The hulking monolith of the Shànghǎi Exhibition Centre can be seen from West Nanjing Rd. It was built as the Palace of Sino-Soviet Friendship – a friendship that soon turned sour and even to the brink of war in the 1960s. Architecture-lovers will appreciate its monumentality and bold, unsubtle Bolshevik strokes – there was a time when Pǔdōng was set to look like this. The site of the Exhibition Centre was originally the gardens of the Jewish millionaire Silas Hardoon.
