Suzhou--the so-called Venice of the East--is about an hour from Shanghai. Other than the fact that it has canals, I'm not sure it bears any resemblance to Venice, but it does have an interesting mix of beautiful, pristine gardens, and grimy city streets. Definitely worth a day trip or two. Since I was there in 2004, I.M. Pei's Suzhou Museum has been completed...

I did a 5 month stint in the wonderful city of Shanghai, and I loved it! I lived in Xujiahui so I was close to many stores that mainly carried electronics and clothing. There is an IKEA, but why would you go there? I didn't have any experience with buying furniture, but HAGGLE EVERYTHING! Always go about a third of the sellers price and then work up slowly.

Places to go:
Hangzhou
Suzhou
Walk on Nanjing Rd
Eat Xiaolong Bao in YuYuan Garden
Shop at Qipulu

Places you should travel to:
Siem Reap, Cambodia- See Ankor Wat
Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lijiang, China
Kunming is a great sleepy city that most people haven't heard of in China
Chiang Mai, Thailand to Pai, Thailand


That's all I can think of, feel free to msg me if you need any more info. ENJOY!

cantina agave, corner of changle lu and fumin lu...i lived a block away and it was my second home...

beijng...need to spend at least a week or so on a trip there...camp on the great wall, see the forbidden city, see the new sanlitun village complex (contemporary retail that works as a people place, by an international roster of architects including SHoP) where the apple store is, and the new sanlitun SOHO across the street which is just finishing up...Q bar (top floor of Eastern Inn) for drinks...

south korea is quite a sterile place but cheap to get to...japan (tokyo, osaka, nagoya), all interesting with lots of contemporary architecture to see...from herzog and demeuron to jon jerde...

vietnam is appealing as a less-touristy version of most SE asian countries...need to get a visa before going - keeps the riff raff out...

suzhou and hangzhou are kinda meh to me after seeing so much of china before going there...some of the garden complexes in suzhou are cool...

the 1933 complex north of suzhou creek in shanghai is a must see restoration of an old abbatoir...has wine bars, shops and other stuff there now...

and if you fly a lot out of hongqiao, there's an element fresh downstairs for coffee and healthy breakfasts...

oh, as for the visa thing...depends if you work for a legit company or not...legit ones will do all the work for you and have an agent escort you to go sign papers at most plus a doctor's visit at a govt clinic to see if you have TB or HIV...you'll likely get a Z visa through this process...

non-legit ones will be done under the table with cash and require no work but result in an F visa which is for short term business and "study" trips....used to be most non-executive level foreigners worked on F's to lessen the tax burden for employers but they've cracked down a lot over the past few years and i'd expect during expo it will be the same...few companies make you do all the work yourself especially for someone new to the country...

so you'll know how much your company values you by what type of visa they get for you...if you get an L, then start looking for a new job cause they aren't committed to you...

I'm actually in shanghai right now but won't be for much longer, I'm wrapping up a two year stint and heading back to school in the fall.

Zhou zhuang is a cool water town near shanghai. I took a train to suzhou and then bus from there. It's packed with tourists shopping for tacky stuff during the day, but if you ask around you can find someone with a spare room and stay in the town for the night. When everyone leaves it's really quiet and peaceful, good for weekend trip with a girlfriend. Thames town is..... a bit creepy. It was an interesting thing to see, I actually went with my company as "research" for a project. It's basically a backdrop for wedding photos, but it's one of the more surreal things I've seen in china. Other nearby trips... I've heard nanjing is nice but haven't been, qingdao is not too far if you want some beaches, just got back from huangshan and I highly recommend it.

I haven't been to too much outside of china but I'm in the process now of planning a trip around before I leave and flights to japan are not as cheap as you might expect considering how close it is.

Can't help you out a lot with the fabrication, work visa shouldn't be a big issue and your company should be able to handle it pretty easily for you.

There's tons of awesome places in shanghai, personally I spent the first three months I was here just exploring and never got tired of it. A lot of cool bars and restaurants hidden away in unexpected places. Shoot me a message if you have any questions. Welcome to Shanghai and hope you enjoy it as much as i have!

use elong.com for plane tickets online, in english...they're partnered with expedia, so it's a pain free experience...ctrip.com also a good option if your office doesn't have a secretary or assistant who can help you out...both deliver the ticket to you wherever you want...never use a human agent unless you have no choice...

niuchao's right, japan's pricy even though they're so close...northwest used to offer unmatched A330 service and prices trans-pacific back to north america and to japan on a northwest china site, but since the delta merger, this has disappeared...can't find a delta equivalent but i haven't looked too hard either...i know delta has swapped out most of the A330's also for older planes...