2007 Trip to Shanghai (上海)
I stayed in Hong Kong for the long Easter break, so I've been itching to leave Hong Kong to travel a bit more this year. Originally Shanghai wasn't on my "list" of places I wanted to go to this year, but I had a friend there who was free for golden week and since I had a place to stay I decided to go visit. I stayed from May 1st to May 6th; six days.
Six days is a lot to write about so I'm going to summarizes as much as I can. When I first arrived I met up with my friend and her first boyfriend in Xujiahui (徐家汇). They had some other Chinese friends visiting from out of town. Everyone stayed at a house near Jinjiang Park. We didn't really do anything on my arrival day. Day 2 we went as a group to People Square (人民广场), Nanjing Road (南京路), and The Bund along the Huangpu River (黄浦江).
On day 3 we traveled to the famous Yuyuan Gardens and Xintiandi (新天地首页).
For days 4 and 5 I ended up shopping in Xujiahui and Nanjing Road. I wandered around People Square to take a few photos at night. With the new currency difference it is actually more expensive for me now to shop in China using my Hong Kong Dollars. The only things I bought were a pair of fake G Star Raw jeans (￥200 RMB) and a white custom fit Ralph Lauren polo (￥145 RMB). The polo I bought for cheap from a shop in a mall called Hotwind. I have no clue if it is authentic, but it looks and seems real compared to my other custom fit American bought polo. The jeans were a debate for me to buy. I had a conversation with a model before about buying fake name brand jeans, and he reported good results from his own purchases. With an original pair costing around ￥1300 RMB it seemed like a good risk. I'm mainly worried about the colours bleeding, but I was told to soak it in water over night before washing it. The first few washes with jeans are always something to worry about.
Friday night I went clubbing at Club G Plus. It wasn't a bad club, fairly large with a lot of tables with people playing dice games. The main reason I wanted to go was there was a special event that night with DJ Dan spinning. He apparently claims the number 5. spot for top DJs world wide. The set was really good, I love a good DJ and it really helped the mood since I hate clubbing alone. Saturday night wasn't as great. I went to check out club Guandii; the hip-hop club of Shanghai. The venue seemed a bit small. They had girls come out every once in a while to do a bit of a dance show on this little stage in the centre, but I found it kind of distrupted the atmosphere because the songs would suddenly stop and change to accomidate the display.
Special thanks to everyone who helped or tried to help out on my trip. I had tons of suggestions and it really made the difference. Special thanks to Sandra, Wendy, Wendy's friend Vicky, Terence, Aya, Luo Yan, and my mom (she gave me recommendations too).
Hits:
- Big city, lots of space.
- Shanghai Public Transportation Card. You can use it everywhere including Taxies.
- Shopping. Lots of shops, lots of brands.
- Technology. "3D" video ads inside the malls.
- Clubs with world famous DJs visiting all the time.
- Old traditional sites and Chinese gardens.
- Cheap Taxies.
Misses:
- Lots of very aggressive rude people. Many with some very nasty habits.
- Street crossings. literally the pedestrian lights and traffic lights don't mean anything. People will cross whenever, cars won't stop at red lights. They need to hire people specifically to control traffic at more commercial centres.
- Hard to find good traditional food. I don't know why it was so hard for me.
- Air quality. Surprisingly I think it is worst than HK's. I was clearing my nose constantly and what was coming out wasn't pleasant.
- Expensive shopping with my Hong Kong currency. Damn new exchange rate.
posted by Tempest7 @ 11:42
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