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We want to visit Shanghai sometime in the next few years. We have someone to stay with, so we are really just concerned right now about getting there. I would appreciate any advice from experienced travelers on getting there with pre-teen children.
Some questions:
- How far out should we buy the tickets?
- Which airlines should we steer towards or away from using?
- How hard will it be to communicate as we travel: one of us speaks a little Mandarin (reads less), two are fluent in French and a little Spanish.
Please feel free to share any other knowledge that you think might help!
1. Tickets. Hard to answer since depends on dynamic factors like seasonal pricing and other consumer influences like fuel prices. There are some sites where you can sign up for email alerts for specials for certain regions.
2. Airlines. It's an expensive ticket, I'd recommend find the cheapest flight and suck it up for whatever minor differences there are. If one airline is known for having crappier on flight service can you suffer that for one flight to save a couple hundred bucks? I know I can.
3. Shanghai is pretty easy on English speakers, in fact in the city center you'll see plenty of Westerners wandering around. It might be a good idea to be able to read and say your hotel name, the area it is in, and the name of the nearest subway station.
It's a treat arriving there, you can take the maglev high speed train so you get from airport to city very quickly despite the distance. Maglev dumps you at subway station, just follow the crowd they are mostly going to the subway too. Last time I was there the map of subway zones at this station was all in Chinese (that's where being able to recognize your subway stop comes in handy) you buy the appropriate card and take subway to near where you want to be.
1. Tickets. Hard to answer since depends on dynamic factors like seasonal pricing and other consumer influences like fuel prices. There are some sites where you can sign up for email alerts for specials for certain regions.
2. Airlines. It's an expensive ticket, I'd recommend find the cheapest flight and suck it up for whatever minor differences there are. If one airline is known for having crappier on flight service can you suffer that for one flight to save a couple hundred bucks? I know I can.
3. Shanghai is pretty easy on English speakers, in fact in the city center you'll see plenty of Westerners wandering around. It might be a good idea to be able to read and say your hotel name, the area it is in, and the name of the nearest subway station.
It's a treat arriving there, you can take the maglev high speed train so you get from airport to city very quickly despite the distance. Maglev dumps you at subway station, just follow the crowd they are mostly going to the subway too. Last time I was there the map of subway zones at this station was all in Chinese (that's where being able to recognize your subway stop comes in handy) you buy the appropriate card and take subway to near where you want to be.
Thanks for the reply! I will definitely sign up for the notifications. As far as airlines, I am much more concerned with things like lost luggage, help with problems like flight delays, etc. than I am about flight service. Does anyone have experiences with that type of thing to share?
We will also have a translator and guide throughout the stay once we are there. I am curious how well we will do as we travel there. Some flights connect in Hong Kong, others in S. Korea. So, I am hoping we can function in those airports. Little things, like ordering lunch and finding the bathrooms can be pretty big when traveling with children!
Shanghai is a very international city. So English speakers don't have too much of a problem managing there.
I agree 100%...
But, Chava61, what are you doing resurrecting all these posts from 2010 and 2009? Why? Some are good threads, but these guys have obviously completed the trips years ago.
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