On the Road: Six Days in Shanghai
Source: SF Bit at flickr
I have six days in Shanghai coming up, and I am hoping this will actually be a restful part of the trip. I spent only 4 days in Beijing and 3 in Xi’an, and have felt a bit rushed in those cities. I’d love to have time to see a bit more, and rest a bit more. Maybe do a bit less walking, as my hotel in Shanghai is not too far from the subway line.
The big thing going on in Shanghai right now is the Expo. In case you don’t know, every two years one international city hosts the World Expo, in which dozens of countries participate. A large site is developed with various country-specific buildings, and each country puts on some type of display for tourists. The displays vary from actual live shows, to food and drink from that nation, to more simple information booths.
The Shanghai Expo is quite large, with upwards of 50,000 people per day visiting the site. The Expo runs for only six months, and so they expect more than 10 million people to pass through. Those are staggering numbers. Now the majority of Shanghai Expo visitors, I hear, are mainland Chinese families. That means the most popular attractions are the Asian exhibits (particularly China which looks spectacular from the outside). I hear reservations to the China exhibit are gone out by 6:30am each day, and even with reservations the line up is a couple of hours long. The chances of me seeing the inside this time around are… none. I doubt I will be able to see Japan or Korea either as those are popular second choices for the Chinese.
I hear the USA exhibit has only a 6 hour line and Canada is only 4 hours. That’s a bit disheartening too, as I would like to be able to at least see the Canada Pavilion while I have travelled all this way to be there. Maybe I can talk my way in – wear my Olympic Canada shirt, show my passport and beg 15 minutes to enjoy what my taxes have paid for.
I may be forced to go to the “less popular” countries. I will try to visit India, some of the Middle Eastern ones, and maybe be able to get into some of the smaller South and Central American ones. After coming all this way to see the Expo, I am expecting to be disappointed at how little I will be able to see of it due to the number of visitors and the multi-hour line ups for most of the interesting ones.
Besides the Expo, Shanghai is a modern city with an interesting skyline. I hear there are a mix of different architectural styles, from the time the city had French, Dutch and other occupiers. There are areas with distinct European flairs and I am told the buildings there even resemble what you see in Europe.
Lastly, I have my doubts about this hotel. I found it very difficult to choose a hotel given all the choices. Shanghai has about 8 distinct areas, each with their unique features. Some are residential areas, and some are business. There’s the area near the airport, and area where the French and Dutch were. In the end, I chose the area with the best reputation for nightlife. I find it enjoyable to go for a walk at night, when it’s a bit cooler, and it’d be nice to be close to where the bars and restaurants were for that. I was not anywhere near that in Beijing, and it was my major problem with that hotel.
Once I had chosen an area, finding the “best” hotel given all the choices of price, quality and features was no easy task. I ended up picking a hotel that had the best reviews. There were a few really glowing ones (“the best hotel I stayed at anywhere in China”) which has me a bit optimistic. But ultimately, even if it’s not as good as my hotel in Xi’an, if it’s half as good but in a good area of town, I’ll be happy. Close to a subway is a huge feature.
So fingers crossed about that.
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