Shanghai, the modern China

Shanghai, with 14 million inhabitants, is the city most filled with China, and the economic, financial and industrial center of this country. It it stems partly from his strategic situation, since it is the natural exit towards the sea of the rich provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, where more than 120 million persons live. Shanghai is the city of excellent China, the place where there concentrate the vices and the virtues of a metropolis. His chaotic traffic, his incessant activity, his streets crammed with strangers and citizens, his quarters and buildings in which the history has left his stamp, they give him the only air. And the fact is that Shanghai is the big mythical city of Asia. A world that there are many worlds, to more fascinating which. Intersection of tendencies, industries and ideas, it is the crucible in which China looks for itself a future stranger is projected by proper style.

Garden Yuyuan

It is the center of the ancient Shanghai, of the ancient city surrounded by the wall. Constructed in the XVIth century, for Bread Yunduan, a rich official, his history has been quite eventful. The family Bread was ruined, the garden remained godforsaken. In 1760 a group of merchants restored it. The Englishmen devastated it soon. It was a bazaar during the first half of the XXth century, to be restored again in 1957. On only 2 hectares it concentrates the fundamental elements of the Chinese gardening, creating an enclosure that opens to the visitor hundred sceneries and thousand scenes. Ways zigzagueantes, small walls, use of the exterior elements, doors with capricious forms. With every step it changes the sight of the walker. The Garden Yiyuan is the private garden in which better it has become possible to combine the vegetation with the pavilions, stones and ponds. In the days of the sun his stones, his pavilions and his waters take a spectacular coloring.

Temple of Buddha de Jade

It is the most famous temple of Shanghai. Considering the temples scarcity in Shanghai, is frequent to find religious ceremonies during when he is visited, from the simple and daily ceremonies in honor of the deceased, which the relatives realize every day, and the most complex celebrated according to the calendar Buddhist. It was constructed at the beginning of the XXth century, to lodge 2 statues of Buddha of jade target, brought from Burma by the monk Hui Gen. His biggest attractive one these statues are precisely. The disposition of the temple is the classic one, with four celestial guards at the entry, and to the fund the most important lounge, with Buddha of Jade in the second apartment. Another Buddha of jade, the leaned one, is in one of the rooms of the part West of the temple. Everything one can photograph, including the prayers and singings of the monks, except this two Budas.

The Levee or Bund

It is called the Levee to the area where the Englishmen settled after the War of the Opium. Since the Chinese were living in the ancient city, walled, the Englishmen took for his commercial activities, a stretch of the shore of the river placed to the north of the Chinese city. As there was developing the commercial and industrial role of Shanghai, the Levee was winning in importance, and during the first half of the XXth century it was there where the most emblematic buildings of the city were constructed. A city forbidden to the Chinese, let's not forget that in the Park Huangpu it was written: "Prohibited the entry to the Chinese and to the dogs". And that to construct the beautiful building of the Bank of China, only he Chinese of this street, the builders had to accept the limitations imposed by the British administration, which was not ready to allow a Chinese building to be higher than the English buildings.

The most interesting buildings are the Bank of Hong Kong and Shanghai. When it was constructed, it was said that it was the best I build to the east of the Suez Canal.

The Hotel Dongfeng: Earlier called Shanghai Club.

Hotel Peace: Earlier called Hotel Cathay. It spreads in two corners of the street Nanjing with the Levee. The South building, of the year 1906, is the most ancient of this street. The North building, with a pyramidal roof of green color, the highest.

Area of Putong

At the beginning of the 90s of last century, when Shanghai was preparing to throw with all his impulse for the way of the modernization, the authorities verified that the soil scarcity could be a disadvantage for his development. Then there arose the project to create a new town to the east of the river Huangpu, where scarcely there were some peasants' houses, and a few blocks of working flats. This city is the district of Pudong (To the east of The river), which in a decade has changed completely the panorama of Shanghai. Constructed according to a few modern and rational town-planning plans, which genesis can be seen in the Museum of the Exhibition of the City, it is going to combine of tidy form the commercial, residential and playful constructions. And although, the showiest are the big towers, like that of Television, or the Building Jinmao. The parks and museums that are developing, are going to compete with the first ones in quality and design.

At present they stand out:

Tower of Television Perla de Oriente Con 470 meters is the highest building of Asia, and the third one of the world. It has an original design that it grants him in addition to his magnificence, a high esthetic level. Held by three enormous paws, there is a big ball destined to lookout and restaurants.

The Building Jinmao. It is the highest of China and third of the world, with his 88 apartments, and his top part, with form of pagoda, it combines the Chinese classic style with the atomic age. From the apartment 55 for above is the Hotel Hyatt. Any design.

The Bridge Nanpu: Finished in 1989. It was the first bridge that was constructed in Shanghai communicating two shores of the river Huangpu. It is the fourth longest bridge of his type in the world. The columns on which the steel cables hold have an original form of "H", really showy, and on them there is written the name of the bridge as the calligraphy of Deng Xiaoping. The access to the bridge from the shore of the city is in the shape of a gigantic spiral, another symbol of the Shanghai of the tomorrow.

Square of the People

During the colonial epoch the square was a racetrack, replaced during the communist years with a dirty bus station to the service of the people.
The Museum of Shanghai, to the south of the square, with form of vessel, is the best museum of China. His 10.000 m2 of exhibitions include the most important of the Chinese art split into 11 categories: bronze, ceramics, painting, calligraphy, sculpture, furniture, jade, stamps, coins, art of the minorities, ceramics Zande Lou. As well as several rooms for temporary exhibitions. His collections of bronze, ceramics and painting are the most outstanding, but the whole Museum, it is in my opinion, which is installed by more care and allows a better appreciation, esthetic and chronological of the exposed objects. Opposite to the Museum the Big Theater is, with 1800 seats, it was finished in 1998. It has the biggest stage of Asia, with 718 m2, and it is a masterpiece of architecture. The visit is holding a permit. To the east of the Theater the Museum of the Exhibition of the City, very interesting for which he wants to know the Shanghai of the past and that of the future.

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