One day in Shanghai
 

I'll be flying from Paris to Sydney with an 11hour stopover (daytime) in Shanghai. I'm a woman travelling alone with no local language skills. I plan to take the fast train, then a cab to the Nanjing (?) markets and do some shopping, then a bit of an explore and a cab back to the airport.
Any hints, ideas, suggestions?
Thanks

Others will no doubt chime in, but one thing I'm ignorant of is what you need to do about a visa for a passing-through visit like that.

We found almost all Chinese cabbies efficient, friendly and helpful. BUT if you don't speak Mandarin, your chance of finding an English-speaking driver is roughly zero. I advise you not to rely on a phrase book - almost certainly your efforts will be completely incomprehensible, and you'll just cause your driver stress. You will need clear written instructions in Chinese characters.

The Maglev train is fun, but with one day you might find it easier simply to catch a cab at the airport rank. The train terminates quite a long distance short of the city centre.

Sorry, I'm not sure where those markets are - do you mean the shopping areas around Nanjing Road perhaps?

I believe you will NOT need a visa, provided you are a US or Canadian citizen (or some other European countries see the list) and are holding an onward ticket, see the information at www.china-embassy.org, click on "visas" then "Chinese Visa", then "Transit (G) Visa" then read the regs. I have never tried to enter the PRC without a visa so don't know what line you go through at Immigration (if there is a special line) or what you have to show (presumably your onward ticket); perhaps others can give advice. Please read the website info carefully, you would not want to get this wrong or you will be spending the 11 hours at the airport.

(Otherwise you will have to get a PRC visa, and you will have to obtain one in advance where you live. You can obtain the applications on-line at www.china-embassy.org. On the main page, click on "Visa and Passport" on the left, and read and follow the various instructions. You have to go in person to apply or hire a third party to go for you, they don't take mail applications. Yes, this is a total pain for 11 hours.)

If you don't have a boarding pass for your onward flight, this is the first thing you should do before you head out to the city, you should also see if you can check hand luggage at the airport, the website for the airport is at http://www.shanghaiairport.com/. I would say you should be back at the airport at least 1.5 hours before your flight to make sure you have enough time for Immigration, security and to get to your gate, you don't know how long all that may take if a large number of flights are taking off at once.

I personally would suggest you skip the shopping in Nanjing Road and try to see the other parts of the city. Nanjing is interesting to walk along and people-watch, but I would not spend a lot of time in the shops, many are high-end US or European chain boutiques at this point (selling at higher prices than you would pay at home) and then there are Pizza Huts, McDonalds and a lot of crap to be honest. It is actually best at night, IMO, when it is just ludicrously lit up, not sure you will be there then. With your very limited time, I would see the Bund area (where Nanjing Road begins actually), have a nice meal along there and take in parts of the French concession neighborhoods, many of which have nice shops, including little boutiquy places where you can pick up interesting things. You can also go to Xiantiandi district, which is an old part of the French Concession in central Shanghai with stone houses that has been restored, this is also walkable to the Bund, where you will find some good stuff and some more tourist fare and some good restaurants. Also you can take a ride on a river boat or go up the tower of the Grand Hyatt, either of which would give you a good view and overview of the city (smog permitting). Also you can visit the really excellent museum or the art modern art museum.

The DK/Eyewitness Guide for Shanghai gives some excellent walking tour suggestions for the old concession areas and has good maps. The Luxe Guide to Shanghai will give you some very good combined walking and shopping suggestions as well (hilarious tone of their writing), see http://www.luxecityguides.com .

It will be cold (you are probably used to that) so make sure you have a coat and good walking shoes or boots, it may be damp, wet, snowy or slushy or all of these things at once.

You might consider going to a place like the new Westin at the Bund Center, right on the Bund and having a spa treatment as soon as you get into town. You do not have to be a guest to use the spa treatments, and this would be a great way to get a locker for the day to store stuff, and have a shower, and then use this as a base to go back to when you are done touring around and want to head back to the airport. You can make a booking for a somewhat quick treatment like a 30 minute massage (great for the jet lag); most spas then allow you to use the facilities for the entire day if you have booked a treatment. (And to be honest, in a hotel like that, you are not going to be questioned as a foreigner if you are going in or out if you have a locker key and have had an appointment. They will just assume you are a hotel guest, let them go with this assumption.) You can also stay longer if the weather seems bad, or if you get tired toward the end of the day you can head back there and have a steam and then change and head to the airport. You could try the Grand Hyatt or other hotels, I just know that the Westin has a good location right there on the Bund and is new and has what appears to be big spa run by Banyan Tree Spa, see starwoodhotels.com

Agree on the train, another reason to possibly have a treatment booked at a hotel and just go right there with a small bag which you can leave. A cab from the train may take you about as long as the cab from the airport, hard to say. Not sure what time you are arriving, with an 11 hour layover, not all of that is daytime, at least not in Shanghai in winter.

Thanks for the quick responses. My travel agent has now assured me that as I'm staying less than 24 hours, I can get an automatic visa when I arrive. I'll see how I go, and if I get out of the airport, I'll take your advice, particularly the spa treatment, which will be just what I need. I don't have time to apply for a visa now as I'm leaving Australia in 3 days, so fingers crossed.

My wife loved the Nanjing shopping area but you will get tired quickly of all the hawkers on the street. She did most of her shopping in a building on West Nanjing Road (around 350 or 380), just a hop skip and a jump from the JW Marriott. Its a multilple story building with every knock off product imagineable. Even I was entertained for a while, but when she wanted to go back the next day, I threw a fit. And getting a drink or a snack at the nearby Marriott and then taking a cab to the airport from there will make life easier for you. I also agree with seeing the Bund, tho I was not that impressed with the Xiantiandi area. It's nice but no different than a redone area all over the world. Nanjing is shopping, yes, but it is unique in its own way. And the Bund is great to walk on for a short while and to see it and the view of Pudong across the water. By the way, I assume you are flying into Pudong Airport. That is a LONG way out so give yourself time on the way back to the airport.

Your experience will depend on how much luggage you have with you. If you can check your luggage all the way to your final destination, then you could be OK. Otherwise, the counters at the airport open only about two and a half hours before the flight....I have had a 4 hour layover in Shanghai on my way from Beijing to Los Angeles and have had to wait forever...
About the visa, I am not sure (I have always had either business visa or resident/expat visa)

So, if you are set with you luggage you may consider the Maglev train to get to the main part of Pudong, and then from there switch to the subway to get to People's square / Nanjing Rd (Nanjing Lu) which is one of the main streets in Shanghai. You should try to get to the Peace Hotel at the Bund and go to the terrace on the top floor -- from there you could have a nice view of Pudong and other parts of Shanghai....
For more on China you can check out my blog http://travel.chinafinds.com

Hi, I'm back. Thanks for all your help; here's how it worked out for me. I checked my bags through to Sydney so had no luggage to worry about, and was able to check in and get my seat allocation before I left the airport to go into Shanghai. I didn't need a visa, but was quite surprised when flying from Sydney to Paris via Shanghai that I didn't have to stay in the transit area, but was automatically given a visa to leave the airport.
The Maglev train station is located in the airport and is easy to find, so I was able to experience travelling at 435km by train. I then got a cab from the terminus into Shanghai. My taxi driver did not speak any English, but there was an official at the cab rank that took the cab number, and gave me a piece of paper printed with various destinations from the terminus and approximate costs in English and Chinese, so I headed to the Bund and gave the driver Y40 as indicated. Hopefully that was ok, as there was no way we were going to be able to negotiate.
I too got really sick of the people wanting to take me to "big shops for lookee lookee", and that's because I was tired from the flight and I'm not used to that sort of approach. Certainly, everyone who approached me was friendly, but it did wear me down. I loathe haggling, and don't think I'll ever get the hang of it. Great shopping, especially for shoes and bags for me, but again, I was tired and shopped out from Paris, so didn't buy much. Like LarryRGV, I couldn't find any food places! I ended up at McDonald's which was disappointing, but it was also handy for the toilet. I rode the very 'ghost train' ride under the river to the Oriental Pearl buiding and took in the amazing view of Shanghai, from the top. This was really worth it.
After some more wandering about, I grabbed a cab back to the airport, and completely underestimated how much it would cost, so didn't have enough money. It's a lot more than taking the train and a cab - luckily, the cab driver was happy to take what I had.
There is very little to do at the airport, so I would suggest to anyone else with a stopover to go into Shanghai.
Also, anyone who wears contact lenses should take eye drops with you as there's a lot of grit in the air from all the pollution and building work.

It's an amazing city, and next time I'll stay longer and do more exploring. Some of the new architecture is incredible.

Thank you for all your help.