Exploring East Surabaya Urban Attraction Park Shanghai

Before I am talking about the real happy news I got the other day, let me share some of my experience having a day trip to Surabaya, the capital province of East-Java. It’s a vibrant modern port city with a lot of urban attractions.Albeit pretty hot, if you love urban living and cityscapes, Surabaya is a must visit in Indonesia. There are plenty of attractions , especially arts, city parks, museums, and even plenty of festivals. Now that I think about it, there are parts of Surabaya that remind me of typical big cities across South East Asia. Since Surabaya is quite big with many areas, I was visiting a place called Park Shanghai and this was my experience there, so follow along my journey !

Travel hack alert!

Recently, I am following a travel hack which basically helps reduce the cost to travel and commute by train. While this isn’t a new thing at all, only on Thursday I was able to try it. The hack is basically paying less for a premium serviced train by ordering 60 minutes to 30 minutes before the train departure. I was very fortunate to wake up a bit early and to catch a train that was about to depart to Surabaya from my place.

You can do this with many destinations across Java and this has to be done using KAI application which is downloadable on playstore and googlestore. From there, you can find many reduced prices of destinations across the island with the rule being what I mentioned above.

From my city, it was a 50 minute train ride and I could see from my train window, the sky was clear. It looked pretty hot too from inside the train and boy I wasn’t wrong. Once I stepped out of the train, it felt like I was stepping into a massive sauna box!

Once reaching Surabaya, we directly ordered a Grab and got to our destination which is located on the East side of Surabaya. The driver was so kind to us and explained many things. He was about as old as my mom and even still enthusiastic about being a Grab driver. He was chatty and since he was a local from our city too, he went full blown nostalgia talking about his childhood and experiences living in that city.

“ It’s still so hot,why do you go to the park this early?” He asked because it’s pretty unusual and he went on telling us the park is more vibrant and cool to visit at night than in a broad daylight.

“ Our next train leaves at 8, so we only have a short time checking out the area” my mom replied and the driver was right! Once we were being dropped, we were as clueless as a fish out of the water.

We were dropped in some type of bus shelter and had to walk inside the mall. Apparently, Park Shanghai is located adjacent to the shopping mall.

Park Shanghai Pakuwon City

According to our Grab driver, this park is a new spot in town. He went during the opening of the park and told us how grand the opening was. He further told us that it’s bigger than the one in PIK Jakarta. Not that I’ve been to Shanghai or China before but this park was decorated with Chinese architecture and ornaments. One being the landmark is the Pagoda and the dragon in front of the entrance to this park. There’s also bigger buildings around the area with imposing structures which host restaurants and one in particular a Kopitiam called Ah Pek.

But before we walked around the area, we got a drink from Sancha, a milk tea company that’s pretty similar to a famous brand called Chagee. They sell various tea options and for tea lovers, this could be their next favorite tea joint. It was my first time getting the tea just because I was curious about the taste. I got a rose tea and it was so refreshing especially when outside it was so blazingly hot.

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There’s no fee entrance to Park Shanghai & you can simply stroll around the area. The first thing you will see is called Gates of Prosperity and it’s a great family photo spot. Since we went during midday, nobody was around and it was a great time to take as many pictures as we wanted.

Throughout the area, there are many signs as below which contain information about ethnically Chinese culture and things around the area. There are 3 bigger landmarks around the area that if you get near to the pagoda, you can see a blend of Chinese culture with skyscrapers adjacent to the area which you can see in the next pictures later!

After halfway circling the place, we decided to get some lunch in the area. There are many eateries you can choose from and if you love pork, this is one of those spots where you can find different types of pork dishes. I ended up choosing a simple Nasi Campur with assorted types of pork. It was pretty good and the portion was big enough for one person. I couldn't finish the rice and just went with the pork. I learned my lesson to just order the pork without the rice 😂

After we had lunch, we explored some more of the spots and here are the pictures! It makes you feel like you’re definitely entering a little Shanghai/somewhere in China.

Some areas worth checking out in Park Shanghai!

• Nearby the pond and pagoda !

• The Pagoda

• Some murals around the area depicting Chinese culture

• best spot to take pictures!

Since I had something to do,we retreated to the mall to shade and also to find some power sockets for our phone and my laptop & when we left the place, this park got even more lively with so many lights surrounding the area.

After spending some hours exploring the place, this area is like a one stop living center. You can find a hotel, apartment, shopping malls, even a church and this little shanghai in just one area. When I was there it wasn’t as noisy as the place I am living. How comfortable life can be around there, that’s what I thought 😂 it looks semi-upscale to me as everyone said west of Surabaya is even more upscale than this place. But knowing that there was low level noise around the neighborhood and area, makes me want to live there!

If you ever visit Surabaya, check out this Park Shanghai and around east Surabaya. It’s worth checking out!