A little bit of this and that from my experience in Shanghai, I present you some travel tips.
1. Essential app for Shanghai metro map: Explore Shanghai Metro Map
This Explore Shanghai Metro Map app is necessary if you’re to explore Shanghai by metro. What I like most about this app is that it’s simple enough and it shows me the key points which I want to know; cost, duration, metro line number and number of stops.
Day 5 was our last day in Shanghai. Oh ya let me first share with you my accommodation info in Shanghai.
Fish Inn Bund is a 2-3 stars boutique hotel strategically located near East Nanjing Metro, East Nanjing Road and The Bund. Although the website described it as boutique hotel, I don’t see how it qualifies as one. Maybe it’s the bedroom themes? We booked 2 rooms, a deluxe and a suite. Remember we arrived very early from the morning flight? Thank God the hotel has the rooms ready by the time we got there. That’s like 10.30am in the morning. Also we got a free upgrade from deluxe to suite. That’s a first for me. I never received room upgrade no matter where I stayed at during my dozens of trips. So thank you Fish Inn Bund.
Shanghai & Hangzhou travelogue so far:
Shanghai Day 1: MAS again, Maglev Train, The Bund & Becoming Zombie!
Shanghai Day 2: City God Temple, Zig Zag Bridge at Yu Garden & Xintiandi (Part 1)
Shanghai Day 2: Oriental Pearl Tower, Lujiazui Pedestrian Bridge, The Bund & Pudong Skyline at Night (Part 2)
Hangzhou Day 3: West Lake
This is officially our last full day in Shanghai, so we took it easy. We reached Tianzifang 田子坊 via Dapuqiao metro stop (with 3 metro changes) at 10am. Like Xintiandi, Tianzifang is made of shops and restaurant from Shanghainese’ Shikumen (real home of Shanghai people). While Xintiandi is more upscale and modern, Tianzifang still retain some of its olden days charm with windings alleyways off Taikang Lu. Tianzifang’s tiny alleys remind me of Venice a little bit minus the canal. Go without a map and try to get lost while maneuvering the alleys!
Tianzifang is also the place for souvenir. Make sure you bargain. If it doesn’t work, just walk away. Some might call you back. While some will not, you will find similar souvenir easily at another shop.
Entrance to Tianzifang. Several entrances to Tianzifang look quite similar to this. Make sure you know where you’re coming from.
Shanghai travelogue so far:
Shanghai Day 1: MAS again, Maglev Train, The Bund & Becoming Zombie!
Shanghai Day 2: City God Temple, Zig Zag Bridge at Yu Garden & Xintiandi (Part 1)
Shanghai Day 2: Oriental Pearl Tower, Lujiazui Pedestrian Bridge, The Bund & Pudong Skyline at Night (Part 2)
We’re suppose to visit Hangzhou on day 2 but decided to change to day 3 because we’re worry we won’t be able to recover from our zombie mode! Haha Traveling to Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station is very easy. All we need is take the metro from East Nanjing Road for 35 minutes.
While we’re trying to figure out how to buy tickets at the lower level of the railway station, we were confronted by several touts and got swayed away for a moment. They told us earlier tickets were all sold out, the latest tickets availability are from noon onwards and so asked us to buy from them and follow their tour. But I figured this can’t be true. There are lots of train to Hangzhou daily plus it’s not holiday season, impossible for the early tickets to be sold out. So we told them off HUNDRED OF TIMES and got back in line. We were able to buy tickets that depart an hour from now. Bear in mind, you need to show your passport while purchasing the train ticket. Fyi, we also bought return tickets as well.
We then proceed to Level 2, the departure hall. We found out there are ticket counters on this level as well.
Shanghai travelogue so far:
Shanghai Day 1: MAS again, Maglev Train, The Bund & Becoming Zombie!
Shanghai Day 2: City God Temple, Zig Zag Bridge at Yu Garden & Xintiandi (Part 1)
After visiting Xintiandi (新天地), we went back to the bus stop to wait for the City Sightseeing Bus again. However we got down at the wrong stop and had to wait for the next bus. Then later on the bus went idle for nearly 30 minutes which is a good thing because we get to rest in the bus. Not much talking because we were all so tired. Our destination is dinner near Pearl Oriental Tower which you can read about here: Ajisen Ramen (tsk it’s fast food! LOL).
Just beside the tower is Lujiazui Pedestrian Bridge which is a large circle shaped bridge. You can view some of the towers and buildings in Lujiazui financial district on this bridge. There are a couple of entries and exits points on this bridge.
Oriental Pearl Tower view from Lujiazui Pedestrian Bridge. No one wants to go up the tower so we just hang out at the outside.