MRNICEY1966's Travel Tips
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renting accomodation
MRNICEY1966 | Shanghai |
7/22/2011 2:04:18 AM
i live in the u.k. with my chinese wife , we had planned a holiday and shanghai would be our base , it would be somewhere to leave our heavier luggage while travelling onto other destinations , so i started looking on the internet for an apartment and i finally stumbled on one that was advertised on the move and stay website , the apartment building was called Shanghai Metro Garden Serviced apartments and the address given was no,1 lane 78 ,Gonghexin road , Shanghai , i paid Move and Stay $180 deposit and my booking was confirmed at that apartment name and address , the balance would be paid in full in yuan/RMB on arrival at the apartment about 7000yuan + 2000yuan deposit .
we arrived in shanghai on 28th june at about 9am and after 12 hours flying we were quite tired and wanted to get to our apartment , i had originally planned to get my currency from the bank at the airport but the exchange rate was to low so we got a taxi to a city bank of china and got a much better rate there, we got the money and made our way to the apartment , we had been sent the address of the apartment by the agent in shanghai -Olivia Han , she is chinese but speaks good english .
we were taken to an apartment building that i can only describe as a dump , it was dirty looking , shabbly , there were people loittering outside , the area outside looked unsafe and i had noticed a massage parlour down the road .
this was definately not the apartment that i had pre-booked , there was no name on the apartment building and it looked totally different from the photos that had been advertised on the Move and Stay website .
i refused to even enter the building , my wife contacted the agent -olivia han , she was adamant that i had booked that apartment but i was in no mood to be conned .
we walked away from that apartment and stayed in hotel rooms which actually turned out to be a lot better .
so my advice is not to pre-book any apartment in advance , you can pre-book a hotel room for a couple of nights and arrange the rest of your accomodation while in shanghai itself , there will always be accomodation available
we arrived in shanghai on 28th june at about 9am and after 12 hours flying we were quite tired and wanted to get to our apartment , i had originally planned to get my currency from the bank at the airport but the exchange rate was to low so we got a taxi to a city bank of china and got a much better rate there, we got the money and made our way to the apartment , we had been sent the address of the apartment by the agent in shanghai -Olivia Han , she is chinese but speaks good english .
we were taken to an apartment building that i can only describe as a dump , it was dirty looking , shabbly , there were people loittering outside , the area outside looked unsafe and i had noticed a massage parlour down the road .
this was definately not the apartment that i had pre-booked , there was no name on the apartment building and it looked totally different from the photos that had been advertised on the Move and Stay website .
i refused to even enter the building , my wife contacted the agent -olivia han , she was adamant that i had booked that apartment but i was in no mood to be conned .
we walked away from that apartment and stayed in hotel rooms which actually turned out to be a lot better .
so my advice is not to pre-book any apartment in advance , you can pre-book a hotel room for a couple of nights and arrange the rest of your accomodation while in shanghai itself , there will always be accomodation available
shanghai travel tips
MRNICEY1966 | Shanghai |
7/22/2011 1:33:50 AM
i am not aware of all the tourist traps in shanghai , only the ones that myself and my chinese wife encountered .
i would discourage people from joining tours , in my opinion they are rip-offs , you pay to visit a certain area but half the day is spent visiting expensive shops such as jewellers, tea shops , silk shops and the budhist temple .
we took one tour in shanghai to visit a famous water village , we hada tour guide and a comfortable air conditioned coach , our first stop was a budhist temple ( address not known ) my wife is not a budhist but respects the religion as i do and will pray and give small donations and will normally advise me not to give too much .
but on this occassion my wife was sucked into a scam and i must admit that at first , i was too .
there were two monks who were reading prayer cards that each person could pick 3 off and the monks would give their opinions on certain subjects , so we queued up for an hour and was finally seen by a monk , my wife asked the monk if he could bless her son and pray for him and us , the monk seemed really concerned and advised my wife to purchase the biggest flower candle on sale which would be lit and placed in the temple , the candle cost 600 yuan ( about £60 ) , at this point i was a little puzzled as to why we had parted with such a large amount of money but i went along with it to please my wife , we were then sent to see the monk again , this time he advised my wife to purchase a metal statue , we were led into a shop and two rather large bronze looking statues were placed on the counter , i then instantly knew that it was a scam and i told my wife of my feelings and angrily walked out of the shop with my step-son following me but my wife felt embarrassed and purchased a small emblem which cost her 300 yuan ( £30 ) .
we were then taken to the water village and were told we were having lunch and would have to have it in a certain restaurant but i refused ,
we spent about 2 and a half hours at the water village , there were lovely little shops selling hand-made products and artists painting everything possible and everything was a fraction of the cost from shanghai .
we were then taken to a big silk shop which i made a point of hurrying through and then we were taken to a big jewellers mainly selling jade products at inflated prices , i was not fooled by the selling tactics .
in my opinion this tour was a bit of a scam , the tour guides and coach driver get a commission from the businesses they stop at including the temple.
i would discourage people from joining tours , in my opinion they are rip-offs , you pay to visit a certain area but half the day is spent visiting expensive shops such as jewellers, tea shops , silk shops and the budhist temple .
we took one tour in shanghai to visit a famous water village , we hada tour guide and a comfortable air conditioned coach , our first stop was a budhist temple ( address not known ) my wife is not a budhist but respects the religion as i do and will pray and give small donations and will normally advise me not to give too much .
but on this occassion my wife was sucked into a scam and i must admit that at first , i was too .
there were two monks who were reading prayer cards that each person could pick 3 off and the monks would give their opinions on certain subjects , so we queued up for an hour and was finally seen by a monk , my wife asked the monk if he could bless her son and pray for him and us , the monk seemed really concerned and advised my wife to purchase the biggest flower candle on sale which would be lit and placed in the temple , the candle cost 600 yuan ( about £60 ) , at this point i was a little puzzled as to why we had parted with such a large amount of money but i went along with it to please my wife , we were then sent to see the monk again , this time he advised my wife to purchase a metal statue , we were led into a shop and two rather large bronze looking statues were placed on the counter , i then instantly knew that it was a scam and i told my wife of my feelings and angrily walked out of the shop with my step-son following me but my wife felt embarrassed and purchased a small emblem which cost her 300 yuan ( £30 ) .
we were then taken to the water village and were told we were having lunch and would have to have it in a certain restaurant but i refused ,
we spent about 2 and a half hours at the water village , there were lovely little shops selling hand-made products and artists painting everything possible and everything was a fraction of the cost from shanghai .
we were then taken to a big silk shop which i made a point of hurrying through and then we were taken to a big jewellers mainly selling jade products at inflated prices , i was not fooled by the selling tactics .
in my opinion this tour was a bit of a scam , the tour guides and coach driver get a commission from the businesses they stop at including the temple.
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