Shanghai, China – An Amazing City That We Keep Going Back To
We’ve been to Shanghai many times, but we never get tired of this amazing city! The size, population, sites to see, restaurants to go, shopping, etc. is top notch. You can eat for cheap or you can go expensive, we did a bit of both.
We stayed at the Renaissance Shanghai Zhongshan Park which is so centrally located it was easy to get around everywhere. It is connected to the Cloud Nine Shopping Mall as well as Metro lines 2 (underground), 3 and 4 (above ground). We have stayed here a few times before and as Marriott Platinum Elite members so we have lounge access. The lounge in this hotel is on the top two floors (58-59) which is the highest lounge by Renaissance in the world. Views are the best as you can see all the way to Pudong viewing the other tall towers including the new second tallest building in the world, The Shanghai Tower. The hotel is showing its age a bit but they will be renovating at the end of this year (2018). We stayed in a suite for the 15 days so we had lots of room for our luggage, a separate bedroom and a large bathroom. Food here was excellent, so good that we didn’t explore as much outside as usual because we had a full breakfast, mini sandwiches at lunch time and a full array of food at dinner.
Shanghai is an incredible city, there are so many places to go like Xintiandi, Yu Garden, The Bund (both sides), Tianzifang, Nanjing Road, Jing’An Temple, even the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery which is over 30,000 square feet on two levels.
As you many know we are huge Starbucks Mug Collectors so we walked everywhere to find a set of mugs that featured The Bund, Xintiandi and Yu Garden. We found two but didn’t get the third one until a few days later when another Starbucks we went to near Yu Garden had it. Needless to say, our day was made! By the end of the trip, our suitcase was full with 9 Starbucks mugs!
Although we’ve been to all the sites before, the city is forever changing and each time you go, there are new restaurants to go to and shops to explore. One day we walked the entire Bund, took some great shots and walked all the way to Yu Garden. Another day we started off in Yu Garden and walked all the way to the beginning of the Nanjing West Road Shopping area (no cars allowed!). We had a blast just going through (found another Starbucks but didn’t buy anything because we had too many already!) the shops, buying street foods, goodies and snacks. So much for dinner that night!
We spent another day walking around the Pudong side going to the IFC Mall, then checking out the brand new Shanghai Tower which is the second tallest building in the world. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy, foggy day so if we went to the top, we wouldn’t have much a view. Tickets were 180 rmb for the Observatory on the 118th floor. 360 rmb if you want to go to the Summit as well on the 125th & 126th floor.
There’s just so much to write about Shanghai, keep an eye out for subsequent articles on specific areas that we visited.
Tip: Plan your trip out, you’ll need around 5 days to explore Shanghai alone. Get a good Metro Map saved to your phone. You’ll get around much more quickly and cheaply by Metro than by taxi. Try to get a hotel near a Metro as well as that will save time. Plan out your days with places near each other, it is still walkable to get around and take your time. Safety in Shanghai is so good.
Safe Travels!
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