1、英语七下外研版 Module 5：学案【最新文章 05】 Impressions of ShanghaiDay tourMy recommendation when visiting a new city, especially one with a different culture, is to take one of the standard city tours. Sure these can be a artificial and “touristy“ but they generally go to places you would like to see anyway and t
2、hey give a feel for how things work. The downside, at least, in Asian countries is they also tend to go to so called factory shops where they obviously are hoping youll buy something. The day tours in Shanghai are no exception but so far are a little less commercially orientated than say Singapore,
3、Kuala Lumpur, or Bangkok. The standard day tour went from 9am until 5pm, included a tea ceremony and lunch, all for 250 yuan which I figure is a fairly good deal. Getting around by taxiTaxis are easily the best way to get around, they are very cheap and almost always air-conditioned. However, the dr
4、ivers rarely speak English, the trick is to plan your days events and have your host or hotel staff writes out the names of the places you wish to visit in Chinese. Present this to the driver as soon as you enter. Getting taxis from the hotel is no problem, hailing them on the street can take a bit
5、of getting used to. The best strategy is to find a busy street and make sure you position yourself in a place where they can easily stop. Remember to always take the card from the hotel which will direct the drivers where to go for your return trip. The first thing you will notice when driving in th
6、e taxi is the rather haphazard driving style. In particular, the way drivers cross in front of moving traffic (cars, busses, bikes, pedestrians) when turning left (they drive on the right hand side of the road). I was greatly surprised that there werent more accidents; one part of the reason is the
7、generally low speed everyone is traveling at. The taxi fare starts at 10 yuan and rises quite slowly in 1 yuan increments. 15 minute trips seemed to rarely go above 25 yuan. TrainsThese are clean, air-conditioned, and reasonably priced. The only slightly frustrating thing is that while the maps with
8、in the train are labeled in English (as well as Chinese), the ticketing stations at the stations were not. Hopefully this will change soon. Be prepared for a push and shove if you go during peak hour and also note you dont get given much time to get on and off. The frequency was incredible; there se
9、em to be a train coming along about every 2 minutes. BusesThe buses are certainly easy to jump on and off but working out where one is going isnt so easy if you cant read Chinese. They are very cheap, 2 yuan if it is air-conditioned and 1 yuan if it isnt. I believe this takes you as far as you want
10、to go in one direction. As expected perhaps, buses can get rather crowded at peak times. One feels rather self-conscious of personal hygiene when crammed in among other bodies especially during the hot humid summer days. (Ive been told the best time of year to visit is Spring, around October/Novembe
11、r. River Cruise (Huangpu River)There are a couple of inexpensive cruises that run for about an hour. They are good way to rest after strolling up the Bund and if you travel at the hot part of the year, they are air-conditioned if you sit inside. They typically go to the Nanpu Bridge before turning a
12、round. There is a dinner cruise in the evening aboard a lovely traditionally decorated ferry. Jade Buddha TempleThis is one of the most popular temples and contains two jade Buddhas, the larger one is cross-legged (sitting) and the other smaller one reclining. The temple was built in 1882 in the Son
13、g Dynasty style. Photos of the main Buddha are not allowed by visitors but you can pick up postcards for a few yuan from one of the eager street vendors, I paid 20 yuan for a dozen different postcards and was still probably paying more than I needed. Oriental Pearl TowerBy far the best way to get an
14、 idea of the size of the city and to get your bearings is to visit the observation deck of the Orient Pearl Tower, one of the tallest towers in the world. This is a rather popular spot it seems even for the locals so expect a bit of a push and shove into the elevators. On a clear day the views are s
15、pectacular and the full extent of the city is dauntingly obvious as the tall buildings stretch for as far as the eye can see.BundThe Bund is the name given to a long strip of classical European buildings on the Huangpu River, on the opposed side to the Orient Pearl Tower. The old buildings look like
16、 the architects were trying to outdo each other with the grandeur of their designs. Most of the buildings now seem to be the Shanghai headquarters for international banks. This is where the main river cruises leave from. There seemed to be a number of very reasonably priced clothing stores on the op
17、posite side of the road from the river. Peoples SquareThis is a good place to spend a day, it includes the museum, art gallery, and theatre as well as being at one end of a major shopping strip. It is also conveniently located above a railway station. MuseumThe main Shanghai museum is located in the
18、 Peoples Square and is well worth the visit. It is a traditional museum, by which I mean it is full of real exhibits, typically of a traditional/historic nature. I recommend hiring one of the phones which delivers English (and other languages) commentary on most exhibits. Yu Yuan (Yu Garden)This is
19、probably the best place to pick up gifts and souvenirs of your stay. Note that the shop keepers here will quote prices as high as they think they can get away with because it is a common tourist destination, so be prepared to bargain aggressively. One third or less of the initial asking price is sta
20、ndard. The trick then it to find out the real price, my technique was to express a genuine interest in what you want in a couple of shops before actually buying (possibly from another), as you walk away they will generally shout out something close to the lowest they will accept. Of course the idea
21、here is not necessarily to get the lowest price (unless you enjoy the chase) but rather a price youre happy with. The usual pestering by “Rolex“ watch sellers will occur here as at many popular visitor locations. No strategy I found reduced their persistence so you will need to try your own techniqu
22、e. White House Gallery (French Concession Area)This small gallery has some exquisite pieces and some of the artists still work on the premises, which among other things means you are not supposed to make a lot a noise. Some of the items are for sale but dont expect bargain prices for they are mostly
23、 quality products. Eating outEating out with the locals can be a bit daunting at first, there is often a rush to order/collect the food and rarely is there any English description, fortunately there are generally English numbers indicating the price. Faced with the choices of MacDonald, KFC, or a lo
24、cal place try and resist the easy options and choose the later. It is certainly going to be cheaper, more interesting (even if you arent sure what it is), and probably much better for you. After a few, perhaps stressful experiences you will find it isnt so hard to point to what you want, perhaps aft
25、er observing what other people are ordering. 15 to 20 yuan should get you a fairly good meal. Going up a notch to the local restaurants and you will find there are usually English names on the menu but even if there arent there are usually pictures which give a fair idea. Science MuseumIf you or you
26、r kids are into science and technology museums then this is an amazing place and at the time of writing it is just stage 1 of the eventual complete project. It would be hard to find its equivalent anywhere in the world. It has 8 very large galleries and the only disappointing one is perhaps the natu
27、ral history which consists of largely unnatural models of the plant and animal kingdom. The museum also includes a couple of IMAX style theatres. The food alley in the basement serves surprisingly good cuisine, mostly for 15 yuan per dish. ShoppingAs you can imaging there are shopping opportunities
28、aplenty. Personally, it wasnt what I was interested in but I would suggest getting off the main streets and exploring some of the smaller alleys. These have the shops the locals use and the prices seemed to be a fraction of those in the main shopping areas. While I was told that prices of name brand
29、s were considerably cheaper I didnt consider the prices anything special. HotelsIt isnt my intention to make recommendations but I stayed at the Galaxy hotel, it is 4 star, reasonably priced and very comfortable. If you ask for it the rooms have internet access in the form of broadband, they provide
30、 cables and instructions. The cost is 1 yuan per minute which is not cheap but about the same price as Ive encountered elsewhere in Asia. It should be noted that even though these are high quality international standard hotels, the staff will generally only have a very limited grasp of English. I am
31、 not putting this forward as a complaint (after all, even a trivially limited English skill is better than my Chinese vocabulary) but this is something a visitor needs to accept. Not unique to this hotel (I have heard from others) is the service at the reception desk which is somewhat less than one
32、may be used to in other hotels internationally. Certainly not rude but the staff dont seem to go out of their way to attend to customers, I suspect this is a cultural effect as I also found the airport staff bordering on surly. AirportIf you have never traveled fast on land then I recommend taking t
33、he magnetic levitation train to the airport, it will whisk you along at a brisk 430 km/hr. Unfortunately it doesnt leave from the city centre, you need to take a taxi to the station first, but it does deposit you inside the airport terminal in air-conditioned comfort. Cost 40 yuan. The airport itsel
34、f is fairly plain but huge both in length and internal volume. Its roughly divided in half, one for domestic and the other international. In summer the air-conditioning doesnt have a chance of keeping up with the solar gain through the large windows that run the length of the building on both sides.
35、 My main complaint is that it is definitely not as comfortable as most other international airports, I wouldnt want to have a long stopover there, for example, there are now shower facilities. If you happen to fly out at night, keep an eye out for fleets of squid boats (they are the points of light). As the flicker in and out of clouds, and given the lack of any depth perception, I am fully prepared to imagine they form the basis of many UFO sightings from airplanes.
