Xintiandi is No. 1

It’s official, Xintiandi is the most popular entertainment street (even though it's not really a street) in the city according to 80 percent of respondents in a survey. Thirteen thousand votes were taken by mail, Internet and telephone from locals as well as “people from other places,” according to Shanghai Star (Nov. 10 print edition). We’re not sure if that means tourists, foreigners or aliens, but we do get a sneaking suspicion that the people surveyed were either a) relatively wealthy or b) mesmerized by the beauty of McCafe. The top streets also included Nanjing pedestrian street, most likely chosen by the “people from other places”; Binjiang Dadao, along the Huangpu River in Pudong; Duolun Lu, which houses art, old books, coffee shops and buildings from the early 20th century; the Bund and cultural streets like Meichuan Lu, North Street in Zhujiajiao (also known as the town where they throw goldfish over a bridge), Qibao Old Street and Fangbang Zhong Lu, near Yu Garden. We’d like to take this moment to thank those who gave the survey for providing us with a complete list of places to avoid during the next public holiday.

Photo by blub.