If you remember, I made a trip to Korea last December. The 3 of us decided to head to Shanghai after that to do some China-price shopping. This trip of ours required us to visit a grand total of 4 airports, two in Korea and two in Shanghai since we took domestic flight from Korea to Shanghai and the airport we had to report to was not the larger/major one.
We had a lot of time to kill at Gimpo airport and Corinne did some last minute shopping to use up her Korean wons. Maybe it was because I was lazy or had hopes of returning to Seoul again in the near future, I left with almost S$100 worth of won in my pocket.
J picked us up at the airport and it was the first time seeing him in almost 5 months? He claims that he has gotten skinnier -_- He said he spent a lot of time drawing out the sign. (The heart shape was drawn by his friend)
We checked into Yun's Paradise Hotel in Shanghai. It was a really nice hotel and the price that were paid for it was incredibly cheap. It was about $25-$27 PER PERSON per night. Where do you ever find hotel rooms that cheap! See if you were to divide the cost between 2 people, it will only add up to maybe $38-$40 per person per night. I just checked agoda and they are having an offer of the room at SGD77 per night. Even bettter deal! I booked the superior room which has a large KING size bed and ample leg space for the 3 of us to dump our luggages around.
If you're thinking about visiting Shanghai, I highly recommend lodging at Yun's Paradise simply due to the fact that it's cheap, 30-40minutes cab journey from either Pudong International Airport or Hongqiao International Airport and located extremely near Yuyuan (walking distance) and other places like Huaihai Road and the Bund.
Another great thing about Shanghai is that their cabs are DIRT CHEAP. The starting meter is about 14 RMB (= 2.8SGD) but it moves at such a slow pace. We ended up cabbing almost everywhere when we were there because it's cheap so Why Not! One trip cost less than $8? (divided by 3 or 4 of us) It was only later on that I found out that a train ride costs 40cents. WTF? FORTY CENTS?! *cries at Singapore's high transport cost.
J brought us to Yuyuan for some snacks aka XLBS because we were dying to have some! It was literally a 5 minute walk away. Nightfall in Shanghai was early and by 4pm, the sky starts to turn dark. I'm not sure if it's the case all year round or only during the winter season.
The restaurant that we went to was one of the more famous ones selling XLBs. I thought the place would be bustling with activity but there weren't many people inside actually, considering how huge the place was. But I guess we went to dine at a very odd timing as well. 4pm? It usually gets crowded during lunch and dinner time.
I am wearing a hood that I bought from Korea. It costs about 20SGD (so expensiveee i know) but the lady claimed it was made from Rabbit Fur. *Disclaimer : I only found out that it was made from Rabbit Fur after I bought it. Quite sad that I'm wearing my own Chinese Zodiac :/
Some crab tofu thing was was really yums!
XLBS! Ordered the original ones and a crab one. I preferred the original ones actually, not a huge fan of the crab ones although they were pretty tasty as well. The huge XLB is seriously a Gimmick. Idea behind is just to use a straw to drink up the piping hot soup in the bun. It's so hot you have to be careful while drinking lest you burn your tongue.
Regarding the price, I don't exactly remember anymore but you don't have to worry because the food in Shanghai is generally cheap! You can order loads of food and the amount you have to pay is probably only a third of what you think you have to fork out.
It was raining that day so I reminded the two of them to bring a brolly along but couldn't find mine in the mess of luggage that I brought along which was really silly of me because I distinctly remembered putting mine in a carry-on but didn't search it hard enough before leaving the hotel. Decided to bring along the hotel brolly which is slightly spoilt as you can tell in the pictures haha
A back street alley selling street food which we didn't dare to try. There were many people spitting all over the place and I was generally concerned about stepping on spit actually. Major GROSS.
We walked a few blocks from Yuyuan to devour in some delicious famous Peking Duck.
We ordered a three-course duck whereby the chef first takes out a nicely roasted duck and proceeds to skin and carve the duck right in front of our table. Looking at the juices spilling out of the duck made my stomach growl literally.
I LOVE CRISPY DUCK SKIN! <3 and the duck meat literally melts in your mouth although the proper way is to wrap them up with cucumbers and bean sauce with a thin layer of skin, somewhat like 'popiah'.
The duck meat and duck skin were presented in a fashionable way on two yuan yangs. Makes the duck meat seem even the more endearing, you just wanna dive your chopsticks into it.
The 2nd course was vegetables stir fried with bits of whatever is left on the duck after carving. They minced the duck up before proceeding to create a soup broth out of it. The duck really added flavour to the vegetables and these are my favourite sort of veggie! The easy to munch and swallow sort.
The duck soup broth was a rich concoction of duck juices swirling in a pot. It was extremely concentrated and I literally gulped down my first bowl. However, it's those kind of soups where you can't drink too much of because I find it too thick after a while. I will rather have my double-boiled cantonese soups any day. Xw loved it though. I believe she tried finishing up the entire remaining pot of soup.
Ordered some vegetables and beancurd to go along with our duck dishes. You may think that the entire meal was gonna cost us a bomb but I'm pretty sure we only paid $12 - $14 each for the meal which amounts to SGD $50? How do you get these sort of dishes for $50 in Sg?! During my entire duration in Shanghai, I was just simply amazed at how cheap their food was. (Since I eat so much, must make the most out of my money right?)
Co: I'm red too! I wanna be part of the wall!
We took a short stroll (about 15min) to the Bund, partly also to digest our food. Here comes the disastrous news. The place where I took this exact photo above, I DROPPED my purse. FML. I didn't realise it until 2 hours later and decided I was too lazy to go get it back cos it'll probably be gone when I return since it's so near the road and pavement ): It was my most loved kiss-lock purse I got from F21 because I like the flower motive on it! Extremely sad about it actually.
Thank god there weren't important cards inside (except for our room key haha) and about SGD$100 FML. Luckily I stuffed some cash with J to pay for dinner but $100 is still quite a bit in terms of RMB. Ohwells!
J's hands aren't so sturdy haha. I risked placing my DSLR in the drizzle on a ledge to take these shots. The bund had such an iconic view but we went to visit on the worst day ever. It was raining and it was so hazy, we couldn't see the top half of the Pearl! -_-
We ended off the night by visiting a KTV! The karaoke rooms in Shanghai are super worth it. It was $10 per pax and you can sing for however long you want! If you check in as a large group, they will provide you a large room with a huge pool table and singing podium and all that jazz.
Apparently we went to the largest Shanghai歌城 in Shanghai. It was so huge, almost like a maze! There are about 100 rooms in all shapes and sizes and them being to fit a certain number of people.
Twas a good night despite losing my purse. We really sang our hearts out.
Part 2 of Shanghai next!
We walked a few blocks from Yuyuan to devour in some delicious famous Peking Duck.
The interior of the restaurant was very traditional and they even had a guzheng player belting out tunes for us during our dinner.
I LOVE CRISPY DUCK SKIN! <3 and the duck meat literally melts in your mouth although the proper way is to wrap them up with cucumbers and bean sauce with a thin layer of skin, somewhat like 'popiah'.
The duck meat and duck skin were presented in a fashionable way on two yuan yangs. Makes the duck meat seem even the more endearing, you just wanna dive your chopsticks into it.
The 2nd course was vegetables stir fried with bits of whatever is left on the duck after carving. They minced the duck up before proceeding to create a soup broth out of it. The duck really added flavour to the vegetables and these are my favourite sort of veggie! The easy to munch and swallow sort.
The duck soup broth was a rich concoction of duck juices swirling in a pot. It was extremely concentrated and I literally gulped down my first bowl. However, it's those kind of soups where you can't drink too much of because I find it too thick after a while. I will rather have my double-boiled cantonese soups any day. Xw loved it though. I believe she tried finishing up the entire remaining pot of soup.
Ordered some vegetables and beancurd to go along with our duck dishes. You may think that the entire meal was gonna cost us a bomb but I'm pretty sure we only paid $12 - $14 each for the meal which amounts to SGD $50? How do you get these sort of dishes for $50 in Sg?! During my entire duration in Shanghai, I was just simply amazed at how cheap their food was. (Since I eat so much, must make the most out of my money right?)
We took a short stroll (about 15min) to the Bund, partly also to digest our food. Here comes the disastrous news. The place where I took this exact photo above, I DROPPED my purse. FML. I didn't realise it until 2 hours later and decided I was too lazy to go get it back cos it'll probably be gone when I return since it's so near the road and pavement ): It was my most loved kiss-lock purse I got from F21 because I like the flower motive on it! Extremely sad about it actually.
Thank god there weren't important cards inside (except for our room key haha) and about SGD$100 FML. Luckily I stuffed some cash with J to pay for dinner but $100 is still quite a bit in terms of RMB. Ohwells!
J's hands aren't so sturdy haha. I risked placing my DSLR in the drizzle on a ledge to take these shots. The bund had such an iconic view but we went to visit on the worst day ever. It was raining and it was so hazy, we couldn't see the top half of the Pearl! -_-
We ended off the night by visiting a KTV! The karaoke rooms in Shanghai are super worth it. It was $10 per pax and you can sing for however long you want! If you check in as a large group, they will provide you a large room with a huge pool table and singing podium and all that jazz.
Apparently we went to the largest Shanghai歌城 in Shanghai. It was so huge, almost like a maze! There are about 100 rooms in all shapes and sizes and them being to fit a certain number of people.
Twas a good night despite losing my purse. We really sang our hearts out.
Yun's Paradise Hotel (上海雲悅酒店) is located at
No. 789 East Fuxing Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai 200010 China
200010上海市黃浦區復興東路789號(河南南路口)
Lao Beijing (老北京) is located at
1 Henan Nan Lu, near Yanan Dong Lu
河南南路1号 (近延安东路)
Metro: Nanjing Rd (E), 15 min walk
Operating hours: 11am - 230pm, 5pm - 10pm
Part 2 of Shanghai next!
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