I'm off to Shanghai!

Hey duders! I'll be going to Shanghai for a few moths very soon. I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions on what to see/try/do be it gaming oriented or not. Any club or bar you would recommend or some food or drinks that are a must try, some interesting sights, events? How's the local art scene? Since I'll be there for a while any suggestion is welcome. If there is any experience you might have had there and want to share, please feel free to do so.

I'll be spending a few days in Shanghai in a month or so as well, so recommendations would be really helpful.

I used to live in Shanghai for a few years, though I don't know much about the club/bar and art scene so I can't give much recommendations for that. I recommend going to Qipu Road (七浦路 Qīpǔ lù), which can be a pretty brutal place for clothes shopping. An essential shopping experience IMO. It's an easy way to stock up on cheap clothes and such, if you need any. They can seem a little confrontational when you haggle, but don't let it get to you!

For sightseeing, you can go a little out of town to visit Suzhou or Zhouzhuang. They're only a couple hours away, so you can even go there for a day trip if you want. You can go even further to Hangzhou and Huangshan, if you have the time. Spring and early summer is a pretty good time to visit those places.

I recommend trying out all the local food you see while you can. Xiaolong bao is famous for a good reason; Shengjian bao (pan-fried baos) and duck blood soup are worth looking out for too. Any dodgy-looking place could probably sell decent (and cheap!) food, so don't be afraid to try them out. Restaurants should have a plaque somewhere visible that tells you how well they did in their sanitary inspections, which can be helpful for minimising your risk of getting food poisoning. It should have a big smiley face colored green/yellow/red. Street food stalls don't have these (they're usually illegal) so just assume that they're not clean, though they can be worth the risk sometimes.

Forgot to mention, there's actually a huge game arcade I often went to and would recommend going to, but I can't recall where it is located nor what it's called. Sorry! I think it was in the Xujiahui area. It might have been shut down anyway though.

@dimi3je: Honest advice? Don't come here, it sucks. I might be biased here since I've been living in this damned place for way too long.

If you're staying for an extended period of time, it's really like living in any other big city. You'll naturally get around and find what you like and how you want to spend your time. I almost feel like making recommendations would detract from the experience. Consider buying a transit card the first chance you have. It'll make getting around a lot easier. Subway station service desks sell them. You can take the MegLev out from PVG to a subway station. If you decide to take a taxi, don't expect them to speak a lick of English, but you might get lucky. Write down your destination on a piece of paper and give it to the driver. The concierge might help you, but don't count on it. Taxis are pricey, so be aware of that. I would avoid the buses in the beginning if you don't speak Chinese since a lot of them require you to tell the bus lady what your stop is so she can charge you the correct fare. Some might let you pay the cheapest fare, but you might also get ripped off. Subway is the way to go, but you might end up doing a lot of walking to get to where you want. Shanghai is a big city, after all. If you have more details about where in the city you might be staying I could try digging up some places that are worth checking out. Tourist traps are dumb and a waste of time, don't go unless you just want to walk around and take some photos. Don't spend money there. You will get ripped off. The food isn't even authentic, anymore.

Speaking of the food situation, it's a hot mess. There are a lot of restaurants. There are a lot of bad restaurants. The good restaurants are expensive, sometimes ridiculously so. Bring money. Lots of money. If you've never dined in China, be prepared to get sick. This will happen eventually. I had literally just shit myself last week because I ate something bad over Chinese New Year. And I've been living here for years. Hopefully you don't have a sensitive gut.

If you're into drinking, then Shanghai might be your town. Just not for domestic beer, because there's like half a dozen of Chinese beer brands and they all kinda suck (also, "fake" beer is apparently a fucking thing). You'll find lots of bars and pubs scattered all over town. Honestly, if you see one you might like, just head on in and order something. Not to your liking? Walk around a bit and you'll find another place. This is assuming you're near the city core. East Shanghai (Pudong) is getting better these days, but drinking establishments are still quite a bit more spread out than the west side (Puxi). When in doubt, find a good hotel and you should find a decent bar in there. Drinks are expensive, so bring cash.

I'm not a big art person so can't really tell you much regarding that, but Shanghai, despite its looks, does have a surprising number of temples, big and small, tucked away in its nooks and crannies. I don't think think they charge entrance fees anymore, but I've not been to one in years so don't take my word for it.

I'm sorry if I'm making Shanghai sound like a shit town because it's really not. Compared to some of the interior cities, Shanghai is like fucking paradise. I hope you have a grand ol' time. Maybe holler once you're in town and we'll have a drink.

Cheers, duder.

I can't give any advice, since I've rarely ventured out of my home state in the U.S., but I certainly wish you a great time and safe travels duder. :)

have a good stay!

Good luck! Don't drink the water.

I was there last November, I really can't recommend it but then my experience was non-touristy as I stayed with my wife's family and I also don't like being stared at like I'm some alien by every damn person in the street.

As @audiobusting said get out of Shaghai and see other towns. Its way better. Zhujiajiao was a great little water town. It does have its touristy part but it looks and feels real old school.

Actually probably the best part of Shanghai and its surrounds I found to be gardens. They really know how to carve out a great garden that is interesting. There's also a idk 60ft "gold" buddha statue in Liangshan. Its not old or anything but the whole temple complex is stunning. See this link.

As for bars and stuff like that its ok, but most bars are really westernised or western franchises so it wasn't really interesting. Tbh Beijing is a better city to visit attraction wise.

When I was there I missed a game developers conference by like a day. As it was showcasing Chinese developers mainly it was mostly mobile games so if that's your thing maybe have a search for any other conferences before you go.

And if you find any night market selling insects, try it. Crickets/grasshoppers are very tasty except for the wings.

@rebel_scum said:

Aw man, I didn't know there are people selling insects in Shanghai. I tried fried maggots elsewhere once and they were great.

I've been living in Shanghai for almost five years now and its amazing, don't listen to that guy earlier there are a lot of foreigners in China that are just insufferably negative about everything.

For bars and clubs there are a lot around the bund and in the french concession but I don't know much about them so I can't really say.

You can also find a lot of cool art in the French concession, I would also recommend a cool arty area called tianzifang, take line 9 to dapuqiao and you are right there, it is a small neighbourhood hidden from the main streets that is full of a bunch of small alleyways with a lot of small unique stores, you could completely miss the entrance and not know it's there.

I would also recommend going up the Shanghai World Financial Tower to see an amazing view of the city including a transparent glass floor for a view directly below, try to pick a clear day so you can see as much as possible, but if you or someone you are going with will have their birthday when you are in Shanghai go that day and show your passport and you can go for free.

Yu Garden(YuYuan) is another popular choice if you like those kind of old style chinese gardens, you can also try stinky tofu and a lot of the more strange local foods there, I'm a picky eater so I don't like them but they are worth a try.

If you like acrobatics and circus style performance then visit Shanghai Circus World, my parents were just here last week and I took them and they loved it. There are a lot of other small theatres that have other types of shows too that you might be interested in.

Those are some of the most famous places but there are so many things to do and stumble upon the first time I visited as a tourist way back in 2008 I just enjoyed walking around and finding stuff because it was so different to where I'm from (Sydney) and there are subway stations everywhere so it's really easy to get back to where you are staying. The subway is amazing and super easy to use, all the signs are in English so you should not need help to take it and it's also very cheap.

If you want to go to some other cities that are close I would go to Hangzhou and visit west lake and a small town called Wuzhen that is a water city like Venice where you must take a boat to enter. Both of these places are good for a two day one night stay and are not far from Shanghai. The intercity train service is very good, not expensive and trains are very frequent.

Food is the same as above, there are so many places that it's hard to recommend one in particular so considering that you will be here for a while I would say just experiment with places you see and think are interesting, it's hard to go wrong with food here. The hardest part is the language factor as there are a lot of small hole in the wall places that are great but hard if you aren't with someone who speaks chinese because their menus don't have pictures of English and the staff in smaller places often don't speak English.

For gaming there are a lot of arcades in Shanghai but a lot of games are in either chinese or japanese so that can be a bit difficult but not impossible, if you decide to go to an internet cafe remember you need your passport or they won't let you use a computer.

For general advice, don't drink water from the tap unless you boil it first, it's not terrible and you can brush your teeth etc with it but it could make you a bit sick so better safe than sorry.

In certain places people will approach you and ask you to come with them to buy things, watches, bags etc, don't go with them. There are plenty of easy to find markets that are better and safer. Remember if there is no price tag then that means you can always talk them down, after they say the price if they don't go lower by at least 20% leave and they will stop you. I was showing a guy around as a favour and he wanted to buy some old coins for his son, at first the owner say 20RMB for each and I laughed it was so ridiculous in the end I got it down to 20RMB for 5 coins. A good tactic is to write the price you can to pay on their calculator (all stores have them) and if they say no just leave, chances are they will agree on the price or at least go close to it.

Be careful in populated places for pick pockets, I always keep my phone and wallet in my jeans pocket because they are deep and tight.

If you are going to go to a bar, find one yourself in one of the places I mentioned above there will be lots of foreigners there, if a person on the street says they will take you to a bar where drinks are cheap don't go with them, they will take you to a private club put you in a room bring you drinks and girls to hang out and charge you a high fee for the room.

Taxis are also great for transport because they are really cheap and everywhere, but traffic is very bad during peak hours so it could be slow.

That's seems like a good start, if you have any other questions feel free to ask.

I don't know if traffic rules in Shanghai are the same as Beijing, but you might enjoy this humorous guide to Chinese traffic:

Beijing Traffic Lesson: Left Turn

@aethelred: That's another good thing to mention, zebra crossing and the green man mean very little in China, always be looking left and right before and while you are crossing the street and be assertive not passive, if a car sees you crossing with confidence not starting and stopping they will change their position to be where your not with no problems but if you umm and ahhh that will cause problems.

I've been living in Shanghai for the past couple of months in pudong. It's not so bad once you get accustomed to the city. Hit me up if you feel like kicking it or find out where some good hole in the wall places are.

Buy a VPN before you get there. PandaPOW is pretty good. If you aren't using a VPN prepare to wonder about which sites are UNblocked as opposed to which sites are blocked.

I've heard mixed things regarding the efficiency of VPN services over there. I'm currently using a couple, mainly Freedome, and I'm wondering if accessing stuff like my Gmail, WhatsApp, Facebook and so on will be a hassle? I've already made some backup email accounts just in case.

Also, a couple more obscure questions. What would be a good place to buy traveling supplies, like mosquito nets, hammocks and comfortable travel clothes? And is there an equivalent of a good will or used clothes store over there? I'll be traveling through Shanghai, coming from the north and heading south. I'm intending to leave behind my winter clothes in Shanghai and buy new ones plus some more summer travel accessories. Also, if any of you duders living in Shanghai have a use for some really solid winter boots and a wool jacket, I could just leave them with you.

If you aren't vegetarian then stay away from meats in restaurants and if you really have to then stick to white meat.

@isomeri said:

VPN access is a mixed bag, honestly. Even with reliable ones, you're at the mercy of the GFW. They'll block whatever they want to, whenever they want to. Sometimes it's temporary (Wikipedia always gets blocked around the time of June 4th, for obvious reasons), other times not so much (Google has been completely blocked for 2+ years, so no Google services accessible at all in China at the moment). GFW ban lists are not entirely reliable, because different ISPs seem to have unique lists of their own. Not sure about other apps since I don't use 'em, but the predominant chat app in China is WeChat. There's an English version, and it works okay. No Facebook here without a VPN. Still, I would recommend using a VPN just so most western sites can work properly and load at a reasonable speed, because the Google block has fucked some sites (GB included, although it's gotten better) due to Google's web API being unable to load.

Getting traveling supplies shouldn't be too much of a problem. Carrefour, Metro, Walmarts and plenty of mall for you to check out. There are undoubtedly specialty stores for traveling stuff, and I can try looking up some for you. Would avoid roadside shops if you're concerned about quality, but big stores will usually cost more, sometimes substantially. @audiobusting mentioned Qipu Road (七浦路), which is a nice place to grab cheap clothes, provided you're willing to haggle (I'm still shit at this after 20 years). Depending on when and where you start, you might not need much winter clothes even up north. It's dry up north so none of that fucking freezing bullshit weather we have here in Shanghai (but still cold; gets below zero, after all). Just invest in a good insulating jacket and warm pants. Thermal underwear is a must when you start getting to the wetter patches along the Yangtze. Climate will remain wet and gross until you get to around Shenzhen, where the heat will kick in. I can't stand Hong Kong even in the winter months because it's so warm.

As other users have previously pointed out, don't drink the tap water. Just don't. Buy bottled water, or boil the tap water well. If you choose to boil, make sure the water doesn't have weird shit floating in it. Sometimes its just harmless buildup from the tap, but know that you're still going to be taking a chance. Hospital visits in China aren't exactly cheap, and waiting can take forever. Add the language barrier and it's all going to suck. Some bigger hospitals will have a place set aside especially for foreigners (I volunteered for one during my time in Qingdao), but those are rare. Try to stay healthy, don't take unnecessary risks. And bring tissue. Always. Because not all public restrooms have tp. Assuming you'll be staying at hotels along the way, sometimes cheap places (like, <100 RMB a night places) will call you and ask if you want massage service. They are usually not massage service. Utilize at your own discretion.

I've actually had way worse luck with salads and dairy. Can't really think of any instances of getting really sick from meats. I've heard things get more sketchy in the interior, but I've never spent enough time there.

@zomgfruitbunnies: Right, that's why I mentioned buying one before going there since VPN's websites are sometimes blocked even though the services are up. I was there this past winter and PandaPOW worked reliably.

Yeah, they seem very quick about blocking the websites, but tend to leave the actual service untouched which is kinda weird. I've been using some of the Chinese VPNs and they're actually not that bad, not to mention really, really cheap. I do run into trouble with Youtube and stuff, but I've come to love the Chinese -tube sites so I don't really miss it at all.

Of course, all of this VPN talk is limited to paid VPNs. The free ones are all dead, I think.