Shanghai, the World Expo 2010 city, stirs the imagination with its glamorous past and exhilarating present. It's where the Chinese Communist Party was born in 1921 and China's reopening to the West launched in 1978 following economic reforms.
Exotic, enterprising and immensely colourful, the port city of 20 million inhabitants is one of the world's leading business and financial centres. Affordable for Canadians, Shanghai is rich in attractions, not the least of them an eclectic culinary scene that seduces even the most demanding of palates.
From the scrumptious steamed buns, dumplings and other street food available at modest corner stands to the delicious haute cuisine offerings served at hot spots such as Laris, Jean-Georges and M on the Bund, Shanghai is a city of spectacular choices.
It also has no end of dramatic backdrops. The Bund, for decades a symbol of the city's commercial prowess, beckons with restored 1920s and 1930s style buildings. Stroll the length of The Bund's Zhongshan East Road and watch the movement of tugs, barges and great ships as they navigate the famous Huangpu River that divides the city into Puxi and Pudong.
Pudong's impressive skyline features such iconic buildings as the Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Centre. When completed, Pudong's 128-story Shanghai Tower office building, now under construction, will be China's tallest. You'll love the view of the Pudong skyline at nighttime with many of the skyscrapers dramatically lit. Don't forget to bring your camera.
To get a sense of Shanghai's vastness, stop in at the intriguingly designed Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. It sits adjacent to the municipal government building on spacious People's Square. (Lunch outdoors on the terrace at Kathleen 5 restaurant located on the rooftop of the historic Shanghai Art Museum overlooking the square). At the exhibition hall, see the sprawling scale model of the city with its hundreds of thousands of miniature buildings. Visitors can walk around the model's periphery or go up a level and enjoy the views from above.
Worth seeing as well is the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum on Zhoushan Road in the Tilanqiao Historic Area. The museum is part of the old Ohel Moshe temple in what was once a thriving Jewish quarter. Jews had been an important part of Shanghai's commercial life since its port opened in the 1840s, and some 25,000 sought refuge in Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s.
The classically styled Jade Buddha Temple, world famous for the two white jade Buddha statues it houses, is one of Shanghai's most dazzling sites. The so-called Recumbent Buddha, positioned on the right side with the right hand supporting the head measures 96 centimetres long. The equally magnificent Sitting Buddha is 190 centimetres high, with the gorgeous white jade encrusted with emeralds and agates.
Thronged with crowds at every hour of the day and evening, Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road are two of Asia's great shopping streets, the latter located in the former French Concession with its elegant, old-style mansions and smart stores. And don't forget the 825-metre long Old Street where gold shops, pawn shops, jewellery outlets, tea houses and dozens of other venues offer endless hours of enjoyment for the serious shopper intent on getting the best bargains. The Tibet Road market is the place to go for curios of all sorts, for which you can bargain to your heart's content.
For the discerning shopper intent on investing in top quality men's kit, the Shanghai branch of London's Alfred Dunhill is housed in a meticulously restored 1920s era villa in the small enclave known as 796 Huai Hai Lu. At Dunhill Home, you'll find beaver gloves, shirts, jackets, tails, ties, sweaters, and a barber shop with a whimsically painted ceiling.
Staff at a twin villa, the Vacheron Constantin Mansion, sell, repair and will store, if you've bought enough of them, the Swiss watchmaker's timepieces which are so sought-after the world over. A master watchmaker from Geneva answers questions and guides shoppers through the collector's salon that dazzles with rare watches.
Also on the precincts is ShangART whose owner has put together one of the city's top contemporary galleries in a space that's light-filled and airy. With two other Shanghai locations, ShangART was opened in 1996 and found immediate success. Supporting the work of young artists as well as representing established figures, it's grown to become one of China's most influential showcases for Chinese contemporary art.
If time permits, and you'd like to spend a day outside the city, take an excursion to Suzhou, the romantic garden city. It's only 75 kilometres or an hour's ride by express train from Shanghai. With its quaint bridges and canals and traditional Chinese gardens, complete with courtyards and small ponds, Suzhou has been called the "Venice of the Orient". Be back in time to catch a performance at Shanghai's Grand Theatre or Shanghai Oriental Art Center Concert Hall.
Afterward, head to Xintiandi, the chic pedestrian mall and kick back at one of its bars or lounges. Shanghai, cosmopolitan metropolis, is always astir.