Shanghai, you surprised me. I had walked into the unknown and left craving more. More history, more cultural, more insight to the Chinese traditions, of the past and their present. Most travelers experience Shanghai or Beijing as a layover, just 2-3 nights before they head off to their next destination. I encourage you to give a place that you visit, more time. Less is more, does not apply to travel talk. It does when packing or planning your excursions. However, it does not relate to how much time you spend in a place. You will not get more out of less time and hopping from city to city. You will check off your TripAdvisor list and get your Instagram photos, but you won’t get more of an experience.
In saying all of that, I wish I could always practice what I preach. Yet, this was a business trip for me and Shanghai wasn’t even on my original itinerary, but we were flown into Shanghai when we had a schedule change for our flights. Although this was an extremely last minute change to the trip, I am so glad that I was able to say that I was able to see Shanghai. I can’t even say that I brushed the surface of this city. I left feeling unsatisfied honestly, like there was more and that I missed out. That’s the great thing about travel though, you learn in each destination what you liked, what surprised you, what wasn’t really your cup of tea or what you want more of!
The morning started out at the beautiful Jade Buddha Temple. The joy of traveling during the off season was that we were the only tour group that was in there for the one hour that we walked around. Other tourists that I saw were families with a private guide, other Chinese tourists that visit to pay their respects and to pray and just a couple of other people wandering through taking photos for the gram (yes, selfies). Check out my separate blog post about this quiet quarter in the city that I liked!
Our next stop was the Shanghai Museum, which admittedly I hadn’t read anything about, so I wasn’t thrilled when the guide had announced that’s where we were headed. This grumpy cat was completely wrong to be flustered, because this is exactly the type of museum that I love to explore. I decided to write another blog (I’m an overachiever) about my time at this museum.
Spoiler alert: I wrote the other blog posts because I really want to talk you into adding these two very nice and very worth it tours to your Shanghai itinerary when you visit the city!
Our time was up in the museum and it was lunch time already. I wondered what culinary surprises awaited us. The Chinese love….the out of the ordinary. Which I do realize I’m saying as an American. I mean we put pineapple on our pizza, so who am I to judge? For them, their food it’s the norm and when you’re visiting a foreign country, I beg you to try and be open minded to other cultures and their ways, which also means to their foods! I was 2 days into my trip and I could say that Chinese is not one of my favorites, but what is 10 days out of my life while on a trip, trying new dishes, new flavors and new…animals and sea life! It’s an adventure, but with my guide I felt a bit more confident. I’ll write a blog post about food in China, since there’s so much to speak on and I’ve had a LOT of questions since my trip!
After lunch we hit the streets and my jet lag was happy to feel the fresh air and to be moving. We walked down a busy shopping street called Nanjing Road. It was a Saturday and busy was an understatement! It is after all, one of the world’s busiest shopping streets.
If it were up to me, I would have explored a market, gone to a more traditional neighborhood or even walked into a beautiful tea shop to snag some souvenirs. Shanghai is a very large, very busy city. Lots of people every which way, with shops, large apartment and office buildings. I think my city lover clients would appreciate this at the start of their trip. For a first time visit, I would suggest starting here and then head onto Beijing, which will offer more sight seeing and day trips to enjoy.
Luckily for me, who isn’t a big crowd lover, we didn’t hang out in this area long, we were just walking down to The Bund, which is the riverside.
The city hugs both sides of the Huangpu River, dividing the city into two regions, the east bank “Pudong” and west bank “Puxi.” When you google Shanghai, a famous photo of the city will pop up, some by day and some by night. Everyone comes here to The Bund for the famous photo of Shanghai and by everyone, I mean evvvveryone. So many people around. You had to wait your turn for someone to be done taking their photos to then stand on the rail to get a photo of the river and the skyscrapers.
Our afternoon was spent back at the hotel, which I rushed back to because my late luggage had arrived and I wanted to be sure it was my bag that they delivered since I was flying to our next destination in the morning. In the evening we were treated to another traditional Chinese dinner. Lots and lots of dishes, all being served one right after another, placed carefully on a huge lazy Susan turntable. We toasted to a great start to the trip and sipped on a Chinese beer, which we came to realize was a whopping 3% of alcohol. Let’s just say we all turned in early that night and were excited for our next destination of our trip.
The Shanghai portion of the trip came to a quick end, but it was a nice introduction to the massive and one of the most well known cities of the world. As always, I highly recommend hiring a local guide to show you the ropes, you’ll appreciate it more than trying to do it on your own. Shanghai is a major city and you’ll need their instruction on where to go and what to do in a timely matter. It’s not an easy place to stop and ask for directions- unless you know Chinese of course!