Shanghai and the way to Beijing

The Bund is a landmark of Shanghai and is full of history and culture. Many inland and foreign tourists take their pictures at different places like here in front of a bull statue.

The most famous classical garden in Shanghai is the Yuyuan Garden, which is also known as the Yu Garden. Built in the period of the Ming Dynasty, for more than 400 years, it has been considered one of the best and most beautiful gardens in China. Yuyuan is located in the center of the Old City in Shanghai, south of the area known as Bund. The builder was Pan Yunduan, a military figure in the Ming Dynasty, who created it for his family as a place where they could rest and enjoy the magnificent scenery. Throughout the centuries many changes have been made, and the last restoration was made in the middle of the 20th century by Liangshu Han who recreated it in its original state.

The Huxinting Tea House is a great place to visit. The mere façade of this place is fascinating. Before you get to the main pavilion, there is an attention-grabbing bridge which is constructed with a zig-zag style. According to traditional Chinese beliefs, this zig-zag design is not only for aesthetic appeal. It is also important for keeping the evil spirits from getting into the pavilion. Since the Huxinting Tea House stands right in the middle of the lake, its foundation rests on sturdy stilts. Hence, it gracefully rises above water.

Shanghai with a population of more than 24 million is the largest and traditionally the most developed metropolis in China. The megacity was the largest and most prosperous city in the Far East during the 1930s. In the past 20 years it has again become an attractive city for tourists from all over the world. The world once again had its eyes on the city when it hosted the 2010 World Expo, recording the greatest number of visitors in the event's history.

Shanghai is hailed as the "Shopping Paradise" and "Oriental Paris". So as we came to the city, shopping wasn't not be missed any more than its other charming attractions. As we stepped in the shop we had an hard feeling to step out. The boy in the foreground is selling smoking icy juice.

The Customs House was built by the British on the Shanghai Bund as the office of the British Governor general of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. The structure is still used as a customs house and is regarded along with its neighbour, the HSBC building as symbols of the Bund and the city of Shanghai.

Shanghai Yuyuan Market, also called Yuyuan Bazaar, is a bazaar of stores that combines the Old Street (Chenghuangmiao). We just came there to buy and eat - it is all entertaining enough. This shop in the typical Chines style invites visitors with many lightening paper lanterns at the entrance.

Occasionally the primal idyllic in Shanghai still can be seen in some parts of the center of Shanghai like here in the main road called Beijing road in the Residential District in downtown city. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the thawing of economic policy in the People's Republic of China, buildings on the Bund were gradually returned to their former uses. Government institutions were moved out in favor of financial institutions, while hotels resumed trading as such.

Applicable name for a shop which sales clobber and travelling fare to passengers and other pedestrian. Balabala has a different meaning in Chinese language.