I'm going on a week-long trip to Shanghai and Fuzhou in September... don't really know what's fun to do in either city. Since it seem many of us here are from China, I figure I might as well ask you guys about the entertainment options... What are the fun sights to see and the place to get drunk?
Visit the temple of ground god? Is that how you translate it? There are many good little eateries there. This is in Shanghai, I have never been to Fuzhou. link
Shanghai is a great city! Will you have someone local (with similar interests as you) showing you around? This is the key to having a great time.
Wikipedia has a nice coverage on Shanghai: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai The places foreigners go to visit most are the Bund (night scene is pretty), Yuyuan Garden, Jing'an Temple (you may want to try the genuine Chinese vegetarian dishes there -- authenticity and tasteness are guaranteed). Click on the hyperlinks to these and other places in the wikipedia Shanghai page to learn more about them. Spend some time walking along both Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road to experience the vibrance of Shanghai. East of Huangpu River is called Pudong. The international airport was moved to Pudong just a few years ago. To be quite honest, Pudong is where I as a native Shanghainese would get lost. When I first left Shanghai, Pudong was still a suburbanish and vastly under developed area. The transformation and development since then have been simply amazing. BTW, there are plenty of places to get drunk (wink wink), but I am not going to disclose the details. Feel free to ask any other stuff you wish to know about Shanghai. If you find something interesting regarding Shanghai through googling, I can probably give you some rough ideas whether they are worth going or overrated. Never been to Fuzhou. But I bet you can learn quite a bit from those working in your local Chinese restaurants, where many are from Fujian province.
Man, that sounds great! I've always regretted that when I visited Hong Kong, you were unable to travel to China. It should be a splendid vacation.
There're ton more things to do in the big cities around China than there is here in the U.S..................only if you know it though. If you're visiting Hong Kong, you have to visit Shenzheng(Booming into another city like HK), Guangzhou(The U.S basketball team are here weeks ago), Macau(Gambling mania city, even more mania than LV), Zhuihai(beautiful and green city beside Macau), all the place above are like 2-4 hours drive within each other, and each of them have their unique culture, and stuff, so if you're already here, why not take the time and go instead of wasting another airplane ticket? But the thing is that you gota know where to go, where to eat, where to shop and where to have fun, that's the most important thing, if you could speak Chinese, that helps a lot, but if you have friends that could guide you, that helps a lot too, but if you're going by yourself, or going with a group of tourist, then it's not much fun.
I don't understand this, are you on a time limit, or on a business mission, or you need to do some paperwork before you can enter or what? How come you can't travel to China when you can visit Hong Kong, I mean basically, if you're in HK, you're already in China already. Everytime when I want to enter the mainland from HK or macau or vice versa, I need to get some paperwork done before they let me in, I think that's probably why.
I think he was talking about years ago, like in the 1960's when China was still closed to the outside world.
Near the Jing'an Temple , there is a market called the Xiang Yang Rd Gift Market in the Xiang Yang Road which sells all kinds of cheap clothes/shoes/accessories. Fake name brand products like Gucci, Chanel, Rolex... are everywhere. I went shopping there and saw a lot of foreigners buying stuff. Bargaining is a must. At least cut the price in half. I heard there's streets in Shanghai with lots of bars and clubs, but didn't have time to visit.
Two things need to be clarified. 1) Xiang Yang Rd Market isn't really near Jing'an Temple. Jing'an Temple is on Nanjing Rd close to Huashan Rd intersection. Xiang Yang Rd Market is actually on Huaihai Rd at the Shanxi Rd intersection. Sure you can walk to Xiang Yang Rd Market from Jing'an Temple, but it's pretty far and I wouldn't call it "within walkin' distance." Talking about Jing'an Temple area, I recall in a GARM thread on Yao just a few days back that somebody opened a restaurant there using Yao's name but serving American-Chinese food, and, Texas-style BBQ. Probably that's the ideal place for you folks who are home sick. 2) Last I heard, Xiang Yang Rd Market, aka the "Shopping Paradise," was closed earlier this year by Shanghai government to crack down fake products of famous international brands. I'd be surprised if you can still see any "open" black market the size of Xiangyang Rd Market out there in Shanghai nowadays. But, that doesn't mean you can't find the same stuff you want cheaply if you know where to look for. The trick is to visit those private-owned stores that sell leather luggages and likes, and utter such magic words as "gucci" or "coach" The store clerks, who may not know much English, will understand immediately you are coming for the "goodies."
I was new to Shanghai. The way I went to the Xiang Yang Fashion and Gift Market(I just got its formal English name) is by getting off at Jing'an Temple subway station and took a taxi. The ride on taxi to the market is not far, just several blocks away. That's why I said near. On the crackdown, I believe it's only temporary. After the officials are gone everything is back to the old days. I visited the Xiang Yang Rd Market just 3 months ago, and fake name brands like Fendi, Gucci, and North Face were everywhere in the open. No hidings necessary. Come on, Shanghai although being an advanced city in China is still a part of a developing country.
Do they hand out hotel guest list at the brothels? How do they know what rooms to call? It can't be that easy can it?
