Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland March 17 – Day 7 Complete in Hong Kong Proper; 12/04

Road to Shanghai


When I was negotiating time off for this trip, I slipped in a couple of extra days to this trip. Yes, the-old-squeeze-as-much-in-as-possible trick! Give a mile, take a few more inches.


I had originally booked a morning flight out of Melbourne; which would have gotten us into Shanghai at about 11 pm at night. Well…..about 2 months ago, Cathay gifted me with extra time in Shanghai. The morning flight was cancelled and they rebooked us on the midnight flight out of Melbourne. I have to admit that I was less than impressed with the flight being cancelled. Flying out at night had never been on my agenda!

But after I got over the fact that I would not be getting any sleep on the plane, I realised that this flight would get us into Shanghai at about 11 am in the morning. That means bonus time in Shanghai. And because I’ve now ended up with 2 days to spend in Shanghai, it means that I can cast my eyes towards Suzhou, the water town. With the one full day that I have in Shanghai, I’m hoping to pick up a day-tour to Suzhou. I’ve checked online….there are any number of tours I can book right now for Suzhou. I’ve decided to hold off because it may end up being cheaper to book the trip to Suzhou locally.


There was another bonus to arriving in Shanghai during the morning. It meant that catching the Magnetic Levitation train from Shanghai airport to the city centre suddenly became a viable proposition. Yes, I could have caught the train at night. The issue was we would still need to catch a taxi from the city train station to our hotel and given the reports of shifty taxi driver behaviour at that station, I didn’t really want to have to deal with it late at night.

I’m more than prepared to deal with the Shanghai taxi drivers during daytime hours.





In order to get to a decision on how to get to my hotel in Shanghai, I did some basic research on the various transport options in Shanghai. Here are some basic info snippets for the Maglev train, taxi and public transport in Shanghai.



Maglev Train.


The Maglev train can be caught from Pudong Airport to Longyang Road Station.
Cost of the train from Pudong Airport, with an air ticket discount, is 40 Yuan one-way. You need to show your air ticket in order to get the discount.

You can transfer from Longyang Road Station to other lines; but I figured it was just as easy to catch a taxi from this station to our hotel with our bags.

At Longyang Station, at all times, the taxi drivers will be waiting on the upper platform to ask if you want a taxi. Never accept an offer on the platform. Take the escalator to the street to select your taxi from the dispatcher.



Taxis.

Always look for a white (Jinjiang company) or light blue taxi (Dazhong taxis 大众, highly reputable, telephone number 96822) or yellow/gold (Qiangsheng 强生, highly reputable) or white. Avoid dark blue and red.

Taxis should cost about 55 Yuan from Longyang Road Station to the hotel. I used this taxi calculator to get the estimated cost. https://www.taxifarefinder.com/main.php?city=Shanghai-China&lang=en


In the city there is an initial meter charge of 14 RMB for most 3 km drives (including the fare surcharge), plus 2.4 RMB per km thereafter when it exceeds 3km, and then plus 3.6RMB per km after 10km when it exceeds 10km.




Public Transport System

And just to round out the information sharing. Shanghai is quite well serviced by it's mass transport system. One of the better guides around can be found on the Travel China Guide website. I have no doubt I'll be buying passes of some sort. It remains to be seen whether I go with the day passes or the 3-day pass.

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/transportation/subway-ticket.htm
 
Shanghai Sights



The laissez-faire nature of planning for Shanghai Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland has left me feeling very twitchy. It’s like something is missing from the core of my being!


In order to plug that gap, I channelled my energies into some basic research on what to see and do in Shanghai. In the event that some of you might be spending time in Shanghai as well, here’s my list.


The Bund is one of the top ten Shanghai attractions. Just like a gallery of international architectures - historic European style buildings located on the Bund . It's the showcase of the city's colonial past and its transformation in the new era. Known as " the Wall Street in the Far Cast" in the colonial period.

· Start: Broadway Mansions
· Finish: Meteorological Signal Tower
· Distance: 1.3 kilometers
· Time needed: 2½ hours
· What you should not miss: a museum in Astor House Hotel; a movie poster gallery in Peace Hotel; the beautiful mosaic ceiling of Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank; Lovers' wall or the Valentine wall.

There are three ideal locations to see the full view of the Bund: Pudong Binjiang Avenue, on a Huangpu River Cruise, and one of the skyscrapers in Pudong like Shanghai World Financial Center, Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai Tower.
There is also the option of heading to the Vue Bar at the top of Hyatt on the Bund.

Places to Eat

· Traditional Peking Duck Restaurant. No. 1 South HeNan Road, The Bund
· Yang’s Fry Dumplings. 97 Huanghe Rd; 黄河路97号
· Jiajia Soup Dumplings. 90 Huanghe Rd; 黄河路90号
· Nanxiang Steamed Bun Dumplings. 3rd fl, Shànghǎi No 1 Food Store, 720 East Nanjing Rd; 南京东路720号上海市第一食品商店3楼
· Shanghai Grandmother (homestyle cooking). 70 Fuzhou Rd; 福州路70号
· Lost Heaven (for a view and Chinese food). 17 East Yan’an Rd; 延安东路17号



Huangpu River cruise. The cruises along the Huangpu River often start from the wharf near the Bund, and head towards Yangpu Bridge or Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal, and back again along the opposite side of the river to the Bund. 50 minute night cruise seems to be about 180 Yuan. Tickets can be purchased at Shiliupu Wharf ticket office at Wai Ma Lu 80 or check with the hotel.



French Concession. The Shanghai International Settlement, when formed in 1863, consisted of 3 countries - French, English and the Americans. It effectively opened up trade between Shanghai and the rest of the world. As part of the settlement, there were tracks of land that were provided to these countries to set up bases in Shanghai. The Bund is what was formerly the Shanghai International Settlement and was predominantly the British/American Concession. The French Concession is effectively just a little bit further down the road. Buildings to visit at the French Quarter include:

· Bridge 8 building (No.8-10 Jianguo Middle Road, Huangpu District),
· Sinan mansion (Lane507 Fuxing Middle Road),former house of Zhou Enlai (73 (formerly 107) Sinan Road, Huangpu District)
· Dr Sun Yat-sen’s house (7 Xiangshan Road).
· Fuxing Park (105 Fuxing Zhong Road), which is near Dr Sun Yat-sen’s house (7 Xiangshan Road, Shanghai, China).



Streets/areas to walk in the French Concession. The word "road" is "Lu" in Mandarin. So, you may come across Lu a couple of times.

· Wukang Lu, quaint with outdoor cafes, Cozy Wine Bar and Bistro for coffee and sausages; and around Ferguson Lane

· Wulumuqi Road has one shop that is an institution – the Avocado Lady shop. Take the subway to Changshu Lu station, Line 1& 7. Exit from exit 7 (follow the arrows towards line 7). Turn left out of the station and left again on WuYuan Lu until you hit Wulumuqi Lu. Cross the street and take one more left and you're a few stride away from the legendary Avocado Lady's bustling shop. She's at 274 Wulumuqi Lu.
· At the junction of Fuxing Lu and Huaihai Lu (1858 Huaihai Lu) stands this apartment building called Normandy Apartments — an art deco style building, constructed in 1924.
· Taikang Road / Tianzifang - Taikang Lu is a old Shanghai style neighborhood (lane). Now it's a new landmark in Shanghai because of the old architecture mixed with those new restaurants.bars and boutique shops. That area now is called the lane of leisure and art.




A recommended walking route that I stole off one of the sites I was browsing: Garden Hotel – Cathay Cinema – Huaihai Road – Gaolan Road – Sinan Mansions – Sun Yat-sen's Former Residence – Tianzifang

· Cathay Cinema (国泰电影院) was previously called Cathay Theatre. It is located at 870 Huaihai Middle Road, near Gate 3 of Shanxi South Road Station on Metro Line 1. Cathay Cinema is a classical building with a history of over 80 years.
· Huaihai Road is one of the busiest shopping streets in Shanghai. The Champs Elysee of Shanghai to be exact.
· Gaolan Road (皋兰路) is another street in Luwan District. It was once called Rue Corneille, named after the French poet Corneille. It was built by the French Concession Authority in 1914, and was renamed Gaolan Road in 1946.
· Along the road are famous residences including Zhang Xueliang's Former Residence, a Spanish garden villa with three stories; and Fuxing Park, a small park with French emotional appeal, once called French Park.
· Located at 55 Sinan Road, Luwan District, the Sinan Mansions are adjacent to Fuxing Park. There are 51 garden villas with almost a century of history and various architectural styles.
· The Sinan Mansions are the most concentrated area of classic residences in Shanghai. When you walk through the Sinan Mansions, it's just like wandering through a fascinating and charming architectural display. There are boutique hotels, service apartments, enterprise mansions, and business districts in the Sinan Mansions.
· Sun Yat-sen's Former Residence is located at 7 Xiangshang Road. It is a European country-style house. The house was the Shanghai residence of Sun Yat-sen and his wife Soong Ching-ling from 1918–1924.
· Tianzifang is the landmark Art Street on Taikang Road. When you walk through Tianzifang and wander through the maze of alleys, arty shops and art workshops casually jump into your sight. Tea houses, open-air restaurants, outdoor cafes, galleries, furniture decorations, handicrafts, and famous creative studios are everywhere.



Places to Eat

· Di Shui Dong 滴水洞. 56 South Maoming Rd. (close to Changle Rd.) 茂名南路56号2楼(近长乐路). Yunnan food. Cumin ribs and sweet candied bananas are must eats.
· Corner转角上海老弄堂餐厅. 2nd Floor 139 Ruijin 1st Rd. (Close to Changle Rd.) 瑞金一路139号2楼(近长乐路). Get the Shanghai Red Braised pork.
· Spice Bazaar 香料集市. 29 Dongping Rd. (Close to Wulumuqi North Rd.) 东平路29号(近乌鲁木齐南路). Signature dishes include the sautéed spicy chicken, Xinjiang cold noodles, and the Xinjiang meat nang, which is baked bread dipped in a meat sauce.
· Elixir Health Pot. Former French Concession: Address: 2 Hengshan Lu, near Taojiang Lu / 衡山路2号甲香樟花园内(近桃江路)



Old Town Nanshi area is where you might still be able to find Old Shanghai. It's effectively where the Yu Yuan Garden is located. Go at night for old buildings in this area is all lit up.

Things to go-see in Old Town include:

· Dajing Ge Pavillion – the last remnant of the original wall of Old Shanghai.
· Yu Yuan Garden is the largest and best known of the historic gardens of Shanghai.(Built in 1559).
· Yu Yuan Bazaar - is a market with lots of small shops / vendors selling souvenirs, hand-made crafts, folk crafts,packed snacks. Restaurants offering delicacies & dim sum.
· Taoist City God Temple - used to be the center of the public life and contributed a lot of the birth the marketplace around it.
· Huxinting Tea House (located near Yuyuan Bazaar).
· Fangbang Road Night Market – street food.


Places to Eat – Just head to the night market and the Yuyuan Bazaar area and there will be something there!



Xintiandi is composed of an area of restored traditional "stone gate" (Shikumen) houses on narrow alleys, a modern shopping mall (SML) with a cinema complex, and some adjoining houses which now serve as book stores, cafes and restaurants. Most of the cafes and restaurants feature both indoor and outdoor seatings. A Stone Gate House Museum there is the place for you to pay a visit to the inside of a house to experience the life in the "Stone Gate" house. Apparently this is more charming than Tianxifang.
Xintiandi is divided into two parts: the South Block and the North Block. The South Block mainly consists of modern architecture with Shikumen architecture as an accompaniment. Its North Block kept the old Shikumen architecture style, forming a contrast to the modern South Block. Might be worth just going for a walk in this area.

Places to Eat – There are any number of bars and Western style eateries in this area. I don’t think we’ll starve if we get here.



That's about the extent of my research so far.
I haven’t even got started on the Chinese Museums or the Chinese Temples! :headache:



Those of you that have followed my TRs and adventures over the years will know that I tend to pack as much into a trip as possible. Some things NEVER change. It remains to be seen how much I will actually get to see in Shanghai. Given the list and with me wanting to spend a full day in Suzhou, I don’t think I’ll run out of things to do.



Oh – if you’re wondering about the Chinese characters, I’ve kept them in the PTR. I’ll be printing out a version of this to take with me and having the Chinese characters means that if I need help, I can show it to a local who can then help out with directions!


I've also got a page printed with all my hotel accommodation listed, complete with Chinese address.




princess::upsidedow
 
:wave: Glad you're here, Magdalena. Are you and M heading to Shanghai in the summer? How awesome. Which destination are you hubbing in/out of to make the 144-hour visa work?

We're expecting rain for our days in SDL! :(

Hope the rain stays away!

Yes, we are doing Shanghai as a stopover on our way to Japan. So we fly from Europe (using the hub in Zurich, on Swiss) to PVG on an open jaw ticket that has us returning from Tokyo. From PVG to Tokyo Haneda we have a one-way flight booked on Lufthansa miles operated by ANA. It will be interesting to see if the Swiss airport person here in Nuremberg will be aware of the 144-hour visa and its rules. Need to print out the instructions on flyertalk about where they can find those rules in their system. I now regret that we are not flying LH, which has the option to check in the evening before your flight at the airport... I did triple check with all kind of information, especially the Shanghai immigration office that you don't need to be on one ticket. The 144-hour visa seems to be especially for people embarking on cruises, so they would not have one ticket in and out, either.

Thanks for the Shanghai sights overview! We will have one day (unless Michael needs to spend a lot of time at Disneytown) for Shanghai. I was thinking of going with one of the hop on hop off busses. The focus is really going to be Japan for our trip though, so most of my research so far ha as been about that.
 
Hope the rain stays away!

Sadly, I doubt it. The weather forecast is for persistent rain. I might have to rethink my packing for Shanghai and throw in a rain jacket!



Thanks for the Shanghai sights overview! We will have one day (unless Michael needs to spend a lot of time at Disneytown) for Shanghai. I was thinking of going with one of the hop on hop off busses.

Have you considered hiring a guide for a day? I'm going to see what happens when we get there and what the weather is like. The Viator guides come highly recommended. And some of them seem to charge a reasonable price. I believe we can arrange for a guide when we are there....so we'll see what happens when we get there.

https://tourguides.viator.com/Listing.aspx?Country=China
 


The focus is really going to be Japan for our trip though, so most of my research so far ha as been about that.

JAPAN!!!????

I am so envious! I want to go but haven't yet managed to schedule it in!!!!

I'll look forward to your TR. I assume Michael will co-write it the way you normally do? YAY! Something to look forward to reading.
 
What's the situation with electricity adaptors in China/HK?


China uses a very similar looking outlet to the Aussie one. Hong Kong is completely different.

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/electricity.htm
http://www.tour-beijing.com/blog/beijing-travel/beijing-tour-reviews/plugs-and-sockets-in-china
https://www.travelchinacheaper.com/which-plug-converter-do-i-need-for-china


http://www.hong-kong-traveller.com/hong-kong-electricity.html
http://whatplug.info/from/australia/to/hongkong


There is a view that we won't need an adaptor for China (we will for Hong Kong).

http://www.chinatravelsavvy.com/advice/power-and-sockets/

To be safe, I'm going to get adaptors for both China and Hong Kong.
 


Have you considered hiring a guide for a day? I'm going to see what happens when we get there and what the weather is like. The Viator guides come highly recommended. And some of them seem to charge a reasonable price. I believe we can arrange for a guide when we are there....so we'll see what happens when we get there.

Thanks for the link! Yes, I was thinking about a guide for the day. We had a private tour on our recent cruise in Jamaica and liked it a lot. Most likely we will relocate for that last night from the Toy Story Hotel to somewhere else, closer to the airport, since we are leaving quite early in the morning and the Toy Story Hotel is really price for a Saturday night in summer. So, I was thinking it would be great to have a guide helping with that as well...

JAPAN!!!????

I am so envious! I want to go but haven't yet managed to schedule it in!!!!

I'll look forward to your TR. I assume Michael will co-write it the way you normally do? YAY! Something to look forward to reading.

I am already excited about writing the TR. :goodvibes And I am sure that Michael will want to get to take part in writing it again as well. We do have another trip report to write before that, but I am much more excited about writing about Japan than another cruise on the Disney Fantasy (yes, I know those are really the proverbial first world problems here :rotfl:).

But isn't Japan closer to Australia than China?? Shouldn't it be easier to go there than to Shanghai? ;)
 
I'm enjoying reading your report! I'll be in Shanghai from March 29-April 2, spending 2 of those days at Shanghai Disney Resort!
 
But after I got over the fact that I would not be getting any sleep on the plane, I realised that this flight would get us into Shanghai at about 11 am in the morning. That means bonus time in Shanghai. And because I’ve now ended up with 2 days to spend in Shanghai, it means that I can cast my eyes towards Suzhou, the water town. With the one full day that I have in Shanghai, I’m hoping to pick up a day-tour to Suzhou.

I love it when things work out like this. I hope that you will enjoy your bonus tour.

There was another bonus to arriving in Shanghai during the morning. It meant that catching the Magnetic Levitation train from Shanghai airport to the city centre suddenly became a viable proposition.

That sounds fascinating.

I love all your plans. When we will finally make it to Shanghai, I will have to refer back to this.

Corinna
 
But isn't Japan closer to Australia than China?? Shouldn't it be easier to go there than to Shanghai? ;)

It is indeed. I want to spend about 2 - 3 weeks in Japan. It's just a matter of working out an appropriate time! I wanna see it all....and during Spring! LOL
 
I'm enjoying reading your report! I'll be in Shanghai from March 29-April 2, spending 2 of those days at Shanghai Disney Resort!


Thank you for reading along!
Sounds like you have a fun trip planned as well. Hope you'll post a TR as well.
 
I love it when things work out like this. I hope that you will enjoy your bonus tour.



That sounds fascinating.

I love all your plans. When we will finally make it to Shanghai, I will have to refer back to this.

Corinna


I don't know how much of it I'll get to see; but it was worth just doing some research. :)
 
My Bag Is Packed



I'll probably not have time to get back on the Dis before I head off on this trip, so I'll see you all when I get back.


My bag is packed.....albeit a LOT fuller than I had hoped. I've packed a few more clothes than I normally take with me but then, it is pretty cold in Shanghai right now. And the weather forecast looks like rain for our Disneyland days. So, it probably is better to be safe than sorry.


I've also got printouts of my tix, accommodation, reservations, travel insurance etc; plus my passport.


More importantly......the much anticipated data only SIM cards arrived on Monday. Phew!
But don't expect any "live" reports or anything. I like to remain DISconnected when I'm on vacay. I'll probably only post again when I get back to Oz.



Catch you at the other end!



princess::upsidedow
 
My Bag Is Packed



I'll probably not have time to get back on the Dis before I head off on this trip, so I'll see you all when I get back.


My bag is packed.....albeit a LOT fuller than I had hoped. I've packed a few more clothes than I normally take with me but then, it is pretty cold in Shanghai right now. And the weather forecast looks like rain for our Disneyland days. So, it probably is better to be safe than sorry.


I've also got printouts of my tix, accommodation, reservations, travel insurance etc; plus my passport.


More importantly......the much anticipated data only SIM cards arrived on Monday. Phew!
But don't expect any "live" reports or anything. I like to remain DISconnected when I'm on vacay. I'll probably only post again when I get back to Oz.



Catch you at the other end!



princess::upsidedow
Have an amazing vacation - enjoy every minute - looking forward to all the news when you get back:mickeyjum
 
I just found this but Bon Voyage! I'm so jealous and can't wait to hear about your adventures!

Jill in CO
 

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