One question we often hear from visiting businesspeople to Shanghai,
China's commercial capital, is: "What can I do in Shanghai that's a
bit different?" Regular business travellers become bored by the Bund,
People's Square gets a bit passe, Yu Garden is a yawn and Xintiandi
has lost its chic. So, with just a few hours of down time to spare
between board meetings and boarding a return flight, what can you do
that encapsulates Shanghai's past, present and future - and offers
some great watercooler boasting to share with the HQites back home?
"Well," we always say, "Why not Chase the Chairman?" Blank looks are
usually followed by "Hey, that's a great idea," when we suggest a tour
of Communist history sights. Shanghai, after all, was the birthplace
of Chinese Communism, and the city has plenty of sights, memorials and
places of historic interest for Commu-Tourists. All you need to do is
hit the streets - and know where to look.
As pointed out in our recent article for US magazine Travel Age West,
"Thirty-one years after his death, the visage of the Great Helmsman —
who founded the People's Republic of China in 1949 and ruled it until
1976 — adorns all Chinese currency notes, as well as myriad tourism
artifacts, such as posters, T-shirts, fridge magnets, watches, alarm
clocks and replica copies of the "Little Red Book" sold in markets
nationwide... Today, the once-ubiquitous Mao images on China's streets
are rare but not impossible to find and tracing Mao's complex legacy
is most intriguing in Shanghai, the official birthplace of Chinese
communism."
Click here to read the full article:
http://www.travelagewest.com/articles.aspx?article=6562
Last update : Sunday, 26 August 2007
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