eyewitness travel beijing & shanghai

The guides that show you what others only tell you BEIJING & SHANGHAI Eyewitness TRAVEL architecture • WALKS RESTAURANTS • Art MUSEUMS • SHOPS • temples NIGHTLIFE • excursions FESTIVALS • hotels • PARKS P H@MLDMC@IHD #().! .%0!, "(54!. "!.',!$%3( ).$)! -9! !2 4(!),!.$ */%*"/ 0$&"/ 0 kilometers 0 miles 400 400 It wasn’t until 1403 when the Emperor Yongle moved the Ming dynasty capital from Nanjing (Nanking) to the newly renamed Beijing (Peking), that the “northern capital” moved from the fringes of China proper to a role of central importance. Shanghai, on the other hand, is an altogether more modern city, which, since its founding, has been of vital economic and political importance thanks to a strategically commanding site controlling the mouth of the great Yangzi River. Beijing & Shanghai BEIJING See pp56–109 Street Finder maps pp110–17 3/54( +/2%! ./24( +/2%! -/.'/,)! 2533)!. &%$%2!4)/. ,!/3 6)%4.!- #FJKJOH 4IBOHIBJ 4065) $)*/"4&" &"45 $)*/"4&" :& 08 4&" #0 )"* SHANGHAI See pp120–67 Street Finder maps pp168–73 EYEWITNESS TRAVEL beijing & shanghai [...]...INTRODUCING BEIJING & SHANGHAI FOUR GREAT DAYS IN BEIJING 89 FOUR GREAT DAYS IN SHANGHAI 1011 PUTTING BEIJING & SHANGHAI ON THE MAP 1213 A PORTRAIT OF BEIJING & SHANGHAI 1433 BEIJING & SHANGHAI THROUGH THE YEAR 3437 THE HISTORY OF CHINA 3853 8 I N T R O D U C I N G B E I J I N G & S H A N G H A I FOUR GREAT DAYS IN BEIJING R apidly redeveloping Beijing Panjiayuan There’s also... EASTERN ASIA P U T T I N G B E I J I N G & S H A N G H A I O N T H E M A P 0 km 100 0 miles KEY Greater Beijing Greater Shanghai International airport Domestic airport National highway Major road Railroad Provincial border Great Wall 13 100 I N T R O D U C I N G B E I J I N G & S H A N G H A I 15 A PORTRAIT OF BEIJING & SHANGHAI T he two cities of Beijing and Shanghai have long loomed large in the Western... passengers for a canal cruise 12 I N T R O D U C I N G B E I J I N G & S H A N G H A I Putting Beijing & Shanghai on the Map Beijing sits on a plain 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of the mountains that once offered protection from the war-like tribes of the provinces beyond It is one of very few capitals not sited on a major river system By contrast, Shanghai sits on the banks of the Huangpu River, on silt carried... latter jinjinjijiaode or calculating In return, the Shanghainese consider Beijingers to be no less calculating – it’s just that they hide it behind a smoothly political exterior The Shanghainese are proud of their familiarity with foreign things, and foreigners on the street attract less attention there than they do in Beijing Quentin Tarantino’s visit to Beijing for Kill Bill caused considerable buzz amongst... language around their mouths like wine-tasters, before spitting it out Window shopping on Shanghai s Nanjing Xi Lu & S H A N G H A I 17 Praying at the Lama Temple, Beijing Shanghainese, a language incomprehensible to all other Chinese except some from neighboring Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces (the original homes of most Shanghai people or their forebears), often sounds like a series of ill-suppressed sneezes... considerable buzz amongst the class tuned in to foreign culture In contrast, Tom Cruise’s visit to Shanghai for Mission: Impossible III produced only a studied yawn Shanghainese often consider Beijingers, and especially any still speaking the outmoded language of politics, as country bumpkins CITY TALK Beijingers often regard Mandarin, the official national language of China, of administration, and... forerunner to Japanese bonsai 30 I N T R O D U C I N G B E I J I N G & S H A N G H A I Beijing Opera One among many hundreds of local operas across China, Beijing Opera began in the Qing dynasty It is said that Emperor Qianlong (r.1736–96), on a tour of the south, was rather taken by the operas of Anhui and Hebei and brought these troupes back to Beijing, where a new form Souvenir of opera was established The... devotees and helped develop the art form Beijing Opera has proved remarkably resilient, surviving the persecution of actors and the banning of most of the plays during the Cultural Revolution Emperor Qianlong, credited with starting Beijing Opera BEIJING OPERA Visually stunning and with a distinct musical style, the plays are based on Chinese history and literature Beijing Opera is a form of “total theater”... three-dimensional advertisement for Shanghai s booming economy, designed to increase the confidence of foreign investors Shanghai has the highest average income per household in China, and leads the emergence of a middle class, tiny as a percentage of the overall population of China, but still larger than the populations of many a European nation THE POLITICAL CAPITAL Beijing s response to Pudong has... Forbidden City And while Shanghai may be the country’s commercial center, political shifts register on Beijing s seismometer first Word-of-mouth from within the government’s high-security Zhong Nan Hai compound, the modern equivalent of the Forbidden City, typically fuels whispered debate amongst the city’s inhabitants, who see themselves as the closest to power On a more personal level, Beijingers consider . pp110–17 3/54( +/2%! ./24( +/2%! -/.'/,)! 2533)!. &%$%2!4)/. ,!/3 6)%4.!- #FJKJOH 4IBOHIBJ 4065) $)*/"4&" &"45 $)*/"4&" :& 08 4&" #0 )"* SHANGHAI See pp120–67 Street Finder maps pp168–73 EYEWITNESS TRAVEL beijing & shanghai