This is where I enjoy shopping when in Shanghai.
- It wasn’t crowded yet!
The Huxinting Teahouse has been around for awhile (several centuries–it was restored in 1784). This pavilion was turned into the tea house in 1855. Nice place to stop and have a cup of tea. Go early. It gets crowded.
famous Shanghai tea house on the water
The area in Shanghai around the Huxinting Teahouse is a good place to shop. Many small shops. Do not pay asking price. Be willing to bargain. Start low and meet in the middle. Don’t be too cheap either.
- Shopping before it gets crowded.
The following video gives you a musical tour of the sights of Shanghai’s Old District including Yu Yuan Garden and Huxinting Tea House.
For more about Shanghai, also see:
Shanghai
Shanghai’s History & Culture
Shanghai Huangpu River Tour
Eating Gourmet in Shanghai
Chinese Pavilion, Shanghai World Expo
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
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Note: This edited and revised post first appeared on February 20, 2010 (Note: the author took the photos but did not produce the video)
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Wonderful pictures, thanks for sharing.
You are welcome.
🙂 Brings back memories of my friend Ling. Always met on Nanjing dong lu and walk to the shops around Huxing tea house. All the bums selling overpriced fake items. You should check out the major shopping area. Yuyuan area is south of Nanjing E rd, and the cheap haggling shops are located north of Nanjing E rd (metro 10 entrance). I bought a lot of my nice dress pants, my chinese traditional shirt, and my big brown jacket.
I somehow managed to snap a great pic of the area near Huxing teahouse with very few people. It was fun place. I tried to visit for CNY 2011 in celebration of Year of the Bunny, but I wasn’t prepared to pay 80 rmb for the one day out of the entire year they charge admission fee.
If you wander around you may catch the traditional puppet show, always great fun and the Chinese voice over really adds to the experience.
Pop into a small shop selling tea, they have taste testing setup. I got to try oolong, rose tea, and fruit tea. I was tempted to reach for the caffeinated green tea, but held back from the buzz.
I tried to get an aerial pic of Yu Yuan once. It’s amazing to see a circular area filled with old 2 story buildings surrounded on the outside by a forest of megastructures. I assume it’s what Central Park or the WTC area must look like in NY…an empty patch of skyline in a sea of towers.
While on the topic of Huxing Tea house, can you actually go in and enjoy traditional tea? Or is it a restaurant/jewelry shop? I cant remember, all I remember is I never went in…just like I never went into the gardens. Ling told me it’s not worth the admission fee. Maybe it’s not as good as the beautiful Taoist park I used to live next to in Huaqiao that was free. Everyday I go to the local community park, instead of seeing a wonderful location with a beautiful pond and lotus everywhere, I see a big empty lot with a few trees, a swim center with water slides and junk food center, and a pond full of pooping ducks.
Back in 1999, I had tea there. I don’t recall if they served food.