Friday 26 October – This morning we went for a walk along The Bund  a mile-long waterfront area on the west side of the Huangpu River in central Shanghai.

The Bund is famous for the 52 historical buildings lining its promenade, most built at the beginning of the 1900s by the British and French,.  These once housed numerous banks and trading houses from the UK, France, the USA, Italy, Russia, Germany, Japan , the Netherlands and Belgium as well as the consulates of Russia and Britain.

Today they owned by the goverment and are rented out to various hotel groups, banks and restaurants.

On the East side of the Huangpu River is the business area of Shanghai with all its new skyscrapers, which all light up in the evening.

For lunch we went to the Muslim Market which was packed with long queues at every food stall.  We had Yang rou chuan – lamb skewers seasoned with cumin and paprika which were lovely and a deep fried chicken, cooked in a massive cauldron of boiling oil, which was not so good and very unhealthy.

In the afternoon we visited Laochangfang – a four story art deco concrete building which was built in 1933 by the British to house the municipal slaughter house. Its the only building of its kind left in the world today.  A great building to take photos in.

Its now been turned into a place for coffee houses, up and coming young businesses and other trendy outlets.

This evening we went back to the Bund for a very expensive but very enjoyable meal at M on the Bund.  they have a great terrace which is ideal for taking photos of the Bund and the lit up skyscrapers of the East side of the river.