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Facts for the Traveler on Arrival
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MONEY: The Chinese currency is called 'Renminbi', which means 'people's currency'. The basic unit is the yuan (colloquially called 'kuai'), which is divided into ten jiao (or 'mao'), which is in turn divided into 10 fen. The largest notes are 100 yuan. The exchange rate averages between 8.10-8.30 Renminbi per US Dollar.
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Click HERE for a list of banks!
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A bowl of noodles on the street can be bought for less than 5 yuan, a dish in a standard Shanghainese restaurant can run from 10+ yuan for a simple vegetable dish to over 100 yuan for fresh seafood. A meal for two in one of Shanghai's nicer western restaurants can easily exceed 200 yuan (and that's not counting a bottle of wine!)
CREDIT CARDS: Major shops, hotels and restaurants accept all the usual international credit cards, while most local shops and restaurants do not. Local Chinese credit cards are in fact debit cards - you can't spend anything unless you have already handed it over to the bank.
Credit Card Hotlines:
American Express 6279-8082 (9am - 5:30pm)
Visa 6323-6615 x 56 (9am - 5:30pm)
Master Card 00-852-2544-2222 (Hong Kong)
Diner's Club 6328-9661 x 8226 (9am - 5:30pm)
TIPPING: is not required, usually not expected, and is discouraged by the authorities. But if someone gives you good service ...
SHOPPING: Shanghai is China's best city for shopping, and people come from all over the country to fill up suitcases with goods to take home. For a foreign visitor, there are good bargains on antiques, silks, carpets and rosewood furniture.
ANTIQUES:
Click HERE for more shopping information!
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There are two street markets which are worth checking out: the one on Dongtai Lu, near Xizang Nanlu, and the Sunday market in Fuyou Lu.
BOOKSHOPS: You can buy foreign newspapers, magazines and a selection of books in the bookshops in major hotels. Also try the Foreign Languages Bookstore at 380 Fuzhou Lu.
COMMUNICATIONS: China's telephone services are improving dramatically. International Direct Dialing is available in all major and most minor hotels.
Calling around China and into and out of the country has become painless and efficient in most circumstances. While the city is now installing public phones on the streets, you will see more rental phones (look for the innocuous red and white sign with a phone on it in the front of magazine, snack, cigarette or other misc. street shops). Just pick up the phone (brown with a black earpiece), make your call, and then pay the attendant (usually just a few jiao ['mao'] for a local call). If you have to page somebody, the operators don't speak English. They will ask first for the number you are paging , "Gui xing" (name), "Huidian"(return number), and "Fenji"(extension).
TRANSPORT: Shanghai has no single focus.
The Bund is the banking centre, the Shanghai Centre area is for foreign business, Huaihai Lu is for shopping. Hongqiao is tourist hotels,
Xujiahui is department stores. Pudong is the business district of the
future. The street pattern is largely rectangular. The traffic can be
bad, but has been eased with a new elevated highway system.
One
subway line is open which runs from the train station in the
north, to People's Square and Huaihai Lu downtown, to Xujiahui in the
south (see the map on the back of the subway tickets). An east-west line to Pudong is under construction. A ticket to any stop costs 2 yuan, and hold on your ticket to exit.
Shanghai is a crowded city, and its infrastructure does not permit quick and easy trips around town. Most Shanghainese commute by bicycle. Public buses are old and tend to be crowded. If one likes to get a feel for how people really live in Shanghai, a trip on the bus is inexpensive and entertaining.
Taxis or company cars are used by the
majority of the foreign business community and are fairly inexpensive.
All Shanghai taxis have a meter so avoid bargaining on a fixed fare. A
5-kilometer (3 mile) ride costs approximately 16-18 RMB and can take
30-40 minutes. This varies significantly according to time of day and the
areas from which and to which one is travelling. Finding a taxi on the streets is
almost never a problem, but if necessary, click here for a list of taxi companies.
Traffic can be excruciatingly slow during peak rush hours. The rush hours are from 7:00-9:30 AM and 3:30-7:00
PM. During the summer months lunch hour (11:30-1:30) traffic is light.
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