Shanghai, China 上海

April-May 2010

I stayed in Shanghai for over a month to prepare for Cisco's activities at World Expo 2010 (minus a one day trip to Korea to fulfill my 30-day visa limit), then another six months through Expo. I enjoyed experiencing the city as a semi-resident, living in a service apartment and working. Much like NY, there are tourist attractions but the urban life is what makes the city so compelling. Fantastic restaurants and shopping, different neighborhoods, easy to get around, I understand why there are so many expats here.

Here's the famous view of the Pudong banks and the Bund from New Heights, the 7th floor bar at Three on the Bund


There are touristy sites in Shanghai, like the Yu Yuan Garden and the Bund and museums, but I find it to be a great experiential city. There are plenty of things to do outside of sightseeing in Shanghai.

I wrote this post about Living in Shanghai for some friends who were moving there. If you scroll down about halfway to “Stuff to do” there’s a whole list of well, stuff to do. The Shanghai Night Bike Ride is super fun and a great way to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time. They are run every Tuesday by this company Bohdi, and they do other tours too. Otherwise the city is quite easy to get around – cabs are super cheap and the subway is very accessible as well.

Also, if you like to go out, Shanghai nightlife is quite robust and there’s something for everyone if you don’t mind shaving sleep time. Note that the expat and local places are different.

The food is phenomenal in Shanghai, Western and Asian. It’s funny, the street food and high end cuisine is quite cheap, while mid-range still feels the same as the US. It is a slightly dated list, but here are some of my favorite restaurants in Shanghai. Definitely find “xiaolongbao”, or soup dumplings, which are absolutely delicious. If you don’t find street food of it, DinTaiFung is a chain and absolutely phenomenal – it’s at Xintiandi so relatively easy to get to on your own.

See the food blog for other Shanghai restaurants. More on food...

• Really good. It's hard to go wrong here. Again like NY, I don't think a bad restaurant would last too long here
• Huge range of cuisine and prices. I tend to like the local food and it is surprisingly healthy. However if you want your Jean Georges or other Western food, there is plenty of it as well, though you'll pay for it. There are also classy Chinese or Asian food places with ambiance and ok food that can get quite expensive
• French Concession is super cute neighborhood with nice cafes and restaurants. I liked sasha's and I hear Azul has a great brunch. Very West Village-like for you NYers.
• The Bund has a lot of high end Western friendly restaurants and bar/lounges
• Xintiandi also used to foreigners and has some great Chinese food including Dintaifung for dim sum. There is also Cold Stone Creamery and a pizza place for cravings (I am totally jonesing for a burrito after 3 weeks...)
• Get your own groceries. My service apartment has a small kitchen and fridge so I have been lucky enough to eat in. I happen to be a few blocks from City Supermarket at Times Square, which is an expat friendly high end grocery store, but I also found a local market that has plenty of fresh foods.

Here's more on two local trips that you can do from Shanghai

• Hangzhou - Hangzhou is about 1 ½ train ride from Shanghai with a beautiful lake, Xixi wetlands, tea village, and a cool show. It would be worth spending one or two nights there for sure
• Zhouzhuang - Zhuozhuang is a water village about an hour drive from Shanghai. Both Zhuozhuang and the much larger Suzhou are called the “Venice of the East” because of its canals, but Suzhou is as touristy as Venice plus an industrial Chinese city, so I’m not a huge fan. Zhuozhuang is also touristy (all of China is, really) but much smaller and quaint. Quite easy to get around and much less crowded.

If you have more time to travel

• Beijing - Beijing and the Great Wall are obvious destinations for a China excursion. You can probably see things in the city like the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square over a few days, and spend one full day at the Great Wall. My friend and I did it in four days. It’s a 2 ½ hour flight and depending on if you’re transferring directly or not, you’ll want to fly out of Hongqiao (SHA) rather than Pudong (PVG) – think LGA vs EWR.
• Sichuan - Sichuan is awesome – the spicy food, pandas, nature – I would love to go back. Chengdu is 3 ½ hour flight from Shanghai, then Jiuhuang is another 45 min where Jiuzhaihou and Huanglong are.

One last thing – not sure if you speak any Mandarin… In the touristy areas, you will find people who speak English but expect that most people don’t. The hotels should be able to set up you with drivers or tours, and unfortunately they are probably ripping you off but still should be reasonably priced. Taxi drivers are on meter, almost never speak English so make sure you carry written addresses with you or have an app that will save addresses or convert other words. Google Translate isn’t bad, and SmartShanghai app is $5 but awesome – it’s like Yelp but has a “taxi card” function where you can show the address in big Chinese letters to your driver (for whatever reason, Shanghai cabbies have horrible eyesight and have a lot of trouble with small font…)