MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I've got 13 hours in Shanghai between flights on the way to New Zealand. I understand that as I've got an outward bound flight within 24 hours I qualify for a free visa. Was planning to catch the subway from the airport, I get in at 9am fly out at 10pm.
So what should I check out and where should I go for lunch?
10 pints and a ladyboy should just about kill 13 hours.... 😯
Sounds like a movie title 😆
Shanghai is a bit short of touristy things to do. If it was me I would head to the fake market and buy a load of knocked off gear (you name it, they have it- from clothes to electronics). Then possibly head up the top of one of the towers for an evening drink and dinner. Either the Jin Mao or the bottle opener next door.
Hmmmm will skip the ladyboy thanks 😆
Cheers ads-b fake market sounds like a plan.
When I have a short stopover in a new city I usually jump on a tourist bus, good way to get information and you can usualy pop on and off as you wish.
For getting to and from the airport you could also try the high speed maglev train, bit pricey but an experience.
A walk along the Bund is OK though judging from the polution I saw there last October, maybe better to stay indoors!
Top opperational speed of 431 km/h 😯 8) maglev train it is.
Maglev from airport to town 50 rmb each way (like a £5er) takes 7 minutes, as opposed to a long time on the underground, besides doing 400km an hour is fun.
At the Longyang street station take the underground to Lujiazui, which will bring you our close to the Jinmao and Pearl Orient towers theres a dirty great shopping Mall there where you'll find getting fed and watered easy.
After that try Yuyuan Garden, Xintiandi or East Nanjing Road. I can also highly recommend the Museum to while some time away.
I find the metro efficient clean and cheap for getting about, and best of all you are not having to try to tell taxi drivers etc where you want to go. There are numbers in cabs that you can ring for a translation service and assistance.
For planning use this highly effective interactive Metro Map [url] http://www.exploreshanghai.com/metro/old/ [/url]
Walk along Nanjing Road and marvel at the hawkers.
They all start the same,
"You want T-shirt?"
No, I already have one.
"You want watch?"
Nope.
"You want I-Phone?"
Again, no.
"You want I-Pad?"
No thanks. And at this point, most give up. Apart from a select few, who with a conspiratorial air, ask,
"You want.....girl?"
NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!
"OK, OK.......Boy?"
🙂
Also, go one block off Nanjing. Still in a big city. Two blocks off, getting a little sketchy. Three blocks off, people washing in gutters. A city that's both amazing and disgusting in equal measure, IMHO.
That aside, see the Bund (Smog permitting), go to the restaurant up the tower at Tomorrow Square and admire the view (smog permitting), eat street food from amazing places. Oh, and carry a card in your wallet with the name/address of the airport in Chinese if you need to get a taxi back.
Also, beware the taxi hawkers at the airport. They look official but will rip you off.
Will try and remember some of the restaurants I ate at for you. Top nommage!
Oh, and here's the Marriott at Tomorrow Square, a useful navigational beacon if you're on foot. ;
[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8495/8423355495_5a798c592d.jp g" target="_blank">
Thanks BB and CFH, as usual STW comes up trumps.
Here's one I can remember - http://www.dintaifung.com.tw/tw/default.htm
Don't be put off that it's a chain!
Went to the one on Xingye and had my tastebuds blown apart. Stunning stuff! Should add, DTF in Singapore and Hong Kong are both equally excellent. Hungry now....
My favourite place in Shanghai is Yuyuan garden
[img] 
[/img]
Theres a semi secret restaurant where you have to stick your arm in a hole in the wall (there are many holes and you have to know the right one) so that the door will open. Amazing food (at least I was stunned by the dry ice part anyway). But the best bit is the toilets. The urinal is the window and you can stare at the dinners whilst you take a slash. Amazing!
+1 for the yuyuan gardens
There is a little restaurant there selling pork and river crab dumplings. There's a row of people that make these things in front of you and they are the most amazing thing I have ever tasted. They are so ridiculously delicious it must be criminal. You have to bite a hole in the top and suck the juice out and then eat the whole thing. My mouth is watering at the thought of those little buggers now..
They were ridiculously cheap too. I guarantee you will not regret a visit there as they are amazing.
If you do go, please can you steal one of the chefs and bring them back to the UK. Wecould make a fortune selling those.
Want to go back to Shanghai now..... 🙁
DTF is awesome. Only been to the one in Taipei.
Didn't know about the Maglev. Sounds ace.
I'm in Shanghai for a meeting on the 12th April. Only just got back from Taiwan :-/
pork and river crab dumplings. There's a row of people that make these things in front of you and they are the most amazing thing I have ever tasted. They are so ridiculously delicious it must be criminal. You have to bite a hole in the top and suck the juice out and then eat the whole thing. My mouth is watering at the thought of those little buggers now..
Xiao Long Bao......
[img] 
[/img]
Can't stop thinking about them now. Been 5 years and I can still vividly remember the taste!
I hate to disappoint but I’ll have to skip the Xiao Long Bao due to a mild shellfish allergy. Will defiantly be visiting a DTF and the Yuyuan Gardens though.
Don't go there in defiance, go with a spring in your step! 😉
Doh! Auto correct. 😆
Well... took the Maglev into town, ended up at the market above Tiangtong Road station, and walked out with a bag of Vans, Converse and a knock of Porsche watch 🙂
Did Din Tai Fung in Taipei yesterday, and am now waiting at airport for flight. I'm back in a week after doing Shenzen/Xiamen factory visits.