Just booked Boston-Shanghai flights for next fall. Will be seeking advice on usual topics, e.g., hotels, activities, restaurants, etc. For now, the excitement far surpasses everything else. We got a very good fare on Continental. It was $400 less per person than everything else.

For starters, are there any recommendations for another location to visit for a few days in conjunction with Shanghai? Short flights are doable.

Lucky you, how great to be able to plan for somewhere new. As you know we head off for malaysia and BKK next week, can't wait. I'll give your love to Tong (and Muffin of course!)

I just came back from Shanghai and can highly recommend the Le Royal Meridien hotel, esp. the club level where all tables have a view of Pudong and an unlimited supply of bubbly! The service was the best at that hotel of all 4 I stayed at which inc. the Ramada Plaza, JW Marriott and the Pen in Beijing. Be prepared for hot smoggy weather though-it didn't cool off at all for us until Oct. 25th and then it went down to the 70's only.

Obvious choice for a few-day visit is Chengdu, center of the panda universe (Giant panda breeding ctr, etc.). Also it's the main city in Sichuan, for those interested in great Chinese food.

And mazel tov on convincing SWMBO to go tripping next fall.

May we assume that Bob is tagging along with you? Two weeks up and down the breadth of China?

Now that is a Long March.

we have had to pass, but we were invited...i think south africa is on our plate for october...exchanging pandas for tigers and lions

Sounds great, Andy!

Thanks for the best wishes. The actual plan is for Bob to go to South Africa and Karen will slip away with us. Think of an airport scene in a goofy romantic comedy.

Chengdu? I thought Cambridge was at the center of the Giant Panda universe.

That will be an especially unique trip to S Africa if it includes tiger viewing. Penguins, on the other hand, are very much a possibility (and a recommended one, at that). See you on the Africa board, POB.

Wow! I am really happy for you, Panda! I hope that you are aware that there is a COMPLETED ekscrunchy trip report about Shanghai (with side trip to Xitang, and Beiijing and Seoul) on file here. (see link below)

Please let me know if I can be of any help (offers like that may work in my favor on sentencing day)...

Certainly the Le Royal Meridien should be on your short list for Shanghai. If you have not been to Beijing before,
you need to have that city as your other location..


http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34984181

There are a lot of day trips you can do from Shanghai. It's about 1.5-2 hours from Hangzhou, with the famed West Lake. Also Suzhou and Nanjing. Zhou Zhuang is a beautiful old village with canals. It's where a lot of movies and TV shows are filmed (Raise the Red Lantern by Zhang Yi-Mou, for example). Of course, Shanghai itself is fun but more of a big, westernized city.

If this is your first visit to China, than of course you would have to go to Beijing. My personal pick would be Yunnan in conjunction with Shanghai, to experience something different from the major coastal cities.

Very happy for you that you've gotten a good rate to Shanghai!

Of course, a side trip to the panda reserve for Gpanda! Most appropriate!

Loved Yangshuo's karst mountains & the magic of the Li & Yulong Rivers. Was also mesmerized by Yunnan Province's magnificent mountain ranges & tranquil beauty of Shangrila.The dreamlike water reflections (especially while rafting down the Yulong),colours of the minorities & faces of the young & old....memories!!

Chengdu is chinese for Cambridge.

I am pretty sure Raise the Red Lantern was filmed at the Qiao's Residence (乔家大院) in Shanxi Province, not in Zhouzhang.

There was a Tom Cruise movie filmed in Xitang..(I realize that that this neither here nor there, but thought I would throw in this little factoid!) (I saw a billboard there with a (bad) likeness of TC and was told he had filmed a big movie there)

Yes, that'd be Mission Impossible 3.

Thanks, Rkk! I figured that you would know the name of the film! Did you happen to see it and if so, were there good scenes of Xitang?

I have never been to Xitang or any of the watertowns, but my parents have visited basically all of them, and I've seen (or worked on) their video.

The scene in MI:3 is pretty short, but I can recognize it was one of the watertowns near Shanghai/Suzhou. I definitely can't tell Xitang from the others.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Beth and I will look at all the possibilities. I'm sure we will have lots of additional questions for you guys.

A Unicorn? A Griffin? Nope, a completes Ekscrunchy trip rweport. That's the mythical being that's supposedly in existence.