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where dinner and afternoon tea are available. Visitors can choose to sit indoors or outdoors to enjoy the magnificent gardens with nearly 30 ancient trees. Yuanmingyuan Road behind the plex is also a historical site. The road has been revamped as a pedestrian shopping street and highend brands have seized the best spots. Altogether, 14 old buildings, including those used for offices and residences constructed during 1920s and 1930s, remain. Today, it is a popular location for mercial fashion photo shoots. New Tian’an Church, or Union Church, stands at the intersection of Yuanmingyuan Road and Suzhou Creek. The church, designed in the style of the English countryside, has a capacity of 500 people. It was very popular during the concession period but was converted into factory offices after 1949. The church we see today is a replica, the original burned down in 2021. There used to be an outdoor swimming pool, the first of its kind in Shanghai, beside the church but has been filledin and is now a small garden. Bridge of romance There is perhaps no other place that’s more representative of Shanghai than this bridge, which appears in quite a lot of movies about the city. Dozens of couples visit every day to pose for their prewedding photos on the bridge where Suzhou Creek begins and interconnects with Huangpu River. This is Waibaidu Bridge, or the Garden Bridge. The soontobewed couples pose in splendid attire on the bridge, leaning against the railing or sitting on the wooden floor. Some even risk walking into the middle of the road to get the perfect lights illuminate the bridge throughout the night, making it a picturesque place for prewedding portraits and lovers to meet. Constructed in 1873 and designed by a British pany, the 106meterlong bridge was the firstever major bridge in Shanghai. In 1856, the first large wooden bridge, Wells Bridge, was built over Suzhou Creek but the bridge toll led to plaints from citizens. So 17 years later, another wooden bridge, which did not require tolls, was built. People called it Waibaidu, which means “going across for free”. The bridge