Exiting Yuyuan Garden, we entered the Yuyuan Bazaar, which is a market area in the old Chinese neighborhood. We were looking for the famous dish Shanghai is famous for, Xiao Long Bao – soup dumpling with meat. Back in Yu Garden, we had wanted to try this delicious Xiao Long Bao in the traditional restaurant but they were closed for renovations!

Nanxiang Xiao Long Bao – Food Court Branch

The good news is, they had a signboard pointing to another branch inside a food court.

I was quite disappointed that we did not get to eat the dumplings in a traditional restaurant surrounding. I started questioning whether the food would be equally great. Walking into the place on the 2nd level, we discovered a food court setting with several stalls. We picked up the food and bring over to a central counter to make payment.

After that, we had to take our own cutlery from a self-serve station.

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Taste Review – 

Xiao Long Bao 小笼包 – Small Dumpling

Quite a few reviewers said that the Nanxiang Xiao Long Bao is over-rated but we did enjoyed the taste. However, if you want to compare to Taiwan Din Tai Feng’s dumplings, it is not as flavourful. There was still something different. As this is a famous brand, the price was not cheap too. The skin of the Shanghai Xiao Long Bao was also thicker with less meat, probably to hold more soup.

Besides Xiao Long Bao, Vin decided to order Shanghai Shao Mai to try too. Well, we regretted that and thought we could have ordered more Xiao Long Bao. We did not want to waste food however and this was all we could stomach. Both our kids love to eat Xiao Long Bao, so they gave a good verdict for this.

Soup Dumpling 灌汤包

Drawn by the novelty of eating the soup dumpling, we bought one to try too. To eat that, one must insert a straw into the dumpling and drink the hot soup. I was hesitant about the temperature because you couldn’t just suck up hot soup and burn yourself! Thus, we poke a bigger hole and waited for a while before we gingerly tried the soup. It was around the same taste! However, since the soup was not as flavourful (compared to the meat), it did not leave an impression on us.

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Souvenir Shopping

Satisfied with our late lunch snack break, we ventured out into Yuyuan Bazaar to do some souvenir shopping.

It was an experience just walking through the narrow streets in the Yuyuan Bazaar as there were too many people (it was a Saturday). We had to squeeze through and made sure we do not get separated with each other.

The surroundings and shops were designed with beautiful Chinese architecture and I wished we could have stop or slowly admire. However, it was almost impossible to browse the shops properly with people pushing behind and from the sides.

Shanghai Souvenirs Bought:

In the end, we escaped into only one shop with some nice bookmarks and spend sometime selecting souvenirs there. It was just too tiring to explore further.

If you have more time, you could actually stroll through hundreds of shops selling jewelries, silk, antiques, arts, crafts, souvenirs and local snacks.

The sky soon turned dark and the eaves of buildings lit up beautifully. We had no time to linger as we had two more itineraries for the night – The Bund and Nanjing East Road （南京东路步行街) with Dinner at a restaurant. Instead of going back as planned, we decided to head straight for the Bund (外滩) by calling a taxi.

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Shanghai: Day 1 Itinerary

• Departure from Singapore to Shanghai
• Arrival in Shanghai
• Taxi to SSAW Boutique Hotel Shanghai Bund
• Yu Yuan or Yu Garden 豫园
• Lunch at Yu Yuan – Nanxiang Steamed Bun 南翔小笼包
• The Bund
• Nanjing East Road / Dinner
• Back to Hotel

Read More of our China 2018 Trip: 9-Day Family Travel Itinerary in China Shanghai, Suzhou & Hangzhou

Tips For Travelling in China: “Essential Tips for Safe Family Travel in China“