People's Park

People's Park sits directly above People's Square metro station, between the Shanghai Museum and Nanjing Road. By day it's a working park with ponds and shaded benches; on Saturday and Sunday afternoons it transforms into the Marriage Market, where parents and grandparents post their adult children's stats (age, salary, height, education) under open umbrellas in hopes of finding a match. It's free, fascinating, and surprisingly welcoming to curious foreigners — observers are common. Photography is OK from a respectful distance. Even outside weekends, the park is a relief from the surrounding shopping crowds.