The Raconteur in Me: China 2013 : Romance in Shanghai, the food and the view

A quick summary of my China trip :
Day 1
Hangzhou - Xihu (West Lake) - Lei Feng Pagoda - Zhongshan Road

Day 2
Shanghai - Pudong - Huangpu - The Bund - French Concession - Tian Zi Fang

Day 3
Yu Garden - Nan Luo Gu Xiang

Day 4
Beijing - Tian An Men - Beihai Park

Day 5
Great Wall of China - Wang Fu Jing St

Day 6
Summer Palace

We continue our journey from Hangzhou, taking the high speed rail to Shanghai. Our stop is at the Shanghai Hongqiao Station and the journey took us about 2 hours, which is fairly fast. Before my visit, my Chinese aunt was telling me how she as a Shanghainese, would never take the train because China is well-known for their lax in quality control. Suffice to say that she finds me a little too adventurous. I thought the service was comparable to the ones that I've tried in Taipei and in Japan.

You know the saying, "when in Rome, do as the Romans"? Initially, when we went hunting for 小龙包, that was the picture in my mind. The locals don't seem to fancy it that much whereas everywhere around the world, you could find people queuing to dine in Din Tai Fung.

We still ask the hotel receptionist to get our fix and I must say, this is probably the cheapest 小龙包 feast by far! It was quite tasty actually, no doubt the choice of the locals.

After dinner, since we were staying at Pudong, we took a leisure stroll around the area and visited the Bund. Unfortunately, it was a little foggy and there were groups and groups of tourists trying to get a good picture of the whole area.

The area actually reminded me of Hong Kong, just like the area where there is a light show at the Arena of Stars.The only exception is that there isn't any light show synchronised to some music tempo.

The next day, following the review of many on trip advisor, we tried the 生煎包 at 小杨生. To be honest, I find it too oily for my liking. The food picture online looks really great but when I saw how it was made, my appetite took a dive. I guess I've been eating quite healthily after all.

We also explored out of Pudong to visit this French Concession area. It's basically a huge area with a park and a few shopping districts. The main area is a small square with Tudor mansions and streets lined with trees in prim and proper manner. I realise that the crowd there is also of the higher social class, taking a sip of coffee and having a croissant at the boulangerie.

In contrast, the park has a lot more diverse crowd. I believe most are residents as they're mostly out with their families. The older ones were playing chess while the younger ones were enjoying themselves at a mini amusement area.

Doraemon was in town too! I was quite lucky to visit this exhibition twice - once for free in Hong Kong, and the second time was merely passing by in Shanghai. It is an exhibition to celebrate 100 years prior to the birth of Japan's most famous cat!

Continuing our walk, we walked to Huangpu area. In fact, we were trying our luck to see if we can experience the matchmaking market that takes place on the weekends. Unfortunately, we were a tad bit late so the area was quite empty already. Since we have no particular plan in mind and our legs were getting sore, we decided to take a break and enjoy a different view of skyscrappers and what nought.

But we found a welcoming view - Capitaland! Haha, Singapore has made her presence felt in Shanghai with a Raffles City right next to their City Hall station as well.