Good afternoon from Shanghai!

Astonishing city, this, even with the grey smog which seems to be hanging over the tops of the myriad steepling towers.

Anyone on here have any experience of Shanghai? Am asking as I am going to stroll down to the Bund a little later and was after a restaurant recommendation! Priorities, etc…..!

Xièxiè

My neighbour’s from there. I could ask her if Mrs Grips can get her on MSN.

Anyone on here have any experience of Shanghai? Am asking as I am going to stroll down to the Bund a little later and was after a restaurant recommendation! Priorities, etc…..!

M On The Bund is a great restaurant

Sichuan Citizen in the French Concession was the best Chinese food I had

This place never ceases to amaze with the breadth of knowledge! Thanks, Bob! (And thanks to the neighbour of the grips…!)

This place never ceases to amaze with the breadth of knowledge!

Are you new here, then?

Well, normally it’s just the endless stream of invective….! 🙂

Well, I have no idea where I ate! In the end, I asked the nice chap at reception, who asked me to trust him…. 😯

I was given a piece of paper with lots of Chinese on it. Front was to show to the taxi driver there and then back later on. Rear of the paper was, as far as I knew, the words “Here you are, Cousin, another gullible Westerner pigdog to rip off”

However, I suspect that was not what was written. A beer was brought, along with a pot of delicious green tea (Pot refilled without a moment’s thought of asking). Then some astonishing, tiny, dried salted fish with a sweet chilli flavour. Almost smoked, but something else about them.

Next up was astonishingly good dumplings in a little basket, with some vinegar to dip them in.

Then a plate of some fantastic duck, a little like Peking Duck, served with a sort of plum sauce which tasted like marmalade mixed with Earl Grey tea, along with a stunning dish of fried rice.

All for the princely sum of about £6.00. Now, if only I could read the receipt, I could tell you where it was!

So are you taking in the GP while you’re there Cap’n?

Sadly not. 🙁

Have had a couple of very nice invitations from people out here to join them at some rather nice spots around the track as well!

You were lucky not to end up in some ‘Hostel’ situation where wealthy Chinamen pay over the odds for westeners

I might be going in a few months (and am very excited about it) so will be watching this thread with interest.

For Konabunny (And anyone else who’s even remotely interested…..) here’s my little potted digest of Shanghai!

At the airport (Which smells of mothballs!) avoid the sleazy taxi salesmen and women who appear to look quite official. Far better to have the name of your hotel in Chinese characters with you on a piece of paper and just get an ordinary taxi (More on taxis later!)

Almost all the main business hotels, especially mine, seem very well run indeed, with service being a very high priority. Really impressed, actually.
So, what to do?
Well, as is always the way with the glamorous world of the business traveller, I had very little time to see or do anything, but a few pointers which may (or may not!) help;
Nanjing Road – Think Oxford Street, with more neon, higher prices and more streer hawkers. The hawkers will try it on with everyone foreign, but really don’t mind if you just ignore them or wave them away. The order in which things were offered was always the same;

You want T-Shirt? Watch? iPhone?……Girl?

However, walking around town never felt unsafe, and oddly I never felt like I was the foreigner in the piece. Almost as if anyone fits in. Really nice.

The Bund – Well, you almost have to go there. It’s got some amazing old buildings on one side and an astonishing skyline across the other side. Best seen at dusk or at night, I would say.

Now, on to the food. Wow. Simply wow….!

Some highlights;
Jia Jia Tang Bao – On Huanghe Lu, a street also known locally as “Food Street”. Have the xie huang tang bao. Amazing crab roe dumplings, but they’re soup dumplings. Astonishing

Wan Hao – On the 39th floor of the Marriott at Tomorrow Square. Amazing views over the skyline of Shanghai and great food. Had some sort of smoked duck. Lovely!

Xiao Nan Guo – Luwan District, Shanghai. It’s in a modern shopping centre, not far from where the first Communist party meeting was held in Shanghai, and in a very smart area. There’s the irony that the location of the meeting is just across the road from the Rolls Royce, Lamborghini and Spyker showrooms! More amazing “soup dumplings”, some astonishing lotus root, duck’s tongues (Seriously, try some!) and all manner of other goodness.

Drinking? Went to an area that looked like an old Bruce Lee set, but can’t remember the name! Sat on a little balcony overlooking the tiny alleys below, quaffing ice cold Tsingtao. Perfect.

It’s quite a city, pretty full on mayhem, especially the taxi drivers. Remember the speeder bike scene through the forest in Return of the Jedi? Well, it’s like that, only faster and with more horn usage! All in the back of new VW Santanas. Well, I say new, they’re new here, but the basic design and build is the same car as a mid-80s Passat!

Some tips;
Keep your hotel name in Chinese with you at all times. You may well not find anyone with any English apart from the words “T-shirt? Iphone?” etc, and any taxi driver will always take you back without question. They’re very honest as well, which is ace.
Don’t tip. It seems that tipping is frowned on.
Learn a few words. N? h?o = Hello and Xièxiè = Thank you. It makes people smile and that’s got to be good!

Prices? Well, anything cheap is really cheap, but anything expensive is way more expensive than the UK! For example, I just popped round the corner to buy a couple of beers. Six pack of Tsingtao worked out at around £0.90 However, in the window of a shop in Luwan, watches were selling for about £1500 over UK list price. There’s a massive disparity of wealth, with some seriously wealthy people wanting to show how seriously wealthy they are and some not at all wealthy people getting by. There’s very little in between at the moment, but everyone says it’s getting better.

Really exciting place, you’ll love it!

thank you very much.

Mothballs? That’s weird.

I was supposed to be heading back out on Monday for a couple of weeks but I’ve sent someone else in my place and I’ll probably be back out in summer for a few weeks. Amazing city.

Bob, I’m likely to be here fairly often, so let’s see what happens if our paths cross!

Oh, and one more thing – Thousands of bikes. Thousands of them. But that’s not the best bit about it….

Not one single fixie riding ****monkey! 🙂