Stay Smarter
The most important life hack is to know the purpose of the hotel before booking. I would only recommend staying here if you have work in the Jiading/Anting area or have an event at the Shanghai International Circuit, not if your agenda is sightseeing in Shanghai, as the cost of traveling to and from the hotel will outstrip any savings made on the room rate. Check out the dates for the Chinese Grand Prix (F1) and other big exhibitions because the rates for rooms leap up then.
Mastering transportation around your new home is a way to get around a new place this suburban location tends not to have many traditional taxis. Installing the DiDi ride-hailing app will help you call what is basically a Chinese Uber; it works much better than attempting to find a regular taxi in the suburban areas. Take Line 2 to reach the city center. Buy a multi-day pass so you do not have to stand in line for too long to get tickets; warn yourself that each way on Line 11 can take over an hour. Design your days for easy sightseeing to minimize time spent shuttling back and forth.
Food at the hotel’s restaurants can be pricier. The DiDi ride to the center of Jiading New Town takes barely 10 minutes. There’s a big Jiading Wanda Plaza in this area, with huge shoe stores, and jewelry stores, and so many of such kinds; which host an unfathomable number of restaurants right from Chinese hot pot and noodle cafes up to international chains, so it anyway turns out to be a much better selection than the immediate vicinity of the hotel.
By no means, the other local attractions are to be forgotten; they are excellent by themselves. The Shanghai Auto Museum is an excellent, up-to-date museum that can be visited on foot. To the west, far history trips downtown but without the hours-long journey, take taxis 15-20 minutes to Anting Old Street or Nanxiang Ancient Town, an ancient water town. Nanxiang, as one of the three ancient towns near Shanghai, was peculiar in that it was the birthplace of xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). Visitors have a chance to taste authentic cultural and culinary specialties at the site of their ‘invention.’