life in Shanghai China

The Pudong Shangri La is considered one of the best hotels in the city. However it's luxury brand does not preclude it from offering both fine baked goods at a small Gourmet coffee shop and an excellent Chinese lunch at its award winning Gui Hua Lou restaurant. We sample both and discover fine food for a reasonable price.

Bringing an unlocked, multiband GSM mobile phone to China allows the expat, student and/or traveler the chance to quickly connect locally easily for a reasonable cost. With a bit of extra effort you can activate an the China Mobile international outgoing call service, which allows calls the the USA/Canada for about 6 cents US a minute.

On an early Sunday morning riverside walk along the Pudong side of the Huangpu River we come upon a large container ship high dry on the mud flats.

The Langhua Pagoda stands in front of the temple entrance and is the only remaining old pagoda in the city of Shanghai. The aged seven wooden stories are not open to visitors, however it remains an impressive sight. The Longhua Temple is one of the oldest, largest and certainly more peaceful of all temples in Shanghai. First built around 242 AD, it's been destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries. The current temple and monastery follow designs of the Song dynasty. The 10 yuan entrance fee provides access to the beautiful and peaceful grounds. Next door is the large landscaped grounds of the Martyrs Cemetery. Entrance to the grounds and the museum filled with fotos and the personal effects of young Communists martyrs is free.

The river ferries sail sideways as much as forward and scoot among the many working ships on the Huangpu River while passengers enjoy a fine view of the grand new buildings of Pudong. On weekdays the ferries serve the many small commercial transporters using mopeds and bicycles.

The river ferries cross the Huangpu River offer a faster and more colorful way to travel between the western Puxi and eastern Pudong sides of Shanghai. Popular with locals they are too often ignored by visitors. Reasonable in cost (just 1.5 RMB) with the terminal strategically located near many key points of interest, the ferries offer a genuine slice of life in Shanghai. In this part 1 we board the ferry on the eastern Pudong side and cross to Puxi.

The Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre is a unique and literally home grown museum and store in the heart of Shanghai. The founder and owner oversees a collection of historic posters from Communist times and operates a store selling a variety of historic posters, fotos and books. We reflect on the the Buddhist Temples we have visited so far in our stay and observe the advantages and disadvantages of three interesting temples.

We walk West Nanjing Road and the insect market in Shanghai's Old Town. We attend the Chinese opera The Palace of Eternal Youth and the touring St. Petersburg Ballet company's performance of Swan Lake. The holiday treats of Moon cakes and sweet rice wine are also sampled.

We get the best seat in the house, literally, for the National Day parade in Beijing. And, we take advantage of the long holiday week by visiting the lake village of Tongli for a day. A small, very well preserved historic village consisting of seven islets connected by 49 bridges - Tongli makes for an excellent day trip into the country side.

The Portman Ritz-Carlton is a relatively long time staple of the Shanghai hotel scene but stiff has its fine points including the jazz. We near the close of our first month living in Shanghai and reflect on settling in, the good, the really good and best of all!

We visit a Taiwanese dumpling restaurant for excellent examples that we slowly learn to eat without changing shirts. We are cast as non speaking extras in a corporate movie. And the bad news on the Shanghai sex museum.

Shanghai offers a wide range of food done at world class levels. Jade on 36 is as fine a French restaurant that we've dined at and offers airplane views of the Bund and city. Though centrally located Xian Qiang Fang requires care to find but rewards you with an authentic 1920s atmosphere, classical Chinese musical entertainment, and fine dining on traditional Shanghai dishes. We offer links at giverny.com & giverny.com

The French Concession provides numerous dining opportunities and tree lined streets that make for hours of strolling and exploring. Shanghai Old Town offers a glimpse of the past and beautiful Ming Dynasty gardens. Along with a taste of the finest dumplings in Shanghai.

We are impressed by the friendliness of the people and their efforts to speak and understand English. As westerners we feel we live a life apart, but there are plenty of familiar goods and brands on offer. We love dining at 7PM again with everyone else!

An early morning river walk leads to Starbucks overlooking the Bund. We spend several hours starting to explore the famed Shanghai Museum and it's variety of exhibits. Hot and still feeling the jet lag at the end of the day, we finish with our first visit to a Hooters, Chinese style.