Shanghai is truly the modern face of this vast ancient nation. From chaotic, crowded market streets to the orderly boulevards and towers of the business mecca of new Pudong, Shanghai offers a fascinating blend of old and new. It’s hard to believe that just over 150 years ago Shanghai was no more than an insignificant fishing town.

The contrasts of modern Shanghai are brought into stark relief on the banks of the Huangpu River, where at Travel Indochina we like to start our Shanghai exploration. Here we walk the famous Bund, with its huge colonial structures of the Western financial powers who developed and divided up this city in its early days, and across the river, the sparkling new Shanghai of Pudong, all modern steel and glass high-rise and wide orderly avenues.

Shanghai’s attractions are as diverse as they are plentiful … The charming courtyards, passageways and rockeries of the Yuan Gardens … The bustle of the neighbouring bazaar, with its lines of souvenir and jewelers’ shops, and some of the finest dumpling and tea houses in the city … The elegant curves of the Shanghai Museum, its modern design holding some of the country’s most ancient and magnificent treasures … The Jade Buddha Pagoda, with its fine Burmese white jade Buddha hidden from the Red Guards through the Cultural Revolution. Take time to explore the city’s many districts, each with its own flavours and shopping temptations.