Lonely Planet Shanghai Updates (February 2010)

The new Shanghai city guide is due out in a few days, which makes it a good time to initiate a “Shanghai Updates” category – if ever there was a guidebook that needed an online updates page somewhere, this would be the one. Feel free to post your own discoveries (good or bad) here. To kick things off, I’ll start with the closures – yes, some listings have already closed before the book was even published, but hey, that’s what this page is for.

Closures

Blue Frog (p 172, Eating/Jing’an) The Blue Frog location on Tongren Rd has closed, though their other branches remain open. There is additionally a new branch on the 2nd floor of the World Financial Center. Check here for details.

City Diner (p 172, Eating/Jing’an) This long-standing American diner on Tongren Rd has finally gone under.

Windows (p183, Drinking/French Concession) Goodbye Y15 drinks…I guess you can’t break even in Shanghai with cheap beer.

Openings

Great World 大世界; (p76-77, Sight/People’s Sq) Everyone knew this was going to reopen at some point, but no one was ever sure when. Finally, according to the Shanghai Daily: “SHANGHAI’S landmark entertainment hall The Great World will reopen before May after a seven-year closure. It will show movies, operas, and amusements such as its renowned distorting mirrors.” Now the question is, is this place (and their distorting mirrors) actually going to be any fun?

Check back in June for a full update (assuming it opens on schedule!).

Map (The location tagged as Great World here is incorrect-the real location is in the southwest corner of the window, at the intersection of Yan’an Elevated Rd and South Xizang Rd [along which the metro lines run]. Or you can look at the LP map on p66, where it is listed correctly.)

Yin 音; (Restaurant/French Concession/2nd fl, 4 Hengshan Rd, 衡山路4号2楼，近乌鲁木齐南路; tel 5466 5070; metro Hengshan Rd) My review for the previous incarnation of Yin (they’re claiming a similar menu and style) was: “A throwback to the 1930s, Yin emanates soft, jazzy decadence with its hardwood flooring, antique hanging screens, qípáo -clad waitresses and Ella Fitzgerald on the stereo. But they’re as much visionaries as they are traditionalists. The kitchen has adopted older cooking techniques – back from the days before MSG – and prepares standout regional dishes from across China, including the superbly named ‘squid lost in a sandstorm’. English menu.”

Map (note that what is marked on the map is not Yin, it’s just a landmark that is close to where Yin is located).

Check back in June for an update.

Changes

Xiao Nan Guo (p159/Eating/People’s Sq) A production error resulted in this restaurant being placed on the Jing’an map (pp98-99) instead of the Bund map. The location is still correcthowever.

Delays

Metro Line 10 – The maiden run for this line may be delayed by two weeks to mid April. Some stations will not open until October to coordinate with construction of Hongqiao train station (future terminal for high-speed trains to Beijing).

Metro Line 2 – This isn’t actually delayed, but just to clarify – full service from Pudong Airport to Hongqiao Airport is expected to begin before the World Expo kicks off in May (but not much earlier than that).