Yuyuan Old Street, Shanghai

Old market place of Shanghai was on the way to the famous Yu garden. Market place was crowded with lot of tourists & buyers. A lot of traditional houses were well renovated & looked beautiful. Many eateries & restaurants were serving popular local dishes. Many vendors were selling souvenirs to tourists. A lot more were busy taking pictures. A good traditional looking place to hang around while in Shanghai.

In my opinion this area is one of the highlights of visiting Yu Yuan. There are many shops and restaurants/food vendors with a variety of specialty foods and crafts, along with the usual fare, and some with incredible rich history, too. I have never experienced a downtime here, if you like the crowds and the bustle, this is the place to be almost any time of the year.

On the way to get to Yuyuan Garden, you have to walk through the Yu Bazaar. It is the area surrounding the garden, where you can get lost in the crowds. The atmosphere of the area will take you to the old town of shanghai. Tourists and locals are coming here to have lots of fun shopping, eating, taking pictures and observing. One of the must things to do when you are there is to have a cup of tea on the floating tea house Huxingting. Visiting the silk factories/museums and pearl shops are interesting too. And the most interesting thing to do in the market is enjoying the street foods starting from the best dumplings in town, traditional chinese snacks or candies and ending with grabbing a cup of coffee from Starbucks or an ice cream from Häagen-Dazs. No cars allowed here during the day time on the Outer roads of the YuYuan Garden.

Very nice place with alot of shop and people. Shops here generally sell stuff that is tourist orientated. That does also mean that the prices are Tourist prices but it is still okey. Make sure that whatever you are buying has a price label otherwise you will most likely pay double or tripple the price... As anywhere else in China. The historic rich Buildings are very beautiful and very well restored and almost magical at evening/night.

DO NOT TRY THE BUFFET AT THE FOOD COURT! I repeat, don't waste your money and time to try the buffet at the food court. Everything else is fine, albeit over-commercialized. Absolute must-visit is the magnificent, idyllic Ming dynasty Suzhou-styled Yu Garden. The Nan Xiang restaurant, shaped like a boat, was there since the 19th century. So maybe it is worth a visit to try their famous dumplings. Then you can slowly make your way to the Bund located around 2km away. DO NOT TRY THE BUFFET AT THE FOOD COURT.