You can find helpful apps at the end of the article, if you don't feel like reading my descriptions, just scroll down. What can happen to you if you dare to go to Shanghai: First of all, you are in China, which is so exotic in itself that you can count yourself on one finger that essential things have to be there, but unfortunately run quite differently. Orientation and eating alone can be problematic. Let's start with the climate, which increases the strain if there are additional problems. For people sensitive to heat, it is roaring hot in summer and the distances that have to be covered in the city are long. But hours of walking in excessive heat are not for everyone on vacation. If you don't want to walk, you could order a taxi, but you can only get a taxi via an app. You could try to stand in the street and wave your arms wildly in the air, but no one will stop. The taxi drivers may think you have some problem or are crazy, but they don't realize that you need a taxi.
But there is still the metro, which is most practical anyway, but unfortunately the stations are quite far apart. There are cities in which the metro stations are in sight (e.g. Paris), but Shanghai is not one of them, there is often more than a kilometer in between, i.e. you first have to find the stations above ground. If you got really lost in a neighborhood, which even happened to me, even though I have a good sense of orientation, you could ask someone for directions, but then you will find that most of the Chinese cannot speak English or they wear ear headphones and don't even notice you're talking to them. But fortunately there is still Google, which helps in every situation. So quickly enter "Shanghai" and then look at the maps. Thought wrong! You're in China and Google doesn't work here at all. If you have finally found a subway station after a lot of walking in over 30 degrees, you walk further underground, because some metro stations somehow resemble sprawling shopping malls and have a lot of exits and if you use the wrong exit, you will lose your orientation again on the surface, because everything looks somehow the same and you have to be prepared for long walks again.
Here the West Nanjing Road station. Three lines meet there, there are 14 entrances. Those who do not know their way around the surface are lost. There is joy. The People's Square station is even more blatant with over 20 exits.
In Asia it can quickly happen that you have the feeling that you have experienced two things all the time: 1. walking around in subway stations and shopping malls, which sometimes seems like one and the same, 2. sitting in air-conditioned restaurants all the time which is good in the heat, but somehow you also want to see something of the city. So can you only do two things really well in Shanghai? Eating and Shopping? Then there is also the problem of exotic food and chopsticks, which not everyone can handle. Finding a restaurant is also difficult. If you have finally made a decision because there is a menu with pictures, you do not know which one to choose from. Perhaps you end up with squid or liver, tripe or pork ears cut into thin strips and dressed as a salad, etc. The consistency of these ears is like chewing on mu-err mushrooms - those black, tough mushrooms. It even tastes good, but you shouldn't know what it is. Or you get a whole fish with head, tail and bones that you eat with chopsticks, of course, or you get the chicken wings with bones - a lot on the plate has bones - and you eat it ... with chopsticks, of course. There is sometimes a lot of fat in the meat, but there is no knife and fork to cut it off - so put it in. The Chinese don't cut anything either. They like that, and one shouldn't forget that China was starving just a few decades ago. That's why people here have a different approach to food. Despite the fat, the Chinese are somehow seldom fat either.
You should perhaps wear dark clothes when you eat, because if you have a light shirt on and something slips off the chopsticks and slaps into the soup that you have just fished it out of, you can throw the shirt away afterwards, especially if that Soup consists of tomatoes, curry and chilli. When at some point you breathe a sigh of relief because you finally see a McDonald's restaurant or a Burger King or a Café in French style, in which you can get everything from café latte to cappuccino and a European tart, you've actually failed the intercultural experience and reached the point where one would rather be back in Europe. And then you sit in the infinitely stupid everyday atmosphere of an American fast-food company, which is also allowed to call itself a restaurant because 30-40 degrees are expected outside, and you think that it looks just like in Birmingham. A few more notes on traffic: China's traffic looks like it does in Naples. If you stroll through a quarter and look at the houses lost in thought, you should expect everything. Hence the ultimate tip: watch out for traffic !!! Only look around when you have reached safe terrain. It's like bumper cars at a fair, everyone is looking for their way somehow in the hustle and bustle. But people don't race, you just have to keep evasive and keep your eyes open. The others also evade, and that's why it doesn't really matter that pedestrians and e-mopeds often share the sidewalk. In the evening, when the two-wheelers with electric motors don't have their lights on and drive almost noiselessly, it can happen that a two-wheeler with a child almost runs over your feet. Yesterday I witnessed an accident when a man got out of a taxi that did not stop at the side of the road, but in the middle of the street. The passenger pushed open the door and a two-wheeler drove right into it. Crash - man on the ground, little shouting, brief inquiry as to whether something has happened, help on your feet ... continue. Nothing helps. You just have to get involved with this country and when you come as a tourist you have to find out which apps you need, etc. The stupid thing is of course that it all means work and then the apps are also in Chinese, but often have to you just click on icons, then it works again.
On the other hand, some things work surprisingly well. You can send messages and pictures home via WhatsApp as soon as you arrive at the hotel and have WiFi. You can also make calls via WhatsApp. You can still pay with cash in China, although the rumor has been spreading that people only pay with their mobile phones here. You can do anything with cash. There are still a lot of old people who have been overwhelmed by the renewal of the country in the last thirty years, and they all still pay with cash. The only problem for a non-Chinese is getting cash. At the Bank of China, however, it should work with a major credit card without any problems. If all this is too much for you, you can retreat to the area around the Jing'an Temple and Shimen Road Number One, etc. There is no culture shock there. There are even a lot of restaurants that serve with European cutlery, precisely because they are European restaurants. Up here are a few helpful apps that are really useful in avoiding the problems described above, as that could be quite frustrating. MetroMan This app is really helpful for using the metro. You can find connections, there is a map of the metro and the most useful: If you are looking for a sight, you can enter its name in the sub-item "Maps" and the location will appear on a city map, on which the nearest metro stations are also clearly visible.
Maps.Me In general, this app helps like a city map. Those who rely on Google Maps are lost in China. This app also works without receiving data.
SmSh SmartShanghai is an app that will help you when you are looking for a specific restaurant or tourist attraction. Suggestions are made or you can enter the location you are looking for yourself. E.g. Aldi, there are currently seven branches. the distance is displayed, the nearest metro station, etc.
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