People's Square is a spectacular space in the heart of the city. Formerly the city's race-course, a sports arena and a gamblers paradise, the area west of Nanjing Lu was converted after the war to become the People's Square. Unlike many other Chinese city squares, Renmin Guangchang is not a concrete mass but a vast green area including plants and trees and surrounded by spectacular buildings on all sides.

The Square has been renovated again recently and opened up further and many of the old buildings around here are in the process of being ripped down.

Today, the Square covers 140,000 square meters. In the north lies the Municipal Government Mansion, an impressive and serious building which is not open to the public. In the northwest sits the Shanghai Grand Theatre, a colossal construction made almost entirely from glass which is balanced by the brand new Exhibition Hall for City Planning in the east. The most impressive building in the square however, is the Shanghai Museum. Perfectly smooth and symmetrical, the building was designed to resemble a Chinese cooking pot. The Square is particularly spectacular at night, when steam appears to seep out of the roof of the museum and the light bounces off the glass walls of the Grand Theatre.

Tucked away in the northwest corner of the square is the quirky Bird and Flower Market where locals come to buy trinkets, plants, fish and parade birds in their cages! These few lanes off Huangpi Lu are a great contrast to the modern constructions in the main square.

The Square offers unusual and impressive views of the city. Surrounded on all sides by mammoth and overpowering constructions, new buildings attack you from all sides. The panorama of the city from the Square, while not the picture postcard image of Shanghai's Bund, is arguably, the most accurate image which reflects the changing nature of this sophisticated and modern city.