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| Shanghai at night on the Huangpu River |
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| Cruise on the Huangpu River |
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| The Bullet Train to Beijing! |
As I mentioned in my previous post, we first went to the historic Peace Hotel on our Shanghai-Lander “Breakfast and Bund” Tour, and were delighted to learn that it was originally Victor Sassoon’s home, and a true part of Jewish Shanghai. It’s a beautiful, art deco hotel with a Very nice staff, and we’d love to stay there if and when we get back to Shanghai! We went back to the hotel in the evening to hear some great 1930s jazz in their famous Jazz Bar, and spent a lovely night sipping cocktails and listening to the excellent band- most of the musicians were in their 80’s- and the torch singer, who sang 1930 Chinese jazz standards into a big, retro, 1930s mike… As we elegantly sipped our classic cocktails we thoroughly enjoyed a storybook evening in “old Shanghai”…
On a related note, retro is “in” in China this season (more on that later…), and 1930s Shanghai has become “trendy”, with a hot new line of cosmetics featuring the faces of beautiful 1930s Shanghai pin-up and calendar girls that is being sold at kiosks around the country!
On another day, as we walked down to the water to take the tourist riverboat cruise on the Huangpu River, we stopped at the Peace Hotel’s Victor’s Café, an elegant French-style patisserie, and had coffee and pastries as we “people watched” (and they watched us!) through the glass windows…
After our Irish Coffees at Victor’s Cafe, at about 4pm we took the 50-minute “tourist cruise” on the Huangpu River, along with a thousand Chinese tourists (we were, again, the only Westerners), buying our 120 RMB ($20 each) tickets at the kiosk on the river-walk. The boat gave us a different view of Shanghai and the Bund, both of the beautiful old buildings, and the new skyscrapers- such as the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Pudong, the symbol of Shanghai, which we both took to calling “Ball-on-a-Stick” LOL- which are only really fabulous when lit up- every night, promptly at 6p.m.! We saw lots of yachts, too, and even a paddle-wheeler docked at one of the piers!
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| Our river cruise boat… |
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| Shanghai from the Huangpu River… |
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| Dan holding up the Oriental Pearl TV Tower! |
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| A paddle-wheeler in Shanghai! |
When we got off the boat the lights of Shanghai were only just starting to come on, and we decided to have dinner at an elegant-looking Japanese-Chinese restaurant on the water: “Riverdeck on the Bund”. Even though we had no reservations, and weren’t exactly dressed for dinner, we were warmly welcomed and seated, and had a delicious Chinese dinner- including a bottle of (potent) Baiju, which came with two tiny “Barbie” glasses! When we didn’t finish the Baiju, the restaurant kindly packed up the bottle and glasses in an chic little tote bag, and, swinging out little bag, we braved the New Year crowds on the Bund, enjoying, with them, the lights of Shanghai, as we walked back to our hotel…
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| Yummy Fungus! |
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| The lights on the Huangpu River… |
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| Mojito and Baiju at the Riverdeck! |
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| Delish dinner at Riverdeck On The Bund… |
One thing we didn’t get to do that I wished we’d had time for was to take the Jewish Shanghai Tour given by Dvir Bar-Gal. His tour goes to several historic Shanghai synagogues, as well as the Old Ghetto in the Hong Kou District…
The other thing we weren’t able to do in Shanghai, due to it being Chinese New Year, was have lunch at Ye Olde Station Restaurant, an historic restaurant located in a former convent. Known for serving fine Shanghai cuisine, the restaurant has two hundred-year-old converted train carriages in the garden that you can dine in!
Like I said- gotta go back!
As I mentioned my previous post, we spent our first 5 nights in China at the Radisson Blu Shanghai New World Hotel,which is very well-situated in downtown Shanghai, right across from the Metro and a garden, adjoining the New World shopping mall and its food court, is opposite the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street, and walking distance from the Bund. Our first night in Shanghai we went up to their revolving restaurant, Epicure on 45(basically why I chose this hotel… LOL), in the hopes of having a drink and some dumplings as we watched Shanghai spin by! It was Valentine’s Day, however, and although we managed to get “the last table” all decked out with red heart napkins, we then discovered that for Valentine’s Day they had a “special Italian-themed set menu”- for $200 a person. No dumplings?! BIG disappointment! But watching the neon of Shanghai swirl around us was Very cool, and so we got their a la carte menu, and managed to order two appetizers (smoked salmon and a very good fish chowder with cognac), served with a board of nice, hot bread, and a $10 bottle of Quang Baiju (“Yellow Wine”), for a total of $100- a veritable steal! LOL Then we went downstairs and walked totally around the building, trying in vain to find the Neon Street (Nanjing Road) that, from our table high in the sky, looked like it spoked right off our hotel and ran parallel to the river… As we discovered the next morning, all we had to do was take the underpass across the street… and so we both felt like idiots. LOL
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| At the Radisson Blu’s Revolving Restaurant |
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| Valentine’s Day Baiju! |
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| The revolving view of neon-lit Shanghai… |
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| The Radisson Blu Shanghai New World |
Upon arrival in Shanghai we took the inexpensive EgoBus hotel shuttle to the Radisson Blu from the airport. I had arranged this by email with the hotel prior to our arrival, and it was excellent- and we had no problem finding it at the airport. I had booked a “bundle” of flights and 5 nights at the Radisson Blu on Expedia, convinced it was a great deal, (it wasn’t- Expedia ripped us off to the tune of $800, and we shall NEVER use Expedia again…), but the hotel was quite nice; we were given a mini-suite up on the 37th floor, with a great city view from the bedroom window. In my previous post on Tips for China Trip Planning, I suggested staying in fine, probably 5-star, hotels, in countries where you don’t speak the language, and having access to a good, English-speaking concierge is the main reason. At the Radisson Blu, the staff was able to help us arrange the airport shuttle buses, store our luggage, and provided help making phone calls and using the internet, getting taxis, using the metro, and getting directions, and their ATM machine enabled us to change money without a fee. They also have the revolving bar, a very pleasant lobby café, a cute tea shop, and the Sky Dome Bar on the 47th floor, that also has a fab city view, among other things…
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| View of Shanghai from our mini-suite at the Radisson Blu |
We left Shanghai in style, taking the G2 Bullet Train, Business Class, to Beijing!
As two card-carrying “railfans” who love train travel, taking the world-class, high-speed Bullet Trains was one of the “big deals” of our month in China, and while all our train trips were fine, our first experience was truly the best: we went Business Class- the best seats possible- from Shanghai to Beijing- in only 4.5 hours!
Warned by China-DIY-Travel (through whom we bought most of our train tickets) that we needed to be at the station extra-early due to the Chinese New Years crowds, we got up at 6a.m., got $200 in RMB from the Radisson Blu’s fee-less cash machine, checked out, got a cab to the Train Station at the airport (102 RMB- about $13), and whizzed right through security- no crowds at all! We were happily found by a Red Cap porter, who took us and our luggage to the VIP Business Class Lounge for 100 RMB- and he was worth every dime! He managed to use his cellphone’s translator app to tell us to relax until 8:30, and so we figured out how to use the Italian espresso machine and ogled all the tea herbs, flower buds, and such, and then Dan went a-wandering through the station and found the Food Court, and came back with a nice little breakfast for us: two spongy, meat-filled buns, a tray of little dumplings, a clear ox tail soup with scallions in which to plop the little dumplings, and a packet of hot chili paste! Our porter magically reappeared at 8:30 to take us to the train and get us settled in; the Bullet Train Business Class from Shanghai to Beijing is like flying First Class, with all the joy and none of the misery of flying!Perfectly outfitted stewardesses provided impeccable service, serving us green tea with fresh leaves to start, and the comfy chairs became flat sleepers at the touch of a button…
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| Livin’ Large in Business Class! |
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| The high-speed Bullet Train |
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| Me, thoroughly enjoying the luxury of it all! |
The stewardess covered me gently with a blanket as I slept, and later served us a yummy 3-course lunch: soup with a cabbage-clad dumpling for me and egg-drops for Dan; BBQ pork for me, beef for Dan; veggies and interestingly knobby, tasty seafood, rice, and a fab hot chili condiment in the middle of it all! China whizzed past us as I drifted in and out of dreamland, and before I knew it- or wanted it to happen- we were in Beijing- right on time at 1:30pm! There were only 5 seats in the one Business Class car on this train- no wonder they sold out in 4 seconds flat!
A Red Cap porter magically materialized at the door as we exited the train and whisked us away; after learning it would take some 2 hours to get a taxi, and having him call our hotel, we opted for him calling us a Didi Taxi (China’s Uber) and paying him 250 RMB ($40). While we may have been overcharged, to us it was worth it; and as he admonished us not to pay any morene else as it was all paid for, we didn’t give in to the “baksheesh” hand gestures of the driver when he dropped us off at our hotel, and he eventually went on his merry way, only mildly pissed off. LOL
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| At the Shanghai Train Station |
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| Breakfast in the VIP Lounge at the Shanghai Train Station |
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| China- Shanghai to Beijing |
Next up: Beijing!
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| On the way to Beijing… |
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