Shanghai pre-trip survey, 6/2008
by greengrasser@yahoo.com

This is not a trip report. It is a description of my trip preparation for Shanghai, based on a quick survey of information on my destination city. You might find it helpful, if you decide to go there.

A few days ago, during the last week of July 2008, I heard a radio report by the National Public Radio organization about how difficult it has been to get a visa. One example was a family of four who applied for a visa. The China consulate wanted besides the usual application and fee, a detailed itinerary that included the hotel for each day's stay, a confirmed reservation from each hotel, the round-trip airline tickets, a bank statement showing at least $1,500 balance, and a letter from your employer stating that you have vacation approval for that period of time. NPR said that, as a result, Beijing hotels were not full as expected, tour guides had some dates with no bookings, China has fewer tourists compared to last year, and USA travel agencies are advising their clients not to visit China. No reason was given for the sudden strict China visa requirements, except that it was possibly due, one way or another, to the Olympics in Beijing.

Some of you might recall that about a month ago, I asked for information on Shanghai. The reason rose out of my checking the various web travel sites for the price on airline ticket, round-trip USA - Manila. I noticed that United Airlines offered a flight segment, ORD-PVG. Following up, www.travelocity.com offered the same route with several days layover/stopover for the same price.

PVG is the airport code for Shanghai. So, I thought why not visit that city, which would be a first for me. I have never visited Shanghai or any place in China, except for Hong Kong.

So, before buying the airline ticket, the next step was to locate a hotel. Since my budget is modest, I aimed for a 3-star hotel at $30-$40, but might select a 2-star hotel at a lesser price. I would select a higher-price hotel, if my stay is short of a few days duration and/or I want to stay in a better hotel, because I want to be close to a desired area or someone gave the hotel a high recommendation.

I checked a few monger web sites and found no hotel recommendation, except for the high-priced hotel chains. Also, I checked for an area for mongering. Staying at a hotel within walking distance of such an area would mean that dependency on taxis to go and return would be less, especially since I do not speak or read Chinese. Of course, a hotel could provide me with its business card containing its address written in Chinese characters to show a driver and could possibly provide me with a paper showing my destination address written in Chinese characters. The same monger web sites did not provide such locations.

Finally, a book, Fodor's China, 2007 edition, page 272, mentioned seven nightlife neighborhoods. Of the seven, it said that three had "fishing girls" and the other four were for those looking for "less blantant sex commerce". The three were Maoming Nan Lu described as long been a nightlife hub, Tongren Lu described as a new bar street with some good clubs with a wild side, and Julu Lu described as still going strong.

Next I located these streets on a map. The first and second roads run north-south and the third road runs east-west. The first and third road intersect southwest of People's Square. The second road is several blocks to the northwest of that intersection. No scale was stated on the Fodor maps.

Fodor's and Lonely Planet's book Shanghai, 2004 contained map showing location of some hotels in the city. Only two hotels were situated between the intersection of the first and third roads and the second road. Those hotels were Hengshan Moller Villa (www.mollervilla.com) and City Hotel (www.cityhotelshanghai.com). Other nearby hotels were in three clusters. The first cluster was on Maoming Nan Lu but south of Julu Lu, namely: Jin Jiang Hotel (www.jinjianghotels.com)and Okura Garden Hotel. The second cluster was several blocks west of Tongren Lu, namely: Hotel Equatorial (www.equatorial.com/sha/), Hilton Hotel, and Jingan Hotel. The third cluster was a few blocks south of the first cluster and to its west, namely: Donghu Hotel and Education Hotel

An advantage of the first two clusters of hotels is that a map in Fodor's showed their locations close to a subway stop. However, note that maps in tour guides, as well as on hotel web sites, tend to be deceiving in showing locations.

A web search for these hotels and their respective prices resulted, as follows: The lowest price was www.hotel travel.com showing $82 for Jin Jiang Hotel. The others were $150 and up. Hotels in my desired price range were not close to my desired location.

One difficulty with the hotel booking web sites was finding a name for the district or neighborhood of the desired location. By clicking on the desired district, other hotels might be listed. District names for these hotels were: Former French Concession, Nanjing Xi Lu & Jing'an, and Luwan.

The next consideration was the date for a visit. Fodor's noted that hotel prices were high around three national holidays, specifically: Chinese New Year, mid-January to mid-February; Labor Day, May 1; and National Day, October 1. Also, from the news, I noted that the Olympics was scheduled for August 8 - 24, 2009 and the Paraolympics for September 6 - 17, 2008.

I consider stopping in Shanghai on my way to Manila, and, as a second choice, later after my departure from Manila. My thinking was that I would get a hotel reservation first and afterwards an airline ticket. I would take the risk of losing a deposit for one night's stay in case I could not get an airline reservation for my desired flying dates versus the risk of paying $150 to change an airline flight date and the airline having an available seat on a changed date.

I tried to obtain a reservation at several hotels on several hotel reservation web sites. All said that it had no available rooms. I had tried for dates in late August and again in mid-October.

Thanks to LaMalaVida for his comments on barbershops and Merlin for his assistance. He provided me with three urls. Of two urls for hotel booking sites (www.elong.net www.ctrip.com), the first said to telephone to make reservation. Following a link for the second, my computer (or maybe it was google) said that the page was a suspected forgery. The third url (www.smartshanghai.com/maps/smsh_map.php) was a map of Shanghai. From this map, I saw that the Fodor's map only showed supposed major streets, leaving out many streets in-between.

That sums up my attempt to layover in Shanghai a few days. I considered paying a high price for a hotel room, but when my reservation attempts for the cheaper hotels resulted in non availability, I took it as a signal that the time period was bad and to give up.

Out of curiosity, I checked American Airlines' landings in China. Cities included Xian (north of Chengdu), Changquing (southeast of Chengdu), and Shenyang (north of Beijing). Fodor's China did not list the second and third cities in its index. The book did not cover as many cities that a big country like China probably has. I may try to visit China at a later day, but I may aim for a city other than Shanghai.

I am now on schedule to visit Angeles City in mid-Sep 2008.

Keep on mowing.
GreenG

I have been following the recent China visa debacle closely since I myself need a Chinese visa very soon. They have really clamped down during the Olympics since they fear a bunch of undesirable foreigners such as Tibet sympathizers, human rights activists and the like will show up and embarrass the country on their day to shine. I don't believe they would consider whore mongers a threat since we mainly spend lots of money and don't involve ourselves in local politics. I currently have an application out there so we will find out in a week or so how it goes for me. But on the topic of visas, here I what I have gathered. The Houston consulate seems to have the best odds currently. San Fransisco consulate has been rejecting allot of applicants or else issuing single entry visas for the last month or so. Just forget about consulates outside the US unless you are prepared to hop through a lot of hoops. Non US citizens are really screwed but US citizens are still having moderate success. They actually may really check the validity of airline tickets and hotel reservations. Unlike in the past, you cannot just edit a dummy e-ticket in MS Word and count on them not checking.

What I have done to ensure the success of my visa application. I booked several real airline tickets using FF miles from Tokyo to Guangzhou and Shanghai over the next year. This will cost me nothing because as a Continental Platinum I can cancel and get a refund and redeposit the FF miles at no cost. I booked several tickets to show the need for a multi-entry visa since they are at their discretion issuing single entry visas to some people these days. For hotel reservations I found that the Crowne Plaza chain will give you on-line reservations at many (but not all) of their Chinese properties without a credit card and with no penalty for cancellation. Just look for the "Best Flexible Rate" on their web site. So now I have real, verifiable airline tickets and hotel reservations which I can just cancel and then do whatever I want once the visa is issued. I asked them for a 2 year multiple entry L visa but I figure I have about a .000002 percent chance of really getting 2 years. If all works well, I realistically expect to actually receive a 1 year multiple entry visa.

Last but not least, The visa madness is all supposed to be over with after mid September so unless you need the visa NOW. Best to wait and probably none of it will be any issue at all anymore once the Olympics and Paralympics are over. Also in the case of Shanghai specifically you can spend up to a 48 hour stopover there without a visa so long as you are demonstratively in transit and will be out within 48 hours.

Thanks for the advice on China visa and the Crowne Plaza hotel.

I have always wanted to see Shanghai, especially after the Indiana Jones movie showing a nightclub there, supposedly in the 1930s.

But, other news reports have talked about the rapid and drastic teardown of old China buildings and construction of new skyscrapers so much, that if I visit China, I will try a smaller city to get a taste of the old.

About 20 years ago, I was fortunate to visit Singapore but after the transvestites on Bugis Street were closed down. I visited it again about two years ago and the difference was night and day. It was not that old Singapore was better, but it was unique and very different.