International Budget Guide 2013: Shanghai, China

by Reena Ganga on

Asia has long been the budget traveler’s playground, and the good news is that despite its rapid modernization, Shanghai continues to offer tremendous value for the money.

As most cities around the world put the brakes on new developments because of economic woes, Shanghai is bucking the trend by building and growing at a dizzying pace. Blink and another skyscraper has shot up, or a new museum has opened, or another mega-mall has taken shape.

Those traveling to the Chinese city this year can take advantage of two huge state-run art galleries, which have just opened their doors (free to the public) on the former World Expo grounds. In fact, the whole site is currently being transformed into a mixed-use district with shops, hotels and elevated gardens designed to draw crowds. Other updated draw cards include the Shanghai First Food Store, which is an entire mall dedicated to – you guessed it – food. The store has just reopened after a major renovation and sells snacks, candy and all the unusual dried meat one could possibly want. Visitors to the city can also bear witness to the rise of the burgeoning Shanghai Tower, which will be the second tallest building in the world when it’s complete.

For budget travelers who want to visit Shanghai, now is the time. While China at large offers excellent value, their booming economy means that costs will be rising fast. A thriving middle class with more disposable income on their hands is slowly pushing costs up. What’s more, the government has been reviewing admission prices for major tourist sites and is getting ready to raise entrance fees – in some cases, ticket prices will more than double.

Activities

Visit the China Art Palace and the Power Station of Art. The site of the 2010 Shanghai Expo has been undergoing a makeover, with some of the pavilions transforming into museums. One of two huge state-run art galleries that opened at the end of last year is the China Art Palace, which was built in the striking, lacquered shell of the China Pavilion building. The massive gallery houses works by famous Chinese artists as well as a number of international exhibitions. Entry is free.

Another Expo building – which was originally a thermal power plant constructed more than 100 years ago – has been transformed into the Power Station of Art. The gallery is the first state-run contemporary art museum in China and so far, exhibitions have included the Shanghai Biennale and a collection of surrealist works. An Andy Warhol showcase is also planned for this year. Museum entry is free, except for special exhibitions.

Get a foot massage. Visiting a massage parlor is as much of a routine in the Chinese lifestyle as visiting a restaurant. Groups of friends and even colleagues will head to a parlor for a joint session of foot rubs accompanied by free snacks and entertainment, including music and DVDs. Despite their popularity, travelers are often hesitant to try out the ultra-cheap locales for fear they’ll be disreputable or less than sanitary. Thankfully, a new breed of bright, clean venues – including the Taipan Foot Massage & Spa – have sprung up all over the city, offering the same indulgent massages in a serene and safe atmosphere. It’s heaven for sore feet after a long day of sightseeing. Services start at around $10 and go up to $30 for a 90-minute foot, leg, and shoulder massage including free food and drink. 370 Dagu Road, Jingan District.

Indulge in street food. A trip to Shanghai wouldn’t be complete without a taste test of some of the many culinary delights on offer throughout the city’s streets. Treats to try include man tou (steamed buns filled with meat or vegetables), cong you bing (pancake with shallots), ci fan (a ball of rice stuffed with fried bread, vegetables, or meat), and egg tarts (a popular local desert with a custardy flavor). Street food ranges in price from 1-6 yuan (16 cents – $1) per serving. Try out Wujiang Road, South Yunnan Road, or Huanghe Road near People’s Square for some of the best spots.

Take a cruise on the Bund. Shanghai’s skyline is developing at a phenomenal pace with new skyscrapers shooting up every year, particularly in the Pudong district. These architecturally unusual buildings are best viewed when they are lit up at night, leading most travelers to head for a rooftop bar to scope out the view. However, the cost of drinks at a typical sky deck can quickly add up, so a much more budget friendly way to take in the skyline is to go on a cruise. Boats run along the Huang Pu River and The Bund – the waterway that runs through the city – giving passengers an excellent vantage point to take in all the new developments. The cruises are a great value at around $6, with tickets available from the booths at the southern end of the Bund promenade.

Hotels

Captain Hostel. If you want bang for your buck in an excellent location, it’s hard to look past this hostel located straight across the street from the Bund. The well-situated building is within easy walking distance of the shops on Nanjing Road and offers good access to the metro. The hostel itself is ship themed, with portholes galore in the cabin-like dorms. But more importantly, it’s clean, air conditioned and offers guests free Wi-Fi. There’s also a rooftop bar with dramatic city views. From 60 yuan ($10) for a dorm bed. 37 Fuzhou Lu. captainhostelshanghai.com

Shanghai City Central Youth Hostel (Utels). Located about 4 miles from the city center, this hostel is somewhat away from the action, however the nearby metro station means there’s still easy access to all the sights. Guests can choose from a range of room types including doubles, singles and dorms. The hostel also boasts a bar with a pool table, games, and budget-friendly drinks. Rates include free breakfast and Wi-Fi. From 50 yuan ($8) for a dorm bed. 300 Wuning Rd, Putuo District. hostelshanghai.cn

Jin Jiang Inn (Shanghai East Huaihai Road). Jin Jiang is the largest hotel group in China with around 400 hotels across the major cities. The chain of hotels caters mostly to businessmen, but they’re great for travelers looking for a no-frills private room that’s clean and functional. This particular hotel is centrally located in Shanghai and has great access to the metro. From 300 yuan ($50) for a double. 293 Yunnan Nan Lu. jinjianghotels.com

Restaurants

Hai Di Lao. This hot pot restaurant is part of a chain that goes to great lengths to entertain diners. A meal here usually entails quite a wait, but diners are treated to neck massages, manicures, snacks, and board games until their table is ready. Once seated, choose from a large selection of meats and vegetables to cook in your own pot of flavorful broth. Save some room for the gongfu mian, hand-pulled noodles that the chefs twirl dramatically right at your table. The restaurant is open 24 hours and has menus in Chinese and English. Food is priced per meat or vegetable selection, but a filling meal including alcohol will cost around $10-15. The restaurant has several locations, including 3/F, 1068 Beijing Lu near Jiangning Lu. haidilao.com

Di Shui Dong. Located in the French concession district, this restaurant dishes up Hunan style cuisine, a type of food best described as hot and spicy. The restaurant serves a huge variety of dishes including fried meats, seasoned vegetables and hot peppers, but it’s the flavorful ribs that locals and expats keep coming back for. Just be warned that some of the spicier dishes are eye-wateringly hot. The staff doesn’t speak much English but the menu is bilingual. Portions are large and around $10 a main. 2/F, 56 Maoming Nan Lu.

Tokyo Food Court. If you’re exploring the area near Xintiandi but don’t want to eat at one of the pricier restaurants in the entertainment district, this underground food court is a good budget option for dining. Located under the HSBC Bank and Cartier store, you’ll find a plethora of menu choices including sushi, pizza and pasta dishes. There’s also plenty of local cuisine, including noodle bowls and dumplings. For a Shanghai specialty, try the xiao long bao – dumplings with soup and meat in them. Bite a hole in one end of the pastry and slurp out the liquid before eating the rest of the dumpling. A main here will cost around 35 yuan ($5).

Getting Around

Shanghai is very walkable with many pedestrian streets and atmospheric neighborhoods, however the city’s size means that you will need some transport when covering larger distances.

The metro system, which is comprised of 13 lines, is fast and surprisingly easy to navigate. The trains are air-conditioned and clean, and station announcements are made in English as well as Chinese. Fares depend on distance, but most tourist centers can be accessed for around 3-5 yuan (50-80 cents). You can purchase tickets from the vending machines in the stations, which display information in English.

Taxis are an affordable alternative, even for budget travelers. For example, a trip between Xintiandi (a popular shopping and entertainment district) and the Bund might cost around 20 yuan (a little over $3).

Shanghai has two airports. A taxi from downtown to Pudong Airport will set you back about 150 yuan (approx $25) while a trip to Hongqiao Airport will cost roughly 70 yuan ($11). Another option if you’re traveling to Pudong Airport is to take the Maglev, or high-speed train. Racing along at 268 mph, it’s one of the fastest trains in the world. Tickets start at 40 yuan for the whirlwind seven-minute ride.

When To Go

Shanghai can feel oppressively hot in the summer. Temperatures in the high 90s (F), soaring humidity levels and city pollution combine to leave you feeling like you’re being smothered under a blanket. Summer is also the peak tourist season, so hotel rates will be higher. However, Shanghai is pleasant to visit any other time of year. The coldest months tend to be January and February when overnight temps can hover just above freezing and daytime temperatures reach 45 F.

Safety

Shanghai is generally quite safe compared to other large cities, but given the massive crowds everywhere, it’s important to keep an eye on your belongings. You should also be careful when crossing the street, as cars won’t always yield to pedestrians – even at crossings with walk signs.

The biggest threat to travelers involves being caught up in a scam. Watch out for so-called “students” inviting you to see their art shows before scamming you into purchasing expensive paintings. Also, don’t accept invitations to “tea ceremonies” – these involve elaborate drinking rituals at the end of which you’ll be stuck with a huge bill. As a general principle, it’s a good idea not to accept any kinds of solicitations on the streets as more often than not they involve some sort of scam.

[Photo credit: Mike Behnken]

Whereaguay? First impressions Of Paraguay, South America’s Most Underrated Country

by Laurel Miller on

Ever notice how die-hard travelers tend to compare places to other places? Like, constantly? It may be annoying, but it goes beyond mere aesthetics. It’s often a reference point; a way to describe not only the feel of a destination, but the spirit of its people.

I arrived in Paraguay (yes, you’ll need a map) at 4 a.m. yesterday. Despite having traveled much of South America over the past decade, I confess that until six weeks ago, the only things I knew about Paraguay were that it’s often confused with vacation hot-spot Uruguay, and that no one appears to go there.

The question of why Paraguay gets dissed by travelers is one our Gadling editor, Grant Martin, wanted me to explore. And while I’ve only been in the country for roughly 36 hours, I’ve already been asking myself the same thing. What on earth is keeping Paraguay from being the new Brazil? This place is amazing.

Paraguay is roughly the size of California and is sandwiched between Brazil and Argentina. To the north lies Bolivia. The country is divided into departments, and the Rio Paraguay snakes up the central half of the country (its waist, if you will). The river has traditionally been crucial to economic trade and transportation, given the country’s monsoonal climate. Now, however, new roads are being created or paved, and it seems the era of the riverboat may eventually come to an end in Paraguay. Based upon my brief experiences traveling here, however, let’s just say the age of modern transportation hasn’t yet arrived. One sees many horse carts in the streets of Concepcion, besides cars (although scooters are the main form of transit).

Given its location, comparisons to parts of Brazil are inevitable. Paraguay is very flat, and has a similar sweltering climate and verdant tropical countryside that includes plantations and cattle ranches. The lively capital of Asuncion, with its flowering trees and crumbling colonial decadence bring to mind both Rio and Hanoi.

Many of the villages I passed during an 11-hour bus ride yesterday reminded me of Thailand, because of the late-night buzz of scooters and street food vendors. Every Paraguayan drinks bottomless quantities of yerba mate and tereré (cold mate tea, often spiked with medicinal herbs, above), more familiar to those who have spent time in Argentina. Yet the empanadas, a staple here, make that country’s version look woefully anemic.But that’s where the comparisons end. In the brief time I had to prepare for this trip, I repeatedly read that what makes Paraguay different are two key things: it’s South America’s only bilingual country (the second language is Guarani, which refers to its dominant, omnipresent indigenous culture), and the people are renown for their warmth, hospitality and generosity. This, I can already verify, yet it’s only part of what’s already charmed me about this oft-overlooked, yet complex country.

Paraguay, like all of South America, has a history of political turmoil and indigenous conflict. Originally a Spanish colony, in 2011 it celebrated its bicentennial as an independent nation. And despite the lack of vast natural resources found in neighboring Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina (not necessarily a bad thing, as you’ll learn in my forthcoming post on the silver mines of Potosi, Bolivia), Paraguay gets by.

It’s allegedly the second poorest country in South America, after Bolivia (see where all those minerals get you?), but retains the strongest indigenous culture. Most of the populace has some mixed blood because the Spanish saw no reason to wipe out existing tribes to plunder natural resources that didn’t exist. Rather, they took many of the Guarani women as wives, and today Paraguay has a very identifiable mestizo culture, as well as strong folkloric beliefs and distinct indigenous crafts such as ao po’i lace and ceramics.

Despite my initial enchantment, I believe it’s not only naive, but irresponsible for travelers (or writers) to think they can know a country or culture in just a few days, weeks or months. Perhaps we can never really understand if we’re not of it. But that shouldn’t stop us from learning about a place and developing informed opinions.

As travelers/tourists, we should ideally resist the urge to make snap judgments. Why, for example, do all of the many banks in Concepcion, the river port I’m now in, have casually armed guards out front? It’s like walking through an artillery; Paraguay is obviously very dangerous (for the record: it’s not). My assumption is that because Concepcion is the last town along the Rio Paraguay that’s “easily” accessible by paved road, it’s a critical point of commerce. The department is a crucial agricultural and cattle ranching region. Hence, the “don’t-fuck-with-us” posturing.

Semi-automatics aside, Concepcion also conjures for me romantic images of Indonesia, Hawaii and Brazil. And Asuncion seems a glorious city of flowering trees, gardens and decaying colonials. There are street vendors hustling chipa (the staple bread made with corn flour and cheese), handcrafted jewelry, fruit, tereré and yuyos (medicinal herbs), but overall, it’s the tranquilo pa (Guarani for “it’s all good”) attitude and the warmth of the people that have got me hooked.

Ten days isn’t enough to know a country, but sometimes, it takes just 10 seconds to know if it’s won your heart. Paraguay has mine.

[Photo credits:terere, Flickr user julianboliche; horse, guard, Laurel Miller]

Tiny Samoa Air First To Charge Passengers Based On Weight

by Kraig Becker on

Considering the number of fake travel stories we posted in celebration of April Fool’s Day on Monday, we can understand why you might be skeptical of the following post. But it has actually been confirmed by a number of news outlets across the globe, including the BBC. Still, considering the timing, I was double and triple checking the news.

Samoa Air has announced that it will now start charging passengers based on weight. The controversial new pricing means that it will now be cheaper for thinner customers to travel with the tiny airline, which operates just two aircraft over a few relatively short routes. Those planes are small, which makes them more susceptible to heavy loads as they fly between Samoa, American Samoa, North Tonga, Niue, the North Cook Islands and French Polynesia.

According to the new policy, passengers, along with their bags, will be weighed at the airport to determine just how much they’ll have to pay. They will then be charged a fixed rate per kilogram, which varies based on which route the passenger is actually flying. Those rates range from as little as $1 all the way up to $4.16 per kilogram. There are no extra bag fees of any kind, just a simple scale based directly on weight.Chris Langton, the Chief Executive of Samoa Air, has been widely quoted in the media as saying that this is “the fairest way of traveling,” and I’m sure many would agree. Sitting next to a particularly large passenger who takes up half of your seat isn’t especially comfortable and while this new pricing scheme won’t alleviate that issue, at least svelte customers will have the satisfaction of knowing that they paid less for their fare. Langton also says that the policy will help promote a greater awareness of health in Samoa, a country that is known for having one of the highest obesity rates on the planet.

This is an interesting approach to pricing to say the least. As someone who tends to travel light, I personally wouldn’t mind seeing some of the bigger airlines adopt a similar approach. But considering the size of many passengers, not to mention their bags, I’m not sure how popular it would be with the general public. Besides, going through a TSA screening can be harrowing enough, how bad would you feel if you had to step on a scale at the ticket counter too?

[Photo Credit: Samoa Air]

Photo Of The Day: Plane’s Wing In The Air

by Jessica Marati on

OK, so it may be one of the ultimate Instagram cliches. But sometimes, the right plane wing set against the right sky can really make you appreciate the joy of travel. Take this mobile photograph from Instagram user beriggio, taken from an airplane window at sunrise. It’s hard not to marvel at the image of the mountainous landscape meeting the still ocean from 30,000 feet in the air – cliché or not.Do you have any great travel photos? You now have two options to enter your snapshots into the running for Gadling’s Photo of the Day. Upload your shots to the Gadling Flickr Pool, or mention @GadlingTravel and use hashtag #gadling in the caption or comments for your post on Instagram. Don’t forget to give us a follow too!

[Photo Credit: Instagram user beriggio]

Climate Change May Fuel Future Travel Options

by Chris Owen on

Climate change is a topic that many of us think is something that will affect future generations, perhaps hundreds of years from now. But what if we look at it from a different viewpoint?

What if we could travel back in time 17 million years to when the Grand Canyon was just forming? Would we have believed that the national monument, now nearly a mile deep in places, would some day be a major tourist attraction? Probably not. But time and the forces of nature that come with it, along with the effect of humans on the planet, have a way of changing what we see – sometimes dramatically.

We don’t have to go back millions of years to see such changes either. A recent study indicates that the Arctic will become drastically greener in just a matter of decades. “So what?” one might say. “Who goes there anyway?” Significant to this study on climate change is that it was done in the Arctic where not much can grow or live due to the harsh environment. To see change of any kind is unusual.

The research team included scientists from AT&T Labs-Research, Woods Hole Research Center, Colgate University, Cornell University and the University of York. These are organizations that have a very global view on things that will affect our future.

My father-in-law worked for AT&T during the early days of microwave communications and sometimes told a story of how researchers in his lab used the then-new technology to cook hot dogs. That technology would later also be used for the microwave ovens we all know so well. This story has much of the same, believable flavor.”Such widespread redistribution of Arctic vegetation would have impacts that reverberate through the global ecosystem,” said Richard Pearson of the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation in an RDMag article.

It will begin with something as simple as some species of birds being unable to seasonally migrate to particular polar habitats, such as open space for ground-nesting, suggests the study. But things turn worse very quickly as the sun’s radiation, normally reflected back into space when it hits snow, will have less of it to hit and will stick around, accelerating global warming.

Just one commonly accepted effect of global warming is flooding in some coastal areas and more powerful storms.

To the world of travel, that means popular beach destinations could be under water in a few hundred years. More immediate, some of today’s iconic travel destinations, already struggling with sea level issues like Venice, Italy, or the Netherlands, could be doomed much quicker.

Right now, for example, Venice, Italy, is being protected against rising tides in the Adriatic Sea by rows of mobile gates, intended to isolate the Venetian Lagoon when the tide rises above a certain level. The Netherlands, a geographically low-lying country, has a great amount of its land and people at or below sea level and will also be affected by rising ocean levels.

This new study, while not talked about much in the press, is a clear indicator of what the future holds and good food for thought.

Of even more immediate concern, and visually a clear indicator of a problem we can do something about, is today’s reality of the “floating island of plastic” in the Pacific Ocean.

Brought to the area by ocean currents that move around the planet like a slow-motion whirlpool, opposing the wind and earth’s rotational forces, tens of thousands of pounds of garbage wash ashore here every year.

“These ecosystems are very connected. If the oceans are in trouble, we humans are in trouble. We don’t realize that we are threatening our own existence,” says Dr. Gregor Hodgson, founder and executive director of Reef Check Organization in this video.



[Image credit – Flickr user Kris Krug]