In a land five millennia old, Shanghai feels like it was born yesterday. When you’ve had your fill of Terracotta Warriors, musty palaces and gloomy imperial tombs, submit to Shanghai’s debutante charms. You won’t find ancient temples or hoary monuments, but you’ll discover a funky blend of art deco architecture, bullet-fast Maglevs, skyrocketing buildings, French patisseries, jazz, European streetscapes, charming 19th-century lǐlòng (alleys) and cocktails on the Bund.
This is a city of action, not ideas. You won’t spot many wild-haired poets handing out flyers, but a skyscraper will form before your eyes. The movers and shakers of modern China may give a nod to Beijing, but their eyes – and their money – are on Shanghai.
Shanghai is perhaps – like Hong Kong – a city best seen as a prologue or epilogue to your China experience. It can hardly match the epic history of Beijing or Xi’an, yet Shanghai has a unique story to tell and no other Chinese city does foreign concession streetscapes in quite the same way. The Bund, French Concession and Shanghai Museum are sights not to be missed.
