Beijing & Shanghai Travel Guide - Mark Mason - Bog

The city of Beijing has been the capital of China for over 800 years and shows many aspects of China's imperial past. Beijing offers many of the nation's most significant sites including the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven-just to name a few. Shanghai means "the city by the sea" and this Chinese city of superlatives is located on the Huangpu River on the east coast of China. The Huangpu River journies to the Yangtze River and divides Shanghai on its way. To the west is Puxi, the older part of the city. To the east is Pudong, a spectacular area of modern skyscrapers (including the Oriental Pearl Tower) developed from a flat green field to become "Hong Kong-like" in just a decade during the 1990's.