Dear Friends,

I will be arriving in Shanghai on Monday evening, and wonder if anyone might give some advice for first arrivals and any other immediate needs that you can suggest:

- best way to travel from Pudong Airport to town [evening around 9.30];
- cost and approximate time expected for travel;
- reasonable hostels / hotels to stay at;
- message boards for flat rentals [beyond this one];
- locations and approximate costs for mobile phone SIM cards.

Thanks in advance for any help that you might provide in this regard. I look forward to meeting you all at one of the gatherings.

best,
spm

Take a taxi.. if you don't speak chinese - maybe someone on this board will write out a desination for you in chinese so you can print it out.

Cost to downtown across the river ( Puxi...) dpends on traffic but say 180 RMB.. about an hour.

The Shanghai hotel on Wulumuchi near Yan An lu is reasonable for a 3 star. Not sure of the current rates.. you may want to check elong.net.. or the hotel link on the front right page. It buy online it will be cheaper than if you show up.

Other places.. depends on your budget. -- many expat oriented agencies want to push the high end and don't have lot of time for the under 1000US market. Also might depend on where you want to live. Other than this site.. you might check thatsshanghai.com and shanghai-ed.com.

Sim cards.. everywhere.. there is a China Mobile outlet on Nanjing Road a couple blocks down from Shanxi. Just about every subway station has someone selling mobile phone sim cards and recharge cards.

Hi, this is Wendy from a real estate agency, and we have some apartments for sigle expat (monthly rental: USD600~1000 or more), NEED MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: bcwendy@vip.sina.com
or 13817803403

Many thanks,

Wendy