Jeff's Favorite Things in Shanghai (and some general advice)

Note: all of this advice is for 外国人 (why-gwo-ren aka foreigners).

Before you arrive

China is a wonderful place, but if you were expecting to do your normal thing of using Google Maps to navigate around town you will be very sad. Hotel internet is pretty shit for the most part, so download these apps before you leave home

• Bon App! by IndulgeSmart (Like yelp for Shanghai in English. 中国人用点评)
• Shanghai Taxi Cards by TechMaxApp (Let's you show a taxi driver Chinese directions to a place)
• Learn Chinese - Mandarin Phrasebook by Codegent (offline phrasebook. I paid for the full thing, but for a visit the free version is fine.)
• Waygo by Translate Abroard (Take a picture and it will translate it. Works OK)
• VART shows you what exhibits are on where. great for art lovers.
• DiDi Uber.
• Alipay if you can get this set up you can use it to pay for anything anywhere. Definitely worth getting!

I'm not promising these are the best apps. There are competing apps which may do better, but you should have at least a taxi card app and a phrasebook app.

Websites

• http://SmartShanghai.com
• http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/
• http://www.timeoutshanghai.com

Coffee

• Cafe Volcan
  • Yongkang Lu near Xiangyang Lu
  • Metro: South Shaanxi Road (1,9,12)
  • Order a "flat white"
  • Tiny place, not really anywhere to sit
• See Saw
  • Multiple locations (check their site)
  • My favorite location is on Yuyuan Lu (near Jing'an)
  • Order a pour-over (i'm partial to Costa Rica)
• Cambio Coffee
  • 280 Aomen Lu, near Changhua Lu
• Starbucks Reserve Roastery
I never go to Starbucks!. But!!! this is the biggest starbucks in the world. They have 5 different coffee areas in the place. They have beer! they have chocolate/coffee pairing! They have an insane automated system for moving the beans from the roasters to each area.

There are many other cute places around town. It should be self-evident which are legit.

Beer & Cocktails

• Constellation Bars (High-end Whisky/cocktail place) multiple locations
• Boxing Cat multiple locations
• Liquid Laundry Awesome food also.
• Opposite Also high-end cuisine.
• Speak Low
• Southern Cross
• El Ocho Try the drink with chilly and bacon!

Chinese Food

• Guyi, excellent Hunan (spicy) food. Get the spicy fish stew (in a pumpkin broth) and the cumin ribs. I like the location on Fumin Lu the best.
• Lost Heaven Yunnanese (western china) food. I like the one in the French Concession.
• Din Tai Fung The super brand mall location has the best view. Get the XiaoLongBao
• Jia Jia Tangbao These are really good xiaolongbao from a hole-in-the-wall legit place.
• Fu 1039 One of the "Fu" high-end delicious Shanghainese restaurants. I think Fu 1039 is the place to go for really good Shanghainese cuisine. You must have a reservation.
• JianGuo 328 If you are in the mood for a more down-to-earth experience that is english friendly, try this great Shanghainese place in the French Concession.

Not Chinese Food

• Bella Napoli Best pizza in town. Good pasta and other dishes too.
  
• SML Tiny italian resto. Say hi to Michele from me! (I used to live down the street.)
• Cuivre Good french bistro
• Farine Great french bakery
• Lotus Land In Tianzifang. TianZiFang is great. You should check it out, but it is pretty hard to find anything inside. Ask for help (again and again).

So many other places! If you are looking for something easy and comfortable find an "Element Fresh", "Wagas", "Baker and Spice", or anything by Mr. Willis.

Things to do

• M50 Industrial area converted to galleries. Very cool. Cambio Coffee is sort of nearby.
• Power Station of Art Excellent contemporary art museum

More to come!

Reading Pinyin

Pinyin is the spelling of Chinese words in roman letters. However, for English speakers several aspects of pinyin are very misleading. If you are willing to put in a few days you can try to learn some basics (http://www.chineselearner.com/pinyin/pinyin-rules.htm) but I'll just share a few gotchas.

Learn phrases not words

In Mandarin there are 4 tones and the tone changes the meaning of the word. You will be hopeless at tones. That's why the context is so important. An example: the pinyin for water is shui. If you are at a restaurant and ask for shui, they will probably get it, but there are about 40 homonyms (ignoring tones) that sound the same and might mean: study, sleep, snow, blood, boots, hold, tax, persuade (you get the point). But if you say "E bay shway" that means "a cup of water" and even if you get the tones totally wrong, the context will be clear. So, if you do try to learn a bit of Mandarin and use it, learn phrases not words. I have heard people communicate pretty well with really terrible tone use as long as the context makes some sense.