Jinjiang Hotel

Wendy and I went to Jinjiang Hotel to attend her friends’ wedding. Jinjiang Hotel is a nice and old hotel in Shanghai. The area of the Jin jiang Hotel has one of the best architectures of Shanghai. What a co-incident. Our wedding was held three years ago on the same Saturday in the hotel nearby.

I would recommend people to stay in this hotel – it is not fancy, but comfortable. It is of the best locations in Shanghai ,and is along the charming Huaihai Road.

Don’t get fooled by its three star status – it is a very nice hotel.

Jinjiang Hotel

59 South Maoming Rd

Shanghai

200020

Tel: +86 (21) 6258 2582

Fax: +86 (21) 6472 5588

Metro: South Shaanxi Rd

Their price is very reasonable for meal. The dining rooms on the 14th floor are good.

Google Satellite Map

Sept is Maybe the Best Time to Visit Shanghai

Many people asked me the question: When is the best time to visit Shanghai? I would say, most time is good, but there are only some bad time – like winter – it is really code or summer, when it is really hot. Also avoid national holidays, like Oct 1 to 7, May 1 to 7 and Spring Festival. That is the short version of the answer.

However, these days, when I walked on the Nanjing Road, or visited the Bund at night, I regret that I didn’t tell my friends who is planning his/her visit to Shanghai that “September maybe is the best time to visit Shanghai”. Why? Because the Shanghai Travel Festival started on Sept 16.

The Festival

There are many activities in the Tour Festival. It lasts for about three weeks. There are carnivals (night of Sept 16), Boat Show on the Huang Pu River (night of Sept 28), International Fireworks Show (Sept 30, Oct 3, 6 at 19:30-20:30 in Centuary Park), F1 Race (Sept 29 to Oct 1), Beer Festival (Sept 13 – 23), Germany Week (Sept 22 to Oct 2)… There are tens of international events in the three weeks in Shanghai.

The Lights

I am not a party animal and I don’t enjoy crowded and fancy events, but I do enjoy the lights.

To reduce electricity consumption, many places in Shanghai have turned off lighting, like the Nanpu Bridge, and many land markers in Shanghai. However, during the Tour Festival, all the lights were turned up. Saturday night, when I drove along the Century Ave in Pudong, I said “WOW!” Pudong was completely turned into a place of dream. So was Puxi. I would credit 50% of the beauty of Shanghai to its lights.

Also, it is cooling down, and sunny. The weather is great. The lights are great. Sept should be one of the best time period to visit Shanghai!

7 Tips to Travel to China This Quarter

My friend MT is visiting Shanghai by the end of Sept. He is very excited about it. It is his first trip to China! He asked what is my suggestion for him to prepare the trip. I do have some tips.

Tip #1: Avoid Travel from Oct 1 to Oct 7.

October 1 to October 7 is the national holiday in China. It is also called Golden Week, because the continous 7 day holiday and good weather bring millions of people to scenaric places, hotels, also trains, airlines, and buses. In short, it is crowded everywhere. People visiting China typically don’t have the constraint of travel only in the 7 days, so avoid it. Also, if possible, avoid the two days before and after the holiday.

Tip #2: Visiting Shanghai? Strongly Suggest to Visit Beijing

For many business travellers to Shanghai, I would suggest to take a weekend to visit Beijing. Shanghai is the largest commercial city in China, but it is not a typical city that represent China. If you want to claim you’ve really been to China, plan a short trip to Beijing, and visit the Forbidden city, visit the Great Wall, and visit some Royal Gardens in Beijing. Even you don’t go to these famous places, to experience the wide streets and the narrow Hutong is a good idea. Just FYI, Beijing is 1400 KM north of Shanghai, and takes 1 and half hours to fly there. Full price ticket is 1130 RMB, and you typically can get ticket at 20% off price. (8 RMB = 1 USD)

Tip #3: Take Taxi!

Don’t bother to look at the transportation options unless you are really travelling with small budget. My point is, taxi is not as expensive as people think. From Pudong Airport to downtown is about 100 – 150 RMB (12 – 20 USD). There are much cheaper options like airport bus (18 RMB), but compared to the 100-150 USD taxi fare from SFO to Silicon Valley, it is not too high. To travel inside the city, taxi is also a handy choice, unless you want to experience Metro. (Disclaimer: I gave tips according to real situations. In this case, it is my friend Martin. You may find it not suitable for you).

Tip #4: Places to See?

Top places in Shanghai you should go are

  • The Bund. Leave it as the last place you go. Bund is much more beautiful and interesting at night (after 7:00 PM when the lights are lit).
  • Yu Garden. I don’t really enjoy Yu Garden, but my friends who visit China for the first time always enjoy themselves so much in the Yu Garden.
  • Cruise on the Huang Pu River. It worth the time and money to have a cruise on the Huang Pu River, especially at night. Typical cruise is about 1 hour.
  • Xuhui District. Spend an afternoon in the small roads in the Xuhui Area – near Hengshan Road, or Hua Shan Road, and relax yourself.

Tip #5: Learn Some Chinese

Although it is not absolutely necessary to know Chinese to visit Shanghai, if you know some very simple Chinese words, it will make you look better and more friendly to local people, so make your trip more enjoyable. My friends who visited China did survive very well without any knowledge of Chinese. I tried to teach them at least these terms:

  • Xie Xie – Thank you
  • Zai Jian – Bye Bye
  • Ni Hao – Hello

Tip #6: Bring the Right Power Adapter

The electricity in Shanghai is 220 V. You may have 110 V adapter. Most laptop, shaver, and mobile have adapter that works from 100 V to 230 V. It won’t be a problem, but the plug specification does present a problem. For example, the plug that works in U.S. typically don’t work in China. Bring a converter that works for China before your trip. I faced the challenge many times when I visit U.S.

Tip #7: Relax and Enjoy the Difference

There are many difference between cities in China and the western cities. You may find the traffic rule different (at least the way people follow the rules), the language is different, and many aspects of everyday life are different. Don’t worry. Just relax. It is not necessary to always figure out which way is right and which way is wrong. Just relax, and enjoy the difference. It is just because of the difference that you travel, isn’t it?

Bonus Tip #8: There is no Direct Flight from Taipei to Shanghai

This is obvious for many people, or useless tip for most people, but it does helped. Keep in mind, don’t expect to fly from Taipei to Shanghai directly after your visit to Taipei. You need to transit at Hong Kong, and it takes up to 5 hours to get to Shanghai. Plan according to it.

Happy travel, and share what you see in Shanghai with the community here.

Update August 31, 2006

Additional tips from my readers.

Tip #9: Ask a friend to buy you a prepaid mobile phone card from China Mobile/China Unicom. Bring your own GSM tri-band mobile phone (you may have to have it “unlocked” before you come), and pop the SIM chip into your phone. I find it incredibly important to have a mobile phone so you can schedule meetings, make dinner plans, etc. Everything is last-minute and fast-paced in China, you want to be reachable on your trip. (Also, if you have a Blackberry, I have found GPRS Blackberry support GREAT in China, just sign up for an international plan before you leave).

Tip #10: Ask a friend to buy a IP Phone Card. International calls are very expensive in China. It seems like IP Phone Card is the cheapest way to go. (Maybe WJS has some more tips).

Tip #11: Bring ATM cards, ideally on multiple networks. My main US bank account is on STAR/PLUS network but not on MAESTRO/CIRRUS network. I was stuck at the Hangzhou airport once with no cash and a useless ATM card…lucky I could get cash advance from my MasterCard! In my experience, Bank of China is on MAESTRO (the symbol that looks like MasterCard). Maybe someone can survey the big ATM networks and tell us travellers which ATM networks are most useful…

Tip #12: Carry more cash than you are used to. In the US, I carry very little cash because I use credit cards all the time. In China, everyone carries a ton of cash and there is a good reason for it. So get a money belt, don’t let yourself be pickpocketed, but also don’t run out of money because you assume that ATMs are everywhere and credit cards are accepted everywhere. (from elliott5)

Tip #13: Check whether the toilet paper is avialable before sit down onto a toilet. It will be very imbarrasing calling for help with your pants down. (from xge)

Museums in Shanghai

Let me introduce my favorite museums in Shanghai.

The Shanghai Art Museum

My favorite museum in Shanghai is the Shanghai Art Museum.

The photo was originally published under Starbucks in A Day.

Location: North Huangpi Road, and West Nanjing Road (map).

Metro: Shanghai Metro Line #1, #2 People Square Station.

Land marker: It is just beside the Tomorrow Square (the JW Marriott Hotel). You won’t miss the hotel by checking the highest building with arrow to the sky in the People’s Square area.

Ticket Price: 20 RMB.

They have a nice website at http://www.cnarts.net/shanghaiart/index_c.asp

It is my most visited museum in Shanghai. The exhibition changes frequently, and the best exhibition I saw as the Impressionism : treasures from the national collection of France in 2004. Every time you go there, there is something new. The next big thing for the museum is Shanghai Biennale 2006.

The Kathleen 5 on the top of Shanghai Art Museum is a good restaurant, with nice very to the whole People’s Park.

Shanghai Museum

Shanghai Museum is, maybe, the biggest museum in Shanghai. The name is confusing. I would rather call it Shanghai Ancient History Museum, since there is nothing about modern Shanghai in the museum. To be more exact, I would name it China Ancient History Museum (in Shanghai), since there is not many stuff originally from Shanghai, but from all across China. The museum tells the complete story of the history of China – the art, drawings, coins, jade, and ancient China…

Price: 50 RMB

Location: Center of Shanghai :-) – the middle of the People’s Square.

Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center

I like this museum very much. It has a special area with real model of the city – you can see all the buildings within the Shanghai inner ring there. It is very good for technical guys to visit – you can understand how the city is built.

Location: Opposite of the Shanghai Museum – Exit at gate #1 of the People’s Square and you are right at the gate of the museum.

Price: 30 RMB

Time: 9:00 – 5:00 PM, Mon – Thur, 9:00 – 6:00 PM, Fri – Sun

Others

There are many other museums in Shanghai. Above are only my favorites, and I didn’t visit all museums in Shanghai.

For example, the Shanghai Grand Theater Gallery in the building of the Shanghai Art Museum is also good, and the paintings are for sale. The Bund Museum at the Bund was the old lamp tower for the Bund, and now turned into a museum. Didn’t visited yet. The MOCA (Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art) in the People’s Park is also good – newly opened, and aim to be something like MoMA… So plan some time in your next trip to visit these museums in Shanghai.

Top 3 Issues of Shanghai Tourism

Reporter and Editor of Travel Times Miss Chen Zhen chatted with me about the tourism service of Shanghai. The newspaper is part of the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission, the government organization in charge of tourism of Shanghai.

She asked: What do you think Shanghai should improve in tourism, especially for international visitors?

I thought there are many that Shanghai needs to improve to make travel and sightseeing more enjoyable for foreigners, but I wasn’t able to name top 3 issues of Shanghai Tourism as a whole. Should it be more English information about Shanghai? or be better service in tourism industry, like travel agencies?

As visitors or expats in Shanghai, I believe my readers may have better answers. I want to pass readers’ comments to those who can make some impact, so Shanghai is a more visitor/traveler friendly city.

P.S. We met because the commission thought I may be a good candidate for Shanghai Tourism Ambassador. :-) It is a good title, but I would rather to my daily work to introduce “events (in Shanghai) that affect my life (and others’)”.

P.S. I am happy to chat with Zhen, and Yangyu, and I suddenly found I love the city I live better than I thought. I had a dream of open an (as mentioned in this article

I learnt a small shop space near Xintiandi only cost around 5000 RMB/month to rent. Not a very bad deal. I dreamed to open an Unofficial Shanghai Tourist Center before. I don’t like the so-called Shanghai Official Tourist Center. They are not helpful as the worst travel company because they have no incentive to attract more visitors to their centers (they are not a profit center so not many people care). In the “unofficial” tourist center, there will be some free articles (printed from this site and other contributing sources) and some volunteers to offer tour guide (in exchange of foreign language practices with native speakers to Shanghai). It may remain a dream until I decide to retire some day. I am serious because retiring early (than age of 40) was my other dream.

So the questions for you. What is the top 3 areas to improve for Shanghai Tourism?

Pictures of the Bund

Just be back from the birthday party of Jun.

I took some pictures of the Bund (both the Puxi side and Pudong side) with my new Nikon D50.

I don’t have a tripod. I was on the boat, so the image is not as sharp as it should be.

The Bund is the must see in Shanghai. If you can take the boat for half an hour or two hours in summer, that will be the best experience in Shanghai. So try it. The best palce to see both side of the Huangpu river is, in the middle of the river.

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang. Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Zhang Jiang Hi-Tech Park

I was in Zhangjiang yesterday. Here are some pictures of the Zhang Jiang Hi-Tech Park.

Location: It is east of Maglev Longyang Road Station. It means it is closer to the Pudong airport (a little bit) than the Maglev terminal station.

Why it is different?

It is the Shanghai’s high-tech zone, with a lot of chip design, manufacturing, bio-tech, and software companies. It is the terminal station of Metro No.2.

What is one the picture?

It is taken from Zhang Jiang Mansion, the tallest building in the park to south, and to north.

What is the lower building in the last picture?

It is villa.

How Xintiandi was Built

Xintiandi is a wonderful place to go at night. But before the nice-look buildings, bars, and restaurants were built, it looked like this. It is not that fancy, but it is the history of the city, where many people lived there for generations.

I found out these pictures I took at the end of 2004. Let me show you the pictures of locations near Xintiandi. I believe another area of Xintiandi will raise from this land.

Before the modern buildings, were some old historical architectures.

Most of them have been towed down. For this one, how knows its fate.

Like this one. Look at the arch and the design – it is a nice building.

The stairs, and the rooms – all desctructed

The tractors is standing by to get rid of these houses.

There are still some people living in the buildings, How can you imagine that!

The nice decoration on the arch of the door.

The poles are also created with efforts and sense of art.

shanghai_how_xintiandi_was_built_20.jpg

shanghai_how_xintiandi_was_built_26.jpg

shanghai_how_xintiandi_was_built_27.jpg

At the ground of the towed-down area, some cooks are kiling their time when there is no one in their restaurant

shanghai_how_xintiandi_was_built_28.jpg

At the newly built building, workers are drawing the “lines” between bricks

More workers on other areas.

Including the top

Google Satellite Map

From the Google map, you can still see the area with all the houses there.

World Financial Center – Part II

Last Friday, I had important meeting at the Grant Hyatt in the Jin Mao Tower. I was told of the meeting in the morning, and directly rushed to the tower. (I was actually sent an email 22:00 PM or later the previous day, while I was at 5G Review).

I found it is long before my last time taking random pictures while I move in the city. Maybe Dan Li is right. I suffer from burnout a little bit, so I don’t have time to pay attention to the details of life. The May holiday is not far. So… I believe I can have a good rest in that 7 days.

Shanghai World Financial Center

Before entering Jin Mao tower, I noticed (obviously) that the Shanghai World Financial Center is much taller than the last observation

It is around 20 floors so far. It is not a short building already, but it is only at its very early stage in the 101 floor plan.

From the second floor (where the big conference room and ball rooms reside) of the Jin Mao Tower, looking east, you get this great scene:

The taller neighbor of Jin Mao Tower is growing taller and taller.

Jin Mao Tower in the Previous Night

Look at the moon between the Jin Mao Tower (on the left) and the meeting facility buliding on the right.

Life in a City with Many High-Raising Building

Many people like high-raising buildings. So do I. I was keen to learn the name of all skyscapers, and metrics about the building. However, recently, I mean in the last one year, I start to get bored of the high buildings. Just like the Moon by Jin Mao Tower picture shows, it is not as pleasant to me as the picture of a Chinese ancient-style garden.

More than 6000 tall buildings (more than 11 floors) were built in Shanghai between 1990 and 2004.

Here is the list of top 50 higest buildings in Shanghai by Emporis.com:

01. Oriental Pearl TV Tow..

02. Jin Mao Tower

03. Shimao International ..

04. Plaza 66

05. Tomorrow Square

06. Hong Kong New World T..

07. Bocom Financial Tower..

08. Grand Gateway Shangha..

09. Grand Gateway Shangha..

10. Bank of Shanghai Head..

11. Maxdo Centre

12. International Ocean S..

13. Bank of China Tower

14. Raffles Square

15. Changfeng Hotel

16. Shanghai Dong Hai Pla..

17. World Finance Tower

18. King Tower

19. Pudong International ..

20. Sofitel Jin Jiang Ori..

21. Nan Zheng Building

22. Lippo Plaza

23. Shanghai Sen Mao Inte..

24. Huaxia Financial Squa..

25. Huaxia Financial Squa..

26. Golden Magnolia Plaza..

27. Radisson Hotel Shangh..

28. Golden Bell Mansion

29. World Plaza Shanghai

30. Bund Center

31. Wenxin United Press B..

32. The Center

33. Lan Sheng Building

34. Lansheng Building

35. China Insurance Build..

36. CITIC Square

37. CAAC Pudong Tower

38. Bao’an Tower

39. Huaneng Union Tower

40. Shanghai Futures Buil..

41. China Merchants Tower

42. Shanghai China Mercha..

43. Aurora Plaza

44. Pudong Development Ma..

45. Ciro’s Plaza

46. Union Square I

47. Union Square II

48. Pudong Shangri La Hot..

49. Citigroup Tower

50. Shanghai Property Inf..

Four Must-See Roads in Shanghai

Johnny asked about four must-see roads in Shanghai. My answer is:

  • Nanjing Road – for the commercial scene of Shanghai.
  • Shi Ji Road (Centuary Road) – for the development of the Pudong area.
  • Henshan Road – to know the beauty of residential areas,
  • Small roads in Yu Yuan – to discover the history of Shanghai

Enjoy your Shanghai trip on Shanghai street!

Shanghai World Financial Center

shanghai-world.f.c.jpg

World Financial Center under construction. Picture taken by Jian Shuo Wang

Yes. I can confirm it – the building, Shanghai World Financial Center, which was held during the Asia Economic Crisis, starts construnction again.

As you can see, the building is just a little bit higher than a bus yet, but it has much more potential to grow than a bus.

The picture above was taken at night from my taxi window. It may takes 3 years to complete. Then it will become the tallest building in the world. Below is a concepture picture of the building.

screen-world.f.c-image.jpg

Image in courtesy of www.kpf.com

Yu Garden

Visit Shanghai? Want to see the most “Chinese” side of Shanghai? I suggest our dearest visitors to go to the Yu Garden.

I have been a frequently host for many foreigners to Shanghai. Every time, I arrange a tour to Yu Garden to them, and up to now, everyone is so excited about this market with no exception. It is very “Chinese” style market with everything you think can be treated “Chinese”. From nice jade to chopstick, from “duilian” to red latterns. Here is the location:

Enjoy Shanghai!

Trusted Tourism Agency

Stephen asked me about a reliable package tour from Shanghai to Beijing:

Can you please recommend any reliable package tour from Shanghai?

He is the not the first one to ask me the same question. Actually, there should be 20 emails around this topic I received so far.

Well. Since I don’t use travel agency too much for my domestic or international travel, I don’t have personal experience to guide me to give you an answer. But I believe there are some choices, based on what I heard.

They seem to be more famous.

I would like to bring the questiont to my readers: do you have any recommendation based on your experiences?

P.S. I will be in Beijing in the next few days.

Does Shanghai have Beach

“Shanghai is at the sea! I have planned one afternoon on the beach and see the Sunset…” my friend told me on the phone.

Unfortunately, there is no beach in Shanghai. Although Shanghai is near the East Sea, the downtown is very far from the nearest bean (more than 50 km away). Also, there are only yellow mud. The sea looks yellow and dirty. There is no sand beach in Shanghai, and since Shanghai is facing east, it is impossible to see sun set down to the sea.

I have visited three areas that can be called “beach”. One is the Chuan Sha. The other is Feng Xian (going directly down to the south). It is actually the Hangzhou Bay. The third is the Luchao Habor, which is the most southeast point of Shanghai. Although they are not like the beach in Sanya, they are still a good place to relax.

Route – Highlights of Shanghai

Zheng posted a very nice route about visiting Shanghai in one day. I’d like to quote it here so more people can enjoy the tips. I agree this is a nice arrangement.

I usually take my friends by a route I called “highlights of Shanghai”. The route is good according to their feedbacks. However, the route does need some stamina and local knowledge. Anyway, most of the places are not too far away.

Start from people’s square at early morning. Before 7:30AM you can see a lot of local people doing exercises on the square. Because the people’s square is a key traffic interchange, you can see a lot of people during rush hour. That’s a part of the life in Shanghai.

Than you can go to Shanghai museum, one of the best museums of ancient China in the world. You can spend at least half day in the museum.

Depart from people’s square; you can go to old Chinese town for lunch. It is about 1.5km to 2km to the old Chinese town. You can buy a lot of Chinese souvenirs there and do not forget to bargain. Nearly everything can be bargained. There are several good restaurants in the old Chinese town. The most famous one is “Lubolang”. U.S. president Clinton and a lot of other diplomats and celebrities had dinner there. In front of Lubolang, there is a famous ancient Chinese garden called “Yuyuan garden”. You can take a visit for 0.5 to 1 hour after enjoyed your lunch.

You can experience the noisy, happy and tranquil (inside the Yuyuan garden) China in the old Chinese town. Then we can go to Pudong.

Take a ferry at “Shiliupu” (Pier 16 in Chinese), the closest ferry station to the old Chinese town. It is about 1 km from the old Chinese town. The ferry is a wonderful place both for the scenery and for the local lifestyle. It is recommended to take ferry around 4:00PM, just a little bit before the rush hour. You can see a lot of people, bikes, scooters, motorcycles on the ferry. And you can see people selling hot food on the ferry, like five spices egg, dried tofu, corn, etc. It is really nice to have one spicy egg in cold weather. You can enjoy the scenery of the Huangpu river.

About 15 minutes, you can reach Pudong. Out of the ferry station, you can see the new Pudong in front of your eyes. You can either hire a cab or walk to the center of Lujiazui. It is about 1.5~2km from the ferry to the center of Lujiazui.

Now it is dinner time. There are a lot of restaurants in Lujiazui. You can go to Jinmao Tower (the highest building in Shanghai) for a buffet dinner or to the restaurant in the Oriental Pearl Tower. From these two restaurants, you can enjoy the Birdseye view of the city. And you can enjoy the views at the same time having your dinner. It is not necessary to go up of these places if it is not clear.

After dinner, all the lights are on. You can walk along the bund of Pudong for a while then go underground to take metro line 2 (in the direction of people’s square). Just one stop, you will reach Puxi. Go out of the station, you are on Nanjing road, the pedestrian shopping street. People, so many people, that might be your first impression after you come out of the station. It is highly recommended to go along Nanjing road in the direction of Pudong (Oriental Pearl Tower is your landmark), 10 minutes walk you are on the bund. The bund at night is a must for Shanghai trip.

Then you can take a taxi or use metro line again. It is better to use metro lines because you won’t be ripped off. Take metro line 2 and transfer to metro line 1 at people’s square. At stop South Huangpi Road of line 1, you can reach Xin Tiandi, there are a lot pubs, clubs there and you can enjoy your night life. Or you can stop at Hengshan Road station of line 1, come out of the station, you are in the old French concession and there are plenty of pubs and restaurants there. Enjoy the rest of day there.

I call this route “the highlights of Shanghai day trip”. If you don’t have much time, the route might be suitable for you. The route is rated high by my friends’ feedback.

BTW, it is highly recommended to have one “Shanghai Public Transportation Card”. You can get in the metro line stations. It is a prepaid contact-less smart card. You pay 30 yuan for the deposit of the card itself and you can recharge at most of the metro stations and convenient shops around the city. The card can be used on 99% of the public transportation vehicles, like the cab, metro, bus, ferry, etc. I am proud of the project. Actually, I was one of the team members who designed the chip of the contact-less smart card. Anyone want to recruit me?

Visit the City in a Unusual Way

I wrote a series of articles on curiousity for life, enjoying doing v.s. enjoy being able to do, dislike doing or dislike starting, and afternoon in Shanghai. Combined together, it reveals the rational behind the two craziest things in my 2004: Visiting all Starbucks in A Day by Walk and Visit 30N 119E. The reason is simple – just because we live in Shanghai, we have more excuses than visitors not to visit some places. By connecting all Starbucks stores, we get a route that covers some places we never been. The confluence of 30N 119E is the same. To reach the point itself is not that meaningful, but the experience is a great way to educate myself about the villages in Zhejiang.

We don’t do something not because it is out of reach, or it disappears soon. We don’t do it just because it is too easy to do and it is ALWAYS there. I did have trouble to explain the reasons to my readers in the year of 2003. People kept telling me I should visit someplaces other than Starbucks, not to mention a point without thing meaningful.

Suggestion to Friends’ Shanghai Trip

This is my answers to my friends questions on Shanghai.

Stay

Q: How much can a decent hotel cost for one night? We don’t have a standard in mind now, but we would prefer a hotel with convenient transport connections.

A: The most cost effective, clean and convinient hotels I would like to recommend is Rujia or Motel 168 (official website). This is the hotel I recommend my friends and family to stay in. It costs from 168 RMB to 298 RMB per night. Of cause there are enough famous 5 star hotels in Shanghai that you don’t need my suggestions. (I do have some suggestions)

Places to See

Q: Where do you think are the must-check-out places in Shanghai? (for tourists of course)

A: I hesitate to give you a list of “must-check-out” places in Shanghai after I read the Art of Travel. The meaning of “must-go” places is: since everyone else goes,you must also be there to claim that you are in Shanghai. According to the tone of travel guilde books, they seem to imply that everyone who does not go to the places they suggested must have something wrong in their brain :-) OK. This is the list:

1. The Bund – go there only after 6:30 PM when the lights are lit.

2. Nanjing Road – go there only at night when the lights are lit.

3. Huai Hai Road (the section east of Shaanxi Road Metro station and sourth of Huangpi Road metro station). You can go there at day time.

4. Lujiazui (Pudong), including Jin Mao Tower and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Go there only at day time. You will be frienghtened if you go there at night. Go to the top of the tower around 5:30 gives you the best view – it goes dark while lights go on.

5. People’s Square including Shanghai museum.

That should be enough for one day of stay. This is the routine that every visitors shoud follow, suggested those boring travel guides. If you ask about my guide, check out my website. I don’t have a centralized location of all the places I visited in this city, just like they are not located side by side in the city.

To Suzhou?

Q: How long does it take to drive to Suzhou and Hangzhou? Can we take a cab there from Shanghai?

A: 1 hour to Suzhou and 2 hours and a half to Hangzhou. It takes about 600 RMB to Suzhou (I remember so) and more to Hangzhou (but less than 1000 RMB I think). You can take a cab to Suzhou, but I don’t suggest you to take cab to Huangzhou, unless you are rich enough. If you do want to go to Hangzhou by taxi, call Da Zhong at 96822 and reserve a Benz (if you are lukcy enough) for your long distance trip – they charge the same.

My Favorites in Shanghai

My favorite place for afternoon tea: Xian Zhi Xuan (Ambroise)

My favorite book store: Ji Feng Book Store

My favorite working lunch restaurant: Wei Qian La Ma

My favorite bus line: 926

My favorite place for wireless Internet access: Starbucks

My favorite Starbucks store: People’s Square store

My favorite Hunan Cursion: San Xiang Masion

My favorite tea house: Tian Qu at Dong Fang road

My favorite restaurant in Pudong: Qin Feng Tang Yun

My favorite road: Hua Shang Road (the section between Urumuqi Road and Jiang Su road)

My favorite university campus: Shanghai Acdemic of Theatre

My favorite theatre: An Fu Road Theatre

My favorite hotel building: Ritz-Carlton Portman

My favorite office building: Corporate Avenue

My favorite car make: Volkswagon Polo

My favorite gallery: Shanghai Gallary of Three on the Bund

My favorite luxrous store: Three on the Bund

My favorite book: The Art of Travel

My favorite hotel to stay: Ressainance Hotel

My favorite airport for business: Hong Qiao Airport

My favorite express way: A30

My favorite new area: Biyun International Community

My favorite church: Shanghai Community Church

My favorite Sichuan Cusion: YuXing

My favorite gym: Physical

My favorite view: The turning point from Yan’an Elevated Highway to the Zhong Shan East Rd.

My favorite furniture design: IKEA

My favorite Karaok: Cashbox

My favorite swimming pool: Sports Hotel

My favorite tennis court: Shanghai Tennis Center

My favorite car rental: Shijong Rental

My favorite airline agent: ctrip

My favorite number to call: 114

My favorite newspaper: Oritental Morning Post

My favorite technology book store: Only Bookstore of Shanghai Jiaotong University

My favorite broadband provider: ADSL from Shanghai Telecom

My favorite mobile service provider: China Mobile

My favorite taxi company: Dazhong Taxi

My favorite hosptial: Hua Shan Hospital

My favorite English Magazine: That’s Shanghai

Update: Related posts on this topic Feb 28, 2005

  • Micah posted his favorite list immediately after my post.
  • BingFeng’s Tea House also posted a list
  • Fons proposed “My Favorites in Shanghai” as the next Shanghai Weblog Meetup topic
  • I encourage people to write on this topic and notify me so I can add your list to this update

Grassroot Art in Shanghai

Art in Shanghai is also prosperous and is becoming better and better. Not many people noticed it. I have a private list of galleries that really attract me.

The Room with a View

The Room with a View gallery is a very famous one in Shanghai. It is on the 12nd floor of the Xianshi Building, No. 479 Nanjing East Road. It is very like the small gallery I saw in Seattle – a big empty room without any decoration in an old building. Although it is located in the Nanjing Road, there is only a misable elevator at the west side of the building to access it. Despite of the simply look, there are great exhibitions there. These days, there is an Lomo exhibition: Love . 37’2°C LOMO Show and Wedding Party. I heard of Lomo this time, remembered LOMO, feel the passion to try it, but later persuaded myself to get focused and don’t do too many things at the same time. :-) It was a perfect story that Zhang Qianli (the husband), and Tang Xiaomin (the wife) grew up together when they were very young in Shanghai and finally got married at their Lomo photography exhibition on the Valentine’s Day. Thanks for Holly to host me there and introduced Lomo to me. She thought all bloggers are wasting time and posting non-sense articles. :-)

Three on the Bund

There is a Shanghai Gallery of Art on the 3rd Floor of the Three on the Bund. That gallery is very fancy with nice decoration, nice equipment and located in the luxious building. It is what the traditional art gallery looks like.

Studio on Suzhou Creek

I heard of the art area along the Suzhou Creek. I didn’t visit it until recently. Many galleries and studios opened there. I guess there are more than 30. I have visited 798 Art District (mentioned) in Beijing and found those in Suzhou are very similiar. (BTW, Eric has a great video on 798 Art District). It was a old factory at 50 Moganshan Road, near the West Suzhou Creek Road. In the large factories, there are oil paintings (taller than a person) with strong and vivid colors, potery workshop (Mrs. Xie’s Studio there), and video/audio production studios.

The famous BizArt, Shanghart, ArtistLinks, eastlink are located in the same factory. I checked the rent price. A nice (in the eyes of artist) studio with 30 sq. meters only costed them about 1000 RMB per month, but allowing artists to work inside. The rent was 1 RMB per sq. meter per day, but now, it may doubled or even more expensive.