Oct 23, 2009 - Report from Shanghai

Dear all We are now in Wuhan in central China but thought i would send you all a brief Shanghai account and John's report made at the time before progressing to Wuhan. ... I liked Shanghai. ... The Shanghai museum is an absolute knock out - see John's report below. ... On our last night we went modern Chinese which could have been a high end Melbourne restaurant with things being a bit Shanghainese, a bit of the rest of China and a bit of nod to the rest of the world. ... We stayed in a great place in Shanghai in the old French concession. ...

Oct 22, 2009 - Shanghai Exposition Customise Tour!!

com/china-tours/china-city-tours/sh-expo-05/" TARGET="_BLANK">10 Days Shanghai '10 Expo & Yangtze River Cruise Shanghai is an intoxicating blend of ancient culture and a ultra modern mega city. ... Walk along The Bund, one of the most recognizable architectural symbols of Shanghai and enjoy the charming scenery of Shanghai Museum, the exterior design of the round dome and the square base symbolizes the ancient idea of a round heaven and a square land. ... com/china-guides/china-attractions/oriental-pearl-tv-tower-shanghai/" TARGET="_BLANK">Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the landmark of Shanghai. ...

Oct 19, 2009 - Shanghai Exposition 2010 “Better City, Better Life" Tour Guide

In 2010, the Expo will be held in Shanghai, China. ... The theme is "Better City, Better Life", the Expo will be a variety of performances, events and exhibitions, will show you not only the latest technology but also others countries national heritage cultures Expo 2010 Shanghai will be China's first full-scale World's Fair as well as the first registered World Exposition in a developing country with total investment of 300 billion Yuan. ... if you are interested to participate in this exhibition, here a chance for you to explore the Metropolis Shanghai , the most rapid developing county in china. ... Here is some of my recommendation, After Visiting The Expo, and you have some time left, wanting to go to some famous site in Shanghai, this tour would be the right choice for you. ... If you have extra day to spend you may also visit Famous tourist attraction that is near to Shanghai such as: Hangzhou (West Lake, Lin hidden Temple); Suzhou (Humble Administrator's Garden, Tiger Hill), Jiangnan Water Village (Zhouzhuang, Wuzhen, Xitang, with ri), etc After this tour, I believe that it will definitely be one of your most memorable travel experience. ...

Oct 19, 2009 - Shanghai (at last!) - Oct 17-19

However, being a Saturday and being that nothing ever goes to plan, the travel agency closest to us was closed! Our hostel is a bit away from the nearest Metro stop, so we continued walking for about 40 minutes or so before we hit the main road and jumped on the train to visit the Bund – Shanghai’s riverside walkway. ... Shanghai is hosting the World Expo in 2010 and it appears much of the city is half completed in readiness for the event. ... I had tickets for the singles semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters tournament and we were both looking forward to it. ... The useless tournament website said it was about 30mins from downtown Shanghai. ... 30, we left the hostel and jumped in a taxi to the Shanghai Museum. ...

Oct 16, 2009 - Depart Shanghai for home

(I just typed in lots here, but unless I pressed a wrong button, I think "someone" didn't like what I wrote, and they've just gone and deleted it) No joke! Let's see - went to get a view from north of the Bund, ended up in a section that people aren't allowed so I couldn't get a view of the water, there was an embassy with lots of cordons, got a view from the bridge but cloudy and hazy today so not great.(I just typed in lots here, but unless I pressed a wrong button, I think "someone" didn't like what I wrote, and they've just gone and deleted it) No joke! Let's see - went to get a view from north of the Bund, ended up in a section that people aren't allowed so I couldn't get a view of the water, there was an embassy with lots of cordons, got a view from the bridge but cloudy and hazy today so not great....

Oct 15, 2009 - Shanghai - Sightseeing

Shanghai is hosting the World Expo next year, and the government is busy re-building everything in the city. ... Took a taxi to People's Park and People's Square, areas of lovely gardens around the Shanghai museum. ... No soon as I walked ten steps, then another young man on holiday from Wuhan (near the Three Gorges Dam) who was with his Shanghainese friend, also stopped me and wanted to practise his English. ... As you might imagine, the city and surrounds of Shanghai are enormous, so the entire first floor of the building was taken up by the most enormous miniature model of Shanghai that I can't even begin to describe, except that it was HUGE with millions (yes, millions) of tiny little houses and buildings. ... In all, Shanghai plans to build one new mega city, six smaller cities, 60 new towns and nearly 600 villages - all from scratch! That's what China does well - if they're going to do it, they do it on mammoth proportions. ...

Oct 14, 2009 - Shanghai - Day trip to Zhouzhuang

For a long time I had wanted to visit the number one water village in China, Zhouzhuang, but to find a one day-tour was next to impossible. On returning to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel I used the great English speaking concergie to book a ticket for the Shanghai acrobats, so I'm looking forward to that tomorrow night. ... He has relatives both here in Shanghai and in the United States, but came to live here in China a year ago when the one here offered him a job in the restaurant I was eating at. ... He says he really doesn't speak any Chinese at all, even after being here a year, which isn't surprising, since the patrons in the restaurants were two Germans, an Englishman, a very loud group of Frenchmen singing French songs to try to entertain their Chinese business associates, and myself! So in a situation like his, I could see how you would only be speaking English and not Chinese all day long.For a long time I had wanted to visit the number one water village in China, Zhouzhuang, but to find a one day-tour was next to impossible. On returning to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel I used the great English speaking concergie to book a ticket for the Shanghai acrobats, so I'm looking forward to that tomorrow night. ... He has relatives both here in Shanghai and in the United States, but came to live here in China a year ago when the one here offered him a job in the restaurant I was eating at. ... He says he really doesn't speak any Chinese at all, even after being here a year, which isn't surprising, since the patrons in the restaurants were two Germans, an Englishman, a very loud group of Frenchmen singing French songs to try to entertain their Chinese business associates, and myself! So in a situation like his, I could see how you would only be speaking English and not Chinese all day long....

Oct 9, 2009 - Day 20: Shanghai - Museum and more

We knew we weren't in the right place, but he pointed to the French flag, so we paid and got out! Nearby was the Shanghai Museum that we'd planned to visit later, so we went there first instead. ... I also hired a headset (20 yuan for locals, 40 yuan for tourists - yes, Shanghai has started to capitilise on us foreigners!) There were four floors with the most ancient and equisite Chinese treasures - beautiful bronzes, ceramics dating back 8,000 years (unbelievable!), intricate pieces of jade, and of course some of the oldest money in the world (yes, China lays claim to having invented paper money, back in the Song Dynasty). ... 00pm - Met three of the Canadians who are still in Shanghai for dinner. ...

Oct 8, 2009 - Day 19: Shanghai - Yuyuan Garden

As a change we took one of those high speed bullet trains for our 40 minute trip to Shanghai. ... In Shanghai I carried my heavy bags up a set of stairs for the last time - yeah!! The next time my bag will move will be by taxi to the airport :-) At the hotel we met up with the Canadians from our tour who are also staying here in Shanghai for a couple of days. ... A fifteen minute walk turned into almost two hours of wandering around the streets of Shanghai (yes, we had a map, and yes, we were asking people for directions). ... We then took taxis to the east side of the Huangpu River and took the 45 second, super fast elevator to the 88th floor of the Jin Mao Tower for a brilliant view over the whole of Shanghai. ... In the evening some of us took a river cruise to see Shanghai's lights and this was just as beautiful as the cruise the night before in Suzhou, but in a different way. ...

Oct 5, 2009 - Biking in Shanghai - last day

PICNIC AT CENTURY PARK Last full day in Shanghai. ... So we parked our bikes outside and walked in like normal people in Shanghai. ... Apparently they are all roommates who recently graduated from university and they are having a roommate get together! That's quite a coincident because my friend in Shanghai, Chris, was also my roommate for four years. ... STREET FOOD For our last meal in Shanghai, our friend recommended that we should try the "bun" at Nanjing Xi Lu. ... It was definitely a great way to end this Shanghai trip, as we left early next morning to catch the early plane at 8:45AM (from Century Park to Honeqiao Airport was about 30min w/o traffic and RMB45). ...

Oct 4, 2009 - Biking in Shanghai - Day 3

I think it was the only time in Shanghai I don't a person within 100m! CLIMBING TO THE TOP OF THE BRIDGE There were two reasons we went all this way to this bridge. ... It was just when the sun was about to set and on the volley ball court size platform on top, one get an panromic 360 view of Shanghai city basking in the warm orange sun light. ... To the northwest is the center of old Shanghai also filled with skyscrapers and dense buildings. ... Today was an unique way of seeing Shanghai. ...

Oct 3, 2009 - Biking in Shanghai - Day 2

Before we head off to the west side of Shanghai, we firsted biked around Century Park to the subway station of 张江高科(Zhang Jiang High Tech) to look into buying train ticket for Hangzhou. ... After some discussion we decided against going to Hangzhou for this trip so we can spend more time with our friends here in Shanghai. ... Next time if we are going to the Shanghai Pudong Airport, then we'll definitely give it a try! BIKING TO THE SHANGHAI OLD STREETS So from the train station we biked along the southside of Shanghai Pudong area towards the Bin Jiang river (宾江）which divides Pudong from Puxi. ... Near south of the ferry crossing, we came upon a beautiful park along the river that gives one a panaromic view of the Shanghai riverfront. ... This time we are able to venture further into old Shanghai street. ...