So a couple of summers back my friend a native from shanghai who moved to the UK when she was a child asked me if I would like to accompany her to shanghai over the summer..china immedietly conjured up images of red silk dresses, smiling ladies, delicious food and something very exotic and different... I had basically no idea what I was agreeing to when I was at the travel agents booking my tickets and sorting out my visa (the agents are very friendly and will do your visa for you for £30 pounds in almost any chinese travel agency in china town, london).

Im not sure what I expected.. I had seen some pictures of the famous shanghai skyline.. but was still awed by the sheer height of some of the skyscrapers and
we ended up staying in a flat on the 32nd floor - not fun for those with vertigo like yours truly.. but it was lovely nonetheless and in the middle of a boiling summer it was lovely to walk out into the balcony and feel the strong winds. Shanghai like most of the southern parts of china is actually quite hot and humid, there is definetly alot of moisturie in the air but also strong refreshing winds..

The city is surprisingly western, infact at times it didnt feel any different from new york and simply buzzing with life and has alot of foreigners working there.. with the
amount of exported prestige cars in the road you'll forget the country is supposed to be "communist"... there is something very edgy about shanghai, very trendy but once you spend a considerable amount of time there or with a chinese family (as we were) you begin to see the subtle differences...

you will find large shopping malls selling all the latest technology, designer clothing and shoes, make up.. they even have a sephora and a chanel and many more shops... while 15 mins walk away you'll find tiny boutiques and unusual shops like umbrella shops (i know that sound banal, but theyr really beautiful almost like a collectors one stop shop) and another selling "korean costume jewellery"...Also to add to the contrast of the sky scarpers and italian restaurants.. you will find large markets..like Xiang Yang.. there crapped and congested and you will liekly have people coming upto you every 5 mins trying to encourage you to go into the shops and check out the wares... some are soo small you can only view from the outside and ask the vendors to show you items you might like! There are plenty and i mean PLENTY of designer knock off handbags - louis vuitton anyone?? and sunglasses and clothing but some of the stuff is quite nice and with a little bit of hangleing thanks to my two mandarin speaking guides I managed to pick quite a lot for very little indeed!

Places to go in the city would be the water world, we didn have time for it unfortunatly but its supposed to be alot of fun and you can take children, the
whole family for a fun day out... they also have a man made beach... i was really
surprised it was man made as it looked soo real and it was only my friend who
told me afterwards that I knew. You rent out tents and mattes to sunbathe or relax by the waterside, and the water is just like real sea salt. There is a nice restaurant-cafe where they sell refreshing drinks and "seafood" style snacks.

While there is a whole area (sorry forgot the name) full of western style bars and restuarants and regular tourist type shops... I much preferred the other side of town which gave me a more authentic view of the city... the roads are very scary to cross on and at times its a matter of going with the flow of the crowd and crossing despite cars coming from both direction.. the roads are broad and long and the best way to move around the city was by taxi which worked out to about £5-10's a day travelling 3-4 times by taxi. Chinese cuisine is very delicious and nothing like the food we eat at chinese restaurants in the UK... theyr not so oily but rather very healthy, alot of boiled rice and noodles, shrimps spicd and grilled and theyr really famous for their fsh dishes... make sure to try some out! The tables are a round with two layers, one
stationary and the top layer that spins around.. the food is arranged around the top layer of the table - you pick off from the serving dish onto you own plate and spin the table around so the next person can have someone... Instead of saying cheers, it is customery to tap the wine glasses twice on the table and call "Ganpei" before drinking and it is also "respectful" to drink when anyone drinks.... a dinner with 10 politicos (heavy drinking men mostly) left my friend and i pretty drunk! :-)

Another delicacy to try is their famous Hot Pot dishes, these are when you are served raw fish, noddles and vegetables and a hot soup boiling on a stove. The idea is to drop the food inside and let it cook and then pick it up to dip into sauce and eat... its really yummy and very hard to find in the UK... the few restaurants tht
do offer hotpot usually charge £30-50 per head for it in london!! There any many types of hot pot and I went to one that was famous for its fish! You literally went up to an aquarium and picked out which fish you would like and with in 10 mins it would be lying raw, roleld up in balls ready to be stewed in your hot pot!!

The clubbing scene is very vibrant in Shanghai and while some clubs are mostly full of foreigners other clubs are mostly full of chinese... there doesnt seem to be
much mixing!! Places I could reccomend are Metro, Baby Face, Bon Bon and there
is a really nice one in the middle of the park called Babushka.... they stay open til pretty late, with us sometimes coming out at 7 in the morning to see broad daylight outside and people hurrying onto work!! Th drinks are farely cheap although some clubs like metro can be pretty expensive.... the club scene much like london is always changing, with clubs changeing management or newer hipper places opening up ask around and see whats good when you go there. Music is usually RnB, Hip Hop, cheese and pop + chinese hip hop.

Other things to do in the city and i definetly reccomend this is go to massage parlour.. they have dotted around all over the city and theyr very cheap.. while
having facials and massages may seem a little extra luxury for us in the UK, its
quite common in china and some people go for therapuetic reasons on a daily
basis! I found the service was impeccable everywhere I went and I always got value for money: with my hair cut i got a head, shoulder, hand and foot massage! Indeed my "foot massage" felt more like a full body massage and included a mini pedicure!
I was always greetd with smiles and the pleasant "ni hao" or hello... despite not speaking a word of english and having to translate everything via my friend i was
still made to fell welcome.. which was ncie consider there weren't many brown people in shanghai hehe....

Every month they have a full moon festival where you buy special cakes and foodstuff and usually its a time when family get tgoether to eat and have fun..

outside the city i would reccomend visiting nearby attractions such as the beach
resort called Hai'nan you might think your in hawaii !! Also when your china you
have to visit the great wall, king's palaces, queen;s palaces and gardens in beijing and the terracota soliders in Xian... prices in shanghai are alot cheaper than london and most of europe but still almost double that of other areas in china. I found beijing to be really cheap and also very traditional. I visited a friend in Beijing who was explaining to me the cultural differences between Shanghai and Beijing.. the latter being very conservative and with the presence of police with red armbands everywhere... i wasnt even allowed to be tooo close to a picture of Mao Zedong!

Visiting the skyscarpers won't be very exicting, as they mostly business centres and
you will not be able to go up them, rather seeing them from afar is the best way to appreciate them and Even though its no longer the tallest building in Shanghai.. there's something enchanting about the "pearl" which must be viewed and pictured!!

Im sorry it seems like a sketchy review of the city, i havent been in a couple of years but i wanted to just give readers a feeling of the atmosphere of the city and few things you can expect to find and do. For exact names of places do check a guide and try and find a tour guide who can translate as very few people speak english properly.