After the peace and quiet of Bhutan we figured that Shanghai might be quite a contrast. Because this is our third visit to Shanghai we had no real plans to sightsee other than to walk the Bund and spend some time in the French Concession.
The skyline in Shanghai is so glamorous that it’s difficult to take your eyes off it it. On the other side of the Huangpu River you have the old Shanghai skyline, which is just as glamorous but from the 1930’s.
The walk along the Bund is one of the great walks on earth.
The famous Peace Hotel, home of the Shanghai jazz scene in the 1930’s can be found here as well.
And if you continue past the Peace Hotel you find yourself on Nanjing Road, which is the main shopping street in Shanghai – although slowly being taking over by tourist shops.
Our main reason for this stop in Shanghai was to visit the famous Optical Market for new prescription glasses. It can be found across the plaza from the Shanghai Railway Station and is known as “3 Yeh Optical City”. It’s well worth a visit if you need eyeglasses.
The optical stores occupy the 4th and 5th floors of the building and there are dozens of them that all look like this.
Each store offers a variety of frames and lense types. If you want glasses made you pick yuor frames and then just show them your prescription. Lenses are finished inside of an hour and depending on what lense options you choose (regular, thin, bifocal, progressive, etc.), the cost with frames starts at about $80.
Don’t miss the Shanghai Optical Market
We landed at Shop #4066 and were helped by the wonderful Karman. She speaks excellent English and helped us pick out our glasses. Here’s me in a new pair of Maui Jim sunglasses.
We spent hours at the Optical Market. Afterwards we jumped into a cab to head to the French Concession for cocktails and dinner. Here’s Jeff showing off his hot new pair of Tom Ford sunglasses while we enjoyed our drinks in the garden of a local restaurant.
We were itching to have Szechuan while we were here and found a place called Ben Lai. They certainly delivered on the heat factor we were looking for!
We managed to sneak into what used to be known as the Shanghai #1 Food Store (snappily named by the Communists…).
It’s a large store located on Nanjing Road and it used to have a stall with some of the best soup dumplings you could find in Shanghai. Sadly no more as they have renovated and updated the store so that the dumpling shop has been replaced by a modern food court.
We spent some time walking around the French Concession, which is well known for its beautiful tree-lined streets.
I think we wore ourselves out because we collapsed into a heap just in time for happy hour at a local Mexican restaurant infested with expats. We drank margaritas on their patio well into the evening as we watched Shanghai roll by.
Up early the next morning, our two day stay in Shanghai was over!
Our next and final stop of the trip is Tokyo where we’re meeting up with Erica and Lunacita for some frolicking in the Land of the Rising Sun.
