Shanghai at a glance

Alright, let’s take a break from my backpacking activities and hear what I have to say with my luxurious trip to Shanghai, China. I said luxurious because I stayed in a 5-star hotel combined with the pleasure of having a chauffeur driving us around, which were all perks from work.

To make this more helpful to travelers especially for Philippine nationals, I’ll start my story with my Chinese visa which I obtained in Saigon. Here’s one important thing to note, if you are a Philippine passport holder with a tourist visa in Vietnam applying for Chinese visa, forget it you’ll just be frustrated of being denied.

Before applying for a Chinese visa I made my inquiries to the Chinese consulate office through emails and I was advised to present some document, including proof of onward travel. The inquiries were made through email since the first person who screened my questions was the security guard who can hardly finish one paragraph of explanation. The Chinese consulate office answered my inquiries, a day after I sent them email. But by the time I finished preparing all the requirements, I don’t have much time left for the target date of travel, especially that they’ll only accept visa application in the morning. The regular visa processing is $30usd but mine was rushed, so I paid $50usd which was issued to me within 2-working days.

I left Saigon with a group at 1:30am on April 7, a red eye flight of Shanghai Airline which I was not fond of. I don’t mine the wee hour schedule but I have a trauma with turbulence, so red eye flight usually makes me uncomfortable. The flight, however, was not as rough as I was expecting and I was just too happy to land in the Chinese territory at 6:10am. I was happy too that the English literacy of airport people in Shanghai was high, it made things easy. Except for the nail nipper on my make-up kit alarming the airport security scanning machine, everything went smoothly.

I stayed at Grand Mercure Hongqiao along Xian Xia road with the group, a 5-star hotel but since my stay doesn’t cost me a cent, I don’t have to worry at all. The truth is I never stay in a 5-star hotel if I’ll pay. For a 5-star hotel, I can say Grand Mercure is ok. I have a room overlooking the city, which comes with basic kitchen amenities from microwave, kettle, fridge and stove. There was also washing machine and iron that I don’t have to pay extra for my laundry or fix my crumpled clothes. There was only one thing that bothered me, the water which I have difficulty adjusting between hot and cold. I am not used to cold weather, so having a hot shower was just great but the water fluctuated aggressively that I kept adjusting. Other than that, Grand Mercure was a nice hotel although not really located within the central area. However, it is just within walking distance to the zoo and the French concession area, which are recommended for sightseeing.

Shanghai is all about big buildings, a metropolitan place for shopping, nightlife, conventions, and meetings. In fact, Shanghai’s number one attraction is the Bund where the skyscraper, the Jin Mao Tower and the Oriental TV tower are located. The Bund depicts a well-developed Shanghai. Soon to open next month is the widely- talked Expo that again showcases a very developed Shanghai. I don’t have problem looking into the map as the street names and establishments have English translation below the Chinese character. Also, I took a taxi once and I don’t feel being ripped off or overcharged compared to taking a taxi in Vietnam.

As for getting into the attractions in Shanghai, I can only say the hotels offer tours from half day to full day with prices ranging from $35usd to $50usd. I usually challenge myself in going into places on my own using public transportation but like I said it was a company sponsored trip, so the visit to different places was with a private vehicle. One thing I want you to remember though, Shanghai is getting expensive with the development that’s taking place. Take off the notion that because it is located in China, it is cheap from food to shopping but trust me it’s not, unless perhaps you know how to bargain seriously at the flea market.

Also, don’t forget to visit Yuan Garden if you want to see Chinese inspired design commercial buildings. It’s quite crowded but it’s a nice place to see real Chinese or let's put it this way, the Yuan Garden manifests the reality that there are indeed great number of Chinese population.
It's like a more enhanced China town in your place, if you have one of course or let's say a more authentic Chinese lifestyle.

And to end my story, there’s no facebook, no twitter, no youtube, and I cannot even access to my blog when I was there. I'm just too glad to be back in the land where I can see rice paddies and hear the unending horn of "motobike" while playing around with the so called social network in the cyber world. :-)