Shanghai Surprise..

It was a totally unplanned for holiday, cos S and I normally don’t take a vacation in the middle of the year. We usually take a couple vacation at the end of the year after the family vacation. But this year was different, thanks to expiring frequent flyer points. It was also unplanned cos both of us didn’t have much time to read up about Shanghai. All we did before we left was to book the tickets and hotel…and we went..to our long post-poned trip. ( the last time we wanted to go to Shanghai was 7 years ago, right before I found out I was pregnant with D, and the trip had to be cancelled)

We flew the mid-night flight out of Singapore and arrived in Shanghai bright and early at 5:30am :) We took a ride to the city on one of the fastest trains in the world, the Meglev. It was rather ‘slow’ ride as it only went up to 301kn/hr even it could have done more than 400km/hr. The trip took only 7 mins when a cab ride would have taken at least 30 mins. Oh well, for the fun of it and the bragging rights :) We took the train to Loyang Station at Pudong, and then Line 2 to People’s Sq where it was only 1 block away from our hotel.

We stayed at Citadines Shanghai at Beijng Xi Lu. This place is more like a service apartment then a hotel. We booked a one-room studio that came with a small kitchenette (S$140/night), but they upgraded us to a one-bedroom apartment with free broadband & breakfast. No complains there! :) It is very convienent as it is within walking distance to Nanjing East Rd where the shopping street is and also People’s Theatre where all the local day tour meets :)

Since we didn’t really plan for this holiday, we relied heavily on the guidebook that I got from the National library. It was a pretty good guide and is the 2nd most recommended Shanghai guidebook on Amazon.cn :) Yeap, it is in Chinese :) So, we just followed the recommendations of the book and off we went to Huanghe Road for some yummy lunch as recommended the guidebook - 小扬生煎包. All for 16 yuan. There are lots of small eateries there and they are all recommended places. Another place that we wanted to visit was the place that offered 汤包 opposite the 生煎包 place.

Nangjing East Rd was our next stop. It was just around the corner, and is touted as THE shopping street in Shanghai ( of course, there are others now like Huahai Road). It is very crowded!! All tourists go there and plus it was the semi-golden week (dumpling festival holidays), the crowds were really in! There were some local stores, and also many familiar names like Uniqlo & Mango. There was also a large shop that sold all things from the Shanghai Expo! See..you don’t really need to go to the Expo to get the souvenirs :) But other then shops I must say the night view of the street is also quite spectacular.

We also had a ‘cultural lesson’ when we visited the People’s Park where there were scenes of local SDU in action…erm…matching making in the park…done mostly by parents and gradnparents. Check out the “advertisements”! S found the whole scene so amusing that he kept taking pictures. One of the parents thought he was interested and wanted to engaged him in conversation…but too bad…I came along…haha!

We also visited Pudong and “saw”the Pearl Orient Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Centre. It was rather cloudy and the queue was soooo long….we gave up. We decided just to snap some pictures and went to the mall instead!

We also visited 新天地 which is a nice place for alfresco dinning. You can get quite a variety of western food here if you ever get tired of local meals. It feels very much like Clark Quay cos this place is filled with expats and you would certainly not think that you are in Shanghai, but maybe in Taipei, HK or Singapore.

This place is within walking distance from Huaihai Road..another shopping street which sells high end stuff ( think LV, Cartier & Tiffany). The streets looked lovely in the night as the trees are all drapped with light bulbs…reminds you of Champs Elysee, If you are into Barbie dolls, the official Barbie store is also located along this street.

And of course, we had to visit the Bund!! How can you come and not visit this place? But I must say, I was a little disappointed cos it is so similar to Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong especially when you look across the river to Pudong. The only difference is the line of buildings behind you brings you back to the 1920s & 30s.

There are also other places that we went to like Hangzhou and Shanghai Expo, i would probably write those experience in another post. Overall, the trip was certainly an eye -opener for me. I have not been to China for about 10 years, and things have certainly changed alot. Shanghai is very cosmopolitan yet has retained some of its old world charm. However, every where you go, you can’t escape the rapid modernisation of the place. Old and new Shanghai seems to have an uneasy existence. The places may be new, but the people are still very much Shanghainese. I still see people wearing their PJs walking around, people arguing in loud voices ( yeap…and almost a fight too..), and of course the infamous lack of “personal space” wherever you go. But this is the charm of Shanghai, to be able to still remain the same despite changes happening around it at a blinding pace. I wished I had more time to explore and to enjoy this city cos I think there are so much more to see then what the travel brochure tells you about. Sometimes i wish I could meet someone local when i travel so that I will go to places where locals go to..but I think I got a glimpse of what locals do when I joined a local tour to Hangzhou, but that’s for another post!!