The Bund

The Bund is probably Shanghai’s most famous tourist attraction. The Bund is only a piece of street along the western shore of Huangpu river. The houses located along the Bund are of European new classic style and it doesn’t look like China, maybe with the exception of the colorful lights that decorate the buildings at night. You can walk along the water and it is extremely popular among both Chinese and foreign visitors to stroll around there, especially in the evening when all the lights on the buildings are turned on.

Sales people

There are also hundreds of vendors on the Bund. When we were there at the end of April 2008, they sold mainly three things. 1) Kites. You can always find kite sellers in China. 2) Roller skate “add-ons” for ordinary shoes; the sales people rolled around on their skates and asked, “skates?”. I heard that questions about twenty five thousand times a day. I never asked how much it cost, though. 3) A kind of plastic ball that was spinning on the ground while glowing in different colors. Unbelievably exciting for everyone of age 5 or less I guess. What surprised me was that most of the vendors that were selling the same toys were all gathered in the same place.

Food

Up on the walk, there were no restaurants, only small mobile street stalls, where they sold everything from sugar cane, barbecued corn, different kinds of fruit, to barbecued squid (three skewers cost 10 RMB).

Below the walk, towards the street, there are several restaurants, ranging from small independent Chinese to American chains like KFC and others.
KFC is everywhere by the way; sometimes you can see two at once.