The food and the service were impeccable making the flight slide by. About an hour prior to landing I woke up and began a conversation with a Turkish man who had been coming to Shanghai for business for the last 10 years. He shared some observations and gave me a few tips which were very handy in those last minutes before disembarking.
10 years ago, most people on the plane were foreigners coming to sell something or work in China and more recently most of the passengers were Chinese as they have begun to go out into the world and sell their goods. There seems to be a reversal in trends of approach to travel by the Chinese. It gave me the feeling like they are preparing to play a real power in the world gradually, economically, socially and in many forms.
Tips:
- There is an ATM in the airport, use it to withdraw cash in local currency 'Yuan'.
- A taxi from the airport to the city center should cost around 200 Yuan.
- Normally there is a 2000 Yuan limit to cash withdrawals.
16.50 (GMT+8) We landed easily and I just take my time about getting my gear ready. Armed with my new awareness and armoury of tips, this could all work out well. We descend form the plane into an Ultra-Modern airport, wow! As good as it gets! My first moments were spent looking at the shops with Chinese Writing on them. I am now in Mandarin speaking land! And here as I enter into the immigration section is the ATM my turkish friend told me about, so out with the cash. I continue to immigration which is a reasonable queue but at least it is all on the Chinese side. The was no pre-immigration in either Ireland or Turkey. I come up to the desk and the is a tablet type device in front of me with my picture and after a while the details of my passport and visa displayed on the tablet. All very modern. All is in order, no questions and after a couple of minutes of checking, through I pass.
Well this should be fun, finding my baggage! No problemo, everything is in both English and Mandarin. I move along to number 7 to wait while the bag will make its way there. Fin, I pick up the bag and I begin to head towards the Customs area but there is a queue. A queue, why? It appears that they perform a matching between the bag you pick up and the baggage ticket that you have in your possession. Oh Sugar! Where did I leave my ticket. I am rarely careful about those tickets because I rarely have a problem and I have never been party to a checking process between tickets and bags. That tickets only use until now has been if my bag has been delayed! Luckily, in my back hip pocket, I find my baggage ticket and I get the clearance to proceed to Customs. Whew! I will pay attention to that ticket more from now on...
Here I come out into the "Middle Kingdom" (China) aremd with the name of my hotel in Chinese on my hotel booking from from CTrip (http://www.ctrip.com/). So I am aware of three ways to get to the city, taxi, metro and the Maglev. Uncertain as I come out which for of transport I will take a lady official from the airport says she can get me a taxi and escorts me over to the counter. I ask how much after a minute and she says 450 Yuan. Thanks to the tip from my new Turkish friend I just walk away. Now I head in the direction of the trains. Quite a walk towards the train and I debate, the Metro or the Maglev. The Maglev is a bullet train that goes over 300 km per hour on the way into the city. The only issue is that it does not appear to go to exactly where I want to go but I can find my way from there I imagine. What ticket will I buy, the standard or the VIP? For the one time that I will take it let me that the VIP. 100 Yuan please. (About 12 Euros). Bags through the scanner and on the Maglev (http://www.smtdc.com/en/) I get.
Yes, that blurry picture does say 301 km per hour as we rocket into the city of Shanghai and just under it is the divider curtain between the golden VIP section and the blue standard section. Outside flies by! Amazing beginning to the new world. I get off the train and meet a girl and her father taking pictures of each other outside the train and offer to take one of both of them. Very friendly! I imagine that they are Chinese from outside Shanghai and they are tourists just as much as I am.
Next step is to get to my hotel from Longyang Road Station. Outside is the metro and there are taxis and I have it in my head to get a taxi as I am not sure about navigating the metro. As I descend the steps I get solicited by two taxi drivers but I do not trust them after what I have heard. I begin walking around and into the metro station trying to figure out where the authentic taxis are. I figure out that they were right on the way out of the station and begin to head that way. I walk a hundred yards or so and a taxi guy approaches me saying he has a meter taxi and I follow him to a queue of what appear to be normal taxis with meters and he is at the top of the queue. I do try saying how much will it be to the Hotel, I show him the paper with the address and he says we will do it by the meter. Eventually when we are in the car he says it will cost around 300 Yuan. I feel that I have been stung but ok. Let it ride and on we go. I watch the meter and when I get to see it after the receipt gets put up, it had started at 160 Yuan, as I got into the car. I know I have been done but I just run with it. We get to the Hotel at the meter is at 390 Yuan. I bite the bullet and think ok, I got caught, lesson learnt!
Now I was about to discover how is the Business Manhattan Hotel on Dianchi Road, just off Nanjing Road and by the Bund, as I booked it through CTrip (http://www.ctrip.com/).
The Hotel seemed lovely considering the very reasonable price. Now I go to check-in and besides the passport request which I expect there are two payments to be made.
1 - A payment for the stay at the hotel itself
2 - A payment deposit for any food, drinks or services that I may use while I stay there.
These guys are taking no chances. Into the lift and up to the room on the 5th floor. It is a very well laid out hotel and the room is a double bed room with a bathroom through a sliding door. Space isn't huge but the use of mirrors and well designed furniture give you the sensation of space. Just check the bathroom and nothing weird. Now I remember that I do need to iron a few clothes for tomorrow and better ring down for an iron. I pick up the phone, dial '0', and ask for an "iron". The answer comes, "The password for the Wi-Fi is XXXXX". "No, I am looking for an iron to smoothen my clothes". "Yes sir Sir, the password is XXXXX. What do I do? Do I have to go down and explain? "Wait", I hear. Another lady is put on the phone. "Hello". "Yes, I am looking for an iron for my clothes". "Ok, we will send it up." Whew! At least I didn't have to go all the way down again to get it.
20.00 (GMT+8) I'll go and have a stroll on the Bund and then along Nanjing Road, a famous shopping street, which are both around the corner. Out I go around the corner to have a look. One hundreds yards from the hotel is the a large road to cross and there is a boardwalk to view across the river Huangpu and look at the large lighted buildings across the river. The Pearl (A Radio Tower), the Financial Center (Tallest Building in Shanghai) and several other banks with huge buildings.
That's the Bund now let me stroll along Nanjing Road. It is bright lights, big shops, like being in Times Square in New York, the only different being that many of the signs are in Chinese writing. It seems to be full of big departments stores, the Apple store and plenty of Chinese souvenir shops for tourists. There are a few Starbucks and it is littered with western food shops like KFC and Chinese equivalents. I am actually a bit peckish, where will I go for food? I don't want western food after having come all the way here.
A couple of hundred yards west of my hotel I take a south on Nanjing Road to what appears to be a restaurant on the 2nd floor of a building. I go in and up in the elevator. It looks like an ok place. Quite large. At least more than 100 people in there and they are all Chinese :) I am in for a treat. The manager comes over and sits me down and requests that I get brought the menu with the pictures...I look through the menu and the prices look very good. I look at what I thought were starters at 39 Yuan each so I thought let me get three of them and a drink. I pick three plates, a broccoli, clams, and a tofu plate along with some white wine or that is at least how it was described in the menu. Two minutes later, another manager arrives with a half liter of brownish type liquid in a bottle and I thought, "What have I actually requested?". I open it and I might as well try a glass since it is here. It did not look like white wine, brown wine maybe. But it was drinkable. The food was taking a while so I managed a couple of glasses of brownish wine. Here comes the food, the starters turned out to be a feast. There was no way I was going to eat all of these three big plates but let's dig in. I am hungry.
Broccoli Dish. The broccoli looked lovely and as I got closer to it, it was covered in slices of bacon. I am a veggie so I thought let me eat the broccoli and just leave the bacon. It was yummy tasty! I really tucked into it.
Tofu Dish. It was lovely strips of with some lightly cooked veg. Also delicious.
Clam Dish. The clams were in a custard looking paste make of eggs. So I began taking one clam out at a time and they were very nice. The eggs make them a big heavy.
There is no way I am going to eat all three of these plates. So I do my best finishing the broccoli and part of both of the other dishes. During the meal I notice that people are smoking everywhere and some are a little too drunk for a restaurant but all seems to be calm and good. I feel like an odd-ball with more than a hundred other people and I am the only non-Chinese person. Finally, I ask for the bill and there is not a single recognisable character on the bill except the number. Thanks for arabic numbers! Pay the bill and head back towards the hotel. Alot to take in for one day!
Shanghai is streets ahead of us in many ways!
Good stuff Jonathan... I'm enjoying your account and looking forward to the next installment.
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