The first stop was to a place most tourists have never even heard of, Lu Xun Memorial Park (鲁迅纪念馆/ 鲁迅公园), which happens to be the burial place for the Chinese writer, Lu Xun (鲁迅, 1881-1936).
Lu Xun is considered the father of modern Chinese literature, as he wrote short stories that attacked what Lu Xun perceived to be the backwards, cannibalistic nature of old Chinese society. His writings were highly acclaimed by the Chinese Communists - Mao Zedong himself being a lifelong admirer - and are still taught in Chinese schools to this day.
The park was very pretty, and absolutely filled with people, though none of them were there to visit Lu Xun's tomb. Rather, the park was being used as an actual park, with people going for walks, playing sports, writing poetry on the ground, and singing old Communist songs from the 1950s!
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| There were a lot of old Communists in the park. One old man, in fact, came up to me and attempted to converse with me in Russian! |
Lu Xun's mausoleum was very nice, and I found it surprisingly refreshing that Lu Xun's resting place was not yet another touristy tomb, overflowing with tourists begging to have their picture taken - like I was!
A short walk away, near a man gutting chickens on the street, was Lu Xun's former residence, where I also went for a tour. Inside the house, we were not allowed to take photos - closely monitored by both the required tour guide and a security guard who followed closely behind us - but the inside wasn't that interesting anyways.
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| Finger licking good? |
After my short tour, I hopped a cab to my first major tourist destination, Shanghai Museum (上海博物馆).
The Shanghai Museum is considered - and promoted as - the best museum in all of China, as it contains 11 permanent galleries showcasing the very best of China's long and distinguished cultural heritage, as well as a constantly-shifting series of specialized galleries. Admission to the museum is free, but the museum only allows in 5000 visitors per day, so I was happy to get there as early as I did.
Once past the security check, I headed for the sculptures exhibit, which was filled with interesting statues dating back thousands of years to pre-dynastic China.
The bronze gallery was very nice as well, filled with many delightful bronze bells, jars, and containers:
My next two stops were the most interesting for me, the calligraphy gallery and the painting gallery, which were jointly holding a special exhibit on masterpieces that are owned by a variety of American museums. The standard exhibits by themselves, however, were spectacular to behold.
In the painting gallery, I was yelled at by a guard because we were seemingly not allowed to take photographs of the special exhibits. This didn't stop me from taking more pictures, but I made sure to check for guards whenever I took more.
The other galleries in the museum, which included a jade gallery, a porcelain gallery, and a Chinese furniture gallery, were also very interesting, but did not interest me anywhere near as much as the first four galleries had.
Leaving the museum, I found myself on People's Square (人民广场), on which is Shanghai's municipal hall, and is only a short walk away to the most well-known parts of the city.
After a short walk, I found my way to Shanghai's touristy commercial center, Nanjing Street (南京路). Several years ago, the actual street was removed and turned into a pedestrian-only walkway, which ironically didn't make navigating it that much easier thanks to the sheer volume of pedestrians!
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| 'Century Square' on Nanjing Street |
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| 'Nanjing Street Pedestrian Walkway' |
Before leaving Nanjing Street, I made a stop off at the Peace Hotel (和平饭店), which was the most elegant and luxurious hotel in Shanghai from the 1920s until the late 1940s.
While the hotel fell into disrepair after the Communists took over in 1949, it was extensively renovated over a three-year period from 2007 to 2010, restoring its beauty, and preserving a wonderful piece of Shanghai's heritage.
Stepping out the door to the peace hotel, I found myself staring out at the Bund (外滩). The Bund was formerly Shanghai's financial capital, and was the area where foreign empires built their best and most beautiful buildings. Most of these buildings are still used today as banks and business buildings, and are very well upkept.
Along the other side of the Huangpu River (黄浦江) in Pudong district (浦东), you can see the 'new Bund', made up of an impressive collection of modern skyscrapers. The juxtaposing images of the old and new Bund are breathtaking to say the least.
After walking along the Bund for a while, I caught a cab to the Jin Mao Tower (金茂大厦), the second-tallest building in the picture above. The tower seemingly had the best views of Shanghai, and for a substantially cheaper rate than what was offered at the far more famous - and shorter - tower, the "Oriental Pearl TV Tower" (东方明珠电视塔).
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| The towers didn't look any less impressive close-up. In fact, they looked even more intimidating. |
At the Jin Mao Tower, in order to get up to the viewing area, you have to go to the lowest floor of the building, which was surprisingly difficult to find since there aren't any signs with directions on the first floor in either Chinese or English.
After getting several sets of conflicting directions from some unhelpful staff, I managed to find my way to the bottom of the building, and - after paying for a ticket - was put in an elevator up to the building's viewing floor.
The viewing area was quite nice, though I found the unclean glass a pain when taking any halfway decent photos. Also, it was rather hard to see very far into the distance when Shanghai's skyline was so covered in smog. Despite these gripes, the Jin Mao tower provided a very good bird's eye view of Shanghai.
After seeing my fill of Shanghai from the Jin Mao Tower, I caught another cab back to the train station back to Suzhou. However, there were many more things that I wanted to see in Shanghai, so I resolved to come back several days later, which I shall cover in my next blog post!
Until next time!
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