Shanghai: Three days around the ‘City in the sea’

“This used to be the tallest building in the 90s but now it is one of the shortest in Shanghai,” Ariel Wang said, as she pointed in the direction of the Park Hotel, an art deco relic with 24 floors built in 1934. Her words emphasised the fact that there were several buildings towering over […]

“This used to be the tallest building in the 90s but now it is one of the shortest in Shanghai,” Ariel Wang said, as she pointed in the direction of the Park Hotel, an art deco relic with 24 floors built in 1934.
Her words emphasised the fact that there were several buildings towering over the 24 seater-bus which ferried the Nigerian and Ghanaian journalists around the city.
The journalists in Shanghai for three days recently on a tour of various iconic monuments of the ancient city.
Part of the line up of activities during the trip was a night cruise across the Bund located at Pudong on the east of the Huangpu River. The site at night fall is an immediate reminder that night is not always synonymous to darkness. The skyline and buildings are all brilliantly lit up highlighting and emphasising the curves, strokes and forms. They dazzle in the dark skylines, drawing attention at the same time to the repeated adverts shimmering down their walls in led lights.
At night time as in the day, towering above all other roof tops is the 128-story Shanghai Tower, in all her elegance and magnificence spiralling in enviable twists up to the heavens as tourists struggle to get vantage positions on the ship to take photos of her.
The building which was completed earlier this year is now the world’s second tallest building after Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
As if teaser onlookers, the colours swing from green, to purple, then yellow and red swirling up its over 2,000 feet height. A belle in the onetime swampy farmland of the former creek town.
Wang explained that the city is so-nicknamed for its glamorous sycamore trees which laced its streets and are a reflection of China’s Westernized feature. It was also referred to as the ‘Whore of the Orient’ due to the several brothels which thrived in the 1800s and early 1900s during the Western occupation of China; a name now forsaken.
Shanghai has a population of over 20 million and receives an estimated one million migrants who annually come to the business city in search of work.  Still very evident of this occupation are Western- styled buildings which now carry the Chinese flag on their roof tops, although they house Western-style shopping malls like H&M, Rolex and Armani among other premium designers.
Seemingly well set and organised, the city is still expanding and being developed with several construction sites visible and the sounds from there harmonised with the chatters of tourists, blaring car horns and the occasional blaring from a vessel ferrying wares on the Haungpu River.
Having previously read about the Oriental Pearl Tower, it was a much anticipated visit for our report to the site which was completed in 1994 after its construction started three years earlier. It has a communication station, hotel, 360° observatory floor, and a revolving restaurant at 267 m (876 ft) high.
The Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower is located at the tip of Lujiazui in the Pudong district beside Huangpu River and across The Bund. It is one of Shanghai’s most visited landmark buildings.
Construction began in 1991, and the tower was completed in 1994. In total the entire structures stands at 468 m (1,535 feet) high and was China’s tallest building from 1994–2007, before the coming of the Shanghai World Financial Center. Its brightly lit up pearls are as attractive at night as they are during the day.
Boasting of 15 observatory levels with the highest called Space Module and standing at 350 m (1148 ft), the Pearl has other levels including the Sightseeing floor at 263 m (863 ft) and Space City level at 90 m (295 ft). The structure is also home to exhibition facilities, restaurants and a shopping mall. There is also a 20-room hotel called the Space Hotel between the two large spheres. The upper observation platform has an outside area with a glass floor which was the adventure spot for our reporter as she encouraged her frightened colleagues to step on the glass floor to take in the breathtaking view of the ground beneath. It was an absolutely enjoyable experience.
The Shanghai Bund lines the Huangpu River, and is home to several Western-styled historic buildings from the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Italy, Russia, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the consulates of Russia and Britain, a newspaper, the Shanghai Club and the Masonic Club. Still baring elements of trade and banking that went on those many centuries ago, the structures are still mainly housing banks and other financial establishments.
It started off as a British settlement and then a British and American settlement before eventually becoming international. According to tour materials, buildings in the 20th buildings in the Beaux Arts style sprung up in the years around the turn of the 20th century as the Bund developed into a major financial center of East Asia. Directly to the south, and just northeast of the old walled city, the former French Bund (the quai de France, part of the Shanghai French Concession) was of comparable size to the Bund but functioned more as a working harbour side.
More popularly referred to as the ‘No excuse bridge,’ the Nanpu Bridge was built to connect the eastern and western parts of Shanghai. It is referred to as the sister of the Yangpu Bridge.
According to Wang, it got its name ‘No excuse bridge’ because: “In the past, workers were dependent on crossing the Haungpu River by ferry which had a close hour. Tricky husbands who had ulterior plans called their wives to say they were working late and had missed the last ferry. The coming of the bridge spoilt their plans that they no longer had excuses to give their wives for not being able to return home after work.”
The cable-styled bridge is the 57th longest of such bridges in the world 428 meters (1,388 ft) and was opened to public in 1991.
Nanjing Road is the Shanghai’s main shopping street and is also said to be one of the world’s busiest shopping streets. It has maintained its status as the city’s business hub from the existence of Shanghai till date. It was named after the city of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province next door to Shanghai. The road as it exists today, is made up of two sections, Nanjing Road East and Nanjing Road West. The guide explained that, ‘Nanjing Road’ is sometimes only referred to as the eastern part which existed prior to 1945 and is mainly pedestrian use.
Photos and documentation at the Shanghai Museum inform that the history of the road can be traced back to the year 1845 and was known as Park Lane at the time. It stretched from the Bund to He’nan Road and was extended to Zhejiang Road, in 1854. Eight years later, it was again extended to Xizang Road and in 1862, it was named formally as ‘Nanking Road’ by the Municipal Council, which administered the International Settlement.
According to a tour material: “In 1943 the International Settlement was annulled, and after World War Two the government changed its name from Nanking Road to “East Nanjing Road”, meanwhile they also renamed the former Bubbling Well Road “West Nanjing Road”, and the general name of the two roads became “Nanjing Road”, comprising five kilometres total length.”
The material added that: “At the beginning of the 20th century, eight big department stores were established along the street. A series of franchised stores were also set up at that time.
“On 23 August 1937 a bomb was dropped on Nanjing Road by a Chinese plane in an attempt to lighten its load while being pursued by Japanese planes. The bomb hit two department stores, killing 612 people and injuring another 482,” it said.
The first thing a tourist notices while approaching the Shanghai Museum is that it looks like a cooking pot. An African immediately resonates with this as one is reminded of big aluminum pots over burning firewood during festive seasons and other celebrations. 
The building was designed by local architect Xing Tonghe, in the shape of an ancient bronze cooking vessel called a ding. It is said that the inspiration for the design was specifically provided by the Da Ke Ding, now on exhibit in the museum. The building has a round top and a square base, symbolizing the ancient Chinese perception of the world as “round sky, square earth”
It was founded in 1952 and was first open to the public in the former Shanghai Racecourse club house, now at 325 West Nanjing Road. It was later moved into the Zhonghui Building at 16 South Henan Road, which previously housed insurance companies and bank offices, in 1959.
The People’s Square is located its grounds which prior to 1949 and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, served as a course for horse racing owned by the Shanghai Race Club.
The guide explained that, following the ban on gambling and horse racing by the new Communist government, a part of the race course became People’s Square, and included a large avenue and spectator stands for use during parades.
She said other parts of the race course still remain and the clubhouse buildings are what later became the Shanghai Art Museum, while part of the race track was converted to the People’s Park, a public park to the north of People’s Square.