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Roots Earth in Shanghai: audio stories about 50 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 50 places in Shanghai, China, in Asia. The Shanghai stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Shanghai, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 50 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: shanghai.md

The 50 places in Shanghai with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Oriental Pearl Tower
  2. The Bund
  3. Yu Garden
  4. Shanghai Tower
  5. Nanjing Road
  6. Shanghai Museum
  7. City God Temple of Shanghai
  8. Jin Mao Tower
  9. Shanghai World Financial Center
  10. People's Square
  11. Jade Buddha Temple
  12. Jing'an Temple
  13. Longhua Temple
  14. Lujiazui
  15. Shanghai French Concession
  16. Xintiandi
  17. Site of the First National Congress of the CCP
  18. Waibaidu Bridge
  19. Peace Hotel (Sassoon House)
  20. Custom House, Shanghai
  21. Broadway Mansions
  22. Park Hotel Shanghai
  23. Shanghai Grand Theatre
  24. Shanghai Concert Hall
  25. Shanghai Natural History Museum
  26. Power Station of Art
  27. China Art Museum
  28. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum
  29. Shanghai Ocean Aquarium
  30. Long Museum
  31. Rockbund Art Museum
  32. St. Ignatius Cathedral (Xujiahui)
  33. Shanghai Disneyland
  34. Confucian Temple of Shanghai
  35. Tianzifang
  36. Wukang Road
  37. Wukang Mansion
  38. Fuxing Park
  39. M50 Art District (50 Moganshan Road)
  40. Duolun Road
  41. Lu Xun Park
  42. Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum
  43. 1933 Old Millfun
  44. Propaganda Poster Art Centre
  45. Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei
  46. Shanghai Library
  47. Qibao Old Town
  48. Zhujiajiao Water Town
  49. Fudan University
  50. Century Park

Is there an audio guide for Oriental Pearl Tower?

Yes. Oriental Pearl Tower has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 50 Shanghai places in the app, at 31.241669, 121.494717. Every one of the other 49 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Shanghai

Open Roots Earth and choose Shanghai. The city has its own map of places with all 50 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 50 places in Shanghai, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 50 places in Shanghai, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Oriental Pearl Tower

Coordinates
31.241669, 121.494717
In one line
A 468-meter broadcasting and observation tower in Lujiazui, completed in 1994. Three rose-tinted spheres threaded onto soaring columns made it Pudong's first great landmark and a defining symbol of modern Shanghai.

2. The Bund

Coordinates
31.238028, 121.486139
In one line
A mile-long waterfront on the Huangpu River lined with grand banks and trading houses in Beaux-Arts, neoclassical, and Art Deco styles. Built mostly between the 1860s and 1930s, it remains Shanghai's stone-faced colonial-era showcase.

3. Yu Garden

Coordinates
31.229167, 121.4875
In one line
A classical Jiangnan garden in the old city, begun in 1559 by the Ming official Pan Yunduan for his father. Across two hectares wind rockeries, ponds, pavilions, zigzag bridges, and dragon-crested walls.

4. Shanghai Tower

Coordinates
31.2355, 121.501
In one line
A 632-meter twisting supertall in Lujiazui, completed in 2015 and designed by Gensler. Its spiraling double-glass skin, sky gardens, and record-fast elevators make it the tallest building in China.

5. Nanjing Road

Coordinates
31.234722, 121.474444
In one line
Shanghai's premier shopping street, running roughly five and a half kilometers from the Bund to Jing'an district. Renamed Nanjing Road around 1865, it grew into China's most famous retail thoroughfare, now anchored by a bustling pedestrian mall.

6. Shanghai Museum

Coordinates
31.228611, 121.475556
In one line
A premier museum of Chinese art on People's Square, opened in 1996. Its round-on-square form, designed by Xing Tonghe to echo an ancient bronze ding, houses more than 120,000 works spanning bronzes, ceramics, and calligraphy.

7. City God Temple of Shanghai

Coordinates
31.227778, 121.488056
In one line
A Taoist temple in the old walled city, converted to honor Shanghai's city gods in 1403 under the Ming. The spiritual heart of old Shanghai, it stands ringed by the famous Yuyuan bazaar and its food stalls.

8. Jin Mao Tower

Coordinates
31.237222, 121.501389
In one line
Completed in 1999, this 420-meter Pudong landmark draws on the rhythm of a tiered pagoda. Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, its 88 floors hold offices, a soaring Grand Hyatt atrium, and a high observation deck.

9. Shanghai World Financial Center

Coordinates
31.236667, 121.502778
In one line
Completed in 2008, this 492-meter tower by Kohn Pedersen Fox tapers to a sharp trapezoidal opening at its crown, earning it the nickname the bottle opener. Once China's tallest, it holds offices, a hotel, and a sky bridge.

10. People's Square

Coordinates
31.228611, 121.475833
In one line
Once a colonial horse-racing course, this central square became the civic heart of modern Shanghai. Around its green park stand the Shanghai Museum, the Grand Theatre, the urban planning center, and the municipal government, linked by a major metro hub.

11. Jade Buddha Temple

Coordinates
31.243192, 121.440528
In one line
Founded in 1882 and rebuilt by 1928, this active Buddhist monastery shelters two Buddhas carved from white jade and brought by sea from Burma. Its yellow halls hold golden statues, arhats, and a serene seated jade figure.

12. Jing'an Temple

Coordinates
31.223493, 121.445314
In one line
Tradition dates the temple's origins to 247, but its exact foundation date is unknown; reliable evidence establishes the name Jing'an Temple from 1008. It holds a silver Buddha, a giant jade figure, and southern-style halls above a busy metro hub.

13. Longhua Temple

Coordinates
31.172658, 121.451261
In one line
Shanghai's largest and oldest temple complex traces its founding to 242 and its octagonal pagoda to 977. Five halls along a central axis hold ancient bells and Buddhas, framed each spring by famous peach blossoms.

14. Lujiazui

Coordinates
31.2393, 121.4997
In one line
Once farmland, warehouses, and factories, this riverbend peninsula became China's premier financial district from the 1990s. Across from the Bund, it gathers supertall towers including the Oriental Pearl, Jin Mao, the World Financial Center, and Shanghai Tower.

15. Shanghai French Concession

Coordinates
31.2145, 121.456
In one line
Established in 1849 and abolished in 1943, this former French settlement spreads its plane-tree avenues, shikumen lanes, and Art Deco villas across central Shanghai. Once a center of café culture, it remains the city's most romantic district.

16. Xintiandi

Coordinates
31.2226, 121.4701
In one line
Its grey-brick facades hide sleek modern interiors, blending old Shanghai with new.

17. Site of the First National Congress of the CCP

Coordinates
31.2221, 121.4707
In one line
In a 1920s shikumen house at 76 Xingye Road, the Chinese Communist Party held its founding congress in July 1921. Once a noodle shop, the building reopened as a memorial museum in the 1950s and remains a major red-tourism site.

18. Waibaidu Bridge

Coordinates
31.243056, 121.49
In one line
Completed in 1907 over Suzhou Creek at the northern end of the Bund, this riveted steel truss was the first all-steel bridge in China. Roughly 104 meters long, it survives as the country's only camelback truss bridge.

19. Peace Hotel (Sassoon House)

Coordinates
31.241083, 121.484583
In one line
Completed in 1929 for Sir Victor Sassoon and designed by Palmer and Turner, this Art Deco landmark on the Bund once housed the storied Cathay Hotel. Crowned by a green pyramidal roof, it was renamed the Peace Hotel in 1956.

20. Custom House, Shanghai

Coordinates
31.238889, 121.483333
In one line
Completed in 1927 and designed by Palmer and Turner, this neoclassical building on the Bund carries a 90-meter clock tower modeled on Big Ben. Its great clock, the largest in Asia, has chimed Westminster and revolutionary tunes alike.

21. Broadway Mansions

Coordinates
31.244444, 121.486111
In one line
Completed in 1934 to a design by Palmer and Turner, this 19-floor Art Deco tower of patterned brick rises at the north end of Waibaidu Bridge. Built as a residential hotel, it commands one of the finest views of the Bund.

22. Park Hotel Shanghai

Coordinates
31.233667, 121.471583
In one line
A soaring Art Deco landmark completed in 1934 by architect László Hudec, the Park Hotel rises in dark brick above Nanjing Road. For nearly thirty years it stood as the tallest building in Asia.

23. Shanghai Grand Theatre

Coordinates
31.232, 121.467
In one line
A luminous performing-arts complex on People's Square, the Shanghai Grand Theatre opened in 1998. Designed by Jean-Marie Charpentier, its crystalline glass form and upturned roof crown three stages devoted to opera, ballet, and symphony.

24. Shanghai Concert Hall

Coordinates
31.228906, 121.472889
In one line
A graceful European-style hall built in 1930 as the Nanking Theatre, the Shanghai Concert Hall is famous for being lifted and shifted 66 meters in 2007 to escape an elevated road. It seats roughly 1,100.

25. Shanghai Natural History Museum

Coordinates
31.236944, 121.458333
In one line
Founded in 1956 and reopened in 2015 within Jing'an Sculpture Park, the Shanghai Natural History Museum holds some 240,000 specimens. Its curving nautilus-shell design wraps around a towering Mamenchisaurus dinosaur skeleton.

26. Power Station of Art

Coordinates
31.201111, 121.497778
In one line
Set in a converted riverside power plant on the former Expo 2010 grounds, the Power Station of Art opened in 2012 as mainland China's first public contemporary art museum. Its towering chimney marks the Huangpu skyline.

27. China Art Museum

Coordinates
31.185, 121.488
In one line
Housed in the inverted-pyramid China Pavilion from Expo 2010, the China Art Museum opened in 2012 in Pudong. Architect He Jingtang's red, crown-like form rises 63 meters above some 14,000 works of modern Chinese art.

28. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

Coordinates
31.220278, 121.537778
In one line
A vast Pudong museum opened in 2001, the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum spirals upward through five floors around a glass sphere. It hosted that year's APEC summit and holds thirteen exhibitions plus Asia's largest science cinema complex.

29. Shanghai Ocean Aquarium

Coordinates
31.242554, 121.49717
In one line
Opened in 2002 beside the Oriental Pearl Tower, this Lujiazui aquarium houses more than 450 species across themed zones and a 168-meter underwater tunnel, one of the longest of its kind in the world.

30. Long Museum

Coordinates
31.1695, 121.461
In one line
Opened in 2014 on a former coal wharf, this West Bund branch of collectors Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei's Long Museum was designed by Atelier Deshaus in raw concrete, ranking as China's largest private museum at its opening.

31. Rockbund Art Museum

Coordinates
31.243, 121.4843
In one line
Housed in the 1932 Royal Asiatic Society building by George L. Wilson, this contemporary art museum opened in 2010 after a David Chipperfield renovation, blending Art Deco facades with Chinese motifs near the Bund.

32. St. Ignatius Cathedral (Xujiahui)

Coordinates
31.193056, 121.431389
In one line
Completed in 1910 by French Jesuits to a design by William Doyle, this Gothic Revival cathedral in Xujiahui seats around 2,500 worshippers and was once called the grandest church in the Far East.

33. Shanghai Disneyland

Coordinates
31.144, 121.657
In one line
Opened in 2016 in Pudong, this resort built by Disney and Shanghai Shendi Group spans about 3. 9 square kilometers and centers on the Enchanted Storybook Castle, the largest castle in any Disney park.

34. Confucian Temple of Shanghai

Coordinates
31.219722, 121.483056
In one line
Founded under the Yuan dynasty and built at its present old-city site in 1855–56, this temple-school honors Confucius and formerly hosted a book market that moved to Fuyou Road in 2020.

35. Tianzifang

Coordinates
31.210011, 121.464668
In one line
A maze of 1930s shikumen lanes off Taikang Road in the former French Concession, Tianzifang was saved from demolition and reborn from the late 1990s as a bottom-up warren of studios, cafes, and craft shops.

36. Wukang Road

Coordinates
31.2076, 121.4401
In one line
Widened and officially named Ferguson Road in 1907, this curving plane-tree avenue in the former French Concession runs just over a kilometre past villas, old apartment blocks, and the former homes of writers and statesmen.

37. Wukang Mansion

Coordinates
31.2045, 121.4383
In one line
Completed in 1924 to a design by Laszlo Hudec, this eight-storey wedge of an apartment building anchors a French Concession street corner. Once the Normandie Apartments, its sharp prow and French Renaissance lines make it one of Shanghai's most photographed buildings.

38. Fuxing Park

Coordinates
31.21899, 121.464163
In one line
Opened by the French in 1909 as the city's only formal French-style garden, this roughly 10-hectare park in the old concession pairs geometric flowerbeds, a lake, and fountains with a statue of Marx and Engels and crowds of dancers, chess players, and tai chi practitioners.

39. M50 Art District (50 Moganshan Road)

Coordinates
31.2475, 121.448611
In one line
A former textile mill on the banks of Suzhou Creek, this cluster of brick warehouses became Shanghai's leading contemporary art quarter after artists moved in around 2000. It now holds more than 120 galleries and studios in raw industrial space.

40. Duolun Road

Coordinates
31.262, 121.4823
In one line
Laid in 1911 as Darroch Road, this short L-shaped lane in Hongkou District was the heart of 1930s left-wing literary Shanghai, home to Lu Xun and Mao Dun. Restored in the late 1990s, it now lines up museums, cafes, and statues of its writers.

41. Lu Xun Park

Coordinates
31.272836, 121.478425
In one line
Opened in 1909 as Hongkou Park on land bought as a shooting range, this large Hongkou green holds the tomb of the writer Lu Xun, a memorial hall, hundreds of cherry trees, and the site of a 1932 bombing that shook occupied Shanghai.

42. Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum

Coordinates
31.254352, 121.509196
In one line
Set in the former Ohel Moshe Synagogue in Hongkou, this museum tells how around 20000 European Jews found refuge in wartime Shanghai. Opened in 2007, it preserves the synagogue, exhibits, and a copper wall engraved with thousands of refugees' names.

43. 1933 Old Millfun

Coordinates
31.256633, 121.48785
In one line
A vast 1933 concrete slaughterhouse in Hongkou, now a maze of curved ramps, bridges and walkways reborn as a design hub of shops, studios and restaurants set across five interlocking buildings.

44. Propaganda Poster Art Centre

Coordinates
31.217345, 121.429352
In one line
A small private museum founded by collector Yang Pei Ming, displaying rare propaganda posters from Maoist China and the Cultural Revolution, gathered since 1995 and preserved as a vivid record of an era.

45. Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei

Coordinates
31.192083, 121.437611
In one line
Founded by Jesuit missionaries in 1847 at Xujiahui, this historic library blends a Chinese-style ground floor with a Western reading room above, once holding more than 100,000 titles in European and Chinese languages.

46. Shanghai Library

Coordinates
31.209167, 121.44
In one line
Founded in 1952, Shanghai Library is one of the world's largest, holding some 58 million items. Its towering main building in Xuhui rises 24 stories, ranking among the tallest libraries on Earth.

47. Qibao Old Town

Coordinates
31.157778, 121.351389
In one line
A canal town in Minhang District with roots in the Northern Song dynasty, Qibao takes its name from a local temple. Old stone bridges, narrow lanes and sizzling street-food stalls draw crowds to its preserved heart.

48. Zhujiajiao Water Town

Coordinates
31.112778, 121.050278
In one line
A 1,700-year-old water town in Qingpu District, Zhujiajiao is laced with canals and 36 stone bridges. Its Ming-era Fangsheng Bridge, Qing buildings and boat-filled waterways evoke the old Yangtze delta.

49. Fudan University

Coordinates
31.298889, 121.499167
In one line
Founded in 1905 by Ma Xiangbo, Fudan University is one of China's most prestigious institutions, a C9 League member in Yangpu District. Its name, drawn from a Confucian classic, evokes daily renewal and enlightenment.

50. Century Park

Coordinates
31.218, 121.553
In one line
Shanghai's largest park, opened in 2000 at the end of Century Avenue in Pudong. Roughly 140 hectares of lawns, woods, and a vast artificial lake draw families, cyclists, kite-flyers, and weekend picnickers.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app.