Shanghai

The Grand Hyatt Shanghai was my luxurious home for the first leg of my unforgettable trip to China. This hotel is truly impressive from the lobby all the way to the rooms. All the comforts and techno needs are met by very professional staff so it really is worth it to stay in this fabulous hotel.

Day 1: Touring the Old City of Shanghai

Learning about a country’s culture is my first aim in traveling and visiting old districts is the best way to see it. I love roaming around this district in Shanghai! Just look at the pictures below of this building with its awesome roof that is very distinctly Chinese. I found out that this is Yu Garden Tourist Mart and the Huxinting Tea House. The Yu Garden Pond and its garden are simply amazing! Even the lanterns adorning the walkways of the shopping stores are really cute.

I was in a gorgeous boat ride along the Huangpu River that same night and it was a sight that made me say “wow”. I really love how the light played around the buildings and how it reflected happily in the river we were cruising on. Check out a short video I took below. You can clearly see the very distinctive Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower which for some time was China’s tallest structure from 1994–2007, when it was surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Touring The Bund 

The Bund or Wai Tan as it’s locally known , is Shanghai’s historical financial district. International banks have branches in this stretch of road which overlooks the Haungpu River. Historically, the buildings there used to be embassies of other nations so that’s where all the non-Asian architecture came from. It looks like a slice of Europe got transplanted here.

I highly recommend going to Shanghai in October as the weather was perfect for strolling. Tons of tourists were enjoying the place like I did. I read that like any other tourist area, there are unsavory people like scammers and thieves but I was thankfully spared that bad experience.

Shopping is something I enjoy everywhere and Shanghai’s Nanjing Road is perfect. And of course, when there are stores, there are fantastic restaurants and bars to go with it. We had a really nice dinner at Bund 18 and there were so many bars to choose from if you fancy a drink after dinner or stroll around The Bund at night with all the buildings lit up dramatically. Scroll through my pictures below and see some part of this amazing place.

Nanjing Road

Lucky touch

On the first picture below, you can see me touching these red doors which believed to be very lucky. So I kept touching them. LOL! It couldn’t hurt, right? One thing that I learned while I was there was that Chinese women respect men more than they do other women because for them, it is the men who make money. Quite interesting and very different from what I know.

And of course, drinking tea is very important for them. It was an experience buying tea there! To be able to buy tea, I had to sit down in a chair and taste their tea before buying. I was surprised that the most popular kind is black tea. I’ve always thought it was green tea. I really learned a lot in this trip!

I loved the chance to travel to Shanghai and I sure wish to be able to visit it again. you might be interested on beinjing as well scroll around for more places to visit in china…

 

 

Safe travels everyone!