museum of the Lu Xun Memorial Hall. Lu Xun (1881-1936), the novelist and essayist, is celebrated as the creator of modern Chinese literature, with a vernacular fictional style that is worlds away from outworn classical influences. This is a place of pilgrimage for the great writer's devotees - other visitors can simply enjoy the park.

Sichuan Bei Lu, on the corner of Dalian Xi Lu and Baoshan Lu
Opening hours: Daily 0600-1800.
Free admission.

Lu Xun Memorial Hall
2288 Sichuan Beilu
Tel: (21) 6540 4378.
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1700; no entry after 1600.
Admission charge.

Xintiandi
No trip to Shanghai is complete without a visit to this smart restaurant, bar, gallery and retail complex in the heart of the city. Covering two large city blocks of restored (make that ‘completely rebuilt') traditional shikumen (‘stone gate') houses, Xintiandi has become a showcase symbol of modern Shanghai where moneyed locals, tourists and expats linger over a Starbucks coffee, eat at some of Shanghai's most noted restaurants or drink German beer while enjoying Filipino covers band shows in designer bars. Add in a cinema complex, several souvenir shops and ice cream parlours and you have the quintessential ‘new Shanghai' experience.

Xintiandi, Puxi
Tel: (21) 6311 2288.
Free admission.

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