Shanghai, China's most populous and prosperous city, also the biggest and the country's global financial hub.  This was the last city on my schedule. Yay! I really like China, but sometimes when you travel you kind of miss home too.  So, in Shanghai, there were The Bund, Nanjing Road, Jewelries Store, and Chenghuang Miao Market on our list.  We arrived in Shanghai in the afternoon, like other typical metropolis city, the traffic was typical big city's traffic :p

1.  The Bund (Shanghai Tan)

I usually had googled before I went to wherever and honestly, when I googled this one, hmm..I'm not impressed, because mostly the pictures are covered by fog.  So, I was wondering, what so special about the skyline that I couldn't see.  Luckily, the weather that day was just so nice, just like in Wuzhen, it's sunny but still windy, not hot or humid;  the result was I could see the skyscrapers clearly, and yeah it was very nice.  One of the prettiest skyline I've ever seen.

The Bund, also called Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu (East Zhongshan 1st Road), is a famous waterfront and regarded as the symbol of Shanghai for hundreds of years. It is on the west bank of Huangpu River from the Waibaidu Bridge to Nanpu Bridge and winds 1500 meters (0.93 mile) in length. The most famous and attractive sight which is at the west side of the Bund are the 26 various buildings of different architectural styles including Gothic, Baroque, Romanesque, Classicism and the Renaissance. - chinatravelguide.com

We went there just to take some photos, it's very famous, very touristy but not that crowded that it's hard to walk there :p  We went to Nanjing Road after this, but then came back to have dinner in Zhongshan, so I was able to get the night shots of the Bund. Yay!

At the bank of Huangpu River, neo-gothic buildings on the left :)

That is the famous Skyline!

 Below pictures of the west side of the Bund aren't filtered, aren't retouched :)

So clear right?! I was lucky :)

After the sunset

Woahhh..

ups, sorry I didn't use camera's flash

Monument to the People's Heroes

2.  Nanjing Road

It's China's main shopping street, it's 3.4 miles long. Honestly, this is my least favourite object in China, because not only me but the others in the group were already super tired, tired of shopping, tired of looking around, and this street are mainly like regular shopping street with the medium to high end designer fashion, fast food restaurants, souvenir stores.  And of course, the biggest Apple Store in the world, hmm, it is big, it has 2 floors.  We were told to spend 1.5 hours, but finished in 1 hour as usual :p

Taken in front of Apple Store

3.  Jewelries Store

We went here, in the morning just after we checked out of the Hotel.  Just a regular jewelries stores that sells various pricey stones.  I don't really want to elaborate the visitation here, haha. Short story, almost everybody in group buy something here, lucky for those who didn't :p My father bought my mother emerald jade ring, ruby pendant - necklace for me and ruby ring for my sister.  After I went out from the store, I wasn't sure if the ruby is real, though the manager assured us that "No imitation in my store!!" yeah, still not sure.


4.  Chenghuang Miao Market

Now, another shopping street, but this one has long history and the architecture is fascinating, and of course, this is China, it's super crowded! Like woah! So touristy, mostly domestic tourists, so many people, so hard to get a good shot.  Oh well.

Chenghuang Miao Market also known as "City God's Temple".  It's originally a temple before it's spread and became a tourist object and shopping street, you can find almost anything here, but I think basic Chinese ability is required to bargain and get the satisfactory price. 

During the reign of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1403—1424), over 150 years after Shanghai’s establishment as a county, Jinshan Shrine on the northern bank of Fanghong was expanded and transformed into the city god temple of Shanghai County. Legend has it that Chenghuang is the Taoist god who protects the city as well as citizens residing within its boundary.Today, It’s a wonderful place to shopping for gold jewelry, snacks, crafts and small commodities. - goshopshanghai.com

After this visitation, we also went to some shopping mall nearby subway station, I couldn't remember the name.  The point is, wherever you go to shop in China, always always bargain, 80-90% at least.  After having dinner also at a shopping mall, we went to the airport and said goodbye to China for now.  Yay!







The most remarkable visitation of this whole trip is absolutely The Great Wall of China, I'd go back and climb it from the different section like Badaling or Jinshanling.  The other city that I really like is Suzhou, because it's really pretty, and the food tasted better there :p If Huangshan Mountain weren't that foggy that the visibility weren't zero,  it'd have been on the list too.

Anyways, in less than a week I'll go for another short trip, a new country, a bit excited for sure. Hope the weather would be great there :)