When I was there I printed the 'contact' page of the venue I wanted to visit, then cut out the actual address, in Chinese of course, plus the phone number.

Shanghai 4 and 5 star hotels (maybe also 3 star) have excellent concierge staff who speak pretty good English, always very helpful and very polite, in most cases they wrote the address in English for me then called the number to get a close landmark for the taxi driver. Hotels have access to street maps on line and they use this to double check Chinese to English translation etc. Many times the venue asked for an approximate time that I would arrive and a staff member would be waiting for the taxi on the footpath outside.

Buses are workable and the underground is also not that difficult. Again conciege staff very helpful and many have excellent bus / underground maps. Things like this are very well developed in Shanghai.

Numerous times I stayed in a 4 star hotel in Shanghai called the 'Merry Rendezvous', good hotel, very modern, very central location . There's a bus stop right outside and many times the concierge staff would write my destination etc in Chinese characters, then one of the young bellboys (always full of smiles and so keen to be helpful) would put me on the bus and tell the driver my destination. It always worked and always a smile from the driver, and the vast majority of buses are very modern.

I should mention that in the clubs and bars the majority of locals are looking for other Chinese and visiting Singaporeans are very popular, but of course there's also quite a few who want to meet westerners. I also found that in the clubs and bars you can meet many young professional people who are quite willing to talk to you but not interested in anything more.

It's well worth a visit.

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