Ala @ Shanghai Day 3

--Yuyuan Garden & Bazaar 豫园商城--
It's a rainy day again, sort of spoil our mood to go out. But then, we cannot be staying in our room for the wholeday right? Ha. Took a cab to Yuyuan, rather short dist & it only costed 11 rmb.

Shanghai Lao Fan Dian.
Shanghai Old Street.
This street is full of shops selling jewellery, jades, gold etc.
The old street in the rain.
Song Yue Lou is one of the oldest vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai. Too bad we didn't try it out.
Buildings at Yuyuan Bazaar.
That's a cute teapot..
Cheng Huang Miao..entrance fee is 10rmb (if i'm not wrong). Not really interested to visit it and it's still raining heavily. It wld be better if the van wasn't blocking my view!!
Yu Long Fang, a new shopping area beside Yuyuan Bazaar. the whole 2nd storey is Ding Tai Feng lo!

Muachis at "Shanghai Li Gao Tang Store".
The store is a good place to buy snacks back as souvenirs. These are "Nai You Wu Xiang Dou". Quite delicious~
Traditional Shanghainese snacks.

Jiu Qu Qiao, a unique feature at Yuyuan. Beside it is a famous teahouse.
The famous Nan Xiang Man Tou Dian! Haha! Here I come~!
Alright, lots of ppl queuing up for the cheapest xiao long baos..i cldnt rmb the price. However, I don't think it's nice coz it looked completely diff from what we have eaten before. Heard from our tour guide Xiao Liu that the better xiao long baos are upstairs. There are 3 rooms with various pricing. The most ex one is 60 rmb per person. That means u have to eat a min. of 60 rmb worth of food. I think the cheapest room is 20 rmb or less. Anyway, we decided to enjoy some aircon and went to the 2nd room which is 25 rmb per person.
Check out the menu we had ordered.


This is what i called Xiao Long Bao. This one is filled with crab meat...the taste is quite different from the one i had eaten in Crystal Jade or DTF. Hmm.....not everybody wld like it, maybe the soup tasted abit different. I am curious abt the sg branch at Tiong Bahru. Lotus flower beside Jiu Qu Qiao.
The bulding in the background is Nan Xiang Man Tou Dian.

This is the real Yuyuan. Ha...i forgot the entrance fee again, think ard 35 rmb? If you havent seen before traditional chinese gardens, you can take a look. If not, don't waste money la. I think Suzhou is a better place to see such gardens.
--Raffles City 来福士广场--
Met Tuan who's availablle today. Went to Food Republic la. Quite a variety of food selling here. Prima Taste restaurant is also located here. China's foodcourts sell super cheap stuff..what's more? The portion is very big! Really worth the money.
--People's Square Metro--
This is People's Square line 2 metro station. People's square station is very huge and there are lots of exits. So u must be very sure of where u are going. Or else gotta walk a long way back.
Inside the train...
--Jing An Temple 静安寺--
First time i saw commerical shops located at temple eh! Kinda surprised...
City Plaza...right beside the temple. Kinda like Isetan or Takashimaya..
Front view of Jing An temple.
We didn't know that the temple's main section (da xiong bao dian) is under construction. They're building a new one. What a pity...so in the end, we didnt go in la.
Traditional mooncakes selling at the temple.

Just found this burger king looked really different..got the classy look. Lolz..
--East Nanjing Rd 南京东路--
Trams travelling along East Nanjing Rd. If you're too lazy to walk, can hop on it.
This Nike shop is really stylo...3 stories high...
This is the Nanjing rd walking street.
--Tian Ran Natural Health Veg Restaurant 天然居素食--
E.W didn't have a good meal for the past 2 days...the location of veg restaurants are nt very convenient. Er...i didn't know this one is actually quite nearby. Ha...Had a yummy meal!
That's lotus roots in orange juice...and i think the other stuff has lily in it...err..shld have copied their names.
Noodles & delicious tomato soup!
Our drinks..lemon tea & watermelon juice.
Another old shop selling snacks and food products. If you like la rou or la ya etc, here's a gd place to buy them.
Lots of ppl snapping pics of it...luckily i was quick enough to snap it without ppl blocking. Phew~!
--The Bund 外滩--
It's not exactly dark yet, so neon lightings were not lighted up la..we walked all the way from East Nanjing rd to the bund. Nice sceneries...and old buildings. That building with lights..inside looked like a classy department store sia..ho!
The row of historical buildings along the bund..

View of Pudong across the huang pu river.
The building with a triangular roof is the famous Peace Hotel.

--East Nanjing rd 南京东路--
We walked back to East Nanjing rd la.. Now the neon lights were up.
Went to check out this store..Meters/bonwe. Their clothing is kinda like S&K or I.P.Zone...it's 5 storeys high...and their pricing were rather reasonable. Tuan bought a pair of jeans here for 20 over sgd.

I love this night view of Yong An dept store..
East Asia Hotel..
Night view of Oriental Pearl Towel near my hotel..kinda blur..paiseh ah.

Ala @ Shanghai Day 2

--Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower 东方明珠塔--
Finally, the sunny weather is back! Went for our city tour today, with 5 other Sgporeans. Initially thought it's only a half-day tour, who knows it's a full day one. So, have to re-plan my itinerary liao. Actually I had no idea where we are gg for our city tour, so quite glad to know that we were gg to Oriental Pearl Tower's "2nd lvl observation deck". (I think the tixs are nt cheap..) Anyway, we got to see the views of the bund (wai tan) & Pudong lo. Our tour guide of the day is Xiao Liu, a prof at Zhejiang Uni, teaching history. U maybe wondering..what? a professor as tour guide ah? He's moonlighting is it? Hahaha...eh legal one leh! He said the govt wants these "wen rens" to promote Shanghai to foreigners sia..Ho!
So...this is the tower la!
Shanghai Ocean Aquarium is just nearby. It's a China-Singapore joint venture. Xiao Liu said our Underwater world is much better...bengz.
Though the weather is gd, fog still loomed over Shanghai's sky. So the pics are not very clear. (I had the clearer version though, but i decided to post the originals here.)
View of Puxi.
That's the war memorial at Huangpu Park. Chinese was once not allowed to enter the park by the Japanese.
The Riverside Promenade is just right below the tower.
View of Pudong District area. Lots of skyscrappers.
The famous 88th storey Jinmao building holds the highest Grand Hyatt hotel from 53th to 87th floor. The 88th floor is an observation deck. (Jinmao building is the slightly shorter one in the pic.) The taller building is the highest building in China, Shanghai Financial Centre. Just opened recently.
More skyscrappers at Pudong.
View of the bund (wai tan). The river is the famous Huangpu river.

--Traditional Culture Centre 传统文化中心--
Had a short tour on chinese history. But the main purpose here is to see the pixius. Yes! After the terribe experience in Tw..i met them again in Shanghai. Hard to siam ah. But luckily, this time round the chinese were not so persuasive...well, coz' there's a couple who bought 4 digits worth of pixiu and other stuffs from them. (4 digit in sgd hor).
--Lunch--
Had individual steamboat at a restaurant...their food was alright, but this is the 1st time i saw pork, mutton and beef sliced until so thin leh...like sashimi lo. Bengz..U can also choose to mix your own sauce..for dipping or mix with the plain boiled water (soup).
--Shanghai Botanic Garden 上海植物园--
Main purpose here is not to see the flowers & trees, but to visit a tea house...selling pu'er tea. Bengz...Well, i am still glad to have a chance to step into their Botanic Gdn la. As u know we had just went to Yunnan in June, so we definitely won't be buying more pu'er or other teas from Yunnan lo. So E.W told them about that, and we cld siam those girls who kept "haunting" you to buy tea. Lolz. Well, there's some diff with the pu'er served here, and the girls are the Dai tribe from Xishuangbanna...diff from the ones i had met at Yunnan (the girls were from Yi tribe). The method of tasting tea was also taught differently leh. A little weird...but i think we shouldnt make any sound when we sip in the tea la.
Flowers~~
This gigantic rock, called yun shi (陨石) was said to be from the outser space and landed on our earth.

Road to the entrance...quite a long distance though.
The main entrance.
--Bao Shu Tang 宝树堂--
Ho! So again, I had been to their branch in Yunnan. Basically they sell the same stuff, but the freebies they give u are different. I got a small packet of samples and free drink of bai shou wu in Yunnan la..as for Shanghai leh? Free massaging. Ha...Well Aunt jo & E.W had a good time pao jiao, while I only massage my shoulders. The guy who served Aunt Jo happened to be a Hainanese..there's another one also. So that Hainanese guy must be very glad to speak his mother tongue with E.W. Hahaha..and i dun understand most of it. The guy who intro their products to us had a very thick canto accent. Ha..bet he's from Guangdong la. So in the end he switched to speak cantonese, and I cld understand most of it eh! (Proud..lolz!)
--Da Ning Shopping Area 大宁购物区--
A neighbourhood shopping area at Zhabei. There were some malls there...but i noticed there were many restaurants lo. Ha...food is a big attraction sia!
--大家乐--
Reminds me of the HK styled food court yrs ago. This is a restaurant selling cheap food...quite a wide range of varieties..i even saw our hainanese chicken rice.
Aunt Jo's mixed grill set.
My beef "steak" with egg & rice. Bengz...this is what they called "beef steak"! Lucky it only costed abt 20 something rmb.
--ERA Acrobatics @ Shanghai Circus World 上海马戏城--
Looked like our esplanade?
Well, the ERA show was the best acrobatics i have ever seen sia. It's a fushion of high technology and traditional acrobatics. What's more? There are live bands and singers performing lo! The stage itself was really stylo...and the stunts were quite good. I rmbed guys climbing out of the big wheel and try to walk as the wheel spinned. Another one was 8 motobikes cycling together in a big round cage. If u're in Shanghai...it's a must-see, but provided u got the money la. Lolz! I think the tix costed abt 70 plus sgd sia. (Go with tour shld be the best if u wanna see it.)
--Hotel--
Aunt Jo's fav bbq. Reminded me of the bbq i had in Lijiang. Yummy~~~~and it's not expensive. The uncle started selling at the road junction from 9.30pm. Hehe! It's a must try if u're in Shanghai.