Shanghai City

Introduction
Shanghai has thrown on its Armani to strut on the global stage. Shanghai is a scintillating city swirling with rapid cultural change. Since market restrictions were lifted, it has embraced the forces of business and design and rewritten its rule book shaping a fresh, new city that is sophisticated, innovative and living a life it has never lived before.

While it can't match the epic history of Beijing or Xi'an's grander sights, Shanghai is the hotspot of modern China; a cosmopolitan city buzzing with the concept of 'lifestyle revolution', showcased in the architectural temples of art, fine dining and contemporary urban living on the Bund.

'As a city, Shanghai is like a beautiful young bitch who loves money.' - Chinese author Mian Mian

Shanghai municipality covers a huge area, but the city proper is more modest. Broadly, central Sh à ngh ǎ i is divided into two areas: P ǔ d ō ng (east of the Huangpu River) and P ǔ x ī (west of the Huangpu River). The First Ring Rd does a long elliptical loop around the city centre proper. The historical attractions belong to P ǔ x ī , where Shanghai's personality is also found: the Bund (officially and more prosaically called East Zhongshan No 1 Rd), major sights, the principal shopping streets, the former foreign concessions, and Shanghai's trendiest clusters of bars, restaurants and nightclubs are all in P ǔ x ī . The area around the Bund is the historical heart of the former International Settlement. From here East Nanjing Rd, China's busiest shopping street, runs west to People's Sq, a centre of gravity of sorts overlooked by the startling Tomorrow Square building, and home to the Shanghai Museum, Grand Theatre and the frantic Metro Line 1 and Line 2 interchange. West Nanjing Rd continues west from here. South of the Bund, the Old Town is a ragged maze of narrow lanes. The location of the original town of Shanghai, this is the oldest part of the city. South of Yan'an Rd, and west of the Old Town, the former French Concession is a large and leafy quarter of shops, bars and restaurants, popular with expats and white-collar Chinese. East of the Huangpu is the kit-city of P ǔ d ō ng, a special economic zone of Maglev trains, mega-malls, banks, glistening skyscrapers, building sites and residential complexes, eventually petering out into farmland. In the central district (around Nanjing Rd), the provincial names run north-south, and city names run east-west. Some roads use compass points, such as South Sichuan Rd and North Sichuan Rd. Encircling Shanghai proper, Zhongshan Rd is split by sectors, such as East Zhongshan No 2 Rd and East Zhongshan No 1 Rd.

Destination Facts
Time zone: GMT +8
Area: 6340
Coordinates: 31.24799919 latitude and 121.4729996 longitude
Population: 19200000
Languages: China's language is officially Mandarin, as spoken in Beijing. The Chinese call it Putonghua. About 70% of the population speak Mandarin, but that's just the tip of the linguistic iceberg. The country is awash with dialects, and dialects within dialects - and few of them are mutually intelligible.The largest single dialect within Wu Chinese (the second most widely spoken language group in China, after Mandarin), Shanghainese is the everyday language of the city. It is unintelligible to Mandarin speakers, who are usually deferred to by the good folk of Shanghai.
Currency: Yuan Renminbi (Y)
Area codes: 021

Getting there and away
Shanghai is easy to get to. It is China's second-largest international air hub (third-largest if you count Hong Kong) and if you can't fly direct, you can go via Beijing or Hong Kong. With rail and air connections to places all over China, ferries travelling up the Yangzi River, many boats along the coast, and buses to destinations in adjoining provinces, you'll be hard pushed to find somewhere you can't get to.

Getting around
Shanghai isn't exactly a walker's paradise. There are some fascinating areas to stroll around, but new road developments, building sites and shocking traffic conditions conspire to make walking an exhausting,stressful and sometimes dangerous experience. Travelling on buses can also be hard work; the routes, and particularly the stops, are not easy to figure out and buses are packed at rush hour. The metro system, however, is a dream. Taxis are reasonably cheap and east to flag down.

Weather
Shanghai starts the year shivering in midwinter, when temperatures can drop below freezing and the vistas are grey and misty. Spring brings warmth; April to mid-May is probably one of the best times to visit weather-wise, along with autumn (late September to mid-November). In summer the hot and humid weather makes conditions outside uncomfortable, with temperatures sometimes as high as 40 ° C (104 ° F) in July and August. In short, you'll need silk long johns and down jackets for winter, an ice block for each armpit in summer and an umbrella wouldn't go astray in either of these seasons.

Places of Interest
Shanghai is a scintillating city swirling with rapid cultural change. Since market restrictions were lifted, it has embraced the forces of business and design and rewritten its rule book shaping a fresh, new city that is sophisticated, innovative and living a life it has never lived before. While it can't match the epic history of Beijing or Xi'an's grander sights, Shanghai is the hotspot of modern China; a cosmopolitan city buzzing with the concept of 'lifestyle revolution', showcased in the architectural temples of art, fine dining and contemporary urban living on the Bund.

Events
Shanghai's revelling options are myriad; the city's inhabitants celebrate everything from the dead poets to beer, and they do it with a vibrant dash you'll remember long after you've licked away the last crumbs of moon cake. The biggest event in Shanghai's calendar is the Spring Festival, otherwise known as Chinese New Year, when many people take a week off. The Longhua Temple has large celebrations, with dragon and lion dances. The Lantern Festival (February) is a lovely time to visit - buildings are decorated with coloured lanterns. A Temple Fair is held at the Longhua Temple on the third day of the third lunar month (around April). It's eastern China's largest and oldest folk gathering. The Shanghai International Tea Culture Festival is usually at the end of April. Tomb Sweeping Day, also in April, is a day for worshipping ancestors; people visit the graves of their dearly departed relatives and often burn 'ghost money' (for use in the afterworld) for the departed. The Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (June) commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a 3rd-century-BC poet-statesman who drowned himself to protest against the corrupt government. The Shanghai Beer Festival staggers into town around the end of July. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Moon Festival and is the time to eat tasty moon cakes. It takes place in September, on the 15th day of the 8th moon. The Shanghai Tourism Festival kicks off in late September and offers a wide variety of cultural programs. In November and early December there's an annual International Arts Festival.