DESTINATIONS ASIA | CHINA
NEED TO KNOW
E Clients will need to apply for a tourist visa (category L) at least 6-8 weeks before they plan to visit, because demand has been high and visa centres are busy. This involves filling in a visa application form that will need to be taken to the visa centre in person, along with their passport.
E Although testing requirements have been scrapped, clients will still need to fill in a mandatory health declaration form 24 hours before arrival, which generates a QR code that they need to show at the border. Once there, mask- wearing for visitors is not compulsory, nor will they need to show proof of vaccination.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The French Concession’s arts and craft area; the Bund with Oriental Pearl TV Tower; the lobby of the PuLi Hotel; Yuyuan Garden PICTURES: Shutterstock/maoyunping, Inspired Vision Studio; Unsplash/Li Yang
GREEN SPACES Today, the 1920s French Club makes up the preserved facade of a not- particularly-attractive 1990s hotel, the Okura Garden; the hotel does, however, offer a marvellous view from its 26th floor. There is a carpet of greenery below: Shanghai has more than 500 parks and gardens across its 2,500 square miles. The verdant canopy is interspersed with glimpses of shikumen (small but elaborate 19th-century homes) and a veritable forest of cranes. This hasn’t changed since I was
last here in 2018, due to non-stop construction work, with ever-higher apartment blocks and hotels being added to the skyline. That, and the traffic. Thankfully there’s an efficient and easy-to-use metro system that can take clients to the city’s most interesting and beautiful parts. I get off at Yuyuan station to
immerse myself in Shanghai’s Old City, formerly ringed by defensive walls and home to several imposing structures, complete with
44 28 SEPTEMBER 2023 Thankfully there’s
an efficient metro system that can take clients to the city’s most beautiful parts
pagodas and zig-zag bridges over ornamental carp ponds – awkwardly shaped to deter evil spirits from pursuing you. Lunch here is best taken at Nanxiang, a restaurant that specialises in xiao long bao (soup dumplings) – you can watch the chefs making them through a window into the kitchen. After gorging on several, I head to nearby Yuyuan Garden, an extensive classical Chinese garden next to the City God Temple. Built during the Ming dynasty in around 1559, the garden is filled with arched stone bridges, moon and vase-shaped doorways and statues of ‘foo’ dogs – lion-like creatures
that are meant to bring luck. I am practically the only foreigner there.
BACK IN BUSINESS I spend my last morning visiting the charming ‘water village’ of Zhujiajiao, a 45-minute drive from central Shanghai, which sits on the lower Yangtze River. My enthusiastic guide, Mary Wu, says: “I found it so strange while foreign tourists weren’t coming to Shanghai, the most international city in China, so it’s exciting to have them coming back after such a long time.” She shows me around little temples on foot, then accompanies me along the waterways on a boat that’s steered by our captain using a long pole.
BOOK IT
Direct return flights with Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow to Shanghai start at £372 in Economy, £681 in Premium Economy and £2,262 in Upper Class.
virginatlantic.com
Rooms at The PuLi Hotel and Spa start from about $350 per night.
thepuli.com
travelweekly.co.uk
There’s only one way to end a day in Shanghai, and that’s on the Bund. The city’s famous promenade, which skirts the snaking Huangpu River, is lined on one side with magnificent European-style architecture from the 1900s to the 1940s, in styles that range from neoclassical to Beaux Arts. Facing them across the water is
Shanghai’s 21st-century response: a mountain range of glimmering, space-age, metallic skyscrapers, punctuated by the orb and spindle of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, all illuminated in neon. Shanghai may be a dichotomy between old and new, as the cliché goes, but it is wholly irresistible.
TW
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