Shanghai has plenty to see; focus on the older parts of the city, do read a couple books that take place there, and make sure to take in their art museum. The museum of chinese history is rather propagandist, but what can we expect.

Trains in China: you can only purchase a ticket one direction at a time (i.e., for whatever mysterious reason, they never sell round-trip tickets). this is normal. So is paying a courier from your hotel’s front desk to go & buy your ticket for a destination plus a surcharge; 30 yuan comes to mind, but that was a few years ago. Keep your ticket once you board! upon exiting, you’ll have to use it to exit too…

You can certainly get from Shanghai to Beijing; expect tix to sell out, and if you go “hard class” you’ll have to run to make sure you don’t end up standing in the aisles. Hot water for tea is always available on trains; bring your own thermos, tea, and noodles or other snackies.

Once lodged in Beijing (expect a higher rate from the train station to your destination than in other cities, hrrrmph! – ~100 yuan? at any rate, do negotiate; although if they have a working meter that’s okay too.) you can arrange for a taxi to bring you out to one of the various places where you are permitted to climb the great wall; I suggest avoiding BadaLing as this has a reputation for being overwhelmed with visitors; try to make it to further one.

Other notes:

I found the Ming tombs to be not terribly interesting, even if you have a strong interest in history / archaeology. Instead, do make the trip to the “summer palace” – it’s an extraordinary complex of buildings. Do try eating in some of the smaller local eateries, do go to the famous “peking duck” place – its delicious, and busy. DO wake up one morning very early to go to one of the parks – example: friends and I got up and departed around 5:30 and got to Tiantan Park and were able to wander around watching lots of groups of people practicing martial arts (many varieties); qigong; and playing beijing opera tunes. There are many parks, and people gather there early – I’m just saying it’s worth getting up so very early on vacation.

feel free to message me if you want to ask more questions. I lived in china in another city for a year, so…

Here is a link to my online journal tracking my 10-day trip to Beijing and Shanghai:

http://www.lavieencharmcity.com/search/label/China

And here are my photos to go along:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AmandaWebster

In reference to seeing the Great Wall, it really isn’t very close to Shanghai, it is better to visit mountainous cities to the north such as Beijing to see a section of the wall. If you do go to Beijing, I recommend Mutianyu over Badaling – there are too many people at the Badaling section of the wall.

China is amazing, have a great time!

You won’t be able to see The Great Wall from Shanghai, because The Great Wall is in Beijing (another city which is not near Shanghai). You can take the train or a plane to Beijing though, if you want to visit The Great Wall.

Hong Kong is down south, so you will also need to make travel arrangements for that.

Shanghai’s must-sees are: Shanghai Pearl Tower, YuYuan Gardens…

Here’s a pretty informative site: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai.htm

If you want to see the Great Wall, you’ll need to go to Beijing first. You can get there on the over night train – If I remembeer correctly, it was about 150RMB. I’ve used the Shanghai-Beijing overnight train many times, and the bed is clean and comfortable (just be very careful with your luggage).

As train trips in China tends to be very long, there’s unspoken understanding that if you’re on a train together, you’re friends. People have invited me to their homes, bought me snacks, taken care of me when I got sick, given me tips for my trip etc… traveling by train in China is pretty cool.

And the Great Wall is really worth the trip.

In Shanghai, be sure to visit Yuyan, take a night cruise at the Band, and if you have time, goto Zhouzhuang – a pretty town a few hours away from Shanghai.

hello!!

YOU really must visit the 2 Mega cities in china =)

Here is a shanghai guide links that you may want take a look, it provide you detail info about shanghai =)

http://yeschinatour.com/china-guides/china-city-guides/shanghai/

For the Capital Beijing,here is also another link =)

http://yeschinatour.com/china-guides/china-city-guides/beijing/

Feel free to read it =)

it provide you info about those 2 cities =)

hope it does help you

all the best =)