Shanghai: June 3: The Bund, E. Nanjing Road, and Jing'an Temple District

On Wednesday, I did a long walking tour, starting near the Bund (the river-front stripe where many other countries placed important buildings when they all owned pieces of Shanghai) and proceeding roughly westward down Nanjing Road (Shanghai's main street, in some sense). I finished the day with visits to a number of art galleries.

On the way, especially at East Nanjing Road and near the Jade Buddha Temple, I had to deal with aggressive people selling things (mostly watches, bags, and DVDs), and wouldn't easily be turned away.

I took these pictures along the way.

In the morning, I walked this route.

Guidebooks more than a year or two old recommend a stroll along the Huangpu River waterfront (especially Huangpu Park) as one of the highlights of a visit to Shanghai. However, the whole waterfront and many of the buildings facing it were closed for renovation in preparation for the World Expo. Indeed, due to the tons of construction, this area was even hazier than the rest of the city. It was not a pleasant area to walk around.

Nevertheless, some of the historic colonial buildings on the Bund were open, and I entered and saw the nice ceiling mosaics, carved marble, etc.

I learned that Bund buildings, being on the river, were built expecting that, over the course of construction as the concrete foundation was added, they'd sink several meters into the soft ground.

I also learned from my guidebook that, in parts of Shanghai ceded to colonial powers (i.e., part of the "international settlement"), the street names were appropriate for the occupying country. The British concession had English street names; the French, French ones. When the colonial powers left, these streets were renamed to fit the pattern in the rest of the city: East-West streets are named after Chinese cities; North-South streets are named about Chinese provinces. Thus, Edward VII Avenue became East Ya'nan Road and Columbia Road became Fanyu Road. Neat! This could be the core of a great Game clue.

From the Bund, I headed inland toward People's Square. I walked down the pedestrianized East Nanjing Road, a surprisingly nice shopping street, given my lower expectations from earlier in the morning. I stopped by a fancy chopstick store. I was looking for chopsticks to bring home as a memento, and I'd be browsing chopstick stands and shops whenever I had the chance over the next few weeks to get an idea of what was available.

I took a subway one stop to People's Square for lunch. I selected the most famous (and one of the oldest) vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai, known for its imitation/fake meats.

After lunch, a short subway ride brought me down West Nanjing Road to the Jing'an Temple district. I walked this route, following my guidebook's walking tour of this neighborhood, with some additional sightseeing tacked on at the end. The neighborhoods I walked through this afternoon felt like an ordinary city.

After exploring some of the lilong alleys in this part of town, I stopped by the big Jing'an Temple and then visited Jing'an Park. Jing'an Park was a pleasant retreat from Shanghai's ever-present construction noise.

I continued exploring the district. Eventually, I made it to the Jade Buddha Temple, and found it as commercialized as the Jing'an Temple. Whereas the Jing'an Temple used the ground floor of its outer buildings to house retail establishments (which, at least, didn't open into the temple itself), the Jade Buddha Temple had a few shops inside. In more pleasant news, however, I got to watch several dozen monks in their saffron colored robes at prayers.

Next on my itinerary was the 50 Moganshan Road Art Centre. With Taikang Road, these two art centres comprise the focal points of Shanghai's current art scene. 50 Moganshan Road is a warren-like maze of warehouses and alleys containing countless art galleries. The art is high quality and widely varying, ranging from traditional paintings to abstract, conceptual, sculptural, and functional art, and to photography. Some pieces I saw I think have staying power and will be in museums in a few decades. I explored half a dozen galleries, peeked in two dozen more, but got tired before I could explore more than two of the seven or so buildings in the complex. One could spend many hours here.

Seeing all this high quality art reminded me of something someone said to me earlier in the day. In the morning, someone tried to run a gallery scam on me, in the process asking the provoking question of whether I could name a single Chinese artist. I could not. :( Sadly, even while writing this blog entry many months later, no name comes to mind even though I've now seen a bunch of Chinese art.

Di Yin and I ate a dinner of leftovers at home: stuffed lotuses, a bullfrog dish, a pork & winter melon dish (which mellowed a lot), duck rice, and watermelon.