Exploring Pudong New District: Shenchun Hotel

Sometimes, when you do not make hotel reservations and half-ass plans for international travel, you end up in weird places. A few weeks ago, I was trying to make my way from Changzhou to New Jersey for my yearly family visit. I mistakenly thought I could go a day in advance and stay at the on-site hotel airport. Of course, it was fully booked with no available rooms. Pudong is one of China's most busy international air ports. So, I ended up being shuttled to an area about seven kilometers away. I had issues with my airline that lead to a rebooking, and as a result, I had to stay for a few days what felt like an utterly remote part of Shanghai. This was my eventual hotel....

Shenchen Hotel looks like a scummy dive on the outside. However, my room was clean, I had wifi, and a functioning shower. Actually, I have stayed at worst hotels in China, so this wasn't all that bad. Plus, the 198 RMB a night was actually a bargain. Still, sometimes you get what you pay for. 

And that involves staying next to a dirty, smelly canal along a back street in a small town. 

Where people live on barges and boats. 

The area did have a working class China feel. However, once I got out and walked around, the area -- named Jiangzhen on Baidu maps -- I began to notice that the whole area seemed to cater to overflow passengers from Pudong International. I just happened to end up at the cheaper side of that small town. More on that later.