The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
May 3 - A Day in Shanghai

The day dawned sunny and with a slight breeze, so with just one day in town, we took a cab to the Bund, one of the most famous tourist destinations in Shanghai. The Shanghai Bund has dozens of historical buildings, lining the Huangpu River, that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from Britain, France, the US, Russia, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the consulates of Russia and Britain, a newspaper, the Shanghai Club and the Masonic Club. This was initially a British settlement but later became more of an international settlement. A building boom in the late 1800's led to the Bund becoming a major financial hub of East Asia.

Most of the new buildings in Shanghai -- and there are a LOT of them -- are going up immediately across the river from the Bund in the area known as Pudong. The most recognizable of these is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.

Being a sunny Saturday of a holiday weekend, the levee wall along the river was jammed with people -- walking, talking, selling food and trinkets ... but mostly taking pictures of each other with the Pudong skyline as a backdrop.

As the day got warmer, we headed over to the nearby Nanjing Road area. A large section of Nanjing Road is a pedestrian-only shopping street which was also packed with people as only a street in China can be packed with people! It didn't take long for the heat and humidity to take their toll so after picking up a few small gifts, we needed to get off our feet and lower body temperatures. A cold beer or two in Bar 505 at the Sofitel Hotel did the trick nicely.

Around Shanghai on a Sunny Saturday

A Small Slice of the Restaurant Scene

[Itinerary Page]

© 2008 Restaurant Doctor