Shanghai is certainly a huge city, so unless you stay right down town you’re going to lose a lot of time travelling. The public transport is good, but it can be packed and the stations are very far apart, meaning that you are always left with a long way to walk. In the end we ended up walking a lot more than we normally would have because it didn't make sense to take the subway. If you don’t like crowds you’re going to have a bit of a problem here. All the main attractions are swarming with people!
Since there are so many expats in Shanghai a lot of the people speak (or at least understand) some English.
Since there are so many expats in Shanghai a lot of the people speak (or at least understand) some English.
Getting Around:
We arrived at the Shanghai Pudong Airport which is the one on the South-East side of the city. It’s connected to the city with the Maglev which we decided to take because a) we thought it would save us time and b) we wanted to ride the fast train!
Well the train was fast but the overall journey to the city center was not. Here’s the problem, you get on the train and it goes really fast but it only goes to the Longyang Road station. From there you have to get out of the train, walk a while, and catch the same subway you would have caught if you had decided to take the subway all the way from the airport. Okay, so that doesn't sound so bad but don’t forget all the other people who got off the train want to catch the same subway train that you do. Not to mention all the people who opted to get into the subway at the airport itself. So basically this means that the subway is packed. We had to wait in line to get in. Thank goodness that at least they had people there making everyone stand in line and assuring that there was no pushing. We managed to get into the second subway that arrived even though we were the first people in line. In retrospect I think it would have been less stressful to take the subway from the airport. That way we would have been able to sit and the crowds would not have bothered us. By the time we got to East Nanjing Road the subway had pretty much emptied out and it was not a problem to get off.
Once we were in Shanghai we bought a metro card but it’s not as easy to get the money back in mainland China as it is in Hong Kong so we lost the deposit and the left over money on it. Plus we ended up hardly using the subway. All in all I think we rode it twice. Once on the second day and then at the end to the get to the train station and zoo. If you travel outside of rush hour it might make more sense to buy single ride tickets since the card does not entitle you to any discounts.
If you stay at the hotel we did there is a ticket counter where you can buy train tickets right at the entrance of the building (on the right hand side as you come in). Mind you, you have to pay a commission (beats travelling to the train station, believe me) and if you get the wrong ticket you can't exchange it (although you can exchange it at the train station).
One of the disadvantages to this hotel is that it is LOUD. We had a room facing the back so we could not hear any street noise but we could hear everything from the adjoining rooms. Chinese can be very loud and let me tell you that the women can be very high pitched too!
Once we were in Shanghai we bought a metro card but it’s not as easy to get the money back in mainland China as it is in Hong Kong so we lost the deposit and the left over money on it. Plus we ended up hardly using the subway. All in all I think we rode it twice. Once on the second day and then at the end to the get to the train station and zoo. If you travel outside of rush hour it might make more sense to buy single ride tickets since the card does not entitle you to any discounts.
If you stay at the hotel we did there is a ticket counter where you can buy train tickets right at the entrance of the building (on the right hand side as you come in). Mind you, you have to pay a commission (beats travelling to the train station, believe me) and if you get the wrong ticket you can't exchange it (although you can exchange it at the train station).
Hotel:
After Hong Kong I didn’t book any expensive hotels. I wanted to stay down town and I wanted all 4 of us to sleep in one room. This kind of limited our choices. In Shanghai I found that the global chain hotels didn’t have any rooms in which 4 people could sleep. Two rooms would have been too expensive and I didn’t want the kids sleeping alone in an unconnected room. So I booked us into the Seventh Heaven Hotel. It is bam smack in the middle of East Nanjing Road and yes, bam smack in between two subway stations :(. And if you happen to use Expedia: the location of the hotel on their map is incorrect.
One of the disadvantages to this hotel is that it is LOUD. We had a room facing the back so we could not hear any street noise but we could hear everything from the adjoining rooms. Chinese can be very loud and let me tell you that the women can be very high pitched too!
The other not so nice thing was that, although the rooms were non-smoking it didn't stop people from doing just that. Since there were gaps under the room doors the smoke crept in. But cigarette smoke is just one of those things you’ll have to get used to if you are travelling in China. Then of course there was the staff who was not very friendly or helpful.
On the flip side the room was really nice. We had free water, a fridge, soft mattresses and plenty of room. Most of all I enjoyed the decor of the room. It was a very old building and there were moldings on the ceiling and hardwood floors. It reminded me of the old buildings from the colonial period in Sri Lanka. This is the exact room that we stayed in and yes, those are two double beds!
Day 4:
The day we arrived we didn't get to do anything other than have dinner. I initially thought we'd see the Bund and have some dinner around there. Unfortunately getting from the airport to the hotel took much longer than we had expected. Add on to that they changed our initial flight time twice which meant we were arriving around 2 hours later than I had originally planned. We were so tired after our trip into Shanghai that we had dinner in a mall (Hongyi Plaza) that is joined to the East Nanjing Road subway station. Here we experienced the first difference between Hong Kong and mainland China... no toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms and mainly squatting toilets! We were okay with the squatting toilets being used to them from Sri Lanka but we had to stock up on toilet paper and carry it around with us. As for soap, I just took a small bar from the hotel and stuck it in a small zip lock bag. It came in very handy. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant that was reasonably priced, quick, had pretty good food and whose name I cannot remember. We then headed to the hotel and crashed for the night.
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| East Nanjing Road by night |
Day 5:
We tried out the breakfast at the hotel which was nowhere near stellar but we had 6 breakfast coupons so we figured we should use them up. The restaurant was dingy and badly lit, the tea was terribly weak and the bread was like fluff. The kids enjoyed the strawberry jam on toast and there were boiled eggs to go with it. If you are a meat eater things probably are a bit better and if you enjoy eating oily, hot food for breakfast you would be fine too. Oh yes! The other thing we enjoyed was the rice soup which my in-laws frequently make us for breakfast so we were used to it.
After eating we headed out to the East Nanjing Road subway station and caught the #2 to the Yuyuan Gardens. We were rather unlucky because it was pouring with rain! We used this as an excuse to duck into the shops in the Yuyuan Bazaar. We watched them making European style hard boiled sweets in one shop. It seemed to be the rage in China. We really should have bit the bullet and bought some with the panda face in them.
Thanks to the weather we wanted to have tea at the famous Huxinting Teahouse but after sitting down and perusing the menu we decided this was just too much to pay for a cup of tea. We seriously wondered if they had a tourist menu because they seemed to have big pots of tea for locals that were not on the menu. I don't have a photo of this place because of the rain but you can follow the link above and see some on trip advisor. Looking at their pictures I'm realizing that we must have been really lucky that it was raining because there were way fewer people!
We were not too impressed with the gardens. I think we got off on a bad foot because the first area we visited looked just like the Chinese tea garden in the botanical gardens of the Ruhr University which is about 10 minutes walk from our house in Germany! But it could have also been the rain or that we were expecting more green and less concrete and stone.
We exited through the southern entrance and went in search of the Temple of the Town God. That was also a bit difficult to find. But once we hit the road at the southern side of the "block" we turned left and it was right there. I think the trick is you have to enter the temple from the main road and although there is an exit back into the bazaar you can't get in through there. The temple is much like the Man Mo Temple just bigger. Lots of people, lots of incense, the kids were totally saturated with this type of temple.
We wanted to eat some vegetarian food here but the teahouse seemed deserted so we opted to go back outside to find something. We walked west on the main road, turned right on the next main street and on the junction of this road and a road that headed back into the bazaar we found a vegetarian restaurant called Songyuelou which turns out to be one of Shanghai's oldest vegetarian restaurants. The downstairs serves quick, hot food like noodle soup and the upstairs serves regular vegetarian food. We opted for upstairs because they had an English menu. It was fine upstairs except that the other guests ignored the no smoking signs :(
After lunch we wondered past the Chenxiangge Nunnery. We decided not to go in and walked over to the Shanghai Museum. The walk was rather long but on the street that we walked down every other store sold either pianos or violins. This kept our kids occupied since the older one plays the piano and the younger one the viola. It was quite amazing to see every brand under the sun all on one street, all in spotlessly clean, modern showrooms.
Eventually we got to the museum only to find a long line outside. But we needn't have worried, lines in China tend to move very fast and this one was just a security line so it was super fast. We were inside in a jiffy, in the foyer of the museum:
Eventually we got to the museum only to find a long line outside. But we needn't have worried, lines in China tend to move very fast and this one was just a security line so it was super fast. We were inside in a jiffy, in the foyer of the museum:
We were too tired to do the whole museum so we just focused on a couple of galleries that interested us. The museum was quite packed and it closed rather early so even if we had been fit enough to go through the whole museum I doubt we would have had time. This piece was my favourite. I love how the cats are trying to attack the buffalo!
We exited through the northern entrance and walked through People's Square back down Nanjing Road. If I remember correctly we had Mac Donald's for dinner!
My husband remembers walking down the street before it was a pedestrian zone and we got a bit of a feeling how it must have been when the pedestrian zone ended. It was quite difficult to walk along the pavement with the kids. We finally reached the Bund and crossed over to stand on the Bund itself, which was again packed with people.
As you can see although it wasn't raining there were quite a few clouds, so we couldn't see the tops of the two tallest buildings in Pudong. But the most interesting part was on the side we were on where the old buildings still survive. Hardly anyone seemed to turn around and look at these historical buildings.
From a European point of view none of the buildings are very old. None of them are much older than 110 years, but in China this is rather old. Chinese have a love for new things and do not find anything old worth keeping. Hence, there are hardly any old buildings, they are all ripped down (or left to decay) and new ones are built in their place. You can see this everywhere in China. Of course they do preserve the very old and very large places e.g. the forbidden city, the great wall.
We popped into one of the buildings that now houses a small, but fancy, shopping mall. The lobby was so nice and they had good British tea, Twinnings to be exact. But at 10 Euro a cup we were not going to stop for a cuppa.
Day 6:
We finally walked down East Nanjing Road to the Bund! It was amazing how many people there were on the road and how few there were in the shops, with the one exception being the Apple store!My husband remembers walking down the street before it was a pedestrian zone and we got a bit of a feeling how it must have been when the pedestrian zone ended. It was quite difficult to walk along the pavement with the kids. We finally reached the Bund and crossed over to stand on the Bund itself, which was again packed with people.
As you can see although it wasn't raining there were quite a few clouds, so we couldn't see the tops of the two tallest buildings in Pudong. But the most interesting part was on the side we were on where the old buildings still survive. Hardly anyone seemed to turn around and look at these historical buildings.
From a European point of view none of the buildings are very old. None of them are much older than 110 years, but in China this is rather old. Chinese have a love for new things and do not find anything old worth keeping. Hence, there are hardly any old buildings, they are all ripped down (or left to decay) and new ones are built in their place. You can see this everywhere in China. Of course they do preserve the very old and very large places e.g. the forbidden city, the great wall.
We popped into one of the buildings that now houses a small, but fancy, shopping mall. The lobby was so nice and they had good British tea, Twinnings to be exact. But at 10 Euro a cup we were not going to stop for a cuppa.
I particularly liked the old moldings and these wonderful lampshades. I contemplated buying them for our new house but realized that they were probably as tall as our whole building. Not to mention that they would probably cost more than our whole house does!!
We then pottered along and had lunch at a place called "Shanghai Laolao". They had plenty of vegetarian options and the food was cheap and good and the atmosphere was also nice. We then headed back home down E Nanjing Rd my husband making a stop at the Apple store, to verify rumors that i-phones were cheaper in China (cheaper but not by much), and me at Gap which was directly opposite. We didn't plan on doing any shopping but I really wanted to check out the Gap store since we don't have Gap in Germany. My husband usually buys my pants from Gap when he's on conferences in the USA!! Unfortunately they don't sell the same style of jeans in China as they do in the USA. But I bought my kids their first pairs of jeans for just 10 Euro. I always love Gap sales :)
After a short break at our hotel we met up with an old friend from San Francisco and my cousin who works somewhere in China. Our travels took us down West Nanjing Rd. towards People's Park where, according to my friend, parents show up on a Sunday with their children's resumes with the hope of finding a suitable spouse for them. Along the way we stumbled on this:
which we decided to call "big sculpture out of metal and concrete" because none of us could read the Chinese characters describing what it was. We took a break from the long walk at the Wooden Box Cafe where they play jazz in the evenings and serve tea and milkshakes (among other things). The shakes were gooooood and welcome on the hot afternoon. After doing a bit of window shopping we ate at Vegetarian Lifestyle, which was a bit upscale with excellent vegetarian food. Even our meat eating companions liked it!
After dinner we took a cab back to the hotel but not before we took in the Bund by night. A lovely spectacle if you like skylines. I actually preferred this one to the one in Hong Kong.
After "enjoying" the breakfast buffet at our hotel we headed off to the Shanghai Zoo. I'd promised my youngest that by hook or by crook she would see a real live panda in China, since there aren't any in Germany. She was totally hooked on them after watching the live cam at the San Diego Zoo. Getting there was easy enough because the subway (line 10) stops right at the zoo, but of course we had other issues. We had bought train tickets to Hangzhou that left in the afternoon from the Shanghai Hongqiao train station. This station is two stops away from the zoo which was very convenient. The problem was our luggage! So instead of going straight to the zoo we first went to the train station to find the left luggage counter so that we could store our packs. The train station is HUGE! We had a time finding the counter, it is not sign-boarded, at least not in English, and it turned out to be a bit larger than a walk-in cupboard with a couple of young ladies looking after it. I wish I could find a plan of the place so I could show you where it is. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, it was not cheap!
Well once we had taken care of our bags we headed back to the zoo, which was by this time packed with the ticket counter line making Disney Land lines look short! But, again, we were pleasantly surprised how fast the lines moved. Make sure you know how tall your kids are before you get in line. In fact make sure you measure your kids before you leave home so that you know if they are under 120 cm, 130 cm or 140 cm, for these are the typical cut offs in China when buying tickets.
We'd heard a lot about how bad the zoo was, and how disturbing it was, but all I can say is that if you want disturbing you should have visited the Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka in the 1980's. Then you would know what disturbing is! The zoo was almost spotlessly clean. I'm not sure you could keep it much cleaner with so many people visiting which ever country you were in (okay maybe it's possible in Japan).
We headed straight for the panda's because the zoo was much larger than we had thought it was and we had a train to catch at around 3 pm. The paths were shady and the lakes/ ponds were pleasing, the only thing that annoyed me was the cicada's. Oh my, they were so loud it was almost deafening! And it was non-stop. I was reminded of the metal cicada's they sell in China Town in SF, if you know which ones I mean just imagine 1,000 of them singing at the same time. Within an hour I had a headache and after spending some time staring at the panda's I just wanted to get out of there!
Turns out that my little panda fan changed her mind about her second favourite animal (her first is the penguin) it is now the red panda, also known as the lesser panda, and I could not agree with her more.
We checked out a few more animals, whose enclosures were on par with European ones, saw no more people knocking at the glass than we do in Germany (percentage wise) and left to catch our train. All in all it was a good experience but if ever I find myself there again I'll invest in a pair of noise reduction headphones!!
Back at the train station we found our waiting area, took a seat on the ground, and waited. Given that there were so many seats you might think that you would find one but that was not the case. The whole waiting area was packed. Good thing the floor was spotless.
We got our first, train boarding experience here. Quite different from anywhere else in the world that I've been. Probably because of the huge amount of people boarding the trains. Everyone waits in the waiting area until their train starts boarding. Then you have to proceed through the gate and down the stairs (the waiting area is always on the floor above the platforms) to get to your train. Don't be surprised when your train is boarded 30 minutes before departure. The trains are so long that you need this time to get downstairs, walk the length of the train and find your seat.
The train was very comfortable. We chose a fast train which got us to Hangzhou East Railway Station in a little under one hour. Fantastic ride with great views of urban and rural China. If you are staying in down town Hangzhou (which I highly recommend) then you should catch a train to the Hangzhou Main Station. It takes around 5 - 10 minutes longer with the trains running every hour.
We were picked up here by my father-in-law and went back to his place for dinner and a good nights sleep.
We then pottered along and had lunch at a place called "Shanghai Laolao". They had plenty of vegetarian options and the food was cheap and good and the atmosphere was also nice. We then headed back home down E Nanjing Rd my husband making a stop at the Apple store, to verify rumors that i-phones were cheaper in China (cheaper but not by much), and me at Gap which was directly opposite. We didn't plan on doing any shopping but I really wanted to check out the Gap store since we don't have Gap in Germany. My husband usually buys my pants from Gap when he's on conferences in the USA!! Unfortunately they don't sell the same style of jeans in China as they do in the USA. But I bought my kids their first pairs of jeans for just 10 Euro. I always love Gap sales :)
After a short break at our hotel we met up with an old friend from San Francisco and my cousin who works somewhere in China. Our travels took us down West Nanjing Rd. towards People's Park where, according to my friend, parents show up on a Sunday with their children's resumes with the hope of finding a suitable spouse for them. Along the way we stumbled on this:
which we decided to call "big sculpture out of metal and concrete" because none of us could read the Chinese characters describing what it was. We took a break from the long walk at the Wooden Box Cafe where they play jazz in the evenings and serve tea and milkshakes (among other things). The shakes were gooooood and welcome on the hot afternoon. After doing a bit of window shopping we ate at Vegetarian Lifestyle, which was a bit upscale with excellent vegetarian food. Even our meat eating companions liked it!
After dinner we took a cab back to the hotel but not before we took in the Bund by night. A lovely spectacle if you like skylines. I actually preferred this one to the one in Hong Kong.
Day 7:
After "enjoying" the breakfast buffet at our hotel we headed off to the Shanghai Zoo. I'd promised my youngest that by hook or by crook she would see a real live panda in China, since there aren't any in Germany. She was totally hooked on them after watching the live cam at the San Diego Zoo. Getting there was easy enough because the subway (line 10) stops right at the zoo, but of course we had other issues. We had bought train tickets to Hangzhou that left in the afternoon from the Shanghai Hongqiao train station. This station is two stops away from the zoo which was very convenient. The problem was our luggage! So instead of going straight to the zoo we first went to the train station to find the left luggage counter so that we could store our packs. The train station is HUGE! We had a time finding the counter, it is not sign-boarded, at least not in English, and it turned out to be a bit larger than a walk-in cupboard with a couple of young ladies looking after it. I wish I could find a plan of the place so I could show you where it is. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, it was not cheap!
Well once we had taken care of our bags we headed back to the zoo, which was by this time packed with the ticket counter line making Disney Land lines look short! But, again, we were pleasantly surprised how fast the lines moved. Make sure you know how tall your kids are before you get in line. In fact make sure you measure your kids before you leave home so that you know if they are under 120 cm, 130 cm or 140 cm, for these are the typical cut offs in China when buying tickets.
We'd heard a lot about how bad the zoo was, and how disturbing it was, but all I can say is that if you want disturbing you should have visited the Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka in the 1980's. Then you would know what disturbing is! The zoo was almost spotlessly clean. I'm not sure you could keep it much cleaner with so many people visiting which ever country you were in (okay maybe it's possible in Japan).
We headed straight for the panda's because the zoo was much larger than we had thought it was and we had a train to catch at around 3 pm. The paths were shady and the lakes/ ponds were pleasing, the only thing that annoyed me was the cicada's. Oh my, they were so loud it was almost deafening! And it was non-stop. I was reminded of the metal cicada's they sell in China Town in SF, if you know which ones I mean just imagine 1,000 of them singing at the same time. Within an hour I had a headache and after spending some time staring at the panda's I just wanted to get out of there!
Turns out that my little panda fan changed her mind about her second favourite animal (her first is the penguin) it is now the red panda, also known as the lesser panda, and I could not agree with her more.
We checked out a few more animals, whose enclosures were on par with European ones, saw no more people knocking at the glass than we do in Germany (percentage wise) and left to catch our train. All in all it was a good experience but if ever I find myself there again I'll invest in a pair of noise reduction headphones!!
Back at the train station we found our waiting area, took a seat on the ground, and waited. Given that there were so many seats you might think that you would find one but that was not the case. The whole waiting area was packed. Good thing the floor was spotless.
We got our first, train boarding experience here. Quite different from anywhere else in the world that I've been. Probably because of the huge amount of people boarding the trains. Everyone waits in the waiting area until their train starts boarding. Then you have to proceed through the gate and down the stairs (the waiting area is always on the floor above the platforms) to get to your train. Don't be surprised when your train is boarded 30 minutes before departure. The trains are so long that you need this time to get downstairs, walk the length of the train and find your seat.
The train was very comfortable. We chose a fast train which got us to Hangzhou East Railway Station in a little under one hour. Fantastic ride with great views of urban and rural China. If you are staying in down town Hangzhou (which I highly recommend) then you should catch a train to the Hangzhou Main Station. It takes around 5 - 10 minutes longer with the trains running every hour.
We were picked up here by my father-in-law and went back to his place for dinner and a good nights sleep.
