Oh, The Places You’ll Go

If last month’s newly available three-day pass wasn’t hint enough, this year promises to be a big one for the Shanghai metro. With four new lines (12, 13, 16 and 22) and three extensions to current lines scheduled to open before the end of the year, some of Shanghai’s most remote locations will soon be linked up to the grid and places already within reach of the metro will get that much closer. The following are six stations that include access to parks, shopping, historic temples and one really big lake. Charge up your jiaotong cards, Shanghai. The metro is coming… again.

NO ISLAND IS AN ISLAND UNTO ITSELF
Fuxing Island Station
Line 12

Fuxing Island has always been a strange, remote area at the eastern portion of Yangpu District. A notch in the belt for Shanghai’s urban trekkers, the island is notable, like much of Yangpu District, for its ageing industrial infrastructure. Once a simple mudflat along the Huangpu River, the area was developed over time into an industrial area full of warehouses and ship foundries. However, Shanghai’s urban planners have now begun to re-envision the island as a mixed-use eco-friendly complex.

One plan for the area, drafted by American landscape architectural firm Sasaki includes a restoration of the Fuxing Canal as “a recreational amenity, with filtering wetlands at both outlets to the Huangpu to help naturally cleanse polluted waters” as well as incorporating “green roofs and bio-filtration zones”. At the moment though, the realisation of such plans are years away, but they’re certainly exciting prospects in terms of what Shanghai is doing to be green.

The opening of Line 12’s Fuxing Island Station later this year marks only the beginning of these developments for the island, but even as it is, the island is still worth a journey. Fuxing Island Park off the island’s central promenade, Gongqing Lu offers some pleasant and quiet strolls far away from the city centre, and with the nearby shipping yards, you almost feel like you’re at the seaside. Almost.

What stands as the park’s most famous site is a small white house seen from along its northern edge, which was the site of Chiang Kai-Shek’s final residence before he left the mainland for good in 1949.

A DROP OUT OF SHANGHAI
Lingang Xincheng Station
Line 16
Lingang Xincheng Station at the end of Line 16 will soon put you only a short taxi ride away from the shores of Dishuihu (literally ‘Waterdrop Lake’). The circular, man-made lake of 5.5 square kilometres is carved out of land reclaimed near the confluence of the Yangtze and Qiantang rivers as they run into the East China Sea. In the summertime, the wide promenades along the banks of the lake often find those looking to escape the city while relaxing by the water, and it’s a nice little getaway from the hustle and bustle of central Shanghai.

The area’s most interesting recent development is the arrival of the Crowne Plaza Shanghai Harbour City on the lake’s south island. Designed by Atkins, the same company responsible for Dubai’s island-bound Burj Al Arab, the hotel’s striking design is meant to resemble “a flower blooming in the water,” although from our perspective the mammoth five-winged hotel seemed to resemble a spaceship more than anything else.

Nearby you’ll also find the China Maritime Museum (entry RMB 50), notable for its scale reproduction of a ship from the fleet of the famous Chinese sea captain Zhang He (most likely the inspiration for the stories of Sinbad) as well as a 4D theatre (RMB 30) which adds vibrations and blasts of water to the 3D experience. Those looking to get a view of the sea can make the journey to the Nanhuizui Ocean Viewing Park though a protected wetland. Here a massive and rather impressive sculpture resembling a fish frames Shanghai’s southernmost point.

LINE FOR CRUISES
International Passage Transport Centre Station
Line 12

Just north of the Bund along Dongdaming Lu, taking up 880m of coastline along the Huangpu River in Puxi, you’ll find a behemoth development: the Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal. Centring around the ovoid, glass-encrusted cruise terminal capable of berthing up to three cruise liners offering services to Korea and Japan, the possibilities of taking a luxury liner to surrounding Asia will soon be very much possible.

The mixed use complex will also eventually feature “a five-star hotel, SPIG [Shanghai Port International Group] tower, serviced apartments, office buildings, art galleries and recreational amenities” as well as access to the metro through Line 12’s International Passage Transport Centre Station. Whilst half of the site is still currently under construction, the sections already completed feature a 240m wide area of parkland that frames the brightly coloured contemporary buildings.

Architecture fans should also be sure not to miss taking a peek at the Shanghai Sailor’s Hospital at 505 Dongchangzhi Lu across the street from the complex. Above the archways of the derelict, yet still striking Art Deco building, originally built as the Lester School and Technical Institute in 1934 one can see what appears to be the old seal of the school.  

PARK PLACE
Daduhe Road Station
Line 13
The area around soon-to-be-ready Line 13 Daduhe Lu Station might remind one of the area around its close neighbour, Zhongshan Park has to offer. But with two five star hotels (the Guoman and a Marriott), a shopping centre full of brand names and Changfeng Park a ten minute walk from the station, Zhongshan Park may have met its match.

Built around a 140,000 sqm lake, Changfeng Park offers a comfortable way to while away the afternoon or go for a jog around the lake – perfect with summer just around the corner. Those looking to take to the water can rent automatic four person boats (RMB 60/hour, RMB 100 deposit) to putter around. A short climb to the top of the wooded Tiebi Hill provides ample shade and a bit of respite from the many that tend to gather near the shore. The presence of couple's names etched into the railings at the top is yet another sign of its relative seclusion.

Tucked inside the park's southeast corner, you'll also find much for the kids at the Changfeng Park Aquarium (entry RMB 160), complete with porpoise shows, as well as Disc Kart, one of the city's top quality spots for go-karting (8 min session, RMB 80).

OF TEMPLES AND MEMORIALS
Longhua Road Station
Line 11

With the completion of the Longhua Road Station on Line 11, two of Shanghai's most intriguing tourist attractions will soon be within easy access – the Longhua Temple and the Longhua Martyr's Cemetery. Originally built in the third century, Longhua Temple (entry RMB 10) has undergone a series of reconstructions over the years, its most recent being in 1954. Inside the temple through the waft of burning incense that greets you on a busy day, be sure to head for the Maitreya Hall (Mile Dian) and its 500 luohan, or Buddhist wise men. In the square out front of the temple, you won't be able to miss the Longhua Pagoda. In order to protect its 10th century foundations, you won't be able to go inside it, but it makes for a good photo-op nonetheless.

Housed in what was once a peach orchard for Longhua Temple, the Longhua Martyr's Cemetery is notable for its grand institutional architecture and statues dedicated to those that died for the Communist Party on the site. In the back, you'll also find the jail where Communist prisoners were once housed by the Kuomintang. There's an eerie silence to the place that can't help but conjure up darker times in China's past.