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You Can 谢谢 Us Later: Shanghai Restaurant Week Opens Reservations

Restaurant Week deals aren't just for major cities in the United States, nosireebob. Believe it or not, Shanghai and their multitude of fancy-pants eateries have been getting in on the discounted 3-course meal act for several years now, and the deals are again good from September 5-11.

Alack and alas, the majority of the 70 restaurants on the bill either specialize in western cuisine or call the 4-and 5-star hotels of the city home. This is not a deterrent! Hotel restaurants in Shanghai are not the hotel restaurants you're thinking of; they offer some of the most diverse menus, dramatic views and dressed-up evenings you can find in the Pearl of the Orient, and with a three-course dinner costing 248 RMB, or about $38 or a three-course lunch at 118 RMB, or $17, it's only good news.

The city is a bit like our photo above—it's completely traditional and affordable in some areas, but those parts are almost immediately followed by the high-gloss modern neighborhoods with their famous-chef restaurants and gold gilt bathroom faucets. You've just got to learn to love both, and getting the latter fancy food for cheap helps.

Reservations opened TODAY! Go here to get them.

[Photo: Cynthia Drescher]

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The World's Fastest Train to Zip Between Beijing and Shanghai Starting July 1

Amazing news from Shanghaiist today: The world's fastest train will begin traveling between Shanghai and Beijing as soon as July 1! For lovers of train travel, technology and more transportation options, this is huge news. Plus, it means far less airport congestion and delays on this popular and heavily-trafficked route.

The zippity-quick train at the focus of the new service is the CRH380, a beast of a bullet train that most closely resembled an actual bullet, more so than any other bullet train we've seen. It's a China-designed and China-made train, coming in both 8-car and 16-car lengths. It made the world record for fastest train last year, after the 16-car version hit an incredible 486 km/h (302 mph).

· Time it takes to fly between Beijing and Shanghai: 2 hours for just the flight, not counting airport transportation, security and wait times.

· Time it takes the CRH830 to travel from Beijing to Shanghai: 4 hours, 48 minutes

· Time it takes a regular train to travel from Beijing to Shanghai: 9 hours, 49 minutes

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Where to Find the World's First (and Only) Store Devoted to Moleskine Notebooks

We bet New York, San Francisco and Paris are quite jealous of Shanghai right now. Why? Because earlier this month, the world's first standalone Moleskine notebook store opened in the city's Xintiandi Style Mall. Shanghaiist kindly reminds us that Moleskines are "supposedly the notebook of choice for Oscar Wilde, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and Henri Matisse," but we know them to be equally beloved by contemporary travel writers and creatives as a stylish physical alternative to tapping away on a laptop all the time.

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Mickey Mouse Isn't Letting an Earthquake and Tsunami End His Fun in Asia

April is a big month for Disney when it comes to its theme parks in Asia. It seems like we’ve been talking about the House of Mouse opening up a new park in China for some time now, but it looks like tomorrow is the day when the bulldozers, shovels, and cranes finally arrive in Shanghai. The official groundbreaking is set for April 8—assuming all goes according to plan.

It takes quite some time for all those iconic Disney rides and attractions to be built from the ground up, so don’t expect to visit anytime soon. As of now, they’re thinking that it’s going to take about five years or so. The city of Shanghai has created a special tourist zone just for the park, and they’ve set aside just shy of 2,000 acres for hotels, parking lots, and a lake. They’ll also be adding a stop to their subway system too, so accessing Mickey will be pretty simple.

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Things We Like to Hear: $777 for Six Nights in Beijing and Shanghai, Airfare and Hotels Included

The World Expo is over, the Barbie flagship store has opened and President Obama has said 再见 (goodbye) to the Great Wall for now...so what else is going on in China these days? Well, you can go see for yourself as a huge trip deal just hit our inbox and we'd be booking it right now if China didn't block sites like Facebook and Twitter. ChinaSpree.com is offering a $777 Winter Special package that includes air from San Francisco (New York is $200 more), 6 nights in four-star hotels with breakfast, airfare between Shanghai and Beijing, and airport-hotel transfers.

Okay now think about it: $777 for all that—a week-long trip to the two big Chinese cities with air, hotels and transfers—costs less than just the regular airfare should be. Granted you'll probably be flying Air China, but we've been before and would fly them again.

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Mickey Sends His Passport in for More Pages in Advance of Shanghai Disneyland's Arrival

Way back in the not so distant past of 2009, we found out that Shanghai was on Mickey’s radar for his latest theme park. Fast forward about a year, and now it seems that Chinese officials have given the green light for Disney to bring its bulldozers into the country to prepare the foundation for the world’s newest Disneyland.

Sure there’s already a park in Hong Kong, but it seems that the biggest prize for Disney has always been to set up a place filled with rides, attractions, and gift shops somewhere within mainland China. After all, things in Hong Kong haven’t been crazy successful, so maybe they’re thinking it will be different away from the water.

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Chanel Cements Their Love for Shanghai with a Museum Exhibit

If you're a fan of fashion, and French luxury brand Chanel in particular, then you may want to consider taking your vacation to Shanghai. Chanel is uber-focused on the Chinese city lately, having brought a special runway show to them plus a whole new flagship store within the just-opened Peninsula Hotel on the Bund.

Come January, there'll be 1/3 more Chanel in the city, with the debut of a "Culture Chanel" exhibition at Shanghai's Museum of Contemporary Art. Last time we were in Shanghai, their MoCA had devoted a few months to shoe master Salvatore Ferragamo, so fashion is definitely a big focus for locals and tourists alike.

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American Airlines Gets Shanghai'd!

Can you name the airlines that currently fly direct between Los Angeles and Shanghai? Hint: it's really easy because currently, there are only two and both are Chinese airlines. Okay, the answer is China Eastern and Air China. Such limited choice for such a high-traffic route, but soon all this will change as it was announced today that American Airlines has been given approval to pick up the route as well.

Previously, AA was codesharing the route with China Eastern, but that's just not enough and thanks to the DOT, American's LAX-PVG route will begin on April 5, 2011. It will be flown on Boeing 777s, boasting 16 First Class, 37 Business Class and 194 Economy Class seats. According to the press release, American is super excited to get over there and devour some xiaolongbao : "These new flights will enrich American's customer service offering to China and will expand American's schedule at Los Angeles International Airport, one of its five cornerstone cities."

American will be the only US airline flying the direct route, so expect some nice, fat flight specials on Shanghai flights coming up for spring! Just be sure to get your Chinese Visa sorted out before booking your trip.

[Photo: boeingdreamscape]

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Apple's Three Newest International Stores are Tourist Hotspots

Today at 10am PDT, Apple's Steve Jobs stepped out on stage to give the company's autumn keynote address. Along with all sorts of product announcements like a smaller, touch-screen Nano, a fresh Shuffle and chic black Apple TV, Jobs also briefly detailed the newest additions to their collection of stores around the world.

The three—Apple Paris, Apple in Covent Garden, London and Apple Shanghai—helped the company reach the 300 stores worldwide milestone, and they're already open. Considering how Apple's 5th Avenue store is one of the most photographed places in New York City and a featured location in guidebooks, we're not amiss in saying that the the new London, Paris and Shanghai stores will soon become as hot a tourist spot as any other landmark.

Already we gravitate to the glowing glass facades of Apple stores in international cities when we visit, and just to mooch off the free WiFi signal.

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Chow Down During Shanghai Restaurant Week in September

Whampoa Club

Foodies who will be in Shanghai from September 6 to 12 better make reservations now for the second annual Shanghai Restaurant Week.

An extra incentive to hit up the participating high-end restaurants is that you'll get a great deal: a three-course dinner will cost you 238 RMB, or about $35, and a three-course lunch will be 118 RMB, or $17.

But don't expect to be overwhelmed by options for authentic Chinese cuisine. According to CNNGo, most of the 28 participating restaurants skew toward Western cuisine or are in hotel venues, although few of the major Chinese restaurants will take part.

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A Shanghai World Expo Alternative: The Barbie Spa

A Barbie-tini in the Barbie Cafe

Had a long day of walking around Shanghai, visiting the giant World Expo? Add another one-of-a-kind place to your visit then, perhaps with a treatment at the world's only Barbie Spa.

Last year, a Barbie Flagship store complete with Barbie Cafe, Barbie Boutique and Barbie Chocolate Bar opened in Huaihai Road in the Fashion District, but it's only recently that we've discovered that the two-storied, 35,000-square-foot place also contains a Barbie Spa. Order a Barbie-tini and a Barbie body scrub, and let's just hope that neither contains contains bits o' Barbie.

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Jaunted Braves The Shanghai World Expo

When we arrived in Shanghai last week we told anyone that would listen that we planned on spending some time over at the World Expo. Immediately, everyone we told had the same ominous look on their face as they wished us the best of luck. Their grim look was followed by stories of heat exhaustion, endless queues, pavilion confusion, and yes, even folks faking disabilities to bypass long lines.

Could it be that bad? Worse, our Shanghainese friends promised. Don't even bother showing up on a weekend, if you go on a weekday get there at 7 AM—2 hours before opening—and prepare yourself for pushing, possible line cutting, and more. Then run to try and get a fast pass, or to make reservations at a couple of the most popular pavilions—China & Saudi Arabia for instance.

Could it really be this nuts? We had just read how the daily visitor numbers for the Expo were lower than expected. However, our contacts informed us that every family in Shanghai had been gifted one ticket to the Expo, and maybe the visitor numbers we heard were tourist numbers, not local.

Ok, so we needed to devise a plan that involved checking out the Expo without losing our sanity. That meant, avoiding the morning "running of the expo".

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