Visitor inflation

Nothing beats having your friends in town!

It’s getting warm out there –which is lovely! This spring is going to be fast and furious –there are so many things planned for the upcoming month that I believe my next free weekend, when I can bum around and do nothing, will be in May. This is of course both good and bad. We have lived in China for more than 4,5 years now, and considering that time we haven’t had that many visitors, until now, all of a sudden, when everybody wants to come at the same time!

We just had friends here from London, and on Saturday a new couple from Finland is arriving. When they leave there’s another one, and then my parents, my boyfriend’s dad, and then we have a weekend in Moganshan… and then I believe it should be summer?!

We are turning into real visitors pros. My London friend actually asked us if we had considered opening a travel agency for couples travelling to Shanghai. We have made a little travel kit for each couple, which includes metro cards, sim card, mobile phone, guidebooks, stomach pills and our own maps (where we have marked out our fave spots). We also tailor make the weekends so that they will suit each couple: when we had a pregnant couple visiting, we went to the baby market. When my London friend (who’s getting married next year) was here we managed to squeeze in a visit to Suzhou’s wedding street where she made herself a dream dress for 900 rmb! Considering the fact that a cheap wedding dress in London costs around 10 000 rmb, I think my friend was quite happy with her bargain. Our next visiting couple are food junkies aka health freaks, so we will spend a lot of time on food streets/at restaurants and also take them to try yoga, wake them up early in the morning so that they can see people practicing tai qi, etc.

Anyway, one thing that we are having a little bit of a problem with, now when there are so many friends coming over at the same period of time, is to take them out to restaurants/new spots. We obviously want to take them to our fave places, but it’s not fun for ourselves to go to the same restaurant four weeks in a row.

So, I was wondering if you guys would like to share your best travel experiences of Shanghai. Have you lived here? Travelled here? What was your best experience? Where did you do your best shopping bargain? Where did you eat your best meal? All recommendations welcome! We have a massive list, but since I will be playing the role of a tour guide this spring, I wouldn’t mind seeing some new places too.