China Journal: An Article by Robert Lyne Worthing WCMA
A travel diary through mainland China.
Shanghai, Hangzhou, Laoyang, Xian, Beijing.
April 2025 by Robert Lyne, Member of Worthing White Crane Martial Arts.
Shanghai
On Saturday the 12th April this year I joined a group of fellow travellers in Shanghai. It was part of a twelve day organised tour starting from Shanghai and finishing in Beijing. We booked in to a modern Hotel in central Shanghai and had our first group meeting with our tour guide.
The trip was in mainland China, visiting fast paced modern cities and cities going back to ancient antiquity. It was a trip that contrasted the big and the bold with quiet moments of connection. Seeing a troupe of Kung fu practitioners at a Shaolin temple to visiting a farmhouse and enjoying Chinese cuisine. It was a trip to see a culture with an incredible history and a country going through a powerful transformation which astounds and contributes to the modern world we live in today.
Shanghai is a Megacity with a population of 23 million and is known as a Direct Administered Municipality. It is one of four in the whole of China. Shanghai today is vital for China, serving as a financial, commercial and industrial centre. It is a cosmopolitan city embracing diverse cultures.
The next day, Sunday, after breakfast we made our way by metro to the famous Yuyuan Gardens. A wealthy Ming merchant family trading in tea made the garden. It is situated near the Bund, Shanghai’s iconic waterfront and the mega towers of Pudong. The garden has a tea house pavilion built in the middle of a small artificial lake. A zigzag wooden walk way to and from the pavilion is connected to the lakes edge. This was done to discourage evil spirits. There is no discouraging of visitors to the tea house today. Another part of the garden has a large Rockery. It evokes Chinas mountainous landscapes. There is a moon gate close by, a popular addition in many traditional gardens throughout China. The rocks close to it are extraordinary in shape, with rough and smooth surfaces. They could be moon rocks, but I don’t think so. Traditional dragons spring from the garden walls. The merchants were careful not to offend the Royal family by having four toes on their garden dragons feet compared to the Imperial dragons five toes. The garden is a place of spectacle, display, wonder, dreams and of countless tea ceremonies.
Close by we visited the Bund. It is a line of impressive waterfront buildings on the river Huangpu, the oldest built in 1890s. There is impressive examples of Art deco as well as recognisable copies such as the clock tower on the customs house which is taken from Big Ben in London. From the waterfront heading East to West is the Nanjing Road where I did my own exploring. It is Chinas busiest street and one on the worlds most popular. It is 5.5 km in length and runs from the Bund and finishes in the Jingan district with its famous Buddhist Temple. Along its length are world class museums such as the Shanghai museum (the building representing a Shang bronze cauldron) and parks to get away from the crowd of shoppers.
In the evening, we went on a night cruise on the river Huangpu. We came to see the modern towers of Shanghai Pudong district lit up. The display of lights made a fantastic spectacle of moving shapes and colour using the vast surfaces of the mega towers and structures. The globes of the Pearl tower became living worlds of light. We were very lucky to have a clear night sky with a full moon. Lots of people on the ferry, me included waited for the moon to position above the Shanghai tower. We took pictures of a special moment.
I came back to visit the Pudong district next morning, a Monday, to go up the Shanghai tower and view Shanghai city from the highest public observation deck in the world. I was with a hand full of other visitors, grateful I was not having to deal with bustling crowds. The observation deck is on the 118 floor and at a height of 546 meters. The view is spectacular. The whole city of Shanghai is in view. Looking down on the Huangpu river the Suzhou creek on the opposite bank winds its way back from the river disappearing in the distance to join the waters of the ancient water town Suzhou and its famous gardens. The Shanghai World Financial tower seen looking down from the Shanghai tower platform soars up like the shiny flat side of an enormous sword made of glass. The scale of modern building is impressive and awesome.