Embassy Suite Hotel Shanghai

walk along the Bund.

by MacKiwi

The Bund is a section of riverfront along the Huangpu river in Shanghai which until the early 1800's was undeveloped. The British set up their consulate and other buildings there after the Opium War.
In the early 1900's the Bund sprouted up with buildings designed by architects from Britain, France, China, America, Russia, Japan, and others including Jews from various countries.

The Bund is a record of architecture of the times from around the world, and many of its buildings were the best in Asia for their time.

pegasus night club

by marora99 about pegasus night club

Me and my sis just randomly picked this club from our guide book. I think it is located in a hotel. They were playing primarily hip hop. Most of the people in the club were foreigners. We had to pay to get in but they had an open bar so it was worth it. Don't know if it is the best club out there but I got buzzed and had a good time. i think the dress code was pretty casual

Eating Like the Locals

by rosie_b about Dynasty

The restaurant is trying its best to project its image as grand, by putting Versace-esq furnitures, plates and silverwares. The food is great and if you're the kind of person who likes large crowds, this is the place to go. It's recommended to come here with someone who speaks Mandarin, although they have a convenient picture menu with some english translation to help you pick your food, when you ask for one. With its grand piano in the middle, this restaurant is always busy with people hussling and bussling around and eat at the same time. When you come in to the entrance of the building, you will be greeted by a hostess who will take you to the second floor and there will be another hostess there who will take you to your table. The restaurant can be very busy and hard to get a table, so be prepare to wait for a while or if you are lucky, they will seat you right away. Although the food is great, the atmosphere is unique, but the service can be frustrating at times, especially if you want to order more things or tea or just simply want to get some more silverwares. The sweet and sour fish, deep fried crab balls with mayonnaise and sauteed bok choy.

Cheng Huang Temple & Yu Yuen Garden

by elcbw

We made the mistake of visiting the area in a Saturday morning. The crowd was shoulder to shoulder. If you are used to the wide open space places like Canada, this could be very intimidating. The area has many, in fact too many jewelry stores specializing in anything that could be made of gold. There is also a Starbucks as you can see in this picture. The restaurant which serves the best xiao lon bao (steam dumpling with a juicy meat) in shanghai is also located here. However, this partiuclar restaurant is government owned and operated. I leave you to imagine yourself how bad the service could be like.

Shanghai Scenery

by funky_pigeon

"Shanghai visit"

We left Zhuhai by coach and traveled for 2 and half hours to Guangzhou, the capital of the province, to catch the train from the eastern train terminal to get to Shanghai. The train station was massive and its like going through at an airport with your bag being X-rayed and then ID being checked before boarding the train.

The train was really nice - the journey took about 23 hours - so we travelled in the hard sleeper carriage, this consists of 3 tier bunks and 6 people to a compartment, there is AC and a kitchen with hot water so you can make instant pot noodles and such like, although they do make food. You even get a duvet and pillow which was really nice and clean.

Once we arrived in Shanghai, we were met by a friend of Joannas and he had arranged accomadation for us really cheap which was wicked, and he got us on the bus to the hotel. The hotel was really good, and to a pretty high standard, yet it was a good price for the room. Once settled in the hotel we chilled out - and watched the Shanghai F1 on TV.

The following day we walked into town and took a stroll around the Bund, this area is the old part of Shanghai by the river and you get good views across to the Pudong region. You can walk along Nanjing Rd, which is the main shopping area and has several malls, with practically everything you could imagine and as its pedestrianised its pretty relaxing to go down there and people watch.

We wandered around the museum which was to the south of Peoples Square, and then sat and watched the kite flying for a while before heading back up to the hotel again. We also went on the Tourist Train which takes you under the river for a trancy experience, with flashing lights and blow up people, and whilst we were on the other side we went up the Jinmao tower to the Grand Hyatt on the 54th floor to get the vioews across the town, it was quite hazy though.

Other places we visited was the Buddhist temple Yufo Si which was to the west of the shanghai train station - fairly touristy and lots of tour groups so you can't really contemplate in private there, but the temple was pretty well kept and you can see a jade buddha there. Then we went to the Yu Gardens, which was quite expensive but they are meant to be a good example of Ming gardens. We thought that the ponds could do with a good clean!! again very touristy and just felt a little too concretey.

Overall we really enjoyed Shanghai and met some friendly people. The bus routes were fairly simple and where we stayed wasn't that far out of town so you could walk around - although it took ages.