General: Shanghai > Reviews > The city of contrasts

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
Family Friendly

Advantages:	Lots of activity all day
Disadvantages:	Little english spoken and the drivers leave a lot to be desired

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Well here I am at the end of another great holiday which this time is in Shanghai. The first thing that strikes me is there is not too much difference between Shanghai and any other major city in the western world. The place hums with life almost 24 hours a day. Its only once you start to scratch under the surface of the place do you see the difference between western and eastern life.

Arriving at the Shanghai Pudong international airport we were greeted with lots of smiling faces and very clean environment. The time taken to get through customs was very quick especially compared to some of the time it has taken me when I have visited the states. The bags were there shortly after exiting customs and all in all it took us a total of 20 odd minutes from leaving the plane to leaving the airport.

We had an advantage by being met by my old school friend who guided us to the nearest taxi to be whisked away to the centre of town. The journey time was around 60 minutes on a Sunday morning. Even though it was first thing in the morning you soon realised what the drivers were like over there..... bad. It was like a free for all but you soon started to ignore that and realised that the taxi driver was used to such habits. The humidity was high when we arrived and thank goodness for air conditioning is all I can say.

Later that day after unpacking we proceeded to an American Cafe called Malones for brunch. My friend’s wife took our family on a two kilometre walk to this cafe and you needed to be aware of where you were walking. The first thing you notice walking around the place is there smell of the streets, when compared to the rural setting where we come from it can certainly make your nose turn up a bit. The second thing to look out for is all the drips of water, its not until you look up that you realise that this caused by peoples washing being hung out to dry. The final hint when crossing the roads is be very aware of traffic coming from the left as they can turn tight on the red. The best advice is walk across at the same speed as the locals and move out with them at the same time. There will be times we you are caught in the middle of the road but that is what is expected around here so I have found.

Anyway we finally get to Malones all hot and bothered but enjoy the cool air conditioning that they have turned on. It is a great place which looks like a typical sports bar. It has a pool table upstairs at the best price I have ever seen. (free) but the strangest thing is the table football cost 10RMB (which is about 70pence at the time of writing). The food was presented on huge plates and was plentiful. The meals were quite expensive when compared to the local fair on the streets but that is the price you pay by wanting western food instead of the local 'fare'.

After this we hail down one of the many taxis that are available and proceed to cheap out what some of the shops have to offer. There are taxis all over the place and you would be best to have a taxi card with your destination written in Chinese if possible. The other thing that you need to be aware of is the standard taxi will not take groups of more than four. You might be able to get five in if you have small kids but other than that they might start waving there hand in disgust.

We visited the local park called Sanjiao Park where like most Chinese parks I have gone to you need to pay a small entrance fee. The parks themselves are amazing clean and you will find yourself being swept away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The kids were able to play on small rides which you also need to pay a small price for these.

At the end of the day we were exhausted and even though the beds are the HARDEST that I have ever come across we still went out like lights due to the long day. It will be interesting to see what our bed at home will be like after three weeks of Chinese beds.

Later that week we looked in the lonely planet guide to see what we could do with the kids. We found a water park that we could go to and were all looking forward to it. We all took a taxi down there and after 20 minutes of travel we were dropped off to the local swimming area. After fruitless searching for this water park we finally found out that this place had closed in 2001. Having had that disappointed given to the kids we then found out that there was a local swimming pool that we could go to.

This in it self turned out to be a bit of fun. First we went in there to purchase the tickets and got told that we had to buy the tickets in a small building outside of the complex. So out we went to get the tickets for all of us. We then went back inside to be asked have we our medical certificates so we would swim. To this we laugh inside to ourselves and say no and got told to see this lady sitting in the corner and she will give us one. We all go over and have our chests listened to and hand over 5RMB each and were provided with a certificate that we could use. Having this we thought that the swim was all sorted. How wrong we were just when we thought we were home free they said ‘do you have swimming caps?’. ‘No’ we tell them and then get instructed to walk outside again and to go the local shop and purchase one before coming in. Anyway we finally got in to a very busy pool as it was the school holidays and were limited to a 90 minute swim.

One must thing to do is visit the local markets. We went to Shanghai Xiang Yang clothing gift market which was a couple of kilometres from where we were staying. We went first thing in the morning which is the best time to go as it can get very hot and humid at this time of year. Make sure you have heaps of water and are ready to enjoy the bartering process. The shop owners start out at incredibly high prices and get insulted when you tell them a lower price. The main thing is to work out what you would pay for a piece similar to that at home and start lower. Quite often prices started in the 1000’s RMB and we managed to purchase things for only a couple of hundred. A good thing to remember is you can also walk away for you are more than likely to find the product somewhere else in the market at the price you want to pay.

Another great thing is going to a massage parlour. The massage centres over here are not the sleazy type people normally associate massages with. These are different to the ones found in the western world as normally you could end up sharing the room with up to another three people. My wife and I had one together and we enjoyed it. The massage itself was harder than one we would have had in the west but we both enjoyed it and felt nice and relaxed afterwards.

Other trips we took while over here was a day(long day) trip to the terracotta warriors in Xian. This had us getting on a flight at 8:30 during the week and returning at 11:30 later that night. The journey was well worth it for when we finally got here it was amazing to see the army in person. There are three pits with soldiers in it and I would advise going to the smallest visit (pit three) and working your way up to the big one (pit one). It is also worth noting that if you take a taxi from the airport you might find that you are given a receipt at the end of the trip for 15RMB. This is on top of the stated fare as it is for the toll gate as you leave the airport and you need to pay for that as well.

One of our final trips was to the bund river and the science and technology museum. For the later I would recommend allocating a full day especially if you have kids for it is a great place to visit and has a lot of things to keep them busy. They had been complaining about having sore legs after all the walking recently but once we got there they were running around like mad flies. We had walked a lot that day already for we had walked a couple of kilometres to the bund from our friends place. This was a great way to see some of the city and reminded me a little bit of New York streets. Once we got down there we were greeted with amazing array of buildings. They were all different shapes and sizes but somehow there didn’t appear to be any out of place. To get from one side to another we took the bund sightseeing tunnel which was great for the kids as it had heaps of lights for them to gasp at.

Overall we have had a great holiday once again and really enjoyed spending it with someone who knew the city. I would highly recommend anyone thinking of coming here to do it and enjoy the differences in your normal life.