Shanghai Further Distractions
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 Theatre and Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall flank the Shanghai City Hall, while the Shanghai Museum (see Key Attractions) stands in the centre. 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.
Tours of Shanghai
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