So I'm heading to Shanghai to watch the Battle.net World Champions but it's my first time to China and I really wanted to get out and explore the city. Sure there's the touristy places but other than that I'm fairly unsure as to where I would be heading out to! Any suggestions will certainly be taken on board
Make sure you go to an Acrobatic show at some point. http://www.timeoutshanghai.com/feat...cs/1313/The-best-Chinese-acrobatic-shows.html We went to the Cloud Theatre, I thought it was pretty good, but quite unpolished! Also, get a Shanghai Public Transportation Card (SPTC), very similar to HK's Octopus card and can be used to pay for taxis & on the metro.
Luckily Sydney has it's own Chinese consulate so this shouldn't be very difficult to obtain. Ah yes, loved the Octopus card especially seeing as most fast food places and the all important 7/11 accepted it. I last went to HK in 2005 and I'm really quite disappointed to see such a system hasn't spread largely in Australia and until I can pay wave journeys on public transport and then head to buy food with the same card I'll never be content! I'll look out for the Cloud Theatre whilst I'm there, thanks for the advice!
Well I have seen some people turn up without Visas in the past in front of me, or with only a european ID card where they needed a passport, for some international flights, not specifically China. For the price the Maglev train is not really worth it from Pudong Airport, other than if you want to go 300km an hour to Longyan Road. Its about 50 yuan. The metro from Pudong airport is about 7 yuan or so, but slower. Although with the Maglev, you still dont arrive in the centre of the City.
Yeah it's a bit strange, I asked my mate if he needed a Visa entering China and he said when he got to Shanghai he filled a few forms out and huzzah! I don't want to risk being turned away though so I'll cough up the 60 ought for a 3 month pass.
Taste real Shanghai Xiaolongbao, although after that everything else in Aus will taste like crap. Also try Shengjian Mantou (pan fried buns), which you cant find in Aus at all...
yeah u need to go there and line up and pay not hard try to ignore the falun gong protesters outside ive been twice and i love shanghai, more than HK its very similar to sydney i think but dead flat..not a hill in sight very friendly ppl and the best food in china my mrs is from there check out the area around the bund and the boulevard esp at night but be very careful of your pockets and of ppl who try to sell u stuff if u really want what they are selling offer them 1% of what they want and work up from there...its not hard to get them down from 100 to 10 there are some mega pc districts as well, multi story shopping centres full of nothing but tech stores... i didnt see much else while i was there
Some Nationalities dont require a transit visa for under 48 hours. If you dont have a visa they are unlikely to let you leave Australia.
Got the Visa, flights booked. 3 nights in Shanghai, 3 nights in Singapore! I'm hearing mixed reports that Skype won't work in China so for anyone who's travelled there, what do you generally use to communicate back home?
SKYPE works. Facebook doesnt work. One option is to obtain access to (Buy/borrow/create) a VPN and then do things as usual.
Skype works fine. My parents use it to call relatives regularly. Facebook doesn't work. Twitter doesn't work. Youtube doesn't work. But rest assured all instant messaging programs will work just fine. Just make sure you take care when using it on a public wifi as hackers are abound everywhere.
I'm sure a few days without YouTube or Facebook won't hurt too much, good to hear Skype will at least be working.
We did a day tour with Shanghai Sideways. It was a great way to see a lot of the city with the time we had (2 night stopover). We saw a lot of the city and went to less touristy places. Have a look on trip advisor.
