Chasing Summer –

September 4th – 8th

As much as Beijing is steeped in thousands of years of history, Shanghai is its modern wonder equivalent. Most of Shanghai has been developed within the past 50 years.

For the tourist, Shanghai is a shiny new jewel and is best explored at night. Particularly in the summer, where temperatures averaged at about 44 degrees Centigrade during the day.

Huangpu River Tour

After arriving by train and putting our belongings away at the hotel, we decided to do the Huangpu Night River Tour. One of the hardest things when traveling with a larger group is trying to get everybody ready on time. While we agreed to meet in the lobby at a certain time, several people trickled in late and then needed to ask clarifying questions at the concierge office. When the group hadn’t left after 45 minutes, Angela, Steve, Scott, and I decided to head out on our own.

The DiDi app in China is like their Uber and is very reasonably priced. The Metro system is also very cheap and easy to use. Another app that should be downloaded when visiting China is Alipay. Alipay is used to pay for just about everything at restaurants, stores, and transportation. It is better to have them downloaded before you get to China in order to link up your credit card.

We grabbed a DiDi to the wharf area, and we’re amazed at the lights along the river. The ferry boat was a little tricky to get onto from the promenade. We ran onto the 7:30 boat. The boat ride takes approximately 45 minutes, and you are able to view both sides of the river in that time. The cost of the boat was the equivalent of $20 Canadian (150 yuan). It was well worth the money as Shanghai looks best in the evening.

People’s Square and Park

On September 5th, our first full day in Shanghai, Angela, Steve, and I started the morning by walking to People’s Square. It was so hot and humid that at 9:00 AM, it already felt like a temperature of 42 degrees Celsius. We quickly decided that we would not be walking everywhere and chose to take the hop-on, hop-off bus for two days, which was 80 yuan.

People’s Park and Square is at the very center of Shanghai and a 15-minute walk from our hotel. In this area are the city hall, large fountains, museums, and the Grand Theater.

All of these were built in the 1990s as symbols of Shanghai’s economic and cultural advancements over the remains of an old horse race track. Racing and gambling were made illegal in the 1950s, and the race track had been used as a detention center and sports arena.

In order to get back towards the HOHO buses from People’s Square, we took an underground path for the metro lines and stayed out of the sun.

Hop-On, Hop-Off & Yu Yuan

The Hop On Hop Off bus system in Shanghai has multiple routes. Most of these roads crisscross under the river back and forth to see different locations. For the first day, we hopped on Route 2 and followed it almost the entire way until we arrived at Yuyon Garden stop.

In this location, there are actually four Must See attractions. The Yu Yuan Garden was built in 1577 under the Ming dynasty and was a private garden. It was opened to the public in 1961 and has many archways and bridges placed throughout. The roofs and tops of the walls are decorated with carvings of dragons, horses, and warriors.

It was quite crowded and hot in the garden. Senors were 21, and other adults were 41 to enter.

On the opposite side, when I exited Yu Yuan Garden, I found myself in Yu Yuan Bazaar. This market area sells souvenirs, second-hand goods, antiques, and food. It covers an area of over 50 hectares and houses almost 3000 shops and nearly 10,000 vendors.

Outside of the bazaar is Shanghai Town God’s Temple. Seniors are free, and other adults are 40 yuan. Inside the Temple is a courtyard that opens into a number of halls with multiple statues and rooms for praying to the different deities. Different rooms serve different purposes. For example, there is room for praying for wealth and another room for good grades. Incense is given for free, and rice offerings can be bought to be placed near the temples of choice with a prayer.

At the end of his exploration, we got a different hoho bus, number one, to return us to the area near the hotel.

Lost Plate Food Tour

That evening, I participated in a Lost Plate Food Tour. The food tour took us into the French concession area to sample food at four locations and finished at a local tap room.

At our first stop, we sampled some soup dumplings, which were delicious but almost counted as a whole meal. At our second stop, we had a similar dumpling filling inside a bun that was steamed and then fried. I also got a curry soup, a fish soup, spring onion noodles, and dumplings with a peanut sauce.

On our way to our 3rd stop, we paused for a moment at a convenience store to get some local beer. At the third location, we had stir-fried Chinese snitchel pork, fried eggplant, fried Lotus root, glazed pork belly with quail eggs, and a fried greens dish.

We finished our evening of eating at an ice cream shop where we partook of a mango Tapioca dessert. It was filling and delicious. Of course, my favorite stop was the last one, Tap That, a local beer house. There, I chose to try the Fall Farm House, a stout drink.

More HOHO and Nanjing Road

The next day was our second day of the Hop-On, Hop-Off buses. Angela and I got on the number 10 and headed across the river. After riding the route, we hopped on number three in order to get to number 9. From the number 9, we went back towards our hotel and explored the underground metro area.

Once the sun started going down, I made my way to the pedestrian street and walked down the road until I reached the Bund area. The pedestrian street was filled with shops, restaurants, candy stores, and mall entrances. As the sun continued to go down, the lights of all the shops were lit up until I reached Bund.

Bund is a popular tourist area where the Wharf for the River tours are located. There are several monuments and buildings worth exploring in that area.

Zhouzhuang Water Town

The next morning, Scott and I hopped on the subway for one and a half hours to reach Zhouzhuang Ancient Water Town. It costs slightly less than a dollar to get to this ancient town, also known as the Venice of Shanghai. It has canals, stone bridges, and traditional architecture.

From the metro station line 11, you can catch a wooden boat for 40 yuan that will take you into the town via the canals. The touristic part or scenic part of the city has many shops and restaurants to explore.

After wandering through many stores and down the lanes across bridges, we found lots of treats and shops to sit out. He went in and tried one strong beer before making our way back to the boat station to ride back to the Metro. It was another 40 yuan to go back.

Shanghai Disneyland

On our last day in Shanghai, I went to Shanghai Disneyland. It is the most technologically advanced Disneyland and probably one of the cheapest. I bought a one-day ticket for $60 US or $90 Canadian.

Again, it took me about an hour by Metro station to reach the resort area, but it was easy to find. In the park, I explored all of the areas and most of the stores purely for air conditioning.

Tomorrow is the future zone. It had the best rides for adults, but I preferred Zootopia just for the look and feel of it.

Pirates of the Caribbean and Adventure Island both had some fun rides that had a wait time of 30 to 40 minutes.

There were several shows going on throughout the day, but I didn’t really stop and watch them. Almost everyone was buying the mouse ears, and they had many different designs to suit everyone’s style. They ranged from about the equivalent of 30 to 40 Canadian dollars or 159 yuan to 199 yuan.

For lunch, I stopped and had a turkey leg with sausage fried rice and a small drink. That was the most expensive meal I had in China, which cost 119 yuans.

Shanghai was a lot of fun, but with the weather, I really only would have needed two days to see everything I wanted to see. I felt a bit like I was just wasting time waiting for my flight back to the boat.