Shanghai Midtown Apartments

Huang Pu River

by Sharrie

On a lighter note, walking along the pedestrian pathway next to the Huang Pu river is a delightful experience. It's said this area is most romantic at night & many couples spend their evening enjoying the breeze & beauty of the neon-lit architecture on the Bund & across the river on PU DONG new financial district.

A good travel&air-ticket agency called JUNSU

by vincentairline

Many people feel its unsafe in booking air-tickets in China cause lots of people cheat money of others or do a bad-quality service. Several travellers from overseas in Shanghai complained that while chatting with me. Acctually in China, the booking is different from overseas especially in Europe.
I would like to recommend a good travel&air-ticket agency called JUNSU for you. JUNSU locates in Suite A, Floor 16, Chaoyangmen center, Building 567, Zhonghua Road, Huangpu district, Shanghai, China. It won a good fame through its perfect operation level, perfect service and best credit standing.
If you can not speak Chinese well, don't worry about that, just call, JUNSU has a expert-translator and some of its ticket-seller can speak English well.
And it can send you the ticket for free.
JUNSU homepage: www.air666.cn(English version offered)
My msn: yinhongfa@hotmail.com Skype:vincentairline

If you want Fire - they have it here - Hunan cuisi

by Audrey118 about Di Shui Dong

I guess my VT frens from Shanghai reckon - Well, she comes from SEAsia where food is predominantly spicy...so which is the best place she will enjoy...ok Hunan cuisine.

Among those who attended the VT meet in Shanghai Feb 27th were

we2364 - who was very very kind to organize this meet... thank you

MaosRedArmy - whose pages filled with lots of great restaurant tips - yes - we must meet up again in KL - we will take you to eat more yummy food...

2rs from Oslo - i am so glad we met - across the world apart in Shanghai.

and their frens, Shaun, Amy and my husband and my brother,.

The restaurants have several outlets; the one we went to was in a fashionable district with lots of nice restaurants neighbouring each other... there was Simply Thai next door...and many others nice looking one such as Sasha's If you want to think hot hot hot...this restaurant will deliver!!! Hunan food - home to Chairman Mao, no kidding...is even spicier than Sichuan food I have tasted. Sichuan is neighbour to Hunan.

The starters were typical cold dish - there was my favourite chilled cucumbers, with sesame oil taste and to my delight, red dates!!
The platter of chicken was liberally tossed with dried peppers, and you really have to sieve through it to find the yummy, crunchy outside but tender insde morsels of chicken. No doubt tasty, but careful not to bite on any of those chillies, you be lashed on FIRE if you unawaringly lick on the tiny innocent looking chiili seeds!!! Nothing could chill me off - like Amy said...i was lobster red!!! I had to swallow a Bowl of plain rice, and douse down with Coke Light !!! phew what an experience.

Nevertheless the meal was sumptuous albeit many dishes after with ate well, there was still looking a platter full of peppers !!!!Is chilli all that cheap in China!!!

Other yummy food besides the really pepperish chicken, fried whole fish with a robust brown sauce also laden with chillies!!! also yummy...but have to go easy with the sauce.

Another dish which is less potent...actually mild - is skwered prawns...whcih was yummy. it reminds me of bbq prawns, and a very mild egg plant dish. Hunan favourite dish is Ma Po Dau Foo - whcih is tofu dish, cooked with meat and hot brown sauce. Very tasty we had to have a second serving.

typical of Chinese meal, it ended with some soothing soup - which my tummy was already filled to the brim by the bowlful of rice and large coke drink, i still managed to tucked into a small bowl of noursihing soup - something similar to what my SEAsian family makes. I guess - some where the line, we are descendants of China, some part of our kitchen and our cooking is not forgotten. I love soup - so i be happy with lots of soup.

To finish the dinner, Mao insisted on Watermelons, while i wanted my chinese dumpling with sesame fillings.

The Bund in the day

by imstress

Catch a cruise of Huangpu River at the Bund.

Take a stroll down the whole stretch of the bund and take some pictures with the monument along the bund.

You may see some old folks exercising with sword or doing their tai-chi and exercises.

There are lots of impressive banks, trading houses, hotels, clubs built along both side of the Huangpu River.

Witness the Great Transitioning Wheel

by Amareyui

"Anticipation"

I have heard and read a great deal about the rapid development and modernization of Shanghai, the focal point of the "New China". Shanghai, many proclaim, has become a metropolis that rivals Hong Kong and Singapore, and establishes as the Eastern world's answer to New York.
My curiousity and interest about this brewing sensation, along with the urging from numerous people about the necessity to witness this place firsthand, transform to great eagerness to pay another visit.
1987 was literally a time of last century in Shanghai's calendar.

"Past"

Shanghai, as with much of China, was a ramshackle pile of grey, concrete, ugly buildings. Even the sky was painted in heavy grey from the general use of coal. Many interesting, albeit crumbling, houses were along the alleys, but unfortunately even more were bulldozed for sad looking concrete boxes designed by the same architect. Everything was square, and grey.
The level of crowdedness was impossible to put into exact numbers. Everywhere was horde of people. Without adequent public transport, it was no exaggeration to say the city was always holding a Tour de France.
Sure, there were the Bund, and Yuyuan, and other sights. But these were also poorly maintained. Besides, Shanghai was never known for its history and sights. Shanghai was Shanghai because of the city's role of ambassador in the earlier part of the twentieth century. But that aspect of the city was nowhere to be found.
The whole city scene looked like what one would reasonably expect; a city under communist rule which had just begun a great transition to capitialism. As a reminder to that, the development of Pudong was still a few years away. In 1987, Pudong was a suburb of only farmland.
1987 was indeed as distant as the term last century sounds.

"Present"

Or is it?
Is it really possible, with the assistant of major capitals flooding its way, that a city can simply pretend nothing has happened for decades and punches its name among the ballot for the leading city in the world?
Despite having one of the best newest highway network, intercity roads are often confusing and pathetically inefficient. No question huge amount of fund has supported the construction of the road system, but the lay out is curiously negligent. Even worse, the drivers who inhabit the roads are reckless, poorly trained.
-shopping malls.
-airport
-culture
-great effort to beautiful herself, upgrade herself to match up with the "best"
-most "user friendly", almost non-functional in some important aspects, like the roads
-ironically, despite having one of the best, newest highway network, intercity roads are often confusing and pathetically inefficient (merging lanes at the most curious sections of the road)
-most stupid should be the pay parking entrance of the train station that requires the pssengers to pay
-lack of attention to humanity and detail

http://www.shanghaidiaries.com/