Nanjing Road is the most bustling shopping center in Shanghai. Along the street are some 350 stores, large and small, only to be separated by theatres and restaurants here and there. These stores, especially the big department stores and specialty stores, are always crowded with shoppers. Among the pedestrians walking along the street are locals and tourists, who account for about 57 per cent according to statistics, as Nanjing Road is a must and a favorite shopping street for them. On Sundays and other public holidays Nanjing Road and the stores are even more crowded. Nobody has ever succeeded in working out the exact daily pedestrian flow on Nanjing Road. The figure-one million person-times released in a report of the "Liberation Daily", one of the Shanghai local newspapers on March 27,1983 is only a conjecture.

We will go along the Nanjing Road from the east to the west. Just imagine you are meandering among the crowds and stores. The first blocks of Nanjing Road East are shorter and still showcase some of the architecture of old Shanghai. On the blocks north and south of the street you can still sense the atmosphere of the place in the 1920s.