"SHANGHAI - METROPOLITAN" a Shanghai Travel Page by Azri_Azmi

The Malaysian Airline System 747 departed from Kuala Lumpur around 0140 and landed in Pudong Airport at 0700. Baggage clearance and passport checking are quite slow due to lots of traveller arrived at the same time. As it was early morning, only few access door were opened. It surely a long queue line.

From Pudong Airport, we took a van to Ramada Hotel in Cao Bao Road, Shanghai City. The journey took us almost an hour. Reached Ramada at 1000 and some rooms were still not ready for checking in. Parked my luggage inside one of my friends room and straight away went back downstairs for start our activity.

1st Day (17/9/06)
> 1000 ~ 1300 = Breakfast@Starbuck & Visiting the Old City
> 1300 ~ 1500 = Visiting the Oriental Pearl Tower
> 1500 ~ 1700 = Late Lunch at a Muslim Restaurant inside Xi Jia Hui
> 1700 ~ 1900 = Siteseeing around Xi Jia Hui Shopping Mall
> 1900 ~ = Back to Hotel

2nd Day (18/9/06)
> 0630 ~ 0830 = Take a van ride to Hangzhou
> 0830 ~ 1130 = Visiting Leifeng Pagoda
> 1130 ~ 1430 = Visiting & Silks Shopping at the West Lake
> 1430 ~ 1600 = Lunch at a Muslim Restaurant
> 1600 ~ 1700 = Shopping around Hangzhou Muslim Community Street
> 1700 ~ 1830 = Visiting a Green Tea Plantation & Bought Green Tea
> 1830 ~ 2030 = Journey back from Hangzhou to Shanghai
> 2030 ~ 2130 = Dinner at a Muslim Restaurant along Cao Bao Road
> 2130 ~ = Back to hotel
> 2230 ~ 0100 = Did a Neck, Shoulder and Back Massage & Business Centre @ Ramada Hotel

3rd Day (19/9/06)
> 0830 ~ 1000 = Breakfast & moved to Fenshine Accessories & Fashion Plaza
> 1000 ~ 1300 = Shopping@Fenshine Accessories & Fashion Plaza
> 1300 ~ 1500 = Lunch at a Vegetarian Restaurant along Old City area
> 1500 ~ 1800 = Shopping at area surrounding the Old City area
> 1800 ~ 2100 = The Bund (Cruise ride at Huan Pu River)
> 2100 ~ 2140 = Back to Hotel & take a quick shower
> 2140 ~ 2215 = Went to Park/Pub 97 to meet a VTer
> 2215 ~ 2330 = Meeting with a VTer
> 2330 ~ 0045 = Went to Babyface Discoteque & experience the Shanghai disco environment
> 0045 ~ 0130 = Back to hotel
> 0130 ~ 0330 = 2 hours Reflexology massage at the Ramada Hotel

4th Day (20/9/06)
> 1030 ~ 1200 = Depart to Exhibition Hall (Shanghai Mart) & visit ISSA Exhibition
> 1200 ~ 1300 = Lunch at a Muslim Restaurant
> 1300 ~ 1600 = Shopping again at the Fenshine Accessories & Fashion Plaza
> 1600 ~ 1900 = Shopping again at the area surrounding the Old City, maximum gems shopping this time
> 1900 ~ 2100 = Dinner & watch cultural show at a Muslim Restaurant
> 2100 ~ = Back to hotel

5th Day (21/9/06)
> 1030 ~ 1200 = Check out & head back to Pudong Airport
> 1200 ~ 1520 = Check in at the Airport, light lunch (just a Snicker) and last minute shopping
> 1530 ~ 1540 = Boarded airplane and flew off back to Kuala Lumpur
> 2100 ~ = Landed safely in Kuala Lumpur International Airport
> 0015 ~ = Reached Melaka

1. Yi Yuan Old City
2. Xi Jia Hui Mall
3. West Lake, Hangzhou
4. Tea Plantation, Hangzhou
5. Oriental Pearl Tower
6. The Bund - Cruise Ride
7. Shop!Shop!Shop!

Shopping

As most of our activity here in Shanghai occuppied with doing shopping, We went for maximum bargaining and even sometimes we get scolded by sellers in their language and with hand & face expression. Some are saying that first open/intro price, we should straightly cut off the price by 50%.

For example, if a seller stating the 1st offer price is RMB100, we should bargain for RMB50.

Anyhow, I will tell you our true example of bargaining in Shanghai. Asking for an antic beautiful 'Mahjong' set, the seller opened the price for RMB1800. As thats the last day for us in Shanghai, my friend only had small balance of RMB in wallet. We straight away try our luck mentioning RMB150. The seller resisted and started to gave discount, I think more than 5 times she droped the price down. Lastly she said "last price RMB300", still we insisted for RMB150, she denied. We walked out of the shop and once before leaving the place, she called by yelling, "okay RMB150". Can you imagine from RMB1800, the price we bought after bargaining is RMB150?

'Fake' items such as branded watches, shirts, shoes, jackets, handbags, pens etc. being offered openly to every tourist. Seller will approach you at street and ask wheather we are interested in buying these items. At the shopping arcade that I went, all of these items are being placed behind a secret door (back door) of every outlets.

Shanghai is a fast and yet still developing metropolis city. The architectures are so modern in most part of town. The pressure of fast modern development makes the local also need to move fast in accepting changes in quick pace. This is to ensure that they are also ready in terms of cultural, mentality, personality and identity so that all these values can go along with the well planed modern city setup.

Shanghai is so beautiful at night, do take the cruise ride and see it yourself how colorful Shanghai looks at night. The syncronization of lightings at night are so pleasuring.

Traffic are not that bad in terms of traffic jammed but the way of driving and following the traffic rules can be improved. Nevertheless, how dangerous its look, the accident rate is very very low inside the city. Thats a salute to Shanghai drivers.

As for muslim, halal food is easy to find. I really love the Vighur/Uygur foods which originated from Xin Jiang province.

Another thing that I noticed, not many local can really speak English. Even the reception at the hotel I stayed asked me how to spell pillow when asked for additional pillow. Most bargaining took placed only by using a calculator.

I will surely missed Shanghai and if given a second opportunity, I'll go and visit Shanghai again. Many great tourist places in Shanghai yet for myself to discovered as the initial planning theme of 'Discover Shanghai" turned out to be "Shopping in Shanghai". Anyhow, its a very fun and exciting trip.

My sincere many thanks to friends such as Helen (thanks for daily weather report), ellyse (great to meet you in Shanghai) and Confusius for tips given about Shanghai whether in responding to queries in Forum or personal emailing.