I am so excited to share my China travel guide! I traveled to China for 9 days and visited Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing. It was such an eye opening experience! Lucky for me I had the opportunity to fly United Airlines business class so my flights to and from were a piece of cake! I had the luxury of a seat that converts to a full horizontal bed! The personal TV and delicious meals didn’t hurt either. Plus, I had my own robe, slippers, toiletries kit and pillow/blanket. United made me feel right at home.
I had to pack for a temperature range of 30-85 degrees Fahrenheit, because I was traveling to three totally different cities. It wasn’t challenging because I brought a big enough luggage that fit everything from my wool coats to flip flops. With my well sized travel luggage I was packed and ready for all three cities! If you have plans to travel soon, or are in need of a new luggage check out Nasaden luggage on Amazon! For 40% off you can use promo code: 40YUS2QU up until 1/9/19! Could be a great Christmas gift! You know the bigger the better! Just kidding, but imaging how excited you would be to receive a gift wrapped up this big! FYI I got the 29″ hard-side luggage which was perfect for international travel.
In China communication could be a problem if you don’t speak Chinese. It’s very likely that you’ll encounter a bit of miscommunication! I had never really experienced a language barrier when traveling internationally so it was quite difficult to communicate with people. I had been to Asia once before when I studied abroad in Thailand for a month, but that was different. Tourism is one of the main industries there, therefore most people speak English. China felt like a whole different world. With such a well established economy, tourism is definitely not the focus. I would recommend downloading the Google Translate App as this was our saving grace when we didn’t have a translator.
Another quick tip is that in China most websites are blocked, but if you’re using your phones data plan then you would have no problem surfing the web and going about your normal phone activity. It’s only when you’re on wifi…I believe, at least I didn’t encounter any problems. I bought Verizon’s Travel Pass plan for my trip so I would have unlimited talk, text and data. As a blogger I didn’t want to be worried about my apps being blocked and not having enough service. I highlight recommend it! It’s just one less thing to worry about.
The air quality in China is not the best. I got an alert from my Google weather app giving me air quality warnings. If you’re not too embarrassed about it I would recommend buying a face mask. They sell them pretty much everywhere and they are very accessible. I learned the hard way and did NOT wear one. On my first day back to the states I played soccer with friends for a co-ed league and could barely breath! My chest felt like it was burning and I felt the toxic impact on my lungs. After a few days the feeling went away, but it was definitely hard to run right when I got back.
Sanitation also isn’t the best. I would recommend bringing small travel size tissue packs to use as toilet paper and bring hand sanitizer! Most bathrooms are not your typical toilet seats in fact they are holes in the ground. So get ready to squat and feel those thighs burn!
Shanghai was my favorite city out of all three. It’s the fashion capital of China and reminded me of New York! Everyone was so stylish, and the city was very modern.
We stayed at an amazing hidden luxury resort, The Puli Hotel and Spa. After we checked in we had tea on the outdoor patio which so tranquil with a still pool next to us. The workout facility was clean and I made sure to put that to use, but my favorite part was the bathtub in the rooms!
We went to a restaurant called Mercato located right off the Bund which is a beautiful waterfront area providing breathtaking views. I would recommend going at night, because it’s basically a light show on the water! The Bund is definitely a must-see location. It’s also considered the “museum of buildings”. You’ll get a chance to see buildings of various architenctural styles! Other great restaurants to try while you’re in Shanghai are M on the Bund, and Din Thai Fung for soup dumplings, and all other kinds of dumplings! Other fun things to do while in Shanghai are visit the Jing’an Temple, Starbucks Reserve, and of course shopping. Shanghai is known to be the “Paris of the East”.
Shenzhen was more tropical and definitely warmer. Shenzhen has had rapid grown and is a very modern, clean city because of it’s rapid and fairly new expansion. I spent only one night there at the Ritz-Carton. At this point I was pretty tired and ordered in room service. I will say everyone there was very nice and my pineapple pizza was delicious.
Beijing is a very historical city, which reminded me of D.C.. There’s so much site seeing and it’s obviously a very political and traditional city. We stayed at the Peninsula Hotel, which was so delightful! I had my own walk in closet to hang all of my coats, because it was so much colder there.
Although I’m a pescatarian I have to admit I tried peking duck at the restaurant 1949 The Hidden City. It’s a very well known dish particularly in Beijing, so I had to experiment! They hit a gong when they brought it out, and cut it fresh right in front of you! Other fun things to do in Beijing are visit the Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, and take a stroll on Wangfujing Snack Street to taste exotic foods like scorpion kabobs. Need I say more? Let’s just say I stuck with noodles, and frozen yogurt with fruit, but my friend ate scorpion! They are alive on a stick until they fry them…so you eat them fresh if that makes it more appealing.
For the Great Wall of China we visited the Mutianyu section of the wall. You can take a bus but we hired a private tour guide who drove us there and spoke English. If you would like their contact be sure to leave a comment below and I’d be happy to provide! It’s quite a workout so be prepared! The climb is pretty steep once you’re on it! Once you get to the location you have to take a shuttle bus, then a chair lift to the actual wall. It was one of my favorite places to visit.
China was like the wild wild west, meaning anything goes! One of our inside jokes on the trip was China is China. However you want to interpret that. If you go you must go to KTV a.k.a Korean TV, a.k.a Karaoke. It’s a must! I will say I went and had a blast. It’s not complete without an order of dumplings and shrimp flavored chips. If I ever go back I’d love to go to Chengdu to visit the Pandas, as well as Hong Kong. If I were to visit a second time I’d definitely go back to Shanghai! I didn’t get enough time there and it was such a cool place. In general everyone around me was Chinese and for the first time I felt like a minority. I think it’s good to be able to experience that feeling because it grounds you. Overall, I loved my visit to China and I hope you found my China Guide helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions! There are so many other things to do that I didn’t touch on so please ask away if you’re curious!
Thanks again for reading! XOXO
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