Get Your Dumping On In Shanghai

On the way to Shanghai from Seoul, I wanted to update my Twitter and Facebook followers of where I was heading next. In an attempt to tweet before boarding, I posted 'Getting my dumping on in Shanghai'. I blame this on the auto correct function because what I meant to say was 'Getting my dumpling on in Shanghai'. Although I had mis-typed, what I had posted was not far off from the truth. Eating all that Korean food with no exception to kimchi at every meal, who knows if our western stomachs were ready for all that Shanghai had to offer.


The reason why we chose to go to Shanghai is because we've both never been. What better reason right? Actually the flight to and from Seoul cost the same as stopping by Shanghai for a few days. I had been to China before via Semester at Sea stopping in Hong Kong and Beijing, but Shanghai was the city I missed. What I knew about Shanghai was that it looked like a city the Jetson's would live in with its amazing architecture, shopping and food and that's exactly what I got. With our visas in order (US folk need to pay over $200 to get a tourist visa. Thank you Mao Zedong), we set forth for the 'Paris of the East' or 'The Great Athens of China'.


Sleeping on Christie's floor in Seoul, we decided to treat ourselves to a 4 star experience at Salvo Hotel. Entering the Executive Suit, we felt like real grownups. I'm 25 and don't consider myself 'grown up' yet. We had king size bed with a view overlooking The Bund. We had a jet tub and a living room with a computer - with Windows 95, dial-up and no Facebook access! It may be nothing to toot about for some, but for us, this hotel room represented all the hard work and effort to get to this point in our lives.


For the next 4 days we walked all around Shanghai crossing off the list of Top Things To Do in Shanghai via Google search. We took in the great architecture, ate dumplings and street food morning, noon and night and walked so much that we passed out hitting the bed at night. No need to stay up and watch TV because the only western channel we had was CNN.

We Conquered Shanghai by Foot

See Red Circles For Points of Interest

View from The Bund

One of the best places to capture the city skyline is The Bund. Strange name for a boardwalk lining the Huangpu River. It's a historical area with 52 buildings of various styles including Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Beaux-Arts and Art Deco. Not a big on architecture, but I appreciated it's contribution to the setting of The Bund.

Around The Bund and River Cruises

The View from The Bund at Dusk and Night

Jinmao Tower and Shanghai Financial Center

The area The Bund overlooks is the Pudong area called Lujiazui containg 3 of Shanghai's most notable buildings: Oriental Pearl Tower, Jinmao Tower and the Shanghai Financial Center. The pearl TV tower building is pretty self explanatory regarding the name. The Jinmao Tower contains offices and the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which has the tallest hotel and lobby in the world. The Shanghai Financial Center, the second tallest building in the world, has offices, shopping, hotel rooms and the world's tallest observation deck.


We could have gone to any of the buildings' observation desks, but we opted for the Jinmao Tower, our least favourite. We wanted to be able to see the other buildings. Plus the Jinmao Tower has the tallest bar in the world - Cloud 9 Bar on the 87th floor.

The 88th Floor View Down to the Grand Hyatt Lobby

Tallest Lobby in the World

The View from the Observation Deck at Jinmao Tower

The Line To Go Back Down

After our trip up the Jinmao Tower, we indulged ourselves with dirty martinis at Cloud 9, where there was a 150 yuan (about $21 AUD) minimum to sit. Welcome to China!

Me and The Oriental Pearl Tower

Shanghai Grand Theater and Man Flying an Octopus Kite

Street Art on Nanjing Road

The Shanghai World Pavilion

Walking on Century Avenue

View from Our Hotel Room

The rest of our trip included shopping and food. Our first night, we went the safe route and chose a restaurant off of the famous Nanjing Road. Despite seeing the very cheap and delicious street stir fry, we chose this place because it had a large picture menu with English subtitles. We went with the trusty, "What do you recommend?" What we got was some very spicy/oily tofu and cold yellow chicken. That night, we walked off our meal taking in the nightlife of Nanjing Road. We knew the Chinese like to party, but we found a group of locals young and old getting through groove on to a boom box on Nanjing Road.

Our First Meal

Cold Chicken and Spicy Oily Tofu

Impromptu Dancing in the Street

The next day, we took to the streets towards the YuYuan Garden and Bazaar. We got lost weaving through back alleys and found ourselves in a local market. The same time we were here, Chinese watermelons hit Australian news. Australia was banning imports from China because of their 'exploding watermelons' full of hormones/steroids. Seeing a cucumber the size of a man made the news very real to me.

Hormones in the Vegetables?

Largest Cucumber I've Ever Seen

Frogs for Dinner

Best Street Food

Pancake with Egg, Scallions & Chili Paste

Streets of Shanghai & Women's Daily Exercise

We made it to the famous YuYuan Garden Bazaar. It was unbelievably touristy. I had the idea that this place would be a serene spot with old school Shanghai architecture and local products. The Bazaar was full of shops selling 'jade' - not to mention Starbucks, McDonalds franchises. I did find a very practical item I wish I could have in 50 years - a cane that doubles as a chair. Senior citizens of the world, you are missing out!

YuYuan Garden Bazaar

Famous Stinky Tofu

One Bite Was Enough

First Taste of Shanghai Dumplings

$12 is Not the Local Price

Famous Dumpling Stand and Fried Goods Dotting the Entire Bazaar

Drink a Dumpling

Food/Drink Combo

The actual YuYuan Gardens were actually breathtaking. Tucked away from the touristy Bazaar, we had to pay $10 each to find some appreciation for Chinese architecture. The gardens took us over 2 hours to leisurely walk through. The walkways were my favourite. You'd often find murals of stone on the pathway and dragons made of stone along the walls.

YuYuan Garden Pond

Excellent Stone Work on the Pathway

Cane/chair Combo

The Chinese Love Red

Decorations Store in the Bazaar

For the rest of the week, we took to our trust top things to do guide and our hotel provided map. We circled every place we wanted to go to and walked to each for the next 2 days. Already in the north, we went as far east, south and west as we could by foot. We took the train to go across the river to see the famous JinMao Tower and Expo Pavillion. The only other train we took was to and from the airport. 

Senior Citizen Tour Group

I Bet They Would Like the Cane Chair

Long Day of Walking

Taking a Break to Review Our Map

Choose Your Own Style Soup

Pork Dumplings with Vermicelli & the Better Spicy Hodgepodge

Which Do You Think I Got?

Nanjing Road West & Nanjing Road East

People's Park Gardens

Serious Game of Go

Men Only Please

Street Food

2 Types of Stir Fry and Local Beer = $5

The food was excellent. I had delicious street food and more dumplings than I can ever want to eat again. On my last day, I decided to go soup again. With so many restaurants offering soup, we decided to go back to Nanjing Road where everyone seemed to be getting their soup. We sat down and got a huge bowl of spicy soup with chunks of meat, few vegetables, egg and peanuts. All I could see was oil. So hungry from our day of walking, we demolished the soup despite all the oil. 10 minutes later we were finished and my stomach hated me. I ended up throwing up in a Starbucks 30 minutes later and walking around in a haze. For the rest of the day, I went for only bread from bakeries. 

The Soup That Gave Me Food Poisoning

Dave's First Yoshinoya Experience

Famous Japanese Beef Bowl Franchise

Chinese Style Egg Burrito

Breakfast Street Food Style

Huge Aquarium on Nanjing Road

One of my favourite cultural exchanges was when I tried to order our last meal of dumplings in a mall food court. Food court food is usually considered sub-par, but this particular stand had a line out of the food court. Standing in line for 5 minutes, I realised I was the only one without a ticket. I looked at a old woman behind and me pointed to her ticket. She pointed to the food court cashier. I walked up to the food court cashier, which had no line, but a barge of people surrounding the counter. I made it up to the front. I always travel with my Casio calculator and punched the number 5. I had previously looked at their menu, which luckily featured the English words "Fried dumplings $5". I pointed to the number and pointed to the dumpling stand. She automatically knew which item I wanted and gave me a ticket. Chinese language exchange success.

The Last Dumplings

We had a few hours to kill before our 10pm flight. We decided to see Kung Fu Panda 2, so appropriate I know. Afterwards, Dave had one more stint of shopping. With the unbeatable prices for name brand items at our fingertips, we had to take advantage before going to back to the jacked-up pricing model of import conscious Australia. Both Dave and I got winter jackets, which were personally fitted on like we were in-store mannequins by the attendant. I then ventured to find some knock-offs. Previously living in New York City, a visit to China Town meant designer brands for cheap. Coming to Shanghai, I thought designer knock-offs would be aplenty. This was not the case. This city was not the China I expected. There were only legitimate stores. There were no street hawkers except for the few on the steps leading to the subway, which sold children's trinkets, lighters or house shoes. I was frustrated. I wanted to bring back some designer handbags and it seemed impossible to find any sort of street hawker - with exception to the seedy people on Nanjing Road who shove laminated pages of bags and watches. I didn't want to hear "You want bag. You want watch. You want Louis Vuitton" anymore. Heading back to our hotel, we took the underground route and encountered an entire world of street hawker style market. It was like I was in the subways of Seoul again. Watches, sunglasses, dresses, flats and bags all less than $20. I walked away with 5 Longchamp bags for $6 each. Knock-off mission complete.

Train Ride Back to the Pudong Airport

If you're going to China, you have to visit Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai - in that order. Shanghai gave us 4 days of tourism, culture and escape we needed from our western life in Sydney. When travelling, I usually have accessible internet with accessible websites. If not, I have a guide book or fellow backpackers to rely on. This time around, we encountered very few people who spoke English and hardly any internet access. We instead went straight to our concierge for a map and circled where we wanted to go. For a 4 day trip, we packed sight-seeing, shopping, exercise and plenty of food. If you have a few days to stop by Shanghai, I highly suggest to do the following:

1. Pre-book your hotel room. A 4-5 star is excellent value. It costs what we consider 3 star, but you can get an enormous room, amenities and view
2. Read up on what to do before you get to Shanghai because internet access is limited
3. Walk the Bund Boardwalk to get excellent panoramic shots of the city and river
4. Go up one of the major towers. Go with the JinMao Tower, so you can see the Pearl TV Tower and then go to Cloud 9 Bar
5. See the Shanghai Acrobatics Show at the Shanghai Centre Theatre
6. Eat street food stir fry and food court dumplings
7. Go shopping. You can even barter in department stores!
8. Go from one end of Nanjing to the other and stop by People's Square, People's Park and Renmin Square. Good people watching and great modern architecture
9. Walk through the YuYuan Gardens and amuse yourself with the ridiculousness of the Bazaar
10. Walk around instead of cabbing it, you'll see more