Century Park — Attraction in Shanghai

Century Park (simplified Chinese: 世纪公园; traditional Chinese: 世紀公園; pinyin: Shìjì Gōngyuán; Shanghainese: Syji Gonyu) is the largest park in the city of Shanghai. It is situated on Jinxiu Road, in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai, nearby to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

Century Park focuses on lawns, woods, and lakes. The park was designed by the British environmental consultancy LUC and was built in four years from 1996 to 2000. It got its name because it is situated at the end of Century Avenue. Its construction was completed in 2000, the starting point of the new century. The park is known as "Holiday Park" because it is both modern and natural. Numerous different facilities are provided for tourists in the park. They can feed pigeons, go fishing, row a boat, peddle a bicycle, or have fun in the green maze.

Century Park sprawls 140 hectares (346 acres) and lies to the south of Century Boulevard (世纪大道).

Century Park is divided into seven parts, including the Lakeside Scenic Area, the Forest Landscape Area, the Amenity Grass, the Nature Reserve, the Folk Village, the Exotic Zone, and the Mini Golf Course. There are eight entrances in total, and five of them are open to the public: Gate 1 at the end of Century Avenue, Gate 2 at the crossroad of Jinxiu Road and Minsheng Road, Gate 3 at the crossroad of Jinxiu Road and Jinsong Road, Gate 5 at the crossroad of Huamu Road and Fangdian Road, and Gate 7 at the intersection of Huamu Road and...

Century Park is a natural oasis on the western edge of "downtown" Shanghai Pudong. Similar in concept to Central Park in New York. As you would expect in Pudong, it's cris-crossed with canals and ponds. There are lots of interesting views and many miles of walking paths. Plenty of room for kids to roam about. You can even fish, for a fee. There are tandem bikes and electric boats for rent. There's an amphitheater that gets daily use by the middle aged dance groups, and lots of birds! I like to go early in the morning when it's still cool and the pollution isn't bad yet from the commuters. Also it creates a natural circuit to ride around, if you are intrepid enough to get on a bike in Shanghai! Plenty of restaurants, ranging from a full scale banquet place (on Huamu Lu) to little snack bars with drinks and ice cream bars (dotted all over the place). Easy subway access from the Century Park Station...

The scenery looks great and the multitude of locations makes the area more than just a nature walk. I enjoy the areas of bird watching, amusement park, restaurants, bike group rental. However, as a foreigner coming to this park I was late about 20 minutes to bring back the bike rental which was not in the same location that I rented it and thus the penalty for that was an extremely rude Chinese men charging us over 50 RMB for 10 minutes of being late when the total cost of the beginning was much less. It doesn't surprise me that we got ripped off by this Chinese man because it appears to be the norm when going to public locations as this. It also didn't matter to this Chinese man worker at the park that I was there with my family with children and still had the nerve and audacity to behave like a like a nincompoop...