Formerly a private estate in the French Concession, Fuxing Park was purchased by foreign residents and opened to the French public on July 14, 1909. It was popularly known as French Park, styled after your typical Parisian city park with wide, tree-lined walks and flower beds. Today, this is one of the city's most popular parks, home to a number of restaurants and nightclubs, as well as to pleasant fountains, a children's playground with a carousel and bumper cars, a rose garden to the east, 120 species of trees, and, near the north entrance, a statue of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel in front of which Chinese couples often practice ballroom dancing.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Shanghai, 5th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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