Great Travel to Shanghai Shopping Experiences

My daughter and I had a brilliant day with our guide MJ who introduced us to the joys of shopping in shanghai. Her intimate knowledge, not only of the best shopping venues, but also of local customs, restaurants, and other sights to visit was invaluable to the success of our holiday. The big hits for us on the day were the fabric market and the pearl market. Instead of being confronted China tours with hundreds of tailoring vendors at the fabric market and not knowing where to begin, MJ was able to recommend well reputed tailors to us and we were thrilled with everything we had made from leather to silk to suits.( Best to take items you love to have copied if short for time and fittings).Again at the pearl market we were steered in the direction of vendors she had experience with who generally had good English. If dealing with other vendors and bargaining was required MJ did a superb job in mandarin with her bargaining on our behalf. We came away loaded with wonderful gifts of pearls of all descriptions, costume jewellery, scarves, art and other treasures for crazy prices.

The day was well coordinated with the driver and minibus being always on hand when we were ready to move from venue to venue and was well punctuated with a dumpling break and later a delicious Chinese lunch. We were enlightened along the way Yangtze River cruises with info about shanghai in general as well as where we were shopping next !
MJ availed herself to us as a reference for the time we were in shanghai and we did resort to calling her on a couple of occasions for advice and she was a great help. Her recommendations for further sightseeing and restaurants were fantastic and also helped take the angst out of where to start in such a big city with not a great deal of time.

The ceramics shop was gorgeous, and the lunch was great. MJ also gave us some fantastic ideas about where to go for makeup and amazing sneakers, we bought as a family 12 pairs!! She gave us an idea of what Shangri-la tour a reasonable price to pay for certain items was and the art of bargaining. She also provided us with good recommendations for eating out, both Chinese and western options.

So, my review is really positive and money well spent. In such an amazing, crazy city it's worth getting an insiders view and where to go and what to do. Do the tour as soon as you get to shanghai, take glasses and items of clothing with you that Shanghai tours you want copied and take lots of cash!! It's great fun!