Introduction of Shanghai City
Shanghai has a temperate and humid subtropical marine monsoon climate, with an annual average temperature being about 15℃. The city has four distinct seasons in a year. Winter and summer are long while spring and autumn are short. The average temperature in the hottest months of July and August is around 28℃ and that in the coldest month of January is about 3℃, making all four seasons are suitable for travel, with spring and autumn being the best.
Scenery spots
The Bund
The Bund (Wai Tan) waterfront area is a sweeping area along the Huangpu River that became the center of Shanghai’s foreign business establishment and the symbol of Shanghai’s identity as a modern city. The name “bund” is derived from an Anglo-Indian term meaning “muddy embankment,” but after the 1920' s the area became a showcase for foreign enterprises, with impressive Western-style banks, trading houses, hotels, consulates, and clubs filling the shore, with promenade along the river. British, French, American, German, Japanese, and Russian facilities were built here, in styles ranging from Neo-Classical to Art Deco, giving the area a pronounced European flavor. Foreign enterprises and facilities were forced out after the Communist victory in 1949, and many of the buildings were occupied by government offices and banks. More recently many of the stately old buildings have been renovated in recognition of their status as historical and tourist sites.
Shanghai Museum
As a museum of ancient Chinese art, Shanghai Museum possesses a collection of 120,000 precious works of art. Its rich and high-quality collection of ancient Chinese bronze, ceramics, painting and calligraphy is specially celebrated in the world. Founded and first open to the public in the building previously of the horseracing club at 325 W. Nanjing Road in 1952 and then moved into the former Zhonghui Building at 16 S. Henan Road in 1959, the museum developed very quickly in aspects of acquisition, conservation, research, exhibition, education and cultural exchanges with other institutes. Its unique architectural form of a round top with a square base, symbolizing the ancient Chinese philosophy that the square earth is under the round sky, is a distinguished architectural combination of traditional feature and modern spirit. The present Shanghai Museum has eleven galleries and three special temporary exhibition halls. It extends warm welcome to the visitors from all over the world.
Local snacks
Chinese Mitten Crab
The Chinese mitten crab, also known as big binding crab and Shanghai hairy crab, is a famous delicacy in Shanghai cuisine and is prized for the female crab's ovaries. Late autumn is the best time for eating crabs in Shanghai when the best quality Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs with green shells and white bottoms, rich in fat and ovary, are shipped to restaurants. The crab meat is believed by the Chinese to have a "cooling" (yin) effect on the body. When the crabs are properly cooked, the fragrance appeals to diners' palate. The most popular way of cooking crabs is to steam them to maintain the original flavor of the crabs, thus the meat is tender, juicy and delicious.
Lion's Head
Lion's Head is a casserole dish of huge steamed pork balls stewed with vegetables. The dish is named after the shape of the cabbage, which together with the meatball resembles a lion's head. There are two kinds of Lion's Head: the white (or plain), and the red (cooked with soy sauce). The plain one is usually stewed or steamed with napa cabbage, while the red one can be stewed with cabbage or cooked with bamboo shoots and certain kind of tofu. The dish originated from the region of Yangzhou and Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province. The dish became a part of Shanghai cuisine with the influx of migrants in the 19th and early 20th Century