Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Shanghai: City Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This guide is so close to being excellent but for some unknown reason Lonely Planet has decided that it is not necessary to list the names of sites, restaurants and the streets on maps in Chinese characters. This has been a complaint with all the previous editions, so I was hoping when pre-ordering this for a mid-May trip that they would remedy situation....but no, that would make too much sense. As reviewers of previous editions have pointed out 99% of cab drivers cannot read the "English" spellings of Chinese places. As a result, we found ourselves stuck having to have Chinese friends or hotel concierges go through and translates all the names in the book.....makes you wonder why you bought the guide in the first place. The maps have some Chinese names, but probably only for about 10% of the streets, and often not enough for cab drivers to figure out where to go. It boggles my mind that this guide could have so much good and insightful information yet leave out the basic of most basics. In the end we ended up having all the Chinese names written into the guidebook by hand (so we manually had to do what LP should have offered in the first place). Heck, maybe I should just Ebay our much more useful version of the guide. Aside from this major (and I mean major) fault the guide is very good. My only other complaints is that the text is microscopic (I am guessing 6 or 8pt), which helps make the book light, but also difficult to read. Also, the map keying system is just bizarre in that listings direct you to a map page but not the specific location where that listing is on the map....for that you have to go to a separate index page which then gives you the location on the map.
So in the end, I find it hard to recommend a guide that you will most likely have trouble getting around with unless you speak the language. It is just completely unacceptable for LP to leave this basic information out and why I can only give it 2 stars. Please learn from your mistakes Lonely Planet.

I recently returned from a trip to Shanghai and thought this was a great guide to the city. Although I love to explore most places on my own, I found Shanghai to be slightly intimidating (especially with all the ongoing construction), so I was definitely thankful I had this book with me.
Pros:
* Up-to-date information
* Offers a lot of good insight into Shanghai and the Shanghainese. I found the sections like identity, cuisine, economy, and architecture to be quite readable and interesting.
* Good maps
Cons:
* I was surprised by the other reviews, as my edition has Chinese for each address mentioned in the book. I agree that you initially expect the Chinese to be in the text (next to the romanization), but it's actually on the map keys. This is a minor flaw but did not affect me, as I often looked at the maps when I decided where to go. I guess if you never consult this section however, you might not realize that it's there.
Bottom line:
This was the most up-to-date guide I saw, and (as far as I know)is the only one with comprehensive listings in Chinese--they got me where I wanted to go every single time I took a cab. Good job.

I find this book quite good what comes to ideas for places to visit. There is something for everybody in there, and it covers most important spots you just have to see in Shanghai.
However, the big mistake is indeed that names and addresses for EACH place are not in Chinese/hanzi.

If you will use this book, my tip would be to pick out the places in the book before leaving for Shanghai and get their Chinese/hanzi version written down in a notebook or similar.
Also a map in both English and Chinese, or more accurately: in pinyin and hanzi, would be very useful for you.

Good luck with your trip and enjoy Shanghai.

I have read this book cover to cover in anticipation for my trip to Shanghai. I am hoping that it will save me time and money by giving me a view of the city and details that would take many months to aquire. It was an easy read and well organized. I would however recommend that you do a search online for hotel rooms as there are many deals in the hotel market that were not even mentioned in the book. Happy Trials, BB.

As of June 2007, this book has become out of date. Many of the shikumen houses that I went to visit have been torn down in Shanghai in an effort to modernize the city by 2010 for the World Expo. Maps of the metro subways are also out of date. The book currently has partial maps of the 2 lines. There are now 5 different subway lines and still many more to be built. This book is a great introduction to Shanghai, but it is out of date (just like pretty much all the other books on the city).

To sum it up, pretty good book, but just don't count on the book being your only source of information on Shanghai.

This book is amazing. First time using a guidebook and first for the Lonely Planet. Will definitely buy more. Maps wonderful, chinese names for everything and very good restaurant recommendations. Found a tiny restaurant off a back alley and was amazing for a great price. Wonderful spend and would recommend to everyone!!!

This book gives ou a nice overview of the region, and incredible specific tips for visiting Shanghai.