Sheshan is a weird place, villa kingdom (别墅王国). Sure you’re in a forest, but all around you are the distant clangs of houses being built inside gated communities. Whatever, I came here to pa some shan (爬山). The concierge at Le Meridien looked at me strangely when I told him I wanted to do some hiking/bushwhacking. He politely directed me to the main gate of the West Sheshan Park, Shanghai’s famed National Forest. In reality, you can just plunge into the bamboo forest directly behind the resort and find a trail, but, hey, that’s my job: make mistakes so you don’t have to.

Cathedral

In any event, after checking out the 100-year-old cathedral (cool), I did bushwhack a bit on the west mountain. At one point I even found a bamboo ladder and used it to scale a wall into the Seismic Observatory, part of which was built in 1936. Totally illegal and completely fun. I expected either to be chased by pit bulls or come upon a dead body. Neither of which happened. I did find that there is a real working convent just below the cathedral, its whitewashed walls beautiful through the swaying bamboo, and a gift shop where Chinese Christians buy statues of a very hippie looking Jesus. No Bibles on sale, though. Lots of cool Christian iconography strewn around the area, so do some meandering. Wish I could find someone who could shed some light on what this area was like on a typical Sunday 80 years ago. The Shanghai laowai elite in their Sunday best pulling up in carriages?

Moral of the story: Sheshan is setting itself up as Shanghai’s version of Victoria Peak. And if you want to bushwhack through the forest, skip the west mountain and head for the East Park. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment for a spa treatment at Le Spa in 15 minutes. Ahem.