ABD China 2017

[Cousin Orville]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I was able to get Mr & Mrs Bund reservations. Definitely looking forward to that! @Karen Stevan I'm going to intentionally not read your review of Miki's tour since you seem to prefer the surprises, but I'm happy to see all the glowing reviews of her tour.

As for HK, we have a food tour the morning the ABD starts which I'm super excited about. We're planning to going to see the Buddha the day before and may plan on a night tour of Kowloon(4-8pm so not too late).

Now I need to look into Beijing. I definitely plan to do Country Kitchen, and I may go back to Capital M. A little less than 2 months to go.

 

[jlosee]

I did book the Watertown tour with Mikki. Looking forward to it. I also have a food tour in HK booked for the morning the ABD starts. I'm also thinking of booking an evening tour of HK the night before. 2 months to go...

What day did you book your Watertown tour for?

 

[Cousin Orville]

What day did you book your Watertown tour for?

Oct 25th. We're staying 2 post nights.

 

[jlosee]

Oct 25th. We're staying 2 post nights.

We are, too. I wanted to surprise my wife with something. She thinks our post day will just be a day in the park but I think this will be a fun surprise after seeing all the great reviews.

 

[Cousin Orville]

We are, too. I wanted to surprise my wife with something. She thinks our post day will just be a day in the park but I think this will be a fun surprise after seeing all the great reviews.

Cool! You're welcome to join us on the 25th if you'd like. I can send you a description of the tour if you like. When are you leaving Shanghai? We're flying home Friday afternoon.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

Any shopping recommendations for this trip? And did anyone get jade or pearls? We're missing my daughter's 17th birthday while on our trip and I'd like to pick her up something nice (but not crazy!). Any other unique souvenirs I should be on the lookout for?

Laurie

 

[Cousin Orville]

Any shopping recommendations for this trip? And did anyone get jade or pearls? We're missing my daughter's 17th birthday while on our trip and I'd like to pick her up something nice (but not crazy!). Any other unique souvenirs I should be on the lookout for?

Laurie

Lauri,

When we visit Old Shanghai, there's a lot of shopping around including a very large store with jewelry on the first level that ABD recommended. I was looking for a jade piece and our Chinese guide went in with me to translate and help with recommendations. They had lots of jade at different price points. This is what I got fwiw:

 

[sayhello]

Any shopping recommendations for this trip? And did anyone get jade or pearls? We're missing my daughter's 17th birthday while on our trip and I'd like to pick her up something nice (but not crazy!). Any other unique souvenirs I should be on the lookout for?

Laurie

Lauri,

When we visit Old Shanghai, there's a lot of shopping around including a very large store with jewelry on the first level that ABD recommended. I was looking for a jade piece and our Chinese guide went in with me to translate and help with recommendations. They had lots of jade at different price points. This is what I got fwiw:

View attachment 265937

Laurie,

As Cousin Orville said, the morning in Chinatown in Old Shanghai, one of the options was for Flo, our Local Guide, to take you to the 2 Government stores there. One sold all sorts of Silk stuff, and the other had jade Jewelry and jade statuettes, etc. It was nice stuff and most was very reasonably priced. The salespeople there were very helpful. (As were my fellow Adventurers and our Local Guide!) They took credit cards.





Also, I'm assuming you'll be hitting Stanley Market while you're in Hong Kong. A lot of the stuff there is very touristy stuff, but they had some nice shops, also. Most of the places in Stanley Market seemed to want cash.

There's also some shopping on the way to the Great Wall. We didn't have *that* much time to shop, but there were some interesting things to purchase there. I and CaliforniaGirl09 got some sort of soft stone stamps that they carved our names in Chinese on. They had your Chinese Zodiac animal carved onto the top.

They don't have many shops at Shanghai Disneyland. The best shopping is at World Of Disney in their version of Downtown Disney. T-shirts were pretty lame, I couldn't find one worth buying.

Sayhello

 

[Lindaawilsoon]

Lauri,

When we visit Old Shanghai, there's a lot of shopping around including a very large store with jewelry on the first level that ABD recommended. I was looking for a jade piece and our Chinese guide went in with me to translate and help with recommendations. They had lots of jade at different price points. This is what I got fwiw:

View attachment 265937

one thing i need help from experts, is it save to use Bank cards for shopping in China?? my friend suggest me to use VPN to access my bank accounts from android, iphone device.. i jut need to know why i buy vpn before doing this...

 

[Theta]

Could someone suggest about how much CHinese money one would need to withdraw at the airport for 3 people. Assuming this is just for incidentals and meals that are not provided by Disney. I have no clue.

Also at suggestions for HKD as well.

 

[sayhello]

one thing i need help from experts, is it save to use Bank cards for shopping in China?? my friend suggest me to use VPN to access my bank accounts from android, iphone device.. i jut need to know why i buy vpn before doing this...

It was totally safe using credit cards in China. I never heard anyone say they had a problem. And they're accepted in many places. About the only place there was an issue that I remember was Stanley Market. Many vendors took credit cards, but some did not.

I used a VPN in China, but it was mostly because China blocks so many sites (Facebook, Instagram, Gmail). It does provide an extra layer of security, too, but I don't do banking on my phone at home, either. So I can't really speak to that. I don't think the internet in China is any more dangerous than anywhere else in the world. But I used Express VPN, and it was only like $12 for a month. Totally worth it.

Could someone suggest about how much CHinese money one would need to withdraw at the airport for 3 people. Assuming this is just for incidentals and meals that are not provided by Disney. I have no clue.

Also at suggestions for HKD as well.

I had a lot of HK dollars left over. Ended up exchanging them for Yuan at the Beijing hotel. Except for Stanley Market, cash really wasn't needed. You could use it to buy bottles of water at HKDL, but most places took credit cards (except, as I said above, at Stanley Market). And I wouldn't get your Money at the airport, the exchange rate is awful. Either get it at your bank before you leave, or use an ATM near the hotel (I don't think there was one actually in the hotel). If you don't want to carry cash for tips with you, make sure you hit the ATM that is a few blocks from the Shanghai Peninsula. Your Chinese Adventure Guide really won't be able to accept and use anything besides Yuan.

Sayhello

 

[Theta]

I had a lot of HK dollars left over. Ended up exchanging them for Yuan at the Beijing hotel. Except for Stanley Market, cash really wasn't needed. You could use it to buy bottles of water at HKDL, but most places took credit cards (except, as I said above, at Stanley Market). And I wouldn't get your Money at the airport, the exchange rate is awful. Either get it at your bank before you leave, or use an ATM near the hotel (I don't think there was one actually in the hotel). If you don't want to carry cash for tips with you, make sure you hit the ATM that is a few blocks from the Shanghai Peninsula. Your Chinese Adventure Guide really won't be able to accept and use anything besides Yuan.

Sayhello

I was wondering about the ATMs at the airport, if those were a good place to get cash. Did you mean the ATMs have a bad exchange rate or the currency exchanges?

Also when you sign up for an ATM, do you have to download some software or is it just given a URL to use. Can you use mulltiple devices?

 

[sayhello]

I was wondering about the ATMs at the airport, if those were a good place to get cash. Did you mean the ATMs have a bad exchange rate or the currency exchanges?

I meant the currency exchange. If you can find an ATM, that would definitely be the best.

Also when you sign up for an ATM, do you have to download some software or is it just given a URL to use. Can you use mulltiple devices?

I'm assuming you meant VPN. It's an app. You download the app onto your phone or tablet or laptop, and log into that. It will sign you into their servers. It's really really pretty straight forward. Apparently there's also browser extensions if you don't want to use an app. You *can* use it on multiple devices.

https://www.expressvpn.com/https://www.expressvpn.com/

Let me know if you have any more questions or need any help. It was really pretty easy.

Sayhello