First day in Shanghai and we decided to start off exploration of the city down at the Bund (Wai Tan), a waterfront area which showcases colonial architecture and views of the cities skyline.

Down on the Bund with the bull that represents the cities credentials as the financial hub for China.

Our first stop after the Bund was Yuyuan Garden, a beautiful classical Chinese garden dating back to 1559 and the reign of Ming Emperor Jiajing.

The gardens cover an area of 2 hectares and are famous for a number of architectural marvels including the Big Rockery.

Within the private grounds we came across a wishing wall where you could leave inscriptions for loved ones so we decided to write one for our daughter Amelia to wish her well in her second year studies at University.

We then went on to explore the rest of the Yu Garden grounds. Whilst the grounds are modest in size, its full to the brim with temples, walk ways, ponds, miniature gardens, statues and artefacts.

After leaving the Yu garden we visited the Old City God Temple bazaar, where we found traditional Chinese arts and crafts and street food in abundance.

Within the bazaar we came across a Chocolate Museum, one of the more surreal aspects of Shanghai. All the large life like animals have been crafted out of chocolate resulting in a strong smell of cocoa.

Keeping with the odd and unusual, we left the world of chocolate to go next door to a cat petting store. Loads of cats relaxing in a shop window with toys to play with and grooming attendants. You couldn’t make this up!

Moving on we passed a sports store, Anta, the Chinese Olympic main sponsors.

It was getting close to lunchtime and we started our search for steamed buns, and the a recommended restaurant called Nanxiang, a local favourite and Michelin starred.

Street food is everywhere and next up was Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings) and Sheng Jian Bao, literally dumplings (bao) born (sheng) of being shallow-fried (jian).

The centre piece in Yu garden bazaar is the Exquisite Jade Rock a porous 3.3-m, 5-ton boulder. Rumours about its origin include the story that it was meant for the Huizong Emperor and the imperial garden in Bianjing, but was salvaged from the Huangpu River after the boat carrying it had sunk.

After a hour of exploring the bazaar we returned to the Bund waterfront to get a ferry across the river to visit the Shanghai Tower in the financial district of Lujiazui, Pudong.

The tower is the tallest in China and has the world’s fastest elevator at a top speed of 20.5 metres per second, equivalent to 46 mph.

Staying on the East Bund we walked through the financial district and the high end residential complexes, with private security in one of the most exclusive and expensive places to live in Shanghai and China.

Our next stop was the Oriental Pearl Radio & Television Tower. It’s located on the banks of the Huangpu River in Lujiazui, opposite of the Bund. Since its opening in 1995, the tower has become a major tourist attraction and a cultural icon of Shanghai.

From there we stopped at Mingzhu roundabout where an elevated walkway allows you to circumvent the roads below and gives a great view of the towers in the financial district.

From this point we could see the main three towers, from left to right, the Shanghai World Financial Centre (coined the bottle opener due to the whole at the top), Jin Mao Tower and lastly the Shanghai Tower. These three created the world’s first trio of adjacent supertall skyscrapers.

After all the towers we visited the nearby Super Brand Mall, a shopping centre set over 13 floors, with a total gross floor area of 2,700,000 sq ft.

In order to get back across the river, we purchased tickets for The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel.

The tunnel provides a light and sound show, although oddly it does not display Shanghai sights. 

We boarded the passenger-carrying train, a fully automatic rail vehicle towed by a cable and off we went into a light show to end all light shows!

A truly amazing experience, odd we have to acknowledge but one we felt we had to do whilst in Shanghai.

Returning to our hotel for a quick change and freshen up we headed out to the walking street called Nanjing Street where all the big store names, like Apple and Nike are located.

We were in search of some local Shanghai culinary offerings and got a tip to visit Old Folks restaurant. We are not sure if it was a joke or not!

On the way Andy made a new friend…

Instead we found a busy restaurant in one of the shopping centres that was busy and well priced called Dongfang Suyan. The chicken and pork were both good and were soon polished off with the help of a local beer called Blue Girl.

After a long and busy day back on the tourist trail, we walked back to our hotel along the walking street which despite it being close to 10pm on a Sunday night was packed.

Our hotel, The Grand Central is excellently situated close to the main shopping street and the Bund. Added to this it does a mean breakfast and the rooms are huge by comparison to what we’ve experienced elsewhere in China.

Tomorrow we are Koupang the momentum with a 4hr walking tour of the city, taking in People’s Park, the French Concession, Fuxing Park and much much more. It’s going to be busy.