China Trip-Day 6: Shanghai

Last day in Shanghai before we take off, we went on more relaxed trip. Since our flight is around midnight, we checked out from the hotel and left our bags in the hotel's reception area. Many hotels do provide some sort of a luggage storage service, you just need to ask them about it.

We left the hotel and took metro line 7 to Jing'an Temple Station, leaving from exit 1 to the temple directly. However, we didn't find the temple to be attractive and decided to save the entrance fee of RMB 30. We just took some photos outside of the Jing'an Temple. 

Next, we took the metro line 7 to the famous Jade Buddha Temple which is located at Changshou Road Station. You need to take exit 5 and head east along xinhui road then turn right on Jiangning road and walk to the temple at the crossroad. It is quite confusing because the temple is no where near the metro station, you need walk another 5-10 mins to the temple. Luckily we have our Nokia map to show us the location. I would suggest that you refer to maps when navigating to this temple.

Along the temple, there are a lot of beggars standing around and asking for money, just beware and be careful of your belongings. One advantage of being Chinese I think, is that the local people will mistake you for one of them, therefore during the whole trip we didn't come across anyone trying to sell some "expensive tea leaves" to us. As we didn't have this experience, it would be best if you Google around and read some personal experiences of other tourists.

Entrance fee to Jade Buddha temple is RMB 20

Inside the temple, they have separated the Jade Buddha in a special room where we can only see from far. Again, there is always a price to pay to visit the Jade Buddha. We paid another extra RMB 10 to enter the chamber. Nothing in China is free, so just bring more money when you are there. All entrance fees for both local and foreigners are the same, quite tough for locals to survive in China. 

Then, we make a trip to Qipu Lu which also well known as the Cheap Street for shopping. We took Metro line 10 to Tiantong station which will direct you to the basement of one of the malls. You may take metro line 8 to Qufu Station but you need to walk another 10-15 mins to Qipu Lu, thus I found metro line 10 is easier to reach. Basically, it is like Sungai Wang in KL but much much more gigantic, there are 3-4 malls altogether within the area.

I found this Kungfu Chinese fast food chain while walking behind the mall. Since it is lunch time, we went to have our lunch there. There are around 500 outlets in China which is quite easy to find this fast food chain. The tagline for this restaurant is steam is still the best to eat healthy.  Here is their website http://www.zkungfu.com/. Therefore, you can see most of their meals are steamed dishes, including their steam rice.

Brinjal Set with Pork rib soup -RMB 19.50

The brinjal tastes great, one of the must try for brinjal lovers. As you can see the portion of the rice is also huge, and so it really was a satisfying meal.

Soy sauce pork rib set with black chicken soup-RMB 28.50

I just love this set with my favourite black chicken soup. The pork rib taste good, just a bit oily on the gravy, but it was fine. I guess this was the best meal I had in China so far.

After that, we went and did some window shopping in the malls. Unfortunately I couldn't find something that suits me, maybe its my taste, but luck just wasn't on my side that day.

We took metro line 10 to east nanjing road to have a walk. Actually you can walk from the east to west of nanjing road by foot although you may see there are two stations for nanjing road in the metro map. It is just a straight road connecting east and west. The whole nanjing road is so happening in day and night. We reached there around late afternoon, here is a shopping heaven with more than 10 shopping malls along the road.

You could spend the whole day here, visiting each of the malls and boutiques all the way from east to west. We walked until the sky is dark, the view in night is so different with lighting around the building. Night life in Shanghai!

We went to find this famous cheap and good Italian food in town. It is called Saizeriya Italian Restaurant, http://www.saizeriya.com.cn/cn/index/.

Bottomless Soft Drinks -RMB 10.00 per cup

Seafood Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce -RMB 13.00

As we were very hungry after all the walking, we ordered a few extra dishes just because we saw the portions were rather small. Well, maybe for my bf one dish was totally not enough, but again, its best to order one or two dishes first and add more later.

Grilled Steak with Black Pepper Sauce -RMB 30.00

Bf ordered the steak, it was chewy and maybe not up to his standards. Well, for this price, we couldn't expect TGI Fridays-like quality.

Grilled Chicken with Vegetable Salsa - RMB 14.00

This was unexpectedly nice. The chicken was crispy and juicy, while the vegetable salsa is actually garlic and butter spices which I didn't really like that much.

Spaghetti Arrabbiata with Tuna - RMB 13.00

This dish was quite spicy. But nevertheless quite normal. So in the end, depends on how you view it, the food here was actually quite worth the price. Of course we can't compare it to the likes of TGI Fridays but it does give you a satisfying meal in the end.

Here is one of the Apple Stores! Its huge, and full of people. I guess the Chinese are all crazy about i-products.

Approaching the end of the day, we spent the rest of our time in Nanjing road, which by the end of it was really close to our hotel. We collected our luggage and proceeded to our flight home. What did I think of this trip? Well, it was free and easy, we made changes to our itinerary whenever we wanted, and in the end was quite enjoying. We blended into the Chinese culture (urban culture, to be specific), but we did not feel "at home" as we thought we might be. I still feel Malaysia is my home, the place I'm most familiar with. Now back to Char Kuay Teow and Nasi Lemak!!

China Trip- Day 5: Shanghai

After 4 days travelling in Hangzhou and Suzhou, we are back to the last stop-Shanghai. If you are in Shanghai, no worries on transportation, all tourist attractions can be reached using their metro system. There are a total 11 subway lines which cover mostly the whole Shanghai.

We stayed in Manhattan Business Hotel at Dianchi Road which is around  RMB 398 per room/night (includes breakfast). I found this place through some good comments from the travel websites. However, I personally do not recommend this place if you are planning for a long stay. The room is super small, no adequate space to walk or even to put your bags and the toilet is just beside your bed, hygiene wise its a no no. Another reason why we chose here is because it is within walking distance to the bund.

We took 5 minutes walk to the nearest train station, took Line 2 to LuJiaZui Station to visit the Oriental Pearl Tower. On the way to the Pearl tower, we had lunch in the nearby Chinese fast food restaurant. The restaurant is called 东方既白, http://www.dfjb.com.cn. It is also another sister outlet to KFC.

MaPo Tauhu Rice Set -RMB 15

The set came with a soup and vegetables. BF ordered this since he like Tauhu so much, but I guess ordering this in China was just another nightmare; it just doesn't taste like the Mapo Tauhu that we are used to in Malaysia. However, what I like about Chinese Fast Food Restaurants is that soup will always be served in a set meal! 

Curry Pork Chop Rice Set-RMB 21

Since this outlet is owned by KFC, I assumed that the taste should be the same. However, the curry taste so so, I still prefer the KFC curry pork rice set. That was the best curry pork chop rice I ever had in China.

Oriental Pearl Tower

China's second tallest TV and Radio tower with a height of 468 meters, a unique architectural design with 3 large spheres. The area for tourists to visit is the spheres, but each sphere have different entry prices, naturally with the taller sphere being more expensive. We chose to visit all three spheres, entry ticket is RMB 220 each person which is quite expensive. 

The first sphere we visited was actually the second sphere at the middle. Basically this is a place where you have a 360-degree view of Shanghai and you can take lots of pictures. Besides that, they also have a souvenir shop where they sell the usual tourist-ty items you can find. We came here at around evening time when the sun was beginning to set, that's why there was a lot of glare on the glass which makes it hard to take some beautiful scenery pictures. Maybe it would be best to come back at night time with a trusty tripod to take some great night time cityscapes.

Then we took the elevator to the top sphere which is basically a small dome with small and very dirty windows. We were hardly able to take any pictures that is deemed acceptable over here, so we didn't stay for long and just went back down to the middle sphere.

This was when we went downstairs to the observation platform, where there is a walking path which is made of transparent glass. This lets you see the view of Shanghai from the top. It was outright scary on the first approach, as if you are going to fall from the sky.

I am standing in the sky!

The wind was strong that day, but he just loves the view!

Second stop, we went to visit Shanghai's Madame Tussauds. I never been to Madame Tussauds before even the one in Hong Kong which is quite famous, so I just couldn't miss the chance again. Just take the subway line 1,2 or 8 and get off at People's Square. Leave from exit 7 and go inside the New World Building which you can take the lift up to 10th floor. We purchased the package for two adults together with a booklet, costs RMB 305 each person. There are 10 sections: Glamour, Behind the Scenes, Science Heroes, World Leaders, Music, Movies, Leon Lai as Mei Lanfang, Sports, Pepsi Studio and the Love Room.

Although the place is small, we had fun seeing all of our idols there and we couldn't stop taking pictures with them. I mean, how often can you see them "face to face"? :)

At night, we went to The Bund to take some great night views of the city. I can't believe the night view could be so beautiful. This is what I call, Life in the City.

We saw Malaysia's travel advertisement here too. 

That wraps up the end of the first day in Shanghai City. We had a nice and relaxed stroll along the Bund late into the night, lucky thing was that our hotel was within walking distance. Just be sure to bring some jackets / cardigans to keep warm as it was really windy and chilling during the night!