Shanghai is as commercial as a metropolitan city can get. With its towering, sky-scraper dotted landscape and buzzing industrial centers, the region may appear a tad too crowded and hectic for leisure tourists. However, it would be unfair not to mention that the city has some intriguing traces of Buddhism, Oriental architecture and colonial neighborhoods. Here is a guide for senior travelers to make the most of their trip to this bustling business hub.

Moving Around

The best way to see Shanghai is to hire a cab off the streets of the city and arm yourself with a good map. There are other options like subways, local buses and of course, your feet. Most of these modes of transport have to contend with proliferating crowds that make long-distance journeys painful. Senior travelers can also consider booking themselves on one of the several organized tours throughout the city. You can get details about them from your hotel information desk. This is a hassle-free way to explore Shanghai and almost all tours are conducted by English-speaking guides, who aren’t otherwise found very easily in the city. The organized sightseeing sessions may seem a bit cursory vis-à-vis enjoying the beauty of the city at your own pace, though.

Duolon Lu Culture Street

If you feel like savoring the cultural essence of the east, take a walk through the Duolon Lu Culture Street, an attractive strip housing relics of the city’s colonial era and Leftist movement. This was the region housing several town revolutionaries and leftist writers, and a grand literary streak is still visible in the form of its old libraries and stately bookshops. There are antique stores, old historic homes, tea houses and a museum of Modern Art.

Museums

Without exaggeration, almost every block in Shanghai houses a nice museum depicting several nuances of the city’s vibrant culture. There’s the highly interactive Madame Tussaud's Museum, where among everything else you can play soccer with Beckham and get photographed with Audrey Hepburn. Also worth checking out are the Museum of Folk Art, Shanghai Bank Museum, Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts and the Shanghai Natural History Museum.

Religious Structures

Shanghai is mostly known for its Buddhist shrines, especially the Yufo Si Buddha Temple, Longhua Temple and the several ancient pagodas that are sprinkled all over the old narrow by-lanes of Shanghai. There are innumerable churches, the most notable being St. Peter’s Church, and an impressive Jewish legacy in the form of the Ohel Moshe Synagogue.

Cruising the Huangpu River

Senior visitors can take an enjoyable boat ride on the Huangpu River, which is the central vein of the shipping trade in Shanghai. View stately buildings, shimmering skyscrapers, the breathtaking Peace Hotel, Jin Mao Tower and the lofty World Financial Center. Other majestic structures to be enjoyed include the Huangpu Park, the Oriental Pearl Tower and a series of beautiful glass malls.

Shanghai is a fascinating fusion of 21st century, state of the art grandeur with charming vintage homes, colonial streets, cultural districts and ancient religious structures.