Travel Notes #直辖市
Shanghai: Two Shores of the Huangpu, Foreign Architecture and a Skyline
Shanghai goes by the short form Hu and the old name Shen, sits where the Yangtze meets the sea and belongs to East China. The Huangpu divides the city in two: west, the foreign-built architecture, lane houses and plane-tree streets of the treaty-port years; east, the towers of Lujiazui. From the museum at People Square to the Bund, across on a two-yuan ferry, up to the 546-metre deck of the Shanghai Tower; then turn into the old town for Ming rockeries at Yu Garden, the nine-turning bridge at the City God Temple, or an afternoon in the narrow lanes of Xintiandi and Tianzifang.
Tianjin: A Riverside City of Concessions and International Architecture
One of China's four municipalities, Tianjin sits where the Hai River meets the sea on the North China Plain. Its former foreign concessions left whole districts of international architecture; the villas of the Five Avenues, the Italian-style quarter, the Ancient Culture Street and the riverside Ferris wheel make a city that is both East and West, unhurried and lived-in.