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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
A good reference
By M. J. Williams
I took this book with me on my recent trip to Shanghai, and I found it very helpful. It includes a big section on the history of the city and how it has evolved over time, which is something I in truth enjoy. It then goes on with a good potpourri of recommendations for each budget, separated by area. It was very helpful that each area section had it is own mini map with the landmarks and recommendations highlighted. The foldout full color city map in the back was also helpful, and I was competent to take that along on day trips when I didn't feel like lugging the book around. I didn't find the writing style derogatory or unappreciative of the culture as it is, it is plainly a fact that the city does very little to preserve it is historical aspects. The writing was goal to be attained and informative and gave me a good idea of what to suppose while there. It also had a helpful division on the World's Fair, which was going on while I was there. All in all, a good reference book. I'll look to lonely planet again for future trips.
4 of 4 humans found the following review helpful.
Mostly great, but poor indexing & cross referencing
By Eric Haines
We just expended three weeks in Shanghai, and 10 days last Spring. During both trips we employed this guide extensively. It's in-depth and, most necessary of all, provides names and locatings *in Chinese* for all attractions - this is key info if you're attempting to take a cab or get aid with finding a location. The maps of each area of the city are good in showing you an integrated view of attractions, shopping, restaurants, etc. all in one spot, vs. other travel guides we've used. These maps are passable; combined with the map you'll get at your hotel you'll be good to go. All in all, we found this to be the best guide to the city.
That said, there are a few weaknesses to the book. First, the "enclosed color map" is closely useless, showing only utterly major street names. Just leave it at home and get the "official" map at your hotel when you arrive. More severe is the lack of cross-referencing at times. Some restaurant chains, such as Ding Tai Feng, are listed under only one portion of the city. In that listing it will say "there are other restaurants in the chain in the following locations". Only if you've read the whole restaurant division and marked these emplacements will you know that they're there. For example, Indian Kitchen and Element Fresh have sectionalizations in the Pudong area, which you wouldn't recognise if you looked in this book's Pudong section - these chains are listed elsewhere. A simple "the following restaurants have emplacements in this area" addition in each dining area's division would make the book substantially more useful. The restaurant list is, of necessity, somewhat thin in places - the impression given is that the French Concession area is where most of the eateries are located. Some pleasant chains like Wagas are absent. Still, the selections provided are in general great; this book will always get two thumbs up from me for their recommendations of places like Bali Laguna and Yang's Fried Dumplings.
The greatest weakness of this guide is the abysmal index. It comprises of two parts, a frequent (and rather incomplete) index, followed by a categorization of places by type. Very specific type, such as "Restaurants, Thai". This may be helpful if you're browsing by cuisine or by what you want to buy, but it's utterly maddening if you are attempting to look up a place that you read in regards to earlier. A perfective example of this is the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Center (a great museum to visit, by the way). The guide gives the best description of how to find it (it's genuinely obscure, being in the basement of an apartment complex). However, finding the entry in the book by using the indices is closely impossible. It's not in the normal index, so you check the categories quasi-index. Look beneath museums, art, and other categories - no go, it's not there. I was curious where in the world the writers had placed the entry, and I at long last found it under Galleries, and it was listed there without the word "Shanghai" in front. True, there's a gallery of posters you may buy, but that's like listing the Zoo beneath "Shopping, Stuffed-Animals" - the art center is for the most part consecrated to the display of posters (with a heap of of the best English explanatory signs of any museum we visited), with a museum shop next to it. If this quasi-index is all that crucial to the authors, they ought to at least include a lot of sights under more than one category. Better yet, add an further and added 4 pages to the book and include each sight in the regular index.
Knowing these problems, you may work around them: bookmark pages or note them down as you find them, scribble in the margins, etc. It's an imperfect guide, it's a bit dated (Shanghai's altering fast, e.g. I commend you download a Metro app for your mobile phone or other device - the subway is great), but it's head and shoulders better than the respective beauteous guides out there in terms of usability. Combined with Wikitravel to support fill in details (get a Jiao Tong travel card if you're there for a week or more) and searching the web for other selective information (Frommers had a heap of further and added restaurants, Time Out Shanghai the occasional event listing, etc.) and you're good to go.
34 of 49 persons found the following review helpful.
A guide of Shanghai written by persons who don't in truth like Shanghai
By K. Klein
I haven't actually gone yet but I'm more or less annoyed after reading this guide. The perspective of the writers seem to be of the typical sort that thinks that the only good things with regards to China are at least 100 years old and who deny that anything regarding progressed Chinese culture may perchance be good or valuable. The prejudices in truth come through in this book; in fact they rather in a literal sense begin on page one. Since this book just not long back came out I thought it would have a good deal of altered selective information in light of Expo '10, but rather there is not one thing - perchance because the writers don't actually live in Shanghai (they live in Paris and Beijing). I'd rather have a guide that genuinely likes the city and wants visitors to be grateful for it as much as they do, thanks.
There is utterly not one thing in this book that can't be gotten from another guide or (especially) from the forums on TripAdvisor, which has contributions from actual locals.
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