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.