You are standing in one of Shanghai’s rare spots where calm, history and modernity come together. Gucheng Park, or Old City Park, was created in 2002 on the site of Shanghai’s former city walls from the Ming dynasty, its name literally meaning the park of the old city, and where you’re walking now once stood the fortifications that protected the young port town. This small green space offers a peaceful pause between Yu Garden and the Bund, and as you stroll you’ll come across reconstructed sections of the ancient walls. A little further on, you’ll see the Danfeng Terrace, built on the site of a thirteenth-century Taoist temple and offering one of the best viewpoints to admire the striking contrast between the old city’s traditional rooftops and the futuristic towers of Pudong across the river. Among the park’s unique features is an old shikumen kitchen preserved exactly as it once was, with its cement sink and vintage taps, and nearby a bamboo grove provides cool shade while an open-air tea house brings locals together each day to play cards, sip tea and chat.