• The Nanjing Lu

Nanjing Donglu (Nanjing Road East) has long been China's golden mile. Once supreme, it's looking a bit frayed and has slipped a few notches to the emerging luxury option of Huaihai Lu, but laden shoppers still traipse past its cathedrals of commerce, gawked at by gaggles of out-of-towners. Even back in the dull Communist era, Nanjing Donglu had a distinctly 'shop till you drop' feel about it. Nowadays, Esprit, Benetton and McDonald's have shouldered Marx and Mao into the draughty halls of little-visited museums - which was where the capitalist state was meant to end up.

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• Mandarin Garden (Yuyuan)Bazar   
  
  
  

  At the north-eastern end of the old Chinese  city ,the bazaar area centres on what is known as Mandarin Gardens , and includes the templs of the Town Gods .Many foreigners consider this to be one of the most interesting places in Shanghai ,but it gets some 200,000 visitors daily,while there's nothing of historical interest left,it's one of those great places where people just come to gawk ,mis,buy ,sell and eat ,it's all lively and entertaining enough.

  
  

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•  Jade Buddha Temple 
  
  
   

  The temple is an active one ,with 70 resident monks at last count, it was built between 1911 and 1918, The exterior is readily identifiable by the bright saffron walls. Inside , the centrepiece is a two-metre-high white jade buddha(some say it's alabaster), which was installed here after it had been brought by monk from Burma to Zhejiang Province in 1882, this seated buddha ,encrusted with jewels ,is said to weigh 1000kg . A smaller , reclining buddha from the same shipment lies on a redwood bed.

  
  
  
  

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