F1 Shanghai

Recommend you join a race team for the month prior to the race. Or steal one of their badges and hit a ride on the coach.

Failing that, I'd recommend a chauffered rickshaw.

SH GP is really really really really fuking boring, you've been warned.

If you're already in ASia, why not check out Singapore or Japanese GP?

FTFY.

--Andre

My friend has been living and working in Shanghai for over a year. He had a few friends from his UCLA days stop by for the race, and they decided to get there early and tailgate like they did for school games. He said people were confused, taking photos of them, and asking them why they were cooking their own food when they could go in early and get some with their race tickets. Eventually, some cops came and told them they couldn't continue on with the grilling.

My cousin--who works for China Telecom--went to one of the inaugural races and said nobody paid any attention to the actual race.

It was more of something one did because it's expensive and it showed that one had access to such bourgeois social rituals.

So basically it's a reverse Nascar?

^ or Nascar for rich folks

The China GP is probably one of the worst to go to (unless it rains) - boring track, no atmosphere. The F1 race is always poorly attended. I went to the F1 Race in Abu Dhabi last year and it was awesome (well the trip in general). Tons of enthusiastic fans (~60% were non-locals) and the organizers went waay out of their way to make sure it was a sucess. The track was a little boring but can't complain about much else.

Anyway, if you're definitely going do take pictures and let us know how it goes for you.

You may've noticed that the cheap seats have sold out. This probably means that the tickets will be scalped for higher, which is an annoyance. The Bund is really, really far away from the track (or, more appropriately, the track is far away from everything) so expect to take a long time from your hotel to the race. I've heard in the past that they've carted in schoolkids to fill seats, so we'll see how that turns out.

The Westin is, in theory, a very nice hotel but I hate it. I don't know what the deal is there but there are literally dozens of hookers crawling all over the lobby, and they aggressively pursue all comers. Maybe it's different now, but of all the hotels I have ever been across the world, I have never seen anything quite like it. Maybe the hotel manager was getting a cut or something. I also don't particularly like the location - it's close to the Bund but it's not quite on it and there's not much right there by the hotel. Any food/bev in the hotel itself is going to be awfully overpriced. I'd recommend looking into the Radisson New World instead - it's priced the same/less and still easily approachable for Westerners but the location on People's Square and at the head of Nanjing Rd. is much better. I'm sure others will have hotel suggestions that are even far, far better than that... just I have had recent good experiences there. I don't know where the track is but you're probably going to want to take a taxi. They're affordable in SH and my guess is that, like everything else in SH, it's far far away from the city, made even farther by the fact that traffic is awful 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I once went to the Shanghai Tennis Masters because I happened to be in town when it was going on. I was stoked to get tickets. Then the taxi took 2 hours to get there, got lost hopelessly along the way, and I missed the first hour or so of what I wanted to see. It was annoying. When is the GP? If you're missing the Expo by less than a month, that's a shame. It looks like it will be a pretty interesting event.

No actualy Shanghai advice other than haggle everything. If you're not dealing with a Western company, the price is negotiable and should be negotiated lower.

I've only been for tourism and I'm lucky my mom was able to bicker in chinese else our trip probably would've ended 3 days sooner.