Coast near Shanghai
 

For years, I have been wanting to visit the coast near Shanghai. When searching for hotels in Shanghai, Holiday Inn Express Nanhuizui - Shanghai came up as close to the coast as any. The price is extremely reasonable but there does not seems to be any public transportation near by according to one review.

I am staying in the city for 5 nights and like to spend the last night in Shanghai on the coast. How difficult it is for me to travel from city center (near the American Consulate office) to the hotel and then hotel to PVG?

Alternatively, I love to hear about other hotels that are good options to experience the bay and the sea near Shanghai.

Taicang north of Shanghai is an industrial port but offers better access to the seaside than the metropolis itself...

With the exception of Chongming Island within Shanghai city limits that is an ecological tourist destination.

Taicang has the typical offering of upscale Chinese hotels, no idea really about Chongming Island.

Thanks. Did not think of looking that direction. I looked from PVG out. Thinking (incorrectly) closer to airport, better transport.

Taicang and Chongming are shores of Yangtze, though, not open sea. Pudong is the part that includes the tip of the peninsula, open to sea.

There is very little development right on the Chinese coast until farther north, I venture to say Qingdao on the Shandong peninsula. It's the same with Japan. People in that part of the world know from millennia of experience that it's just a matter of time before whatever they build gets wiped away by a typhoon or tsunami. Look at what happened to Sendai and Fukushima in our recent memory. There is also the legacy of pirates and invasions. The Qing Dynasty used to prohibit people from living within something like 30 li from the coast.

Incidentally, I am in Dalian right now, on the coast of Bohai sheltered from the East China Sea. It's a real seaside city unlike Shanghai. I know this doesn't help OP, but a lack of coastal development is the reality for most of China.

On the horizon
 

JINSHAN District government plans to develop its coastline into a city sub-center with office buildings, tourism spots and cultural venues.

http://www.rmjm.com/wp-content/uploa...Jinshan-01.png

Master plan

http://contemporarycity.org/wp-conte...entixitu-1.jpg

I like the idea of going to that general area (moreso than points north or east previously mentioned), and the OP did explicitly mention "the bay".

Which would mean the coast is wild and unspoilt?
Are the open East China Sea shores of Shanghai and Nantong muddy, or exposed enough to be sandy?

There is nothing picturesque about the sea anywhere near Shanghai, but some of the resort type places are making an attempt to spruce things up a little (e.g. they bring their own sand).

Imported the sand from Hainan.

Chinese are experts on ocean sand projects.

http://prod-upp-image-read.ft.com/53...3-00144feab7de

I noticed once flying into PVG that all along the coast were small commercial fishing sites. I asked why the country doesn't build up the coast. They said its
for the people and food. The coast is not meant to be exploited for personal benefit.

Makes sense..why should rich people occupy property of the people?

http://www.thecoastalpropertyexperts...ch_rd_1024.jpg

So they can pay more taxes to pay for more public programs for the people. :) The Chinese just have a different notion of "location, location, location." When my family first immigrated to L.A., my grandparents were aghast that the most expensive real estate is by the ocean. They were brought up with the thinking of seeking higher ground.

Agreed about the lack of scenery along the coast. The area by Shanghai, and stretching both north to Yangzhou and south to Ningbo, it's mostly flat, muddy, and sporadically industrial -- definitely not wild and unspoiled. Come to think of it, can anyone ever recall a classical Chinese painting depicting a beach? :)

They sure do...$500,000 a year property tax on this place. :eek:
http://photos.zillowstatic.com/p_f/I...0000000000.jpg

My first reaction was... why??? There's nothing attractive about the coastline near Shanghai. It's muddy, the sea is yellow (it's called the Yellow Sea for a reason).

That said, it's not right on the sea but the IHG property at Dishui Lake (the artifically super-round lake) is bearable. Oh and there's a subway stop nearby, and some sailing clubs.

I can live with that. Things are the opposite in Malibu. It's the house on the hill that eventually ends up in the ocean. :)