Yuyuan Old Street and Garden

Here, the atmosphere changes, the air fills with incense, the rooftops rise in elegant curves and the Ming and Qing style façades around you instantly transport you to another era. You are now in Shanghai’s traditional district, known as Yuyuan Old Street or the Yuyuan Bazaar, a maze of shops and wooden walkways that recreates the ambience of an ancient town. This is a place where history and culinary delights meet, with vendors selling silk, jade, rare teas and, above all, the legendary Nanxiang eatery famous for its xiaolongbao, steamed dumplings with a whisper-thin dough holding a pocket of hot broth, a true classic of Shanghainese cuisine. This is one of the liveliest corners of the city, and on your left stands Yu Garden, a masterpiece of the Ming dynasty, created in the sixteenth century by a high-ranking official named Pan Yunduan as a place of peace for his father, its name Yu meaning well-being or serenity. Modest in size but rich in detail, the garden gathers all the beauty of southern Chinese landscapes with its pavilions, ponds, zigzag bridges, dragon-topped walls and rocky formations symbolising mountains and valleys. Among its treasures is the famous Exquisite Jade Rock, a stone pierced with seventy-two holes so delicate that water poured over it is said to sing as it threads its way through. Beside the garden you’ll notice the red and gold roofs of the City God Temple, a fifteenth-century Taoist sanctuary where Shanghainese still pray for health, prosperity and peace at home, the deity here being the city’s spiritual guardian and a judge of souls. During major festivals thousands of worshippers gather with incense to seek blessings for the year ahead, and this sacred site also requires an entrance ticket if you wish to explore it fully.