Day 25: Shanghai, Wednesday 15th October 2025

East meets west; Yu Gardens and Shanghai Tower

28°, mirky/cloudy , fine

NZ$1 = Y4

Y1=NZ$0.25

Up at 8:30am, over to McDonalds for breakfast.

Then walked across the road and into Yuyuan Gardens at 9:30am ( the actual gardens, not the chopping complex named after the gardens! ), bought tickets (Y40 each ). Walked in and around a large ( 2 acres ) complex of lakes, buildings, temples sculptures etc located next to a temple ( the City God Temple ). It was quite busy so at times there were minor traffic jambs, and it was pretty warm due to the surrounding walls and no real air flow. We walked around the walked around old buldings, temples, etc and gardens for an hour then out at 10:30am. Walked back through the shopping area and back to the hotel, Liz brought a small panda bag on the way for Y25.

The road outside Yu Garden

Yu Garden

Heading home

Out at 11am, caught the metro to “Site of the first CPC Congress Station”, walked south on Madang Rd then west through into the French Concession. This area of Shanghai was given to the French as a settlement / trading post in 1849, and is now considered to be one of the best residential and arts areas in Shanghai, and still has a lot of French Architecture. Immediately as we left the station there were tree lined streets and a European feel to the area. We walked through the area to the the Sun Moon Light Centre ( a shopping mall ), and had a Sundae / Mcflurry at 12pm. We looked around the mall for a bit ( enjoying the air-conditioning ) then out to the Tianzifeng area of narrow lanes and artisans shops, then east to Sinan Rd and along to Fuxing Middle Rd, with its collection of French Colonial mansions ( now fancy hotels and restaurants ) and churches. We walked back to the CPC Station and back to the hotel at 1:30pm.

Sun Moon Light Centre

Entrance to the Tianzifeng alleys

Tianzifeng alleys

Current Memorial Hall of the Chinese Communist Party ( CPC )

Sinan Mansions

House on Sinan Rd

Middle Fuxing Rd

All Saints Church, Fuxing Rd

Back to Qiyu Hotel ( sign is the black circular sign )

Relaxed for a while.

Out at 4:15pm for some photography; metro to Tiantong Rd Station ( just a couple of stops ), then walked along the Suzhou Creek to the Zapulu Bridge. The bridge was quite busy with selfie takers, dress ups and tourist, and it was fairly busy road as well, but it felt under control. We waited for the light show on the buildings in the Pudong Area to start at 6pm ( after asking a friendly Policeman what time it started, and then at 6 he gave me a countdown for the start! ). Photographed for a while then walked through south of the river, through the old warehouse area north of Nanjing Street which was now mainly hotels and restaurants. We had tea at the Thai Food Show ( Y98 for Thai green curry and beers, the first non-Chinese dinner we had had since arriving in China ), which was a very western feeling restaurant.