Monday 12 November 2012

Panoramas of Shanghai

Shanghai's Bund is always a major tourist attraction, with stunning views of the modernistic Pudong skyline juxtaposed with the older buildings on the Puxi side. 

So I visited Shanghai, China in November 2012 to attend a piano competition, but that also gave me ample time to do some sightseeing away from the keyboard pyrotechnics. Here are some panoramic views of Shanghai at its environs, taken with my trusty cheap Fujifilm camera.

The view of Pudong's skyscrapers from the Bund at night is a true spectacle. The lights come on at 7 pm  and  promptly go off at 10 pm.

The neoclassical buildings on the Bund itself are also quite a sight.

The Yuyuan Bazaar in the heart of old Shanghai is more than just a tourist trap. The Huxinting  Teahouse  built over a pond  and reached by the Nine-sectioned zigzag bridge is one of Shanghai's most photographed sites.

The Stalinist splendour of the Shanghai Exhibition Centre, previously known as the Sino-Soviet Friendship Centre. Socialist realism at its most hysterical.
 
The humongous scale model of Shanghai's urban landscape on the third floor of the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre.
 
A view of the suburbs that seem to go on forever. From the Longzimeng Plaza near Zhongshan Park.
A short rail trip takes one to the ancient water town of Qibao. Its small, extremely crowded and touristy.

A better bet if one ventures further afield to Zhujiajiao, another Ming dynasty ancient river  town. Here is the view from the Fangshen Bridge, the longest stone bridge south of the Yangtze River. 

Intersected by canals and bridges, Zhujiajiao is one of a number of ancient Chinese river towns which have been dubbed the "Venice of the East". 

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