Things to see and do Coastal China

This is the emblematic location of Shanghai and the ideal place to discover the history of the city.

A large number of buildings also deserve to be visited. Ancient palaces, large banks seats, some of the Bund buildings are mythical.

The Peace Hotel, which has just opened its doors after a long renovation period, is a masterpiece of Art Deco signed in 1929 by the most famous architectural agency of the time: Palm and Turner. The building illustrates the power of a family of entrepreneurs from Baghdad: the. Victor Sassoon, nicknamed the King of Real Estate, left behind a formidable architectural heritage. In addition to the peace hotel, which originally opened its name (the Sassoon House), it also built the Broadway Mansion, north of the Bund, the Embankment House which overlooks Suzhou River and the complex of the Jinjiang Hotel in the former French concession. The Peace Hotel will be distinguished by its large pyramid of green copper which once housed the apartments of the Sassoon family.

The Astor House, the oldest palace in Shanghai, has hosted great names such as Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin… Built in 1910, you can visit its corridors, borrowing its old wooden flooring over time. His ballroom hosted the first trading of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (in 1990) before it was relocated to Pudong. Deposed by the Peace Hotel in the 1920 s, he kept his charm.

Also, in the centre of the Bund throne the customs building, easily identifiable thanks to its clock tower and its Art Deco architecture of 1927, was built in replacement of a brick structure of the late th century. It is the only Bund building to have retained its function. The clock tower always walks the walk with its Westminster carillon.

Finally, on the left of the customs, is the former Bank of Hong Kong and Shanghai (HSBC) building, an imposing building with a central dome. This building, which was at the time the largest bank in Asia, is the work of the British architects'firm Palmer & Turner, craftsmen of the principal Bund buildings. The building had been requisitioned after the Communists took power to host the Shanghai City Hall, which will remain there until 1995, before moving to the modern buildings of the People's Square.

The Bank of Hong Kong and Shanghai tried to reintegrate its former head office, but in vain: the local authorities demanded such an exorbitant price that its original owner had to abandon it and finally settled at Pudong. It was the Pudong Development Bank that took over the building to make it its head office.

In the centre of the square is the magnificent Shanghai Museum: The exterior design is not necessarily a success (it looks like a bunker, even though the Shanghaiens nicknamed it "the basket"), but the collections, superbly presented, deserve to be spent a few hours.

The first Shanghai Museum was established in 1952 in the galleries of the old international concession field, today the building with a tower tower located behind the opera. The collections were then installed in the Art Deco building, which can still be seen at the corner of Henan Lu and Yan'an Donglu, before being moved to this new museum, specially built for the occasion and opened in 1995.

The current building in a ballot box consists of eleven galleries, partly funded by donations from overseas Chinese. On the ground floor is the sculpture room, a beautiful collection of 127 pieces, most of them being Buddhist sculptures of the Han Dynasty at Tang. The same floor also houses the bronzes gallery, 440 of the most beautiful pieces in the world: wine cuts, weapons, musical instruments of the periods Shang and Zhou (1480-221 BC), as well as the Spring and Autumns (772-481 BC). You can then visit the first floor of the collection of ceramics, which includes nearly 500 pieces, including the celadon of the Song dynasty and terracotta figurines covered with a layer of Polychrome polychrome ceramics. The entire panoply of the famous blue porcelain in Jindezhen ovens, under the Ming and Qing dynasties, is also in good stead. The museum also includes a room dedicated to Jade (third floor), but also to seals, calligraphy, painting (on the second floor), coins, Ming and Qing furniture (a very beautiful room), crafts of ethnic minorities (third floor).

Three rooms are also dedicated to temporary exhibitions, which are generally of very high quality.

The museum shop on the ground floor offers beautiful catalogues, postcards, but also reproductions of the quality of works. A large tea house opened its doors on the first floor of the museum, in a traditional, soft atmosphere.

The Shanghai Museum is undoubtedly the most beautiful of China, both by the quality of its collections and by its presentation. We are here far from the neon lights of the museums of the capital! Those who are not particularly fascinated by Chinese art will be seduced by these extraordinary collections. As for enthusiasts, they will have to spend long hours exploring this magnificent museum.

The Chinese Pavilion was built at the Shanghai World Exposition (2010) by the architect and director of the He Jingtang academy of architecture. $ 220 million has been invested and the result is at least impressive (63 m high). It is a retournée pagoda that combines tradition with modernity. During the exhibition, subjects were treated around the general theme "a better city for a better life". Now converted into an art centre, it is still worth finding its place in the world of galleries and museums.

This garden, the most famous of the top Yangtze region, was developed in 1506. At that time, Wang Xianchen, a state official accused of corruption, decided to withdraw from public affairs by returning to Suzhou, his hometown. He then decided to build Zhuozheng Yuan, a 5 ha set. The term "petty administrator" or "the politics of the modest" is drawn from the classic Jin poem. He mentioned that the "garden is the work of a modest man". The garden is divided into three parts: to the east, the main building, Orchid and Snow (Lan Xue Tang), contains a lacquered wood screen on which the garden plan is engraved. By accessing the central part, the Northern Temple pagoda appears. The central part is the most harmonious and the best preserved of the three: the Distant Perfume Room (Yuanxiang Tang), with the largely pierced walls of bays offers an overview. The western part of the garden, separated from the whole under the Qing, became the property of a wealthy trader. He rajouta a large number of buildings. The Mandarins Hall was the central building. The owner amused his guests by inviting Suzhou opera troops.

The garden is a UNESCO World Heritage SITE.

The Purple Mountain is a huge forest park in the heart of the city of Nanjing. There are many tourist attractions that constitute the identity of the city, the former Republican capital, and in particular the most famous of them: Sun Yat-sen mausoleum; or the Linggu temple. The Purple Mountain is also an ideal place to escape the heat of the city in summer and enjoy the quietness. 

Formerly the international concession field. Only the galleries built in 1933 remain standing today. In the north, some of the most prominent buildings were built: Parc Hotel de 1934, a red brick building was the first skyscraper in Asia. The Grand Cinema, designed by a young Czechoslovak architect in 1933, is characterized by tiled facade. The Hotel Pacific, a central dome building, was the old China United apartment building. The former YMCA of Shanghai, a Byzantine madness designed by an American architect, parallels him. There is nothing left of the race field, transformed into a People Park of 12 hectares after liberation in 1949. Nowadays, local authorities have made Renmin Square the new administrative and cultural centre in Shanghai.

The new Shanghai City Hall occupies the old seat of the Shanghaien Party in the centre of the People's Avenue. In contrast, Shanghai Museum (Shanghai Shi Bowuguan), renamed the «Basket» by the Shanghaiens, is a vanguard structure with one of the world's finest collections of ancient art.

Suzhou has also made new skin and the most spectacular change is evident in the renovation of the entire Pingjiang district. Now, the canals and the lanes are lavishly highlighted and if there are not yet many stores, this is not possible. So it's a magical place to walk through the canals and even why not by allowing a walk on the canals (many boatmen offer their service for a short walk). A visit over time. 

Reduced as a matter of grief by the onset of concessions in the th and early th centuries, the old Chinese city remained static in past years. A travel guide published in 1934 stipulated that «Shanghai was not China, but it had to go to Nanshi, (the city of the south) in the old Chinese city…». If, at the time of concessions, the Chinese were forced to stay in the Chinese area, then a majority of them settled there, with a tax for that. They had no right to vote in the municipalities. Nanshi remained a purely Chinese ghetto, without faith or law, crucible of the gangsters and revolutionary parties hiding in narrow streets, lined with tripots and fumeries. Foreigners, except missionaries, avoid places. During the th century, the old town underwent several devastating fires, but retained its architecture. Only the ramparts of the city, erected in 1553 were demolished in 1912 and replaced by the Renmin Lu, the circular avenue today the ancient limits of the Chinese city. Since 1949, the old town has been the subject of great work, which began in 1994-1995. The Yu Garden area has been redesigned. Important imitation architectures have been built in place of old traditional houses. Go under the traditional Chinese Portico at the crossroads of Henan Nanlu and Fang Bang Lu to arrive at the old Bazaar, formerly known as the Temple Bazar of the City Protector, at the heart of which is the famous Yu Garden dating back to the th century. There are numerous jewellers: according to tradition, gold bought near temples is supposed to bear happiness.

Inaugurated in 1998, the Shanghai Opera (Dagejuyuan) was designed by the French architect ARTE-Charpentier. Its architecture incorporates the cultural complexity of a millennium civilization that comes into modernity. It builds on the Chinese myth that the sky is round like the roof and the earth, square like the body of the building. Jacques Chirac welcomed the aesthetic quality of the building and the efforts of architects during his presidential visit in May 1997. South of Renmin Square, at the intersection of Xizang Lu and Yan'an Lu, the Grand World (Dashijie) was Asia's largest amusement centre: a mix of casino, tripot, on three floors. Rebuilt on numerous occasions, the building dates back to 1924; the place is always open to the public.

Located in the north of the city, adjacent to the small administrator's garden, this museum is divided into two parts. The first and oldest, Zhong Wang Fu, is an architectural complex dating back to the time of the kingdom and recounts the history of the city. The second part, inaugurated in October 2006, is nothing more than the work of I.M. Pei, the architect behind the pyramid of the Louvre.

The ensemble includes a fund of over 10 000 pieces among which many Buddhist relics discovered during the rehabilitation of the many places of worship in the city. A wide selection of pottery, porcelain, bronzes and local crafts.

The city is connected by 49 bridges, some of which are particularly remarkable. The Taiping bridges (peace and tranquillity), My (luck) and Changqing (long celebration) form a circular route considered to be lucky by the premises. According to tradition, the inhabitants of the village carry out this journey for weddings or anniversaries in order to ensure good fortune for the coming year. The Siben Bridge (origin of thought) is the oldest in the city. It was built under the Song dynasty between 960 and 1276. Finally the Dubu Bridge (only one step) is the smallest in the city: by barely one metre, it is only metres long.

On more than 100 stands, you will see flowers (freshly cut for some, and others clearly less cool…), pagaille birds (and what racket!) and hundreds of small small animals… Of course, we're going to dig on crickets and their beautiful little cages, or we'll try to learn French to parrots… A great experience, far away from the Shanghai skyscrapers.

The Great Library of Shanghai was inaugurated in December 1996. It is the second largest in China after the Beijing National Library and one of the ten largest in the world: 3,1 ha, 13 million books and manuscripts, some of which have more than 1 400 years of history, 20 reading rooms (Chinese, foreign, electronic, CD-Rom and Internet).

You can take walks on the canals or Lake of the south. Wooden boats depart from the wharf south of the Tiyun Bridge. Some channels drive outside the city and surrounding lakes. We can then, with a little luck, observe the fishermen in full work and discover the fishing for birds, a traditional practice in the region.

The second museum of contemporary art does not fail to compete with the MOCA. Its assets? An Art Deco building of 1932 magnificent, a interior design renovated by the English architect David Chipperfield in 2007, and exhibitions and educational programmes always powerful. As a background, the desire "to encourage discussions on topical subjects and social issues".

This small private travel agency will better meet the expectations of the individual traveler. It offers regular flight booking services, trains and boats, and tailor-made circuits.

Numerous excursions around and around Shanghai: visit of Shanghai ($ 57), Suzhou by car ($ 100), Hangzhou (2 days hotel and meals for $ 150).

This body also sells any transportation (plane, train, boat, bus). The agency is located in the west of the city.

From the Huangpu Park turn the Bank of Indochina (built in 1914), the Glen Line Building (1922), the Matheson Garden (the first to settle in Shanghai in 1848, the Neoclassical building dates back to 1920), the Yangtze Building (a building building built in 1916), the old Yokohama Bank in a neoclassical style enhanced by details of the Banque. Asian art built in 1924. Separated by an alley of the famous Peace Hotel, at No. 23 of the Zhongshan Dongyilu, the Bank of China, built in 1937 by a famous Chinese architect on the site of the Baroque building of the ancient German Club, requisitioned as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, reflected by its intriguing modernity.

The Peace Hotel, a landmark of the skyline skyline, was the seat of the Sassoon family. Victor Sassoon, one of the richest foreigners in Shanghai at the time, the Iraqi Jewish tycoon, had made fortune in opium and weapons.

Founded in 1929 by the famous design firm of Hong Kong, Palmer & Turner, the building included offices and commercial agencies on the ground floor, a hotel with extravagant rooms on the floors, and relaxation and leisure spaces in the upper floors (restaurants, bars, terrace). The businessman housed in the last three floors and had a balcony with a magnificent view of the Huangpu. Today, the Peace Hotel is in full renovation and closed to the public for some time. The exterior of the building with pollution needs good cosmetic. The interior, however, still retains very beautiful Art Deco ornaments: hopefully they will be kept by the new owners of the places, allegedly Saudi investors.

If you pass Nanjing Lu, the former Palace Hotel (now the South Wing of Peace), designed by two British architects in 1906, is one of the oldest Bund buildings. To build it, we used modern methods (steel structure), we installed the first elevator of the city (20 years later, when Shanghai fell under the onslaught of Communist troops, it stir the curiosity of the troops who had never seen it, no more than toilets). Further afield, the fortified building of two turrets was the former headquarters of Shanghai's first foreign newspaper, the North China Daily News.

The Customs House (Customs House), characterized by its Clock Tower, reflects a massive Art Deco architecture dating back to 1927. On the left, the famous Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, a stately structure culminating in a central dome, was Asia's largest banking building at the time. The building, along with all the Bund buildings, was the work of the famous Palmer & Turner firm (already cited above).

To the south, in the centre of the Quai de France, is the Maritime courier building, a Art Deco structure, where the flow of the company's luxurious ships was managed. A raised walk replaces the ground where eye, croisant rickshaws, went back between commercial warehouses and ships at dockside. The latter, moored along the Bund until the early 1990 s, were displaced. A dike was built to control the waters of the river. The mythical British public gardens were installed in the present Huangpu Park.

Excellent museum depicting Shanghai's history through the nature-long reconstructions of villages, models of Shanghai and main shops, evoking daily life at the time of concessions. Interesting collection of vintage photos and objects. Maps of successive enlargements of the metropolis, local folklore (gastronomic habits, clothing, ceremonial and funeral traditions, history of emigrants). A privileged place to discover the true Shanghai. The museum also holds numerous temporary exhibitions.

This small museum is housed in a th century villa at the bottom of an impasse on Changle Lu: the beautiful garden is often filled with blue fabrics. Kubomasa, a Japanese lover of this craft, devoted her life to gathering the oldest, used to print these blue motifs on a woven cloth canvas. This production originates in the mountainous regions of Jiangsu and Jiangxi. Dye-based dye is applied on a canvas previously coated with a wax film in negative. The wax is then removed showing the pattern. Instruments, motifs, ancient woven fabrics, the entire manufacturing process is explained. This ancient tradition has been successful with the Branchés young Shanghaiens. Dyeing has medicinal qualities: Your clothes will protect you!