Our next stop in China is Shanghai. Unlike Beijing, where we saw old culture of China, Shanghai is the modern part of China.
I booked a flight from Beijing to Shanghai via China Eastern in the internet and found Shanghai flat rentals too. Good thing I chose China Eastern over China Southern. Our guide told us that China Eastern is better than China Southern. It’s like their Cebu Pacific flights that fly domestic destinations.
We arrived in Shanghai late afternoon and it’s raining. The weather was good in Beijing but not in Shanghai. Nothing much happened in Shanghai so I’ll just summarize our stay in Shanghai.
Arrival in Shanghai
Our guide was there to fetch us and we went straight to The Bund. However, due to the weather we can’t appreciate the view since it’s also foggy. We had our Huangpu River Cruise despite the bad weather.
Kaibo Hotel in Shanghai
We stayed in Kaibo Hotel in Shanghai. Compared to our hotel in Beijing, this is smaller and the bed is not that comfortable. However, they have international channels compared to Beijing where we only watch the news channel.
First Day: Orient Tv Tower, Xiang Huang Yi Du Jewelry Factory, Pearl Factory, Yu Garden and Old City Market
Again, it’s a rainy day so when we went to the Orient TV Tower to see it in a closer view, we didn’t appreciate it. Then we stop by the People’s Square. The next stop was in Xiang Huang Di Jewelry Store where we saw a lot of Jades again and jewelry. This time, we knew the owner who is a Filipino-Chinese entrepreneur: Mr. Johnny Lim. He was generous to show us around his store.
Then we went to the Pearl Factory which is very similar to the pearl stores in Palawan so the place didn’t appeal to us either. However, the staff guide informed us how they get the pearls from the oysters.
The best place we’ve seen so far was the Yu Garden which is located in the Old City. That is the only place we saw Chinese culture similar in Beijing. We even saw a lot of Koi fishes and I remembered Nuvali, Laguna at that moment. After the tour, we then had our free time to check out the stores in the Old City Market. This was the test of our bargaining skills!
We had a great day and had our authentic Xiao Long Bao during our dinner! It was superb!
After dinner, since the weather is good that day. I requested our guide to let us take a picture again in The Bund. Luckily he agreed. ^_^
The next day was our free time since we are off to the airport in the evening. We went to the Old City Market again and it was only then we discovered their “Divisoria” or their “168”. Hahaha! If there will be a next visit in Shanghai, I’ll definitely save money to bargain their. A lot of good finds there! One tip: You should bargain 80% off their tag price. 😉
That’s the end of our China trip. I hope I’ve inspired you to visit China even once in your lifetime.
For more pictures, check out my Flickr account: Shanghai Trip
You might also want to visit our China Itinerary.
For best packages for China tour, you can visit: Reliable Travel Tours (tip: inform them you read it from my blog! ^_^)
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