Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
prepaid cards to pay for the calls. Making
and receiving domestic calls this way costs
¥0.6 per minute; an international call will cost
around ¥8 a minute.
You can also rent mobile phones - look
for the ads in expat magazines or ask at your
hotel. The cheapest phones to buy will cost
around ¥400; make sure the staff change
the operating language into English for you.
Calling home from Shanghai
To call abroad from Shanghai and
the rest of mainland China dial
T
00,
then the country code (see below),
then the area code, omitting the initial
zero (if any), then the number.
UK
T
44
Ireland
T
353
US & Canada
T
1
Australia
T
61
New Zealand
T
64
South Africa
T
27
Photography
The Chinese are pretty relaxed about having
their picture taken, and the staff at museums
and attractions surprisingly accommodating.
For places to buy photographic equipment,
see p.144. Colour film and processing is
widely available, though not particularly
cheap; it costs about ¥1 a print.
Mobile phones
Your home cellular phone may already be
compatible with the Chinese network (visitors
from North America should ensure their
phones are GSM/Triband), though note that
you will pay a premium to use it abroad, and
that callers within China have to make an
international call to reach you. Alternatively,
once in Shanghai you can buy a GSM SIM
card from any China Mobile shop or street
kiosk, which - as long your phone is
unlocked - allows you to use your phone as
though it's a local mobile (you will have a
new number). The SIM card costs around
¥100, with some variation in price according
to how lucky the digits are - favoured sixes
and eights bump up the cost, unlucky fours
make it cheaper. You'll also need to buy
Time
Shanghai, like the rest of China, is eight
hours ahead of GMT, thirteen hours ahead of
US Eastern Standard Time, sixteen hours
ahead of US Pacific Time and two hours
behind Australian Eastern Standard Time. It
does not have daylight saving time.
Tourist information
The official China Tourist Service, CITS, at
1227 Beijing Xi Lu (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm;
T
www.cits.net), is pretty
useless at supplying information, being
geared mainly towards getting you to buy
one of its tours; otherwise, you'll just be
handed a few leaflets. They can also,
however, sell tickets for onward travel. There
are small CITS offices that can sell tickets
and book you on CITS tours at 1699 Nanjing
Xi Lu (
W
62898899,
Guanxi
Guanxi is a mobile city guide,
accessible via phone text (SMS)
messaging, that's particularly useful
when (as often happens) you're
finding it hard to communicate with a
cabbie. From your mobile, text “sh”
and a space (for Shanghai), then the
name of the place you want to go to,
to
T
95882929, and you'll be
instantly texted back the venue
address in English. Reply to that with
a “C”, and the address will be texted
to you in Chinese. Text “sh huaihai lu
thai restaurants” and you'll get a list
of all the Thai restaurants on Huaihai
Lu. Each text costs around ¥1.
T
62483259) and 149 Jiujiaochang
Lu (
63555032), on the west side of the
Yuyuan Bazaar.
There's plenty of online information about
China in general and Shanghai specifically,
though as a general rule, avoid websites run
by official agencies such as CITS as they're
dry as dust.
T
Travel advice
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs
W
www.smartraveller.gov.au.
British Foreign & Commonwealth Office
W
www.dfat.gov.au,
W
42
www.fco.gov.uk.
