Shanghai hotel recommendations please (and what to do in 2 days)

[Longhotsummers]

We have a 48 hour stopover in Shanghai so I'm after hotel recommendations for our two night stay and also the best things to do in that time please.

What's your budget like for the hotels?

Also, are you after touristy ideas, or places that are off the beaten track? And when roughly are you going?

Mid range hotels but prepared to splash a little. Don't want to miss the main sites but very happy to go off the beaten track and we are quite adventurous. We will be there early January.

Can’t help with hotels because we stayed with family. But some highlights from our trip earlier this year:

• Jing’an temple
• Pearl tower
• shanghai tower (we ate at The Wang - they had a special offer on otherwise it’s v expansive)
• Zhujiajiao - a ‘water town’ about an hour outside shanghai (we took a taxi because the metro station is a bit of a walk from the town)
• the Disney resort (if you have kids) - a 1 hour metro ride
• wandering round the luxury shopping centres - everything way out of our reach
• Tianzefan market (might not have spelled thag correctly)

do use the metro - it’s great and has announcements and signs in English as well as mandarin. Our relative bought us travel cards so you’ll need to look into how you can do that as a tourist.

Cash is not much used. Neither are cards. Main payment methods are the apps WeChat and AliPay but unfortunately both were a struggle for us (even with family help) - you need a mainland China bank account to use WeChat for payments (we didn’t have that but family member transferred me money and we paid her back) and for some reason although I set up Alipay with my credit card it didn’t work properly. Also to set up WeChat you’ll need an existing user to verify you.

sorry don’t want to be a doom monger but just wanted to share some of the challenges so you can be prepared and hopefully have plans in place.

we had a great time and loved our trip.

Oh and I’d recommend a VPN as lots of western apps are blcoked (eg Google, WhatsApp). We used Astrill

Agree - you will be better off with cash than a card if you can't get alipay to work.

Regarding hotels, I can't really help, but would second the suggestion of Tianzifang, Zhujiajiao. Yu Garden is nice and may not be too busy in January, especially if you are there midweek. Don't forget to go to the Bund at night for an amazing view.

You won’t have time to do everything I’ve listed - it was a brain dump of what stands out in my memory. But have a Google and see what’s of interest.

if you book a hotel they might be able to book you tickets etc (we relied on our relative and her Chinese colleagues).

and have a wonderful time!

Update: we had a fantastic time in Shanghai - thank you for your suggestions. The weather was sunny and mild in the daytime and cold at night - so perfect for exploring.

We stayed in the Radisson Blu hotel - opposite People's Park, and it was a great location and very nice hotel, also reasonably priced for the quality. It has a pool, with spa pools, so was perfect for relieving jet lag and travel aches.

We had many issues with Alipay - sometimes it worked, other times it wouldn't. We got by though. It wouldn't let us buy any beer, so there must have been some restriction on our settings, which I couldn't identify. Staff in the metro were very helpful, patient and kind.

I also couldn't get my VPN to work so we used old fashioned maps, or just followed our nose.

We arrived using the Maglev, saw the Bund lightshow, Jin'gan temple, walked the length of Nanjing road, wandered around back streets and saw lots of tradition in amongst the high tech buildings; went in one department store, but that was enough as it's very sensory overload in them with all the people. Thought it was very Chinese that the staff had number badges, rather than names! Some of the underground clothing shops were tempting but I was so tired that I couldn't be bothered trying anything on. Also, shop staff are all over you if you even touch anything, giving the hard sell.

I was surprised at how elegant the city felt - more like Manhattan in parts with trees and wide avenues. I really enjoyed it and would like to return when we can spend more time.