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China
A fantastic restaurant located next to the Phoenix Hostel on Yunnan Street in central Shanghai. There is a wonderful array of local and Chinese provincial specialities on offer including Hunnan style pork buns and lamb and shrimp dim sum. All are utterly cheap in price as well as being exquisite in taste. Definitely worth a visit if you get a chance.
17 Yunnan (South) Road, Shanghai
Google map: tinyurl.com/ydqwaat
This was my first taste of Korean Barbeque, and my friend, a native Korean, mentioned that this was one of the finest places in Shanghai. My friend couldn't have been more right, as the food served here was excellent and very light.
Huai Hai Zhong Road, Shanghai
www.pankoo.com.cn/
I've pulled together some of my top tips for Shanghai - I've categorised each tip into time periods so that you can pick and choose depending on how much free time you've got.
0-2 hours: Avoid! Bund Tourist Tunnel - 10 minutes
Crossing the Bund can be done by boat, car or underground, but don't waste your time on the rather retro (read tacky) Bund Tourist Tunnel. The name is apt as only tourists would be crazy enough to spend their money on a underground fair ride that is more likely to cause an epileptic shock than any degree of amusement. It is however, the quickest way to cross the river if you are on the banks on the Bund (and it's rush hour so the tunnel is blocked). Give a try... if you really must.
Xian dan di - 1-2 hours
Ironically housed in the former offices of the Communist party, this beautiful refurbished part of town could be accused of being rather faux in terms of its connection with real China life... but it's there and it exists and it is part of Shanghai ex-pat life. The clean streets, the trendy restaurants and the outrageous prices probably tell you that you are in a place for tourists and expats, however, it's worth a look around and for a pitstop.
Go to Starbucks - 30 mins to 1 hour
I kid you not, some would accuse me of sacrilege but there is a reason... please bear with me. A lot of the Starbucks in the city benefit from sitting in the most prestigious and ideally located positions in the city for great panoramic views. My personal recommendation would be the Starbucks situated on the East bank of the river overlooking the Bund just opposite the Shangri-La hotel. Grab yourself a Chinese tea and watch the sunset over the river. The glowing fuzz of the city ahead will warm you before you retreat to your hotel.
Enjoy drinks over the Bund - 1-2 hours
A visit to Shanghai will not be complete without a visit to the historic 'Bund' district, the colonial waterside developed on the west bank of the Huangpu River. Many of the bars/restaurants (I recommend 'M on the Bund' - www.m-restaurantgroup.com/) offer expansive views over the Bund and the tall skyscrapers in the Pudong district. The food's not bad either! English and Chinese menus are available. Other nearby highlights include the old HSBC building (no longer housing HSBC) and Huangpu Park.
Stroll along Nanjing Road (to buy the other half a gift) -
2-4 hours
Home to Shanghai's main shopping street so be prepared to be greeted by tens of thousands of people. The shops range from the local to international with department stores dotted along the way. Be sure to stop by one of the many snack stores to take on board some of the delicious buns or dumplings that make China famous. Be sure you check the custom regulations for transporting goods though, be particularly careful with any foodstuffs.
Enjoy a river cruise along Huangpu River - 1-3 hours
One observation you will undoubtedly make whilst travelling in Shanghai is that the river is bustling with life. Container ships, tankers, passenger boats all zip up and down the river at a hectic speed. Board a river cruise boat from the ferry terminal at the south of the Bund district. Here you will be able to enjoy a one, two or even three hour river cruise. Take care though... Shanghai like many other Chinese cities is prone to a spot of smog. Try and pick a clear day. Try Huangpu River Cruise (239 Second Eastern Zhong Shan Road, Shanghai - tel +86 21 6374 4461). Nearest station - Wai Tan
Sleep in the clouds - 8 hours
Nope, I'm not talking about your business class flat bed on the way back home, I'm talking about the ever impressive Grand Hyatt Shanghai. Based in Pudong it's close to the financial centre and closer to the airport. Ask for a room overlooking the Pearl TV tower or over the park.
Any visit to Shanghai would not be complete without tasting the famous Shanghai dumpling (Xiaolongbao). These delicious dumplings are also know as soup dumplings, as the dumplings are filled with (often piping hot) soup. There are different versions to the dumpling but most are filled with pork and soup. It is typically served with vinegar, ginger and soy sauce.The most famous dumpling shop is in Nanxiang Mantou Dian in Shanghai where up to 30 minute queues can snake through this pretty historic site.
Nanxiang Mantou Dian, Shanghai
Ask your hotel to write down the address in Chinese. All hotels (plus locals) will know what you are talking about!
Taikang Lu is located near the central shopping street of Huaihai Xi Lu. It's one of the few remaining hutongs in the city. It offers an authentic Chinese feel, whilst resembling parts of Mediterranean Europe. Locals hang out their washing and go about their daily lives whilst you can visit boutiques and enjoy a range of international foods, including excellent Chinese cuisine.
Taikang Lu
It gives you an overview of all the places you can visit, where you can eat and drink as well as info on daily Shanghai life.
A fantastic place for everyone who wants to spend a whole afternoon with relaxation and romantics.
Located in the central of Shanghai (very close to the Oriental Pearl Tower), the tea house is fully British style and you can find every genuine tea that you've missed from the west for a long time.
Surrounded by the lovely music and rose aroma, enjoy reading a book from the shelf, you will be kept away from city's noise and fully relax yourself in an elegant way.
Address: Gound floor ZhengDa Square, LuJiaZui Road, PuDong, Shanghai.
Nearest tube station: LuJiaZui Station.
tw.teaorcoffee.com/index/
Here’s a tip for those travelling in groups: abandon mutual chopstick dipping into various dishes served traditionally on revolving tables. We did this after eight of our 14 succumbed to stomach ailments. Unfortunately, it was in Shanghai that we were served the most commercial and unappetising meal of our seven-city visit.
They call them 'chopsticks' for a reason - it's because they're from chopped-down trees. Vast tracts of forests are thoughtlessly used and thrown away every year.
Commendably, the PRC government is now beginning to crack down on this, and Japan for example has begun to tax imported chopsticks heavily. So to help this process along - anywhere in Asia for that matter - when dining in restaurants ask for (or bring along your own) plastic chopsticks. Wipe them with a tissue if you're worried about hygiene, it's not hard. And if you really can't handle the chopstick issue, bring a fork.
Yu Yuan Gardens (see www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/1036) is a nice place to buy souvenir choppies - try the Shanghai Chopsticks Store, 31 Yuyuan Lao Lu
In the main room of this vegetarian restaurant is a Buddha shrine where diners can, if they wish, burn incense. I doubt that monks will eat as well as we did in this long-established Shanghai retaurant. The menu is huge and almost any kind of Chinese dish one can think of is listed, but the difference is that it is all vegetarian even if the description sounds carnivorous. For example, the roast chicken is beancurd in a chicken shape. If you are fed up with pak choi and doufu, you'll love this place. We went twice in one day because it was so good.
445 Nanjing Xi Lu; West of People's Square and close to the Art Museum
It can be described as many things: a spicy omlette; a 'breakfast burrito'; the literal meaning approximates to 'egg pancake'. Great for a quick, cheap hot snack; a useful fallback for vegetarians in a meat-loving nation; plus great to watch them being made.
At streetside vendors everywhere
One of the very few choices for budget foreign travellers, the Captain's hostel enjoys a prime location on the Bund and sports a pretty decent roof restaurant to boot. It's 20RMB for a bunk; best to book. Though it's possible to get 'Chinese' dorm rooms elsewhere it's not recommended.
37 Fuzhou Lu, nearest Metro Henan Zhong Lu (Line 2) Tel: +86 21 63235053 www.captainhostel.com.cn
A lot of people disdain 'Irish pubs' and on the whole they'd be right. Nonetheless, but for the extortionate prices (you're looking at 65RMB - that's five quid - for a Guinness), O'Malley's is still a great place to settle down for an afternoon. The place really comes alive when there's a big sporting event on, and in the covered beer garden on match night there's no beating the atmosphere.
42 Tao Jiang Road, Tel +86 21 6474 4533 omalleys-shanghai.com
It's worth noting that before you leave the customs hall there is an HSBC ATM which accepts foreign cards, and at the custom hall's exit is a rack with transport info leaflets. The easiest way into town, but probably not fastest because of town centre traffic jams, is Shuttle Bus 5 to People's Square and Shanghai (main) Railway Station. The bus departs from the ground floor ("1st Floor" or "Level 1" in China) outside exit door 8. Pay on the bus.
The quickest way into town MAY be the Maglev train (upstairs, across a long bridge) which goes to Long Yang Rd tube (on metro Line 2, the green line) but the MAGLEV ONLY RUNS 08.30-17.30!
Cheaper and reasonably fast (and closer to Arrivals!) is Shuttle Bus No.3, also to Long Yang Road tube. This bus departs from outside exit door 7. Pay on the bus. Long Yang Rd tube will normally be the FIRST stop, after about 30 minutes, so make sure you don't miss it.
The Shanghai metro is a bit of a luxury for UK visitors to China, as it's bilingual Chinese/English (well, all signs/announcements - can't vouch for the staff...) Look for a little chart by the ticket machines which graphically indicates price according to destination - likely to need 4 or 5 one-yuan coins to go into the centre. If you have no change queue for the ticket office. If in doubt as to cost I think 5 yuan is the highest fare (June 2005) and that's still only about 30p. You're issued with a plastic 'ticket'. Make sure you take the train in the direction of Zhong Shan Park.
If you want Shanghai Railway Station change at People's Square and follow the long wide curving passage to Line 1 (the red line) and take the train towards Gong Fu Xin Cun. If you want to catch an overground train that departs from Meilong station, take the tube to Jin Jiang Park on Line 1. Then it's about 150 yards walk, including a very high footbridge, but no shortage of eager 'porters'. Meilong is one stop after Shanghai South station which is closed for reconstruction, hence the schlepp (so I heard...).
Airport Shuttle Bus 3 also goes to Xu Jia Hui. If this is by the metro station, this could be an easier way to get to Meilong station via metro Line 1 as it's only 4 stops from Jin Jiang Park.
Shanghai tube maps: while displayed everywhere in the tube system, I could not find one in printed form. The one at urbanrail.net is therefore very useful. If your final destination is not Shanghai but not too far, eg Hangzhou, consider getting a bus from the airport's long distance bus station. This may be less hassle than getting a train. Go out at the ground floor and look for the little old ticket office to the very right of the numerous bus stands. Whether train or bus, having your destination clearly written in chinese characters will help greatly!
Taxis: one I took TO the airport from a southern outer suburb of Shanghai (so it was closer) cost me 100 RMB. Always only use a metered taxi, no tip expected, and never accept a touting taxi that already has a passenger in - it will cost you double, not half! Taxis for short distances in China are cheap, and normally have a fixed charge for the first 2km.
Food at the airport: if you don't want the limited and very expensive (for China) 'tourist' food on the airport mezzanine level there's a 'normal' restaurant just outside in the middle of the bus area. One of the upstairs bridges towards the Maglev train has a lift/steps down to it. I haven't used it yet. Menus likely to be only be in Chinese.
www.shairport.com/en/index.jsp
www.urbanrail.net/as/shan/shanghai-map.gif
www.chinatt.org/
Otherwise known as “soup dumplings”, these are a Shanghai speciality. They can be found sold cheaply on the street either fried or steamed, and also at some Shanghainese restaurants. Watch out on your first bite though: unfortunate first-timers often get a squirt of scalding liquid on their clothing and lose the lining from the roof of their mouths.
Street stalls and restaurants
Every major city has one: Chinatown in London and New York; Le Quartier Chinois in Paris; Berlin is actually building one. So it may surprise you to learn that even cities in China have Chinatowns too.
In Shanghai it’s the Yu Yuan area, a sealed-off district where development is not quite as rampant as elsewhere and the atmosphere of old China still pervades. At its centre is the famed Yu Yuan teahouse and classical gardens, plus the temple of the city god. Yu Yuan is pretty commercial these days – most of the area’s business is in selling tourist tat, but it’s still the place to go for Chinese arts and crafts.
A bit tricky to get to by Metro. Your best bet is a taxi.
Every city's got one; Shanghai has three. But this newly refurbished English pub currently has its Irish rivals beat on value at least. The Sheperd's Pie is great and they even have Cornish pasty (sometimes).
1 Wulumuqi Nan Lu (near Dong Ping Lu)
Phone: 6466-7878
Most certainly THE place to be seen in Shanghai, this classy split bar and restaurant has magnificent views over the Bund and the Pudong skyline.
You can't be seen coming here by public transport. Taxi - find No.5 The Bund (at the corner of Guangdong Lu) and head up to the 7th floor. www.m-onthebund.com/
You can't miss this hotel, in every sense. Taking up the 53rd to the 87th floors of one of the world's tallest buildings (at 1,380ft it's just a tad shorter than Chicago's Sears tower), the Jin Mao Tower boasts what is probably the highest cocktail bar around. There are also panoramic views across the city - assuming you can see past the smog. It's not that cheap -the rooms are at least 2,600RMB (over £170) - but you can stump up 50RMB for a visitor's ticket and sneak in a quick Martini and a few photos.
88 Century Boulevard, nearest Metro Liu Jia Zui (Line 2) Tel: +86 21 5049 1234
If you're in Shanghai for a flying visit and aren't brave enough to tackle the back street restaurants, this joint serves up top quality Chinese food and is foreigner-friendly too. It is a little more expensive, and perhaps not quite as authentic, but we can't all be gastro-purists.
1221 Yan'An Xi Lu, by Pan Yu Lu, +86 21 6213 2441 - Taxi it from Yan'An Xi Lu Metro (Line 3)
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