Walking Shanghai, from one stadium to the other

I really enjoy walking tours in a city, and Shanghai is one of my favorite cities for extended walking trips. It is a very pleasant place to walk, and the streets are very lively, offering lots to see along the way.

The walk from Hong Kou Stadium to the Olympic Stadium in Xu Jia Hui is a great half-day trip. It is just over 20 km / 13 mi, and it can take you into some very interesting parts of the city. You can stretch it into a whole day trip, if you decide to take it at a more "tourist pace." There are lots of places to stop along the way.

I did the walk last week, taking just under 3 hours. Here's the route I took:

Cut through Lu Xun Park (a pleasant way to start)
Head south on Sichuan Road
Turn right (west) on Hai Ning Road (it is nice to cut through some back roads just north of Hai Ning Road if you want to see "local flavor")
Cross the big overhead bridge at Chengdu Road — make sure and stop for a picture of People's Square here
I cut through some small roads heading roughly southwest here, till I hit Shi Men Er Road, where I turned left/south
When you get to Nanjing Road West, you make a little hook back to the right, and Shi Men Road will head south again (right off of Nanjing Road) — when you are here, you'll see WuJiang Lu to the left, if you are looking for a spot to eat (you should do this if you are taking the "tourist pace")
Turn right (west) on Yan An Road
At Chang Shu Road, head south (left turn), follow this as it turns into Heng Shan Road, which will bring you to Xu Jia Hui Park
You can cut through the park, then come out at Xu Jia Hui and cut across to Tian Yao Qiao Road
If you follow this south, you will reach the Stadium



If you would like a little more touristy type of route, don't turn off at Hai Ning Road, but follow Sichuan Road all the way down across Suzhou Creek. You will be in the heart of downtown then. You can wait till you get to Fuzhou Road to head west (turning right on Fuzhou Road). If you follow this all the way through People's Square (it will turn into Ren Min Da Lu), you can hook back to the right at the Grand Theater and over to Nanjing Road West. From there, you can get to Wu Jiang Road for lunch, and pick up the route toward Xu Jia Hui from there.

This is a fairly long walk, but not at all hard. The roads sometimes have heavy traffic, but I didn't even find a whole lot of that (mostly because I did not cut through People's Square). In most places in Shanghai, it is not at all difficult to keep up a decent pace while walking on the road. For the most part, pedestrian traffic here moves at a quick pace.





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Staying Fit in the City

I didn't grow up in the city, but in a small town. In my younger days, I spent all day during any school holidays in the out of doors, and that was more or less a natural way of staying fit. It doesn't quite work that way in the city, though.

A lot of my friends stay fit by making a visit to the gym each week, or several times a week. I don't really like that, and find it takes me a lot of extra time to make the journey there and back. It ends up being a rather major outing, just to stay a bit fit.

For me, I prefer to try to incorporate my exercise into what I do on a regular basis. Of course, trips to the swimming pool and things like that are great for recreation, but I find it hard, sometimes, to fit that into my regular schedule.

For me, what I like best is to either walk or cycle to my destination(s) during the day or part of the day rather than driving or taking public transport. While it might take a little extra time to walk somewhere, as opposed to other forms of transportation, cycling doesn't generally require a whole lot longer than, say, the bus. And, of course, it is much cheaper.

Yesterday, I went out for lunch with some friends. Two of us decided to walk there -- about 7 kilometers. We all walked home together afterward. Little decisions like that help to fit a little bit of exercise into the overall schedule, helping to stay healthy without taking up a whole lot of extra time.




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Jack the Ripper Tours

When I was in London, one of the things I really enjoyed was the Jack the Ripper tour. I thought it would be a little spooky, but it turned out to be a very interesting history lesson for me.

We met up near dusk and took a walking tour along the Thames. While we were on the walk, the guide pointed out to us the places where several victims' bodies had been found and described how the murders had come about. I was fascinated to hear her theory about who the Ripper was. (She fingered a judge, though she was quick to say that was her own opinion based on the evidence we have today.)

The story is really interesting, and walking by the river at dusk is quite fun. If you get a chance to do the Jack the Ripper walking tour when you are in London, don't miss it.



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