Where to go besides EXPO

Shanghai is a historical city but without many historic sites left after the internationalization, the gorgeous skylines have hidden the other delights behind.

When people from countries far away show me their tourist guidebook, it’s still a bit different from the real life of Chinese. It’s always the case that having a local friend can bring totally different travel experience from a book or an agency.

But there is an important obstacle standing in front those interesting areas where are not yet internationalized are always hard for foreigners to touch, language problem, hygienic problem etc. Since someone told me how they make a restaurant choice by menu pictures, I decided to take them to some restaurants without colorful English menus but really delicious.

Eating

Huanghe Road (黄河路), locating in People Square next to Park Hotel, hides lots of authentic Chinese restaurants, where is called the food street, unfortunately in Chinese. Here you can find restaurants which are smaller size than you can find in shopping malls, the prices are of course cheaper. Normally these restaurants have no English service, the menus are also plain in Chinese characters without pictures.

Wudong Road (武东路), locating in the north of Shanghai city, next to Fudan University. Years before, there were only small private restaurants but all kinds of cuisines, Chinese Sichuan, Chinese Hunan, Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Jiangsu, also western ones, popular in students community in Shanghai, cheap but good. Now after renovation, these restaurants are much nicer decoration than before, the good thing is price is still much cheaper.

Playing

Jinjiang Park (锦江乐园), the first carnival park in Shanghai is getting desolated these years after new parks are growing up, Happy Valley, Dino Park, and the coming Disney Land. Unpressured Jinjiang Park changed the strategy to re-attract local citizens, while most tourists are going to expensive Happy Valley, Shanghaiers are going for Jinjiang Park, especially the evening ticket is very attractive for even students.

Dino Park (热带风暴), locating the south of Shanghai, now is the most popular summer park in Shanghai because of the water games and interesting TV show promotion. Shanghai is a coast city to East Sea, but because of the quality of water, and beach is far far away, it’s not that popular to have fun to the beach.

There’re not only EXPO, the Bund, French Concession, XinTianDi Bar Street, if you enter the local community with a local friend, you’ll find more about the real Shanghai, it will not make you qualm even it’s not that beautiful.