My Shanghai Favorites

If you are lucky enough to visit Shanghai, here are the top must-see things:
1) The bund, especially at night.
2)Yu Yuan Garden and Huxingting Tea House.
3) Xiang Yang market.

If you have more time, there are many additional things to see, depending on what interests you.

Quick Tips:

When traveling to China, always bring some wet wipes. With the exception of nice hotels, most bathrooms have no soap and no toilet paper, so don't be caught without.

Dining tips - In China, when you dine out, you buy the table for the night. So if your server won't bring the check until you ask for it, that isn't poor service, it's proper ettiquette. Also, tipping is not customary in the P.R.C. Get a business card from your hotel and keep it with you at all times - that way you can show it to the taxi driver to get back.

As an American (and a Midwesterner), I am not averse to sitting on the curb or the ground. There is a reason the Chinese do not do this: they know what's on the ground. I wouldn't recommend it. The Chinese may think you are a dirty person.

Best Way To Get Around:

Taxis are usually the best transportation for people who don't speak Mandarin (or Shanghainese). Even then, your taxi driver won't speak more than a few words of English, so you need to be able to give him/her the address (in Chinese) of where you're going. Your hotel can help you with this. At touristy places, you can usually find someone who speaks some English. Taxis are very cheap - they start out at Y10 (.25) for the first 3 kilometers.

The subway is clean and very cheap; however, unless you speak Mandarin, you will probably need help the first time. At the station, the maps are all in Chinese and the ticket sellers don't speak English. You can buy a single ticket Y2-3, or a card for Y50. Inside the subway cars are maps that have Pinyin (English letters instead of characters); however, you have to know which car to get on. In some out-of-the-way places, you will find bicycle taxis; you may have to bargain for this and I wouldn't pay more than a few kuai (renminbi) unless you have a heavy load.

Element Fresh is fresh indeed. The food is fusion, a mixture of Asian, Western, and Mediterranean. They have very good sandwiches that will run you about $5. However, you will also want to get a fruit smoothie to go along with it. They have all kinds of flavors and two sizes, starting at about $2.25. We have always had good service there, and apparently they were voted #1 in service by That's Shanghai readers. My most recent favorite is some sort of Middle Eastern chicken sandwich with miso yogurt dressing. My friend claims the dressing is addictive -- maybe she's right! If your stomach needs something tamer, my husband prefers the Truck Driver. It's very American -- I think it has ham, turkey and cheese, or something very Western anyway. My teenage daughter is going through a very discriminating (i.e. picky) phase and they made a special sandwich for her that wasn't even on the menu.

I think they are a little expensive, but everything is relative. In Shanghai, all Western restaurants are expensive.

Element Fresh is on the ground floor of the Shanghai American Center, which is attached to the Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

We went to Paulaner's our second night in Shanghai. By now we were feeling just a little overwelmed by everything we'd seen, and we hadn't seen any touristy stuff yet. Here in Shanghai, it seems all food is divided into two catagories: Asian and Western. Even though Paulaner's is Western, it's still foreign to us Americans. It just seemed so funny to us--we're sitting in this German restaurant at this big, heavy table, drinking beer, and it almost seems all very European. Except when you look around, there's a whole bunch of Chinese people. It's weird enough we're eating German food, listening to a Filipino band, but to top it off all the Chinese servers are wearing German costumes with those big, wide, colorful suspenders! It was like a cultural assault. Anyway, I think it's something you have to experience to understand the insanity of it. Then at about 9pm the waiters all shed their suspenders and the place turned into some sort of disco!

Anyway, I don't know much about German food. I always get the weiner schnitzel since it's the next best thing to an Iowa pork tenderloin. My husband and I like to go there, especially when they have occasional two-for-one dinners. Ex-pats like the place because I always see many of them there.

The above location is in the French Concession near Hengshan Lu. It is set way back in what looks like a mansion. There is also a location at Xintiandi. I know the Xintiandi one has some nice lunch specials.

This is not a restaurant for vegetarians, although they do have an extensive salad bar. The specialty of this restaurant is meat and lots of it. It's all you can eat for Y98 (under $12.50), not including your drink.

You may want to go to the buffet first while you have a chance. Once you are seated at the table, the servers come around with all kinds of meat, most of it on skewers. They have different cuts of beef, chicken wings and legs, sausages, lamb, pork, and a few more exotic things. They just keep coming around until finally you're so stuffed that you have to keep saying "no thanks". The way to get them to stop asking is to finally just get rid of your plate. My husband is also very partial to the mashed potatoes and homemade tapioca pudding you can find at the salad bar.

This restaurant is located right outside the entrance to the Jing An Temple subway station. If you will arrive after 6pm, I would recommend reservations because otherwise you may have to wait awhile.

I have a new favorite restaurant! The Banana Leaf is in the fourth floor of the Hong Kong Plaza, but it stands out from the other shops and restaurants in this mall. It looks like a piece of some exotic building from Thailand has been picked up and transplanted. It's merely a hint of what's on the inside. The decor reminds me of the Rainforest cafe, including some big trees. To get to our table we also walked by what appeared to be a giant fruit stand. The staff looks very exotic in Thai costumes.

We ordered quite a bit of food: We started with a dish of fresh fruit and Vietnamese spring rolls, which were delicious. We also ordered sweet and sour shrimp, beef fillet with mango, pork ribs and a couple of lamb kebabs. Everything was very good, although the kebabs are deceivingly spicy. I don't like spicy food very much, and they didn't seem too spicy until after I had a couple bites, then it burned all the way down. The ribs were also a little spicy, but less so. My favorite was the beef fillet with mango. The beef was very tender and the sauce was heavy and sweet, with strips of mango, sweet red and green peppers, and onions. It's a weird combination, but it tastes surprisingly good. We also ordered a couple of scoops of ice cream, not realizing that they give you watermelon for dessert.

They also have some very exotic things on the menu, but don't let it spoil your appetite: pigeon, eel, shark, ostrich that I can remember. You can also order the lucky food for your zodiac sign.

The Banana Leaf is a rather rowdy place. While we were eating, some of the employees would come out and sing for customers' birthdays. Also, they come out in a big group, singing and playing instruments, and dancing. This one guy, dressed like a policeman, gets people up to dance. Maybe they're afraid to say no to the cop. After dancing in the middle for a while, they start doing a line dance around the dining room. Finally they end up in the middle again, with an even bigger entourage. Towards the end I was shocked to hear them bust out with a rendition of "You Are My Sunshine" and "Deep in the Heart of Texas". They actually even seemed to know the words, which is surprising, although I doubt they have a clue what they mean.

Anyway, the Banana Leaf is not the place for a quiet, romantic dinner, but they do have very good food. There were only two of us (like I said, we ordered a lot of food), and including one banana juice and one jasmine tea, our total bill came to Y283 (around $35). You could eat there for a lot less.

The Bund is an area of European buildings that were built after the Opium Wars, when the Port of Shanghai was opened up to foreigners. Even after the Japanese invasion, WWII, and the Communist Revolution, these buildings are still standing today, much as they were then. The main difference is a walkway has been built in front of them, along the Huang Pu river. Across the river is the Pudong New Area, so called because it's on the east bank (pudong) and the whole area was built since 1990. The modern buildings and neon lights on the opposite side of the river are a sharp contrast to the old European buildings on the west side.

I would recommend just going for a stroll along the walkway on the bund side. There is also an underground pedestrian tunnel that will take you across to the Pudong side, but the view is better from the bund side. It is interesting to see in the day, but the view is best at night when it's all lit up. The lights do go out at a certain time, maybe 11pm.

If you have time, go for a cruise on the dragon boat; the ticket office is on the Bund side of the river. Spring for the most expensive seats -- they are enclosed on the top deck and you will have a place to sit, out of the rain and air-conditioned if necessary.

There is also a ferry that crosses the river. Tickets are maybe around $.25, the dock is down near where the elevated highway crosses the road.

Yu Yuan gets its name from the Ming Dynasty gardens of the same name. Yu Yuan means "to please the parents," at least that's what I was told. This garden is more like a park, rather large with lots of ponds, pavilions, winding paths, and gates. It's easy to get lost, and the entrance and exit are both on the same end. Admission is about Y25 ($3), and you could spend a couple of hours in there. For about $10, you can get your picture taken in Ming Dynasty clothes.

The highlight of Yu Yuan, though, is the Huxingting Tea House -- it's so Chinese!!! (At least our idea of what Chinese should be.) Bring your camera! To get to it, you must cross the pink "bridge of nine turnings." The nine turnings keep the evil spirits from crossing -- they can only move in a straight line. You can have tea (and a ceremony) in the tea house. (There is also a tea ceremony included in your garden admission, but it's a little hard to find.)

The whole area is surrounded by shops with all the things tourists like to buy. Don't pay the first price, or even the second. Price tags don't necessarily mean a thing. If it's too expensive, 10 other shops probably have the same thing. The whole area looks Ming Dynasty, but actually, only the garden and the teahouse are authentic. The rest is reproduction.

Xiang Yang is not just a place to shop, but rather an experience. It is also known as the "knock off" market because of all the knock-offs you can buy there: fake designer bags, clothing, and watches. (U.S. Customs regulations permit an individual to bring back one each of various counterfeit goods, i.e. one bag, one watch, etc. for personal use.)

As soon as you step out of the cab, you will be accosted with "Bag? Shoes? Watch? DVD?" The market is mostly outdoors, with many tiny stalls and narrow, very crowded aisles. You must bargain for your purchases. A rule of thumb is to offer half, but this is not necessarily true. It could be much less. You need to have an idea what the item is worth. If it seems too expensive, it probably is. Don't be afraid to walk away because many times they will relent and chase after you, saying, "Ok, ok." It's all part of the game to get the best possible price out of you. They are very good at it too. Many shops carry the same thing. In order to make the sale, they will often run over to another shop (owned by some friend or relative) to acquire the particular size or color that you want. Besides knock offs, they also have many souvenirs, including silk pillow covers, tissue box covers, chopstick sets, silk/linen placemats, tablecloths, and tea mugs. They have just about every kind of cigarette lighter you could imagine. You can even get some souvenirs with Chairman Mao; my favorite is a watch with him waving.

If time allows and you haven't seen one yet, go behind the market to see the wet market. They sell fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and seafood. Some of it is fairly exotic and maybe even live.

Xiang Yang market is located on Huai Hai Lu, which in itself is a major shopping street for the locals, and the prices will be cheaper than Nanjing Lu.

Nanjing Road, especially the pedestrian mall, is one of the major shopping areas in Shanghai. If you have time, it's nice to stroll along the pedestrian mall (it is very long) just to see the sights. There are many large department stores with many nice and very expensive things. If you are not Asian, you will be somewhat of a tourist attraction yourself.

If you are looking for real designer goods and money is no object, many designers have stores in Plaza 66, a mall that is maybe a mile or so west of the pedestrian mall in the 1200 block of Nanjing Xi Lu (Nanjing Road West). Otherwise, for souvenirs, I would recommend the Friendship Store at 40 Beijing Dong Lu or the Friendship Store in Gubei at 6 Zunyi Nan Lu. The stores on Nanjing Lu tend to be just too expensive.