Monday 1 December 2014

Shanghai; a world class city where you don't have to spend a fortune!


A couple of years ago myself and Jason were trying to decided where to go during our Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) break. We were checking up the cost of flights and found some cheap tickets to Shanghai so we booked it. We didn't have a lot of money so we found a hotel on Agoda for a good price and were all set for our trip.

We spent 4 days in Shanghai and excluding the new pair of runners that I bought I think I spent less than $100 during our time there (our hotel was prebooked).

The reason that we didn't spend so much money is that Shanghai is one of those rare cites where most of the big attractions is the architecture of the city. It has such a unique skyline that most people can recognise it just from a photo.


The skyline that everyone knows.

So what did we do while there?

Well, both myself and Jason love using local transport when visiting a new place. Our transport of choice while in Shanghai was the subway. It's such a great way to get to know the city, save money and see the people that live there.

On our first evening we decided to walk towards the beautiful skyline and found a tiny run down noodle restaurant and decided to grab dinner there. Inside, it had some handwritten menus on the wall, all in Chinese so we just pointed at a couple of options and hoped for the best. It turned out to be delicious and ridiculously cheap too!
That evening we walked around the financial district taking in the incredible modern architecture.
The old and the new combined.

The next day we grabbed some breakfast from a stall outside our hotel area and headed down to the famous Bund. Again the biggest draw to this area is that it has some beautiful colonial architecture and is the perfect viewing point to take in the modern Shanghai skyline. Afterwards we walked down the shopping area of Shanghai and took a stroll in a beautiful park right in the city center.
The stall that we got our breakfast from.


The beautiful view from The Bund


We then spent the evening meandering down the streets of the old town. We found a beautiful tea shop and bought some tea in there that had as many free refills as we'd like. We must have spent nearly two hours in that little shop just sipping on green tea while watching the world pass us by on the outside.

The streets of Old Shanghai.



My tea from the beautiful tea shop.


And Jasons tea...


The next day we decided to visit the French Quarter. Again the main draw to this area of the city is that it is very quiet, has coloniel buildings and beautiful tree-lined streets. We spent the morning strolling around this beautiful area of Shanghai and then got a subway to Quibao which is an old town just outside of Shanghai. This was very touristy but it was still very beautiful. Once again, as we did in the rest of Shanghai we strolled around taking in the scenery.
That night we decided to go to a tiny little local massage parlor and got full body massages for about $10



The leafy streets of The French Quarter


It was such a quaint area.

One of the canals of Quibao

Quibao was a beautiful town.


 We had an amazing time in Shanghai and brought a lot more money to spend but in the end found that sightseeing in Shanghai doesn't cost a thing! Other than our meals and subway tickets we really didn't end up having to spend much money at all!

A person pushed a baby in to my arms
so that they could take his photo with me.

The beautiful tea shop

Enjoying the tea.

One of the beautiful buildings in the Old City.

They were enjoying the serenity of The French Quarter

Enjoying Quibao


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