Known as the Oriental Pearl, the sprawling port city of Shanghai is China's largest financial center. Visitors to the city will find plenty of opportunities to spend money there, but here are some smart ways to soak it all in without blowing your budget.
When to Visit:
Shanghai has four distinct seasons, with temperatures averaging 39F degrees in January and 82F degrees in July and August. High season is summer; hotel rates drop in winter, but the weather can get gloomy. The mild, pleasant weather in spring and fall makes them the ideal times for touring. Find flights to Shanghai
Where to Eat:
If you can't find anything good to eat in Shanghai, then you just aren't looking. This cosmopolitan center has not only a host of spots serving international cuisine, but restaurants representing all eight schools of Chinese cooking. Shanghai cuisine itself is heavy on seafood; one of the more sought-after delicacies, the Shanghai hairy crab, can be pricey. For those on a budget, there are thousands of fast-food restaurants serving local favorites, food from other Asian countries and Western cuisine. The city has several gourmet streets, or snack streets, where a wide range of restaurants, snack bars and snack stalls are found. Don't miss xiao long bao, delicate dumplings steamed in bamboo baskets. Other snacks include cake balls, scallion pancakes, rice dumplings and deep-fried dough sticks. Look for these, and other local and regional delicacies, on Yuyuan Gourmet Street. Yunnan Lu Gourmet Street has a number of reasonably priced restaurants serving buffets laden with local specialties and snacks.
Where to Stay:
In Shanghai, there is no shortage of hotels that cater to business travelers, including a number of standard international chains, many of which offer good-value online rates. Look for lower weekend rates at the business hotels. One upscale choice, the 174-room Park Hyatt Shanghai, is due to open in the summer of 2008 on the 79th to 93rd floors of the Shanghai World Financial Center, currently the second-tallest building in the world at 1,614 feet. For tourists on a budget, the Shanghai tourist board says that the hotels and hostels operated by universities are smart and reliable choices.
Getting Around:
While walking is a highly recommended way to see the sights of Shanghai, the city has one of the world's most extensive bus systems, a limited but burgeoning subway system and literally thousands of taxis to get you where you need to go. All are inexpensive ways to get around, but buses can be crowded, as are subways at rush hours, and taxis are often slowed by city traffic. Fortunately, underground subway lines are being expanded and roads are being built as the city gears up for the 2010 World Expo, which is expected to draw 70 million visitors.
Shanghai Sights and Attractions:
Situated at the mouth of the Yangtze River, Shanghai is the largest city and busiest port in the People's Republic of China, a metropolitan area where some 13 million people live and work. It has an outsized urban mentality as well: In addition to boasting China's tallest skyscraper, the Shanghai World Financial Center (also known as The Vertical Complex City), the city also features the second-tallest skyscraper, the 1,380-foot Jin Mao Tower. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower rises 1,535 feet high and has three observation points, the highest at around 1,100 feet. The city's sleek steel-and-glass modernism is counterbalanced by the charms of historic Shanghai, from ancient Buddhist temples to the 19th-century, European-style colonial architecture along the spectacular Bund promenade and thoroughfare, which traces the Huangpu River.
More Shanghai Tips:
- Don't drink the tap water... unless your hotel says it's safe to do so. A number of hotels even provide boiled tap water for guests to drink. Otherwise, go with bottled water during your stay.
- Shop till you drop. Shanghai is one of the world's major shopping cities. All the big names (and knockoffs thereof) are here, and you can find good prices on antiques, jade, Chinese silk, embroidery and all the trinkets you could ever want. Nanjing Road, known as China's No.1 Street, has roughly 360 stores that draw around 1.5 million customers a day.
- Celebrities lived here. You can visit the former homes of celebrated Chinese figures, but don't expect to see any movie stars. Instead, you might want to tour the houses of writer Lu Xun and political leader Sun-Yat-sen, and see two former residences of the longtime Chairman of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong.
