While everyone knows Shanghai’s big parks, the city is packed with hidden gem parks and gardens. Check out these alternative green spaces to escape the crowds this Earth Day.
Guilin Park
Back in the day, gangsters kept it classy and lived in places like Guilin Gardens – Huang Jinrong did, anyway, because he wanted to live like a Confucian mandarin. A 3.55 hectare space filled with intricately carved pavilions, grotto caves, rockeries, and the Eight Immortals Terrace, it’s beautiful to walk around and an excellent example of the classic Chinese garden style. But whereas some previously private gardens can feel staid, Guilin Park bustles with life and is regularly home to a good crowd of old folks showing off their caged birds (some of whom are talented singers).
Guilin Park 188 Caobao Lu, near Guilin Lu, Xuhui district.
Guyi Garden
While it has been reconstructed and expanded several times over, Guyi Park was originally built by a military officer in the Ming dynasty and is one of the oldest gardens in Shanghai. Frequented by locals, but little-known by foreigners, the well-maintained collection of landscaped gardens surround a central stretch of giant lotus-laden water, while teahouses, meditation pagodas and other traditional architecture also dot the site. A visit also offers a great opportunity to stuff your face with xiaolongbao – given that Nanxiang purports to be the birthplace of Shanghai’s favourite dumplings, there’s an entire street devoted to them next door.
Guyi Gardens 218 Huyi Gong Lu, near Guyi Yuan Lu, Jiading district.
Jiaotong University
The stately quadrangle park in Jiaotong University’s Xuhui campus is the size of two football pitches. It feels grandiose, with its neatly clipped box bushes, wide geometric walkways and large elevated plinth that looms from the centre. But the flat grass makes it a great place to lie down, have a picnic or go for a run. Expect to find solitary students reading and listening to headphones in the shade.
Jiaotong University 1954 Huashan Lu, near Xinhua Lu, Changning district.
Huashan Hospital
Leafy and photogenic it may be, but the former French Concession offers little in the way of pastoral respite – or so you’d believe. There’s no need to break a leg to pay a visit to Huashan Hospital when there’s this tiny classic Chinese garden right behind. Built by property mogul Zhou Chunqing back in the 1930s as ‘healing gardens’ for hospital patients. Replete with willows and Japanese maple trees arching over stone bridges, rockeries and ponds, it’s open to everyone, but despite this, is generally scarce of strollers.
Huashan Hospital 12 Wulumuqi Zhong Lu, near Huashan Lu, Jingan district.
Shanghai Botanical Garden
It’s worth a trip down to the older of Shanghai’s two botanical gardens to find your own quiet spot in the 240 acres of land. In spring, the rose garden has cherry, peach and plum trees in full bloom. Despite its vastness, the whole garden teems with life, bees and birds suckling honey blossoms are everywhere; you can feed the doves at the western aviary; or fish alongside the Chinese men at the boat dock. It’s possible to take an electric train around the garden, but it’s best to go by foot, stopping off at the bonsai garden, medicinal garden and tropical house, with its five-storey walkway.
Shanghai Botanical Garden 1111 Longwu Lu, near Baise Lu, Xuhui district.
Soong Chingling's Mausoleum
Though it might seem odd to suggest lazing around in a graveyard on a sunny day, this is actually one of the more beautiful and peaceful little parks in town, with a shady tree-lined glade where you can lie on the grass free from pesky security guards shouting at you. But it’s also worth a visit to see the graves. Soong Chingling’s imposing marble statue is beautiful but the highlight is the northwestern corner of the park, where a host of 20th-century artists and other cultural figures are buried under life-sized statues. These include Zhang Leping, the creator of the iconic Sanmao cartoon (the beloved street urchin is featured too), painter-designer-director Chen Yifei and traditional painter Xie Zhiliu, whose gravestone makes him look like a gangster in dark glasses.
Soong Chingling's Mausoleum 21 Songyuan Lu, near Hongqiao Lu, Changning district.
Ye Gardens
The most remote out of our picks, Ye Gardens – another one on hospital grounds, this time the Shanghai Pulmonary – has managed to retain some of its intended tranquility, and exists like an antithesis to the blare of Yu Gardens. The gardens were built by a racecourse magnate called Ye Yiquan in 1923 to entertain racecourse patrons, and centre around a two-storey, mosaic-floored colonial mansion and a huge, shimmering lake. Quiet, well-kept and with an air of minimalism thanks to its Japanese architect, Ye Gardens are a peaceful spot.
Ye Gardens 507 Zhengmin Lu, near Wudong Lu, Yangpu district.
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