Apps for Travel: Explore Shanghai

As I said in my previous post, I plan on taking advantage of my time in Shanghai to be able to explore the city and the surrounding  region.  Having lived in Chicago for many years, I believe that the best way to explore a city is through its public transportation.  The El was my way of learning Chicago one stop at a time.  I hope that the Shanghai Metro will be my gateway to the city.

For that reason, the first Shanghai app I downloaded on to my phone, was Explore Shanghai Metro Map.  This app has a complete map of the Shanghai Metro that is updated periodically.  There are a lot of ofther features like GPS to help find the nearest station, a route planner, and street maps for every station.  The best part... it works offline.  I don't need to worry about having a data connection.

So I covered the good, lets move on to the bad.  Most of the complaints are about how the time estimate from the app is always 15 to 20 minutes too short.  I will just make sure to leave a little early. 

I will of course update as I begin to use the app in Shanghai. 

I want to go to there...

As my travel to Shanghai will be for work, I won't have too much time to travel out of the city, so I plan to make the most of my weekends.  So far, I have the following places in mind:

Suzhou - Referred to as the Venice of the East by many, Suhou is a small town just outside of Shanghai, that is crossed by beautiful canals.  At one point, Suzhou was a center of silk export.  Majestic and grand Chinese gardens were built by the wealth created from the silk trade.  Many of the gardens still exist today, and are open for quiet contemplation.

Hangzhou - Called by Marco Polo, "the City of Heaven, the most beautiful and magnificent in the world."  The city is on the shore of lake Xi Hu, which has amazing views of the Chinese country side and many temples and ancient sights.

Beijing - The capital of China.  Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the list goes on and on.  Also, I plan of seeing the Great Wall in Badaling, just outside of Beijing.

Xi'an - Home to the Terracotta Army

Datong - The Hanging Temple is located on a cliff face just outside of the city.

Chengde - Where Chinese royalty spent the summer months.

Obviously, I would love to see more of China, this is just a starting point.  I will be updating this list regularly.  Also, I will be posting my preliminary itineraries for each trip.

Learning Mandarin

I have always heard that the best way to learn a language is to be immersed amongst native speakers.  For that reason, I have jumped at the chance to learn Mandarin while in Shanghai.  Obviously, Mandarin is a very difficult language to learn for English speakers, but I am looking forward to the challenge. 

I have started my lessons using Mango Languages, as it is provided free by my local library.  I have had success in the past using Mango to learn some German.  I hope to be able to develop some base knowledge so that I may make the most of my immersion.  Also, I do plan on leaving Shanghai on some side trips and would love to be able to find my way around.

Going to Shanghai... Maybe...

A few weeks ago, I found out that I have the chance to go on several long trips to Shanghai over the next two years.  The company I work for has several chemical plants in the area and are looking for engineers with my particular expertise to help them improve the operation.  I am super excited.  

My first trip is scheduled to start June 10th and last for approximately five weeks.  In that time, I will have nights and weekends to do as I please.  Things are not final yet, but I should hear back in the next few days.