Top 10 general tips for airport and currency exchange in Shanghai

1)Currency exchange - definitely the easiest and quickest way to do it, not to mention best rate, is to exchange at airport in Shanghai or the currency exchange there. They have one at the baggage carousel, so you can do it while you are waiting for your baggage.

2)Once in town, they have made it super easy to exchange money at banks. There is a green and grey symbol at a lot of banks and some shops.

3)You should also check out your hotel currency exchange. The hotel I was staying at offered currency exchange at no cost, using the Bank of China exchange rates. It was so easy and totally different from a lot of the information I had read beforehand about how changing money can be difficult and not easily available.

4)Taxis are very easy. However trip is long, an hour to central Shanghai. Cost at October 2010 is around 150-200 yuan.

5)If you compare cost of taxi versus Maglev, taxi is probably cheaper if there are 3 traveling, if 2, it is a closer call.

6) If time is important catch the Maglev, it takes only 8 minutes to town. Plus if you travel in peak hour, will probably be more efficient, as being stuck in traffic may well add to your time and the cost of the fare.

7) You might also want to catch Maglev if you are a train buff, apparently it travels at over 400 miles an hour.

8) You can use your airline ticket for a discount in price.

9) Always useful to have your destination written in Chinese characters. Many taxi drivers do not speak any English.

10)At the airport, the maps you can pick up for free are detailed and very useful when working out where you want to go while in town.

and one extra general tip for finding your way around

11) Don't use an old guide book, the conventions for street names seemed to have changed over the past 3 years and can prove quite confusing.

Joanne Kee
www.placesandspaces.com.au

Shanghai - 10 more tips

1) There seem to be public toilets everywhere in the central shopping areas.
2) It is useful to have a small purse pack of tissues as public toilets often run short.
3) There will often be an option of Eastern or Western toilets.
4) Newer more modern places, particularly designer shopping malls tend to have western style loos.
5) They do security checks of your bags at metro stations.
6) They seem to have soldiers at subway stations, they look amazing, I had to do a double take to make sure they were real.
7) Of course, taking a photo of soldiers is a big no, no.
8) Metros stations I went to all seem so big and clean.
9) Trains run quite often.
10) As with undergrounds all around the world, reorienting yourself with where you are once you get out, is often the tricky bit.

Shopping tips Shanghai

It seems you can't move in Shanghai without stumbling across an opportunity to shop. Be it a market, a mega mall, a tourism complex, or the old style communist shopping opportunity.

If you prefer not to enter the melee of bargaining and you have a taste for luxury there are so many luxury malls around town that it is hard to imagine how they can all operate.

Tips

1.Most market places will show you prices on calculators so there is no problem with the language.
2.The happiest way to bargain is to decide in advance how much you are willing to pay, if you and the vendor are happy it is a good deal.
3.Sometimes in retrospect it seems churlish to have bargained hard over 50c.
4. If you would have happily paid $20 for something in your home town, don't miss out from getting into the moment of feeling as though you have to drive a bargain.
5. If you are of Western build, you might not find it that easy to buy clothes off the rack, the Fabric markets and having clothes tailor made may be the best thing.
6.Department stores have fixed prices, as do luxury stores in malls, it seems there is room to bargain in most other places.
7. I like to shop around before I start buying to get a sense for how much people are charging for things. Even the starting price can vary from stall to stall.
8. You really can get ridiculous instances of reduced prices, my friends bought a kite for 15 yuan that started at 200!
9. Rule of thumb is at the very least go for less than 50%, if you are brave go for a lot less.
10. the vendors will pursue you, if they really want to seel there goods.

I chose to do a guided shopping tour, as it has been a long time since I was in China and I figured I wouldn't mind a bit of guidance. The Shopping Tours Shanghai were highly recommended on Trip Advisor.

So I debated about whether or not to use the cost of the trip towards shopping, but in the end the reviews swayed me. I can recommend www.shoppingtoursshanghai.com. I did the best of everything tour.

We visited the fabric markets, pottery, jewellery, handbags and other stuff, plus DVDs. In between we also managed to have a good lunch at a Shanghai style restaurant.

See my other blog posting for location of various shops.

Joanne Kee
www.ceressolutions.com.au

Parks in Shanghai

These are like most people's backyards, where everything happens from cards to tai chi or opera singing. Though have to say the people dancing don't seem to crack any smiles, though I imagine they are enjoying themselves?

This is opera singing in People's Park



Next up is dancing in Fuxing Park



and line dancing at the same time, just a different location