World's Busiest, Nanjing Road!

Would you like to be on the world's busiest road? Can you imagine  walking with a million people? The mere idea of it makes me agoraphobic -> afraid of crowded places. If you personally know me, you would know I hate going to the mall on a weekend, you would have to bribe me with a good movie and  food.

Nanjing Road is said to be one the busiest shopping districts in the world, with an average of a million visitors per day! I had second thoughts of going, after learning that fact. I am not a fan of crowds, but I wouldn't want to miss out on the experience plus it was near another iconic tourist destination in Shanghai, The Bund.

Nanjing Road East

Nanjing Road is actually divided into two sections, Nanjing East and Nanjing West. My friend and I didn't bother going to Nanjing West since we were expecting at least half a million people to be on that side,we settled for Nanjing East. Since our main agenda was the Bund which so happens to be at Nanjing East Road's eastern end we just roamed around the area.

Not so Crowded Nanjing Road East

East Nanjing Road is a very commercial zone, since the demographics of the visitors have changed, from the more affluent local residents to the domestic tourists, the hub of European-style restaurants and cafes have become less of a feature.

353 is a good place to shop

The strategy was to be in Nanjing road before peak hours, we did not want to be part of the million people crowding the place. My friend and I got off the Nanjing East station around 3pm, the station had numerous exits, and by luck the exit we picked was right smack where the action is. 

We ended up walking then sitting, walking then sitting. Then we gave up and sat for the remaining 15 minutes to wait for our bus to take us to the ferry for our The Bund Cruise.

Next entry the Bund...

Shanghai Xintiandi

Have you ever wondered how it is to walk on the same gray flagstones and see the same red and black bricks, lacquered doors and Baroque doorframes as those who walked there centuries ago?

Shanghai Xintiandi, can make you feel exactly that. Located right smack in the center of Shanghai, it has become an urban tourist attraction. It is where the old meets the new. It is a fashionable pedestrian street composing of Shikumen and uber modern architecture, a very good combination for architecture savvy tourists.

Renovated Shikumen in Xintiandi

Shikumen as described in wikipedia literally means "stone gate", First appeared in 1860s, it is an architectural style for residential buildings in Shanghai. It is considered a cultural blend of the elements found in Western architecture with traditional Lower Yangtze Chinese architecture and social behavior.

Since we only took the subway going everywhere and we didn't have a map of the actual downtown Shanghai, my friend and I ended up taking a longer route under the scorching heat of the sun! Good times! So when we got to Xintiandi, we had to cool down, so we entered the mall for some air conditioning.

Cool Advertising by Xintiandi

We got there a little after lunch on a weekday, so the place wasn't busy at all, just some tourists mostly caucasians, rich chinese tourists and europeans. Trendy shops, posh cafes and classy restaurants comprise Xintiandi, a place definitely the parental and loaded people would not mind. 

The entire place was empty.

Basically, my friend and I just browsed around we literally just walked through the area. We didn't really go there to shop, well okay I had to get something from here, a souvenir. Since we just moved out of the house and my siblings and I are always sipping wine I got coasters, they were reasonably priced and we ended up using it everyday.

Xintiandi

It was a good thing we had lunch at Yuyuan Garden where everything was cheaper! The restaurants within the Xintiandi area are upper class meaning we could not afford, so we ended up taking pictures of the them :)

Fountain one of the known bistros within the area 

TMSK, famous among locals and tourists

After walking and wandering around for a good 45 mins. My friend and I took off to our next destination. Since we didn't have a map and we would not ride a cab we ended up walking in circles for the next 15 mins or so trying to find the nearest station, we ended up tracing how we got to Xintiandi.

Condominiums for SALE

Shanghai's Yùyuán Garden

2nd day in Shanghai, scorching hot! 

During the planning stage for our China trip, Qing, my chinese friend listed down all the destinations  within Shanghai that we can easily access since we will just be taking public transportation. In my opinion whenever traveling abroad the entire experience is heightened when one takes public transportation, in our entire stay in China we only took a cab when going to the airport since we had super early flights. Will save the public transportation stories for another entry.

One of the most notable tourist destinations in Shanghai is the Yùyuán Garden, the 20,000 sq.m garden was built by a government officer of the Ming Dynasty named Pan Yunduan specifically for his parents. Yu in chinese translates to pleasing and satisfying, the garden was completed in 1577, but since then had undergone major restoration since it has been seriously dilapidated after the Ming dynasty and severely damaged after the Opium war. The present day garden is an outcome of the restoration project in 1956.

I won't go and write into details the history of the garden, we have wikipedia for that :)  Surrounding the garden are shops that offer souvenirs, chinese crafts you know the works. This is also where I was able to buy Jades for the parental.

Here are a few of the photos I took during my visit.

The garden is surrounded by Ming Dynasty inspired buildings, these buildings are either malls or restaurants. We didn't bother going into one since our main destination was the Garden. 

The Welcome Arc to the Yuyuan Area 

Intersection. walking towards the garden

Buildings inspired by the Ming Dynasty

This building is actually a mall

Typical busy china town

Scorching Hot, that day!

Alley going into the " plaza"

Jade stores, Haagen Dazs -> overpriced as usual.

More stores

There were these Arts and Crafts stores that offer really neat stuff, I checked and went into a couple of stores, saw things I could get for my siblings and friends, but decided to come back for them since I didn't want to walk around the garden with shopping bags. Didn't happen! We weren't able to navigate back to this strip again.

Arts and Crafts section

Qing had to get the tickets, since it would be harder for me to do so. While waiting for him, there is always a queue in China, I took a shot of this, we didn't bother going to that side since it was crowded.

Entrance to the garden

As i have mentioned in my previous entry, I prefer taking pictures of scenes without any person in it. This proved to be quite a challenge in China, since most of the places are thriving with tourists, I can say about 80% local tourists, I hope its the same for us here in the Philippines.

Empty corridor

Almost empty scene

After about 3 hours inside walking in circles in the garden we decided to have lunch then move on to the next destination. While looking for a place to eat we heard this gong sound and saw this. Its a " parade " of some sort. Qing explained it to me but I was too hungry and too tired to remember.

I have decided to make Food an entire different blog entry since it is such an essential part of any travel.
After our late lunch Qing and i looked at some Jade. Pictures weren't allowed. After so much haggling with the chinese saleslady, I made a purchase let's just say I was down to half my cash and its just the 2nd day of my 8-day stay in China.

Alley,  on our way out of the Yuyuan Area

Shops, more and more shops.

Strips of Restaurants.

The garden is literally fenced by these beautiful old buildings that are now turned to shops and restaurants. next time I visit this area again, I will make sure to check these establishments out. I feel like I missed out on something..

More shops and restaurants

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All photos by JI unless otherwise stated.