I have lived in Shanghai for 13 years, but I never visited the Shanghai Zoo, and this blog is lack of a page to this important attraction site in Shanghai. Wendy and I finally went there on our 5th anniversary, so you have this page dedicated to Shanghai Zoo.

General Information

Address: 2831 Hong Qiao Road, Changning district Shanghai

It is exactly at the Hong Qiao airport – within 1 mile or walking distance – it makes sense for an airport to be near a zoo, from the air safety point of view. However, for the animals, it is not a good idea. We hear and see aircraft landing and departing pretty frequently. With the construction of the Hong Qiao train station, the largest one in Shanghai, the  animals are actually living in a noisy downtown.

Phone: +86-21-62687775

Price: 30 RMB for adult (or 4 USD), and free for children under 1.2m

Website: http://www.shanghaizoo.cn/En/

Map

Here is the map, seen in Google Earth.

To give you an idea about where exactly is the zoo, here is another map. The green square in the middle is the zoo, and the runway on the left is the Hong Qiao Airport.

Animals in the Zoo

Although it is one of the best in China, it is still far behind the modern zoo we saw in Sydney (like the one with Koala). When we went to the zoo, we were eager to see animals, but we only saw large grasslands, with nice trees, and flowers. "Where are the cute animals" was my question to Wendy after we walk for 5 minutes in the big garden.

Numbers about the zoo confirmed my thought: there are 10,000 trees from 600 species v.s. 6,000 animals from 500 species.

Here is the small monkey in the box – it should just be born and needs to be taken care of. Pretty cute! Wendy and I talked a lot about Yifan when we saw the newly-born monkey, and was impressed by how similar people and animals are.

There are more monkeys here:

Giraffe is the favorite animal of me and Wendy. It walks so gracefully, and looks very clean.

The hottest one – Giant Panda, and there are always many tourists gathering around.

They also have swan lake – with a lot of ducks.

Generally, I am a little bit disappointed after I visited the zoo with great passion – the passion built during our visit to Sydney Zoo. However, overall, I am still very happy. I highly recommend people who don’t know where to go to visit the zoo – by looking a the animals, we do forget completely about our hard problems.

Living Conditions of the Animals

After visiting the zoo, I just feel that the living places of the animals should be even more cleaner, instead of the smelly and dirty places.

I used to think that they LOVE that kind of environment, but I am convinced recently, that animals also love dry and nice place to live. Look at the Panda – why it has to be a gray panda instead of a black and white one?

Updated December 14, 2008

Here are more photos of our visit in December, 2008 of the Shanghai Zoo. This time, there was sunshine, and the zoo looks much better.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The other day, I took a photo of the Lujiazui area – a new financial street – Yincheng Middle Road start to form, and as you can see, the headquarters of banks have already lined up.

Comparing with the photo I took in Hangzhou near West Lake last weekend, what a contrast!

Kenneth posted some nice picture from the top of World Financial Center (via Shanghaiist.com). These are the first bunch of photos from that high.

 
Photo Credit: Singaporeano

This is the top of Jinmao Tower – how many people are able to look at Jinmao from this direction?

Photo Credit: Singaporeano

Jinmao looks really tall from the top, even looks taller from this direction.

Photo Credit: Singaporeano

Photo Credit: Singaporeano

Jinmao and the Bund:

Photo Credit: Singaporeano

Jinmao and the other tall buildings at Lujiazui.

Photo Credit: Singaporeano

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

Photo Credit: Singaporeano

Those guys are so brave – what if they fall?

Photo Credit: Singaporeano

• Look at the photo I took when it is just two floors in height: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20050916_shanghai_world_financial_center.htm
  Within 2 and half years, it is already 100 stories high.
• I also have pictures of the center under construction. It is just half of the height of Jinmao: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20060409_world_financial_center_part_ii.htm
• This is the center from where I live: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20071023_world_financial_center_part_iii.htm

I will keep report the progress of this very nice building.

P.S. I also heard that the world’s highest hotel will no longer be the Grant Hyatt. It will be Park Hyatt from 79th to 93rd floor. It will open in just 6 months!

Paul Merton posted nice video about Shanghai. Obviously he did much better job in editing and narration then me.

The video is uploaded in July 2007, and I already see there are many changes in the landscape of Shanghai since he took the video half an year ago.

If you look at the Google Earth, and fly to Shanghai, you will find some very weird places – you may wonder what they are. Anyone want to guess what it is, or try to find it on Google Earth.

From where I live, the new World Financial Center is already obviously higher than the Jinmao Tower

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

It is completely different view from this photo, which was taken at the foot of the tower.

Tall buildings only gives you accurate sense of which is taller when they are observed from far away.

Read more:

• World Financial Center – Part II
• Shanghai World Financial Center

This morning, I am in Zhangjiang (Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park).

Zhangjiang is a hi-tech area. Although it is still far from any other hi-tech park, it really have the potential. Many hi-tech companies are moving in, especially software, IC, and medical companies.

The tower of Zhangjiang Maison is a great building. In terms of hardware, it is even better than most office buildings in Puxi. For example, the Zhangjiang Maison is equipped with double layer glasses. Besides that, they even have double outer walls – there is air layer of 10 cm so air con is more effective in this building.

The other world-class building in Zhangjiang is the German Center. The center was managed by a German property management team. There is a nice German restaurant in the tower 1 of the building. That gives me an impression of Germany in China.

This is German Center from the sky:

Most of the parking lot there is free, and the parking in German Center is 3 RMB per hour – which is almost free for me who am used to 10 RMB/hour price.

Then when I drive to Puxi (Xujiahui Area), I feel that I am completely in another city.

I have “borrowed” some great photos from Picasaweb’s user community. Using great Google Picasa Web API, I built some sample pages for me, so it is handy for myself to look for certain pictures. Here is a list of Shanghai Attractions (not in particular order, even without a particular criteria to include them) that I have many photos to show you. Hope you enjoy the photos (taken by other photographers)

Key Attractions

Bund

People’s Square

Yu Garden

Jingan Temple

Shanghai Museum

Skyscrapers

Pearl Tower

Jin Mao Tower

Tomorrow Square

Grand Gateway

Bridges

Nanpu Bridge

Yangpu Bridge

Lupu Bridge

Transportation

Maglev

South Railway Station

Shanghai Pudong Airport

Hongqiao Airport

Stadiums

Hong Kou Stadium

Shanghai Stadium

It is nice holiday, and I visited Jinmao with my parents. Unlike most tourists who pay 70 RMB to get to the crowded top (at 88th floor), we visited my favorite cafe at the 56th floor of the tower, which is also called “bottom of the Great Well” by myself.

If you want to see the Great Well, you can check out my blog entry here: The Great Well in Jinmao Tower. (For visitors in China, you need to find out a working proxy to workaround the Great Firewall to see the photos on flickr)

We didn’t take camera with us (maybe intentionally, just to enjoy the time there), and if you want more pictures, maybe you can check out Jin Mao collection of my Photo gallery . (The photos listed were not taking by me. Credit was given to their owners)

Here are two of the many photos:

Photograph by Batya

Photograph by Batya

I am happy to be there with my parents – after thinking about for a long time. My parents are the type of persons who enjoy saving money. The “luxurious” orange juice was a surprise for them, but a pleasant one. I really should show more about my world to my parents, who spent so many years helped me to step into this world and had showed their best part of the world to me in the last 30 years.

Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall is at People’s Square, and it is a must visit place for many travelers. Typically, you should spend a day at Shanghai Museum and Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. Here are the pictures I took before.

Below: The Exhibition Hall:

© Jian Shuo Wang

Below: This is inside the building, looking up.

© Jian Shuo Wang

Models of the Future

Here are the introduction about the renovation of the Bund – they are going to turn it into boat hub.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The future expo site:

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The other site of Shanghai Expo:

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Pudong International Airport in the future.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Wondering about what the world I, as a normal person in Shanghai, see everyday? I am trying to capture the short period of time I experienced, and show you my world with a series of pictures. Thanks to my good habit of bringing a camera with me all the time.

Hmm…. Stop here.

I was planning to upload a lot of photos, but I do encounter some technical difficulties. So the bad news is, I cannot upload it today. However, to explain the difficulty itself can be an interesting topic.

The First Problem: Flickr was Censored

This is maybe the second or longer month after Flickr.com was banned by the Great Firewall. Flickr is a powerful tool to allow people to see pictures of the world, and pictures of my own country, which is so scary for some people, so they banned the site. So, I can visit Flickr.com but cannot see any of the photos on the site, and I cannot upload any pictures to Flickr – for months.

Google Picasaweb?

Google’s PicasaWeb is still too new to be banned, so I can still use it, but the speed is significantly slower than flickr. At home, I still cannot upload my picture after waiting, retry for 30 minutes. What happens?

Well. Let me try to complete this article the other day, using a proxy. I will be back to complete it…

People may guess people in Paris will visit the Eiffel Tower everyday, right? I guess the truth is not, just as people in New York don’t visit the Time Square or the Empire State Tower everyday.

It is the same for me – a normal resident in Shanghai. If there is only one place you should visit during your trip to Shanghai, it is the Bund. It is the standard portrait photo for Shanghai, as appears in all postcard, or travel guides.

So, what I want to say is, I am also excited to visit Bund again after many months, although it is now far away from where I live or where I work.

Here I came!

Changes on the Bund

The #1 change is, the Bund is extending to the north. I don’t know why it was named after a word that is not so popular, and more interestingly, “The Bund” seems to be just referring to this place in English worldwide (is it true?). It is just the west bank of the Huang Pu River. In the last 10 years, the Bund extended from the west bank to the east bank, and recently, the area at the north part of the Bund (north of the Waibaidu Bridge) are lit up, and it looks much wider.

The second change is the Peace Hotel – the third most significant building on the Bund (this is my personal ranking – Wangjianshuo List). If you are curious about the first two, I would say, it is the Custom Building, and the Shanghai Pudong Development Building (the former HSBC building). Back to the Peace Hotel. There are interior re-building going on, and the outside lights were turned out. It looks really weird when all the surrounding building are light – it reminds of the old Shanghai…

The third change is the tallest building on the south end of the Bund – the 20+ stories tower. I would say it may be a mistake in city planning to put such a tall building out there along the historical Bund, but the current re-modeling has changed it from the building of ICBC (Industry and Commercial Bank of China) into a 5 star hotel, which means better sense for that location.

Outside the Bund

There are two major changes outside the Bund.

#1 is the progress of the Shanghai International Financial Center – it is significantly higher than the Jin Mao tower now. After finished, Jin Mao tower, once the tallest, will look shorter in comparison of its nearly added neighbour.

The second change is, there are many new shops along the Huangpu River on the Pudong side – for example, there is a bar called Bindview – good location, good name, and seems has good business there.

I didn’t bring a camera with me, so I was not able to take pictures. Hopefully, I will bring some updates with pictures the next time.

Along with my favorite road, I have the Google Map Satellite Image with you. If you want to see clearly where it is, you can click the “-” minus button to zoom out.

No 1: Xinhua Road 新华路, Xuhui District

Xinhua Road is always quite, and peaceful. There is almost no business along the road, and the tree forms a deep and green tunnel. It is splendid especially in springs.

No. 2: Huashan Road 华山路

No. 3: 复兴西路

No. 4: Kangping Road 康平路

Kang Ping Road does not seem to a road in a big city. It is more like a village, with few traffic. Actually, it is the heart of the area.

No. 5: Yong Jia Road 永嘉路

I searched for “Nanpu Bridge” in Google. Surprisingly, I didn’t see an entry from my site for this topic. I should not be. I believe there should be at least one entry for most any topics in Shanghai in the first page of Google! (Just kidding. I am not that ambitious). However, I found out I really didn’t write about the bridge, which I drive by twice every day in the last three years.

The Three Circles

The most memorable experience to drive along the bridge is the three circles on the Puxi side. You go three one or two or three full circles before you get onto the bridge (depending on where you come from). It is amazing to feel your body is thrown to one side of the car door for like two minutes or longer. From Google maps, you can see this part:

Image in courtesy of Google Maps

P.S. If you are interested about how I added the map, use this code but be sure to get your own map API key.

<script src=”http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=google_map_key” type=”text/javascript”></script><div id=”map” style=”width: 640px; height: 480px”></div><script type=”text/javascript”>if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById(“map”));map.addControl(new GSmallMapControl());map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl()); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(31.210117,121.497175), 18, G_SATELLITE_MAP); }</script>

Photos of Nanpu Bridge

This is the photo of the typical H-shaped Nanpu Bridge.

Photography by Wendy Fan

Photography by Wendy Fan

The view from top of the bridge:

Sun set on the west of the city:

Getting on to the bridge:

Leaving the Nanpu bridge:

Nanpu Bridge is symoblic because it is the first bridge connecting the west and east part of the Huangpu River.

You can still get onto the top of the bridge with an elevator. The cost is 5 RMB, and it opens from 8:30 to 5:30 PM. Once upon a time, it was an important attraction for Shanghai. However, recently, fewer and fewer people visit the bridge, since the view from the bridge to the Pearl Tower is completely obstructed by high-rising buildings between them.

I took some picture of Xujiahui at night. This is the north part of Xujiahui.

I would recommend people who are interested in architecture, or who enjoy staying in a modern (even post-modern) building, to visit the 56th floor of the Jinmao Tower. It is a bar on the 56th floor of Grand Haytt (inside Jinmao Tower). Above the bar, is a GREAT WELL (I gave the name) that is 40+ floors in height.

From Google Satellite Map

If you are a visitor to Shanghai and there is nothing to do for one night, I suggest you to spend the night in a bar or restaurant on the riverside, along the Huangpu River. It is opposite to the Bund.

Location

The Bund is symbolic scene for Shanghai. Most visitors view the Bund on the Bund side. To see the Bund from the other side is as excite, if more, than to see it in Puxi.

The area is called Fucheng Road Riverside (浦东滨江富城路段). From the Bund, you can clearly identify the area by looking for Starbucks logo. There are also two McDonald’s ice cream shops there.

Walking Route

This walking route include a ferry ride, when you can view both side of the river on the ferry, and a short walk to see all the bars and restaurants, so you can choose your favorite bar and sit down.

1. Start from the Ferry Station at the East Jinling Road (金陵东路). Take the ferry (2 RMB for the air-conditioned one) to the other side. It takes about 10 minutes (1 km long)

2. Walking out of the Ferry station in Pudong, and turn left to the Fucheng Road (富城路), heading north for a short walk. On immediate right hand are the Tomson Riviera (汤臣一品), a residential building clusters famous for both great view (as you can see it when you walk by), and high price (13,750 USD per sq. meter). The smallest apartment in the building costs 6 million USD, and many is more than 10 million USD.

3. Then after the CitiGroup building, you arrive at the Shangri-La hotel. On the left, there is a small gate with “Red Dot” advertisement. That is the place you should enter the riverside.

Choices of Bars

My favorite are Starbucks and Haagen-Daze. The key reason is, they are maybe the cheapest place and have the best view.

A cup of coffee in Starbucks is the same as others in the city, even similar with stores around the world – 22 – 26 RMB. If it is too crowded for the Starbucks (a seat is not easy after 8:00 PM), you may try Haagen-Daze. Spend 25 RMB to get a cup of “English Breakfast” (it is the name of the tea), and you can stay with the nice beautiful scene for hours.

If you want to have dinner, I highly recommend Paulaner. The beer is German genuine (according to Wendy who enjoyed German beer very much), and they have plenty of seats outside along the river.

Others to Consider

All the lights were turned off at 10:30 PM sharp. Schedule your stay according to the lights. Without lights, the Bund seems mysterious, and is no longer splendid, magnificent, wonderful, breathtaking… (the words people use to describe it).

There is a tunnel connecting the two banks of the Huang Pu River – the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. It is a great way to get across the Huangpu River if you are on any side of the river and want to go to the other. BTW, beside this, you may take ferry or take the metro to get cross – to take a taxi is not so wise since the taxi has to get back toward west from the Bund, enter the tunnel to the east, and get back to west after going out of the Yan’An Road Tunnel…

Back to the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. The price is 30 RMB single trip and 40 RMB round trip. It basically is a tunnel with rails in it and small carts like those on the cable cart in mountains run on the rail. The tunnel is not well decorated – or to better put it, it is decorated using the technology 30 years go – just some colorful lights shining on the wall of the tunnel. It is kind of funny to see this if you have high expectation about what a “Sightseeing” tunnel will be. Of cause there is no transparent glasses which you can see the water of the river.

Have a try for the tunnel as a tourist. No local in Shanghai really take it as a way to go across the river.

In comparision to the single trip price 30 RMB, the most expensive ferry costs 2 RMB and metro (Lujiazui Station to Middle Henan Road Station) cost 2 RMB also. Taxi costs like 20 RMB. A point to make here – it is only 646.7 meters for the tunnel, but for a taxi to get to the same location, it may takes up to 5000 meters.