Got out of Shanghai for the first time in 2021 last weekend. Not far though, just to a little island off the coast. You can get there quite conveniently with a combined coach and ferry ticket from Nanpu Bridge tourist coach centre. The ferry actually leaves from another island, Yangshan island, which is home to a huge container port and connected to the mainland by a long sea bridge.
There’s enough small attractions to spend a weekend, including beaches, temples, and a lot of cliffs, which you can see pictures of below. I liked the relaxed style of the little fishing villages.
It’s so hot at the moment I can’t really face going outside. Occasionally in the evening it’s tolerable though and here’s a large mass of concrete I passed under the other evening.
The bright shopping mall from a few posts ago has an open courtyard in the centre with a large funnel-like object reaching up to the roof. Well I recently discovered you can go right to the top of it. And so here, for the first time ever, we bring you two exclusive views of said funnel.
If you’re wondering what’s inside the funnel, don’t bother: it’s just an elevator and doesn’t make for a good photo. It might also serve a secondary purpose for collecting rainwater.
I unexpectedly had to suddenly move apartments last month. The new one is quite close to Hongqiao airport, which is Shanghai’s original and older airport. Thankfully not directly under the flight path, but parallel to it.
Taking off…
Much fun to be had cross-referencing with Flightradar24. Makes me wish I had a lens with a longer zoom.
Local shopping mall causing massive light pollution
Eventually I reached the Huangpu river, which I believe is the southern boundary of Minhang district. There’s a small park here called Minhang Riverside Park, which isn’t particularly notable. However the view of the river is dominated by a large single-span suspension bridge. Unfortunately Wikipedia, my usual source of bridge knowledge, failed me on this one. The words on the tower read 闵浦二桥 “MinPu 2nd Bridge”. Some web searching reveals that it was opened to traffic in 2010, the tower is 148 meters tall, and the deck is 40 meters above the water. It’s a rather prosaic concrete structure: they didn’t even bother to paint it. However it is notable for having two decks. The lower deck carries the metro line 5 extension to the Fengxian suburb, the only place the Shanghai metro crosses the Huangpu river above-water. You can just make out a train crossing the bridge in the picture below. They have to drive very slowly for some reason.
Minpu II bridge with metro train crossing
Speaking of metro lines, Shanghai’s brand new line 15 opened just last month and the southern terminus is a few miles from this spot. This line is generating a lot of excitement because all the trains are driverless, like London’s DLR. (Actually Shanghai already had driverless trains on the Pujiang line but it’s so out of the way not many people knew about it.) Obviously I ran straight to the front of the train and stared transfixed at the passing tunnel for the whole journey. I made a short video so you can experience it too.
I’ve got a week off for Chinese new year so it seemed like a good opportunity to go out for a walk. I planned to explore westwards along the Dianpu river which I’d walked before, but I didn’t get very far as the path along the river is intermittent at best and the big roads aren’t pleasant to walk along. So I took a detour to Sijing old town, which I found by chance while looking at the map.
The main attraction is probably Futian temple, a medium-sized Buddhist temple dating from the 18th century. There weren’t many visitors so it was very peaceful, much more so than other temples I’ve visited in China.
Outside the temple
The old town itself has seen better days. I’m not sure if it’s in the process of being demolished or renovated. Anyway most of the buildings are boarded up although there’s a free architecture exhibition that’s worth a look. I actually preferred wandering around here compared to some of the more over-comercialised old towns I’ve been too.
The waterfront view is more attractive
The pagoda was closed too although it seemed operational so that might just be because it’s the new year holiday.
Last weekend I went out for a walk to Minhang sports park, a large green space in the west of Shanghai. Although I’m not sure what qualifies it to be a “sports park” rather than just a regular park. Minhang is the name of this particular suburb.
Minhang sports park
Afterwards I kept walking south to Xinzhuang and then even further south to a part of the city I’ve never visited before.
This area is a bit industrial and there wasn’t much interesting to look at except metro line 5, which I’d never visited before. It’s elevated above the track and has this walking path underneath it at least part of the way.
The air quality has been getting worse and worse the last few days. But today it reached new lows of “very unhealthy”. I think the icon is recommending me to wear a gas mask. Perhaps it should be comforting that there’s still as “hazardous” level beyond this.
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