2 Days in Shanghai (The Buildings City). Review on Shanghai

During my trip to China I spent 2 days in Shanghai, which were enough from my point of view. Did I enjoy my time in Shanghai? Yes I did.

Middle of April 2002

My Chinese friend and me arrived in Shanghai in the afternoon, this was planned, as it would allow us to check-in at the hotel and then enjoy Shanghai at night; beautiful it was.

We stayed at the Shanghai Pacific Luck Hotel and from the window of the room I could see the Tower of Oriental Pearl, 468 meters high, it occupies the first place in Asia, the third place in the world.

The same evening we went for a walk at first and if you happen to use this hotel as a reference (on a map), exiting the Hotel go left, and then take the first street left again and when you arrive at a crossroad you will be in the middle of a street with plenty of colorful neon signs of mainly Restaurants. I’m taking you here because this street is great for you if you want to enjoy great food. In this street we tried 3 different Restaurants, 2 small and one big and the food was excellent!

After dinner we took a taxi to the Oriental Pearl Tower. This was one of the most enjoyable drives I had in China. The taxi driver “took the long way” and we enjoyed a great fast tour of the town. You see the main attraction in Shanghai is the buildings and I cannot describe them, you have to see them. They have been built by Western minds and they are very unique.

Once in the Tower we went to the top (the price of the ticket changes depending at what floor you want to go) and from there you can enjoy a beautiful viewing of Shanghai at night. Plenty of lights and colors. The ticket is expensive compared to other sights in China; I think it was around 100RMB (about £10 or $15) but in western money not too bad. We went in a day during the week and we did not have to cue to go up. Other times people mentioned cues of 2 hours! If you go up there you can take note of which buildings you are looking at, and then when during the day you go walking around Shanghai you can recognize them from the street, more interesting then my words make it sound.

At the Tower there are 5 sightseeing floors, 1 restaurant, a shopping center at the bottom of the tower, guest rooms inside the Pearl, and high-speed lifts. The Oriental Pearl Tower has been the new symbol of Shanghai. At night this tower is fascinating.

The day after we went to see Shanghai under day light :).

During the day you can better appreciate the area around the Tower; the east shore of Huang-pu River, looking from the other side of the river is the New Bund. You can walk along the River that surrounds the area where the Oriental Pearl Tower is.

From there you can walk towards the more central areas of the town with plenty of shops. Look out for some closing down shop you can get some bargain while in Holiday.

Also to see are the Nanpu and the Yangpu Bridges, modern floating type oblique-suspended bridges. Of their kind Nanpu Bridge occupies the first place in China and the third place in the world.

Another famous attraction is the three Pagodas I believe, but I did no go there.

All together I do think Shanghai is a nice place to see, beautiful big modern buildings, lovely walk along the riverbank area and pleasant internal roads with plenty of shops. You can experience some lovely food. Towards the end of the day we took a flight back to Shenzhen, but this is another story :)