Located in Huangpu District, Shanghai City, Nanjing Road (Nanjing East Road, to be exact) stretches from Xizang Middle Road in the west to He'nan Middle Road in the east, and it is about 1,033 meters long and 18–30 meters wide.
Nanjing Road enjoys a history of over 100 years and used to be called "Parker Lane". It was named Nanjing Road officially in 1865 and turned into a pedestrianized road in 1999. According to statistics, there are over 1,700,000 visitors to Nanjing Road every day.
The Characteristics of Nanjing Road
- The "Golden Belt": the 4.2 meter wide "golden belt" is set 1.3 meters northward of the road axis. It runs through the whole pedestrianized area. There are urban public facilities such as seats, shopping booths, enquiry booths, signboards, small sculptures, street lights, trash boxes, parterres, telephone booths and so on. Every standard unit of the golden belt is 75 meters long and there is enough north-south walking space for tourists to run across the "golden belt" freely.
- The Manhole Covers: All of the 37 manhole covers on the "golden belts" were designed specially and everyone has different graphic patterns that are carved on it — each period's embossments of the representative buildings and structures since Shanghai's opening to the outside world, which are labeled with the building year and all of which are cast with gold and copper. The 37 manhole covers concentrate the development of Shanghai's urban construction of over 100 years.
- Sculptures: On the "golden belt", there are three groups of sculptures made of casting copper, which are "a family of three people", "young married women" and "the mother and the daughter". All the sculptures used the proportions of real people and adopted the skill of realism.
- Sightseeing Buses: The southern side boundary of the "golden belt" is taken as the road center line, on the south of which there is a 7 meter wide lane for sightseeing buses; its operating time is 08:00 – 22:30 and the ticket price is 2 yuan.
Shopping
the Stores along Nanjing RoadShopping must be the theme of East Nanjing Road, on which there are lots of old stores, famous stores and large commercial buildings.
A List of Old and Famous Stores
- Lao Da Fang (老大房): Smoked fish and fresh pork moon cakes are the most characteristic there. The sugar sauce on the outside of the smoked fish tastes both salty and sweet, and is crisp both outside and inside. It is said that the moon cakes are made with a secret recipe handed down from the ancestors. As to fresh pork moon cakes, they are made with refined meat paste, which is baked in a high temperature of 260 degrees.
- The Old Phoenixes (老凤祥): It was created in 1848, and it is the only century old shop that has been handed down for 1.5 centuries. The jewelry there is pretty well-known, especially the ornaments made from gold, silver and diamonds.
- Shao Wan Sheng (邵万生): The shop specializes in the wine-preserved food of Ningbo and Shaoxing flavors, and the most famous two are wine-preserved winkles and wine-preserved crabs.
- Cai Tong De (蔡同德): The store was created in the first year of Guangxv of the Qing Dynasty (1882), which is an old and famous traditional Chinese medicine shop that was the earlirst business to start and is the most large-scale. All along, it was an expert in producing and managing nourishing plaster and wine; the historical wine made from tiger bones and pawpaws, and Dongtian Changchun Plaster (a kind of plaster that can nourish livers and kidneys).
- Shen Da Cheng (沈大成): All kinds of desserts and locally flavored snacks are sold there, among which, pastry balls are the most famous.
- Zhang Xiao Quan (张小泉): The scissors sold at this store can shear silk fabric without leaving any redundant silk; they are smooth in shearing cloth; they never rusts; even if the edge of the scissors are damaged as the damage will be little; on the handles of the scissors there are graphic patterns. All of the characteristics make people fondle them admiringly.
- Duo Yun Pavilion (朵云轩): The store mainly sells Chinese paintings and calligraphy, and relevant writing materials; the store's woodblock printing and Beijing's Rong Bao Room are famous respectively in the South and in the North.
- Wu Liang Cai (吴良才): Maochang and Wu Liang Cai are the same type of old and famous shops, which specialize in various glasses.
Tips for Shopping
Nanjing RoadIf you don't have enough time and want to raise shopping efficiency, China Highlights recommends you visit the essential stretch of Nanjing Road, which lies between Huanghe Road and Henan Zhong Road.
Many famous stores converge on this section, like the Number 1 Department Store, Hualian Department Store, the New World Comprehensive Consumption Circle, Itokin and so on. You can enter the New World Comprehensive Consumption Circle directly from People's Square station of Subway Line 1 and Subway Line 2. And, after going across the passenger footbridge over Xizang Zhong Road, you will see the Number 1 Department Store and Nanjing Road Pedestrian way, where there is no crowded traffic but it is prosperous and elegant. You will feel pretty pleased when doing your shopping, relaxing and tasting delicious food there.
Transportation
At the eastern end of the pedestrian area lies the subway station of Nanjing East Road, from where you can take Subway Line 2 to get to Lujiazui in Pudong (the Oriental Pearl Tower and Jinmao Tower are located there). Or, you can retrace to another topgrade "business area" on Nanjing West Road — Meilong Town, CITIC Pacific and Heng Long Square (it costs only 3 RMB if you take Subway Line 2 from Lujiazui to Nanjing Xi Road).