1-day Tour to Zhouzhuang

The Bund got its name from a desolate beach outside the old Shanghai City. If you have never been to the Bund, then you have never been to Shanghai. The Bund symbolizes Shanghai and Bund is an epitome of Shanghai's history.

The east side of the Bund is right next to the Huangpu River. To the west of the Bund, there are group of 52 buildings standing in various styles, Gothic, Baroque, Rome, Renaissance, Classic and the combination of Eastern and Western style. Although these buildings were completed at different time and were in different styles, the main elements of these buildings were fairly unified and the overall outline is well coordinated.

Walking on the Zhongshan East Road, you will experience a kind of vigorous, forceful and solemn momentum. Some say actually that the Bund is like "an exhibition of buildings".

If the building zone on the Bund were a gallery, the rest of the Bund would be a showroom. When the sun rises in the east, the Bund is a place where people do exercises. In daytime, this building complex, blended with the beautiful scenery of the Huangpu River and the Pudong area, this scenic spot is tourists' favorate. When evening comes, city lights coats the Bund with brilliant colors, which makes the Bund particularly beautiful. Old buildings by the river echo with the new scenic spots the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the Jinmao mansion, that this spectacular scenery often amazes many tourists.

The No. 12 of the Bund is also No. 12 of the Zhongshan Road East. The former famous Huifeng Bank was located here. Constructed in 1923, this square-shaped five-storage building, come with a round roof, in the style of ancient Greek, and a hemisphere-shaped top. The steel-framed building were exquisitely decorated. The building were equipped with the specially decorated reception halls. The British builder took great pride in this marvelous building. They rated this structure as "from east of the Suez Canal to Baling Strait in the west, this is the most exquisite building".

As the most important shipping artery of Shanghai, Huangpu River winds it way like an undulating muddy dragon from the mouth of the Yangtze River in Wusong to the East China Sea. It is 114 kilometers (71 miles) in length, 400 meters in width and 9 meters (30 feet) in depth. The yellow Huangpu River is ice-free. The cruise boat sails eastward along the river to the attractive "three-layer waters" at the Wusong Mouth, confluence of the three and half hours over a distance of 60lilometers, with beautiful view emerging one after another.

Huangpu River connects 29 kilometers (18 miles) north of downtown Shanghai and divides Shanghai into two parts, east and west. Cruising on the Huangpu River, You can appreciate the magnificent skyscrapers, the Monument Tower to the People's Heroes, the well-known Waibaidu Bridge and Huangpu Park on one bank, and the Orient Pearl TV Tower, International Convertion Center, Jin Mao Building and the newly rising Pudong New Area on the other.
 

Built between 1911 and 1918, situated in the city of Shanghai, Jade Buddha Temple is one of the famous Buddhist temples in the city. It belongs to the Chan sect, with a history of over one hundred years. There are also some impressive images of the Heavenly Kings in the temple. Everyday there are many people coming to worship and burn incense at this very holy and active shrine.

In 1882, Huigen, a monk, brought back two jade Buddha statues from Burma, and built an old temple to keep them. But the temple was destroyed during the revolutionary period of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. Fortunately, the jade Buddha statues survived from the destruction. And later in 1928, a new temple was constructed on the present site, named the Jade Buddha Temple. Though it is with a short history, the Jade Buddha Temple is unique and inimitable in this modern city because of its old-time and classical architectural style. In the different halls of the temple distribute many other ancient paintings and Buddhist scriptures. 1.9 meters in height and carved out of a single piece of jade stone, the seated jade statue is one of the most precious relics in the Temple. It has the image of a solemn Buddha and is renowned as a gem of Buddhist art works.