Travel By Photo – ChengHuangMiao Temple in Shanghai

This was the first destination to where we went straight from PuDong international airport of Shanghai. My first impression when I first stepped out from the airport was the misty weather, especially during autumn when we were there. The weather was cool at 18°C as expected but the whole city was covered by the thick mist which was a bit disappointed (in the eye of a social photographer 🙂 ). However, skyscrapers and multi-storey flyover did impressed me as well. Being the biggest financial centre of China, Shanghai do demonstrate very well on its status with modern buildings, busy traffics, Asian highest telecommunication tower and 24-hour business and entertainment, as well as multi-racial community.

Though it was only 5pm in the afternoon, the sky turned dark when we reached our first stop, Cheng Huang Miao, or the city god temple of Shanghai (Chinese: 城隍庙). It used to be a temple in the old city of Shanghai, and is today the central feature of a large retail and entertainment district. Together with nearby Yuyuan Garden and the surrounding streets, Cheng Huang Miao is now part of a large pedestrian compound dedicated to restaurants and retails.

Before the entrance to ChengHuangMiao, we needed to walk pass an old street with shops at both sides and stalls in the middle selling all sorts of Chinese products such as souvenirs, foods, snacks, cloths shoes and etc. “THANKS” to our Chinese tour guide, Ah Mei, she had actually given us some lectures before we stepped down from our coach: “Don’t ever look at or buy anything from these stalls or shops, they are all inferior staffs!”. I could understand her intention. I would propably tell my foreign friends the same thing if they were visiting Malaysia, in order to protect our country’s image. But I realised later in the trip that her statement was sometimes untrue, especially when we wanted to buy some cheap souvenirs later regardless of whether they are made of crystal or just glass, we actually have not given any chance and time. Although I’ve been told the same by my friends before that and did have a quick shop along the way, we did not buy anything either, except two bags of local chestnuts along our way out.

Once we entered the compound of ChengHuangMiao, what laid in front of us were full varieties of retails and restaurants. The main attraction of the new ChengHuangMiao is the building architecture. All buildings are designed and built in ancient Chinese style of architectures. With the great lighting design, the place was really attractive to our naked eyes.

We were given an hour to shop around and Starbucks was the place to gather before exiting. Starbucks is the most successful cafes selling coffees in China where chinese tea and beer are their common beverage. Starbucks could be seen everywhere, even inside the compound of this ‘temple’ 🙂 .

‘Bing Tang Hu Lu’ or crystalised honey plum stick was the first snack we tried in ChengHuangMiao…. Its taste was not to our expectation though 🙁

‘He Fung Lo’ or Piece and Full Restaurant (direct translation 🙁 ) is the largest eatery in the compound with more than 30 hawker stalls selling all sorts of local foods and drinks. We rushed in with no second thought… 🙂

Look at these hungry devils….. We tried the famous local dim sum, Shanghai ‘Xiao Long Pao’ or Little Dragon Dumpling, but still not the best we’ve had so far.. 🙁

After that, we walked around to continue our windows shopping while admiring the great handicraft skill of chinese contractors in these buildings.

One of the best goldsmith in the world is inside this old temple gold shop. They claimed to have the purest gold in the world with over 99.9999% purity…. wow.

Click Here to view Lighbox of this photo set in full resolution via Flickr

‘La Yang Pian’ or ‘Xi Yang Jing’ is one of the oldest entertainment in old China some 500 years ago where performers will sing, talk, speak and imitate creatively to entertain publics. By paying RMB5, you could experience these old jokes through the boxes!

After wandering around all these streets, without buying anything (haven’t warmed up yet since it was our first day and first destination in China), we left ChengHuangMiao for our next destination…. dinner time!! – Travel Feeder.

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.