There is a water town of Qi Bao on the edge of Shanghai. The town was first constructed by the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126) and prospered as a business center during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. It is very old with a history spanning over 1000 years (is the only part of Shanghai with a history spanning this long).
Water Town
Overall it was interesting to see something distinctively "Chinese," especially during the Spring Festival. Shanghai is a relatively new city so you don't see old style buildings and temples very often. For a couple of hours it was like I was back in "Old" China again!
Food vendors frying up some "Stinky" tofu. This stuff smells bad, but tastes wonderful!
Qi Bao is in its display of historical temples, shops, tea houses, and restaurants. It is considerably less commercial however as there were no Burger Kings, McDonalds, or Starbucks. In that sense, it seemed more authentic and retained a kind of old feel to it. The worse thing about Qi Bao was that it was incredibly crowded. I could hardly move. I'm not sure if this was because it is Spring Festival right now, though my guidebook did mention it is quite frequently very crowded. I noticed there were considerably less Westerners there than Chengheung Temple. In fact I only saw about 4 amongst the thousands of people there.
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