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Shopping and Nightlife Guide for Hangzhou, China

Hangzhou being the capitol of Zheijiang Province, it surely is a popular tourist attraction, for both, chinese and foreign travellers.
As I have already written about my first trip to Hangzhou in this blogpost which was more about the touristy spots, I will write about a more relaxed trip in this post.

1. Eating and Shopping:
There are many shops in the main shopping street in Hangzhou (like Zara, H&M, Forever 21,...), but if you want to experience something more unique, you should take a look at Hefang Street. There, you can try a lot of street food and buy interesting souvenirs for friends and family, like fans, bamboo umbrellas, hand-carved keychains, toys, calligraphy brushes and more.









These sweets were soooo yummy!

2. Nightlife:
From yummy restaurants and cozy pubs to hip bars and fancy clubs. You can find a lot of possibilities in this city.
My favourite location was the Eudora Station pub which is a restaurant and a bar. I have only been there for their burgers, but I have heard amazing things about their parties. 
And this is their burger
Another good place to eat is a fish restaurant called LuYu. It serves grilled fish with vegetables. It is really yummy *o*

For clubs, I would actually only suggest to go to one club there which is called Club SOS. It's like a mixture between chinese and western style club with many dance shows and performances. The dancing space might be too small but the drinks are very tasty and quite cheap compared with other clubs.


There is another club called Queen we spent New Years Eve at. It looks really fancy from the outside and is quite big inside. But the music style is very electronic-based and the dance floor is tiny with too many people pushing. It's best to dance remotely somewhere maybe close to the bar.

3. Activities around the West Lake:
There are several performances on and around the lake. One of them we saw was the fountain show which takes place every evening and is for free. They actually show it 2 or 3 times in a row on one night. It is really beautiful.



Of course there are way more things to explore in Hangzhou and it is up to every single person how to spend time in a city. Some like to check all the cultural and historical spots, while others enjoy a rather relaxed stay with a lot of delicous food and shopping. I enjoy a mix of both.
Blogging China Fish
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Shanghai - Biggest city in the world

In that week I was anticipating my first trip to Shanghai. I should be meeting an old friend of mine there who I used to know from uni. He studies chinese and was just doing his study abroad in Beijing. For his last few days he would be staying in Shanghai together with his girlfriend who came to visit him in China.
I was really excited since it would be my first time in such a big city, to be exact, one of the biggest and the most populated city in the world as I found out.

Friday, July 24th: 
After I left work at 4pm, I quickly left for the train station. Since it was still new to me to travel by train in China, I was a bit nervous that I would miss the train, but I didn't.
I finally arrived in Shanghai when it was already evening, so the streets were all lit up, and crowded. I can't describe how positively overwhelmed I felt when I first had a glance at this bright, colourful street of Nanjing Lu. I was nervous and a bit anxious, but at the same time I was so excited to spend time in that gorgeous metropolis.
After appreciating the view, I started to look for my hostel called Captain Hostel. It wasn't hard to find since it was close to the shopping street and to the Bund. I had to share a dorm with other people of course, but it was really comfortable and the people kept to themselves.
My friend texted me already and told me that they were at KTV and I should take a taxi and join them. I actually wanted to, but I was really exhausted and wanted to take a shower (which I had to give up in the end, because they didn't have slippers at the hostel and I forgot mine). So instead, I checked out the hostel's rooftop bar which was supposed have a great view over Pudong and the Shanghai Skyline and I can assure you that it didn't disappoint. I took my camera and got upstairs. And it really was breathtaking. Look at that:



I have seen many pictures of different skylines around the world, but I never imagined that they could all look so boring and dull compared to the colorful, bright skyline of this city called Shanghai. I immediately fell in love with the view and couldn't wait for the next day already.
After lingering there for about 15 minutes and just enjoying the sight, I went to my room again and fell asleep immediately.

Saturday, July 25th:
I woke up early that morning to go and find slippers for the shower. I was feeling so disgusted. You have to know that it was in the middle of summer, and travelling always ended up to be a sweaty activity. I was optimistic that I would find a pair of slippers right away, but I was wrong. When I left the hostel, it was about 8am, but the shops were all closed, and there weren't any street vendors either which I saw the last night when I arrived. I was desperately walking around Nanjing Lu, the main shopping street with all the malls and stores. Although I was feeling a little bit stupid, I managed to discover Shanghai a little bit more. When I realized that most shops would open at 9.30 the earliest, I decided to get breakfast at Starbucks. There was one with a rooftop sitting space where I could enjoy another view of Shanghai:



In the end, I did manage to buy slippers and take a shower in the end. Finally, I was ready for the day so the first thing on my list was to see the Bund. It was quite a nice day, sunny, but a little bit foggy, though. Still I was able to take some really nice pictures:



It was also insane how many chinese tourists wanted to take a picture with me. I thought it wouldn't be that extreme in Shanghai because there are also many foreigners living there, but it seems like the amount of chinese tourists in Shanghai is bigger than the amount of foreign tourists :'D
After my little tour alone on the Bund, I prepared to meet my friend at about 3pm at the People's Square. He described me the place and I went there. Because I still had some time, I stopped at the Korean cosmetic shop Etude House which was close to the Metro Station in Nanjing Lu. I bought a Mascara there (which is pretty amazing) and some face masks.




It felt really funny to meet an old friend from back home in that huge metropolis after some years. It also felt really weird to be speaking german again.
We walked around the People's Square a little bit which is a little park famous for its old-fashioned dating platform run by single people's parents attempting to find a good match for their children. It was fun observing the people and "reading" the signs :D




After that small entertainment, we went to Nanjing Lu and ate Sushi in a quite luxurious mall. But they gave us a red bean dessert for free so the high prices were acceptable.








When we came out the mall, we realized that it was raining cats and dogs and none of us had umbrellas. We bought some cheap ones and walked around the street a bit more. We decided to buy some alcohol for our little night out later in a club called Mint which had a shark tank. But I still haven't been at the Bund during the evening, so we went there, took some pictures and headed to my hostel to get ready and have some drinks on the rooftop.


The old buildings of the Bund


The huge mass of people in China is reality


Soon, another friend joined us as well and we headed to the club.

When we finally entered the club, we had a first look at the shark tank. My friend was a bit disappointed because the sharks were quite small, but I liked it.



If you go to Mint, you have to make sure that you look nice. Plus, you should probably turn down your thirst a little bit, since the drinks are not the cheapest. There are 2 floors there, one main floor which usually plays electronic music, and one lounge which is more relaxed with hip hop and r'n'b tunes. I really enjoyed the latter one, but only towards the end of the night, when there were not many people.
At past 3 am the club was getting emptier already. Don't expect to have a crazy night out in this club. You probably won't find alcohol corpses, but chinese new riches and bored-looking foreigners. It is a good club if you want to have a relaxed night.

When we left the club, I was already feeling sad that I had to leave the next day. I realized that I really enjoyed Shanghai.

Sunday, July 26th: 
I woke up a bit earlier that day, considering that I had a night out the day before. Before I checked out from the hostel, I realized that they were sending out future postcards if you bought one. So I did it. I wrote a postcard to my future self and put my card on the shelf of may 7th. That is such a cool idea, that I had to do it, and it was quite cheap as well. Now, I can't wait for my postcard to arrive in Germany this year :)



The one on May 7 is mine :)


Anyway, I headed out to the Metro Station and went to Liujaizuo, the financial district which has all the famous skyscrapers there. I though I could walk around the Oriental Pearl Tower and maybe find the Disney Store. I found both. The Orient Pearl Tower was too expensive to get up to, and too crowded. You would have to stand in line for 5 hours probably. Since I didn't have the time, I first visited the Disney Shop which turned out to be a bit expensive as well.

Oriental Pearl Tower
Liujaizuo

Liujaizuo


I decided to just go to the Jin Mao Tower to the Observation Deck to get a view over Shanghai. I paid around 160 I think but it was worth it.

Jin Mao Tower


The elevator was pretty fast, too. Actually, that was an interesting fact about that tower as well. When we arrived at the top, it was pretty narrow to walk around. There were many people taking photos, so it wasn't hard to ask someone for pictures, plus, look at the view:


That was the elevator tunnel

The Bottle Opener a.k.a. the World Financial Center

After around half an hour I went down and had a breakfast in a little cafe.



I didn't have a lot of time left in Shanghai anymore, so I met my friend for the last time and we walked around the Greenbelt - a park in the middle of the financial district. It was nice to have such a beautiful green oasis in the middle of some of the world's highest towers. If you go to Shanghai, make sure to visit this place full of contrasts:







Although it was only 2 days, I was happy to be able to spend some time with an old friend and meet some new awesome people on the way. The trip was way too short but that was not the last time in Shanghai for sure.

Final rating:

Sightseeing: 3/5 - Offers interesting places, but Shanghai is more famous for its city life.
Food: 4/5 - You can find anything you want, but you have to consider the high price, too.
Shopping: 5/5 - All the shops you know from home, and more. 
Clubbing: 4/5 - There is yet a lot to explore in this city's nightlife, but be sure to bring money.
Transportation: 5/5 - The best metro system I have seen. 
Asia China Expat
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China Travels: The Lights of Nanjing

Nanjing, particularly famous for being the former capitol of China, amazes with its historical sights and its traditional architecture intermingled with the seemingly untouched nature.
Nanjing is a city that has something for everyone.
We were there on a tight schedule. Our only full day would be Saturday, so we wanted to see as much as possible.
In this post you can find out about how to spend a weekend in beautiful Nanjing.

Day 1, Friday, July 10th:

we took the train at around 6pm and until we arrived in our hostel it was already past 9pm. Our hostel was really close to the Metro Stop, so we didn't have to walk a lot after exiting the metro. It was also very central, which we realized when we finally saw these beautiful lit-up buildings. It looked like a fairytale. Convince yourselves:







That day we only strolled around this temple area which is also the main street of Nanjing for shopping and food. We were hungry so we got some Fast Food. We were too tired to wait in a restaurant.
The next day we would wake up early enough to do all the sight seeing we wanted to do.

Day 2, Saturday, July 11th:

We woke up early and got ready for the day. First we planned to go see the city wall since it was quite close to our hostel.
This remaining pieces of the wall were important for the history of Nanjing, especially during the war against Japan since a part of the wall was destroyed during that time.

















On top of the wall we could have nice view over Nanjing and there were some war tools like catapults and canons you could look at.






At the end of this display, there was a stand with bicycle rentals. The others really wanted to bike on the city wall and I had to agree. I was a bit reluctant since it's been about 9 years since the last time I rode a bike. But I thought it would be easier without the traffic. So lending the bikes for 1 1/2 hours was about 80 rmb. I was better than I thought at first, but soon it started to rain so heavily, that I had to take off my glasses and cycle half-blind. In the end, we had a lot of fun and even took a group picture with the guy who rented the bikes.

After that, we headed to the XuanWu Lake. The guy helped us with the way by surprising us with his cart and taking us to the exit of the wall.
The lake was a big surprise. It was really beautiful.










So as you can see there was a park next to the lake and people hung up those red ribbons on the trees. I really wanted to do that as well, but we didn't know where to buy and hang them up. So we just took some photos and left the area again. But it was a really beautiful place.

Next, we finally went to the Scenic Area where the Ming Dynasty Tombs were. That area had the freshest air I have come across in China. After entering, there were many trees we crossed until we arrived at the square with all the directions to the different places.
We then headed for the tombs because they were quite close.






The natural surroundings looked really nice but we weren't able to get into any buildings so that was a bit disappointing. I think this part is not very important to visit if you are in this scenic area.
When we were unsuccesfully trying to find the Sun-Yatsen Mausoleum, which was already closed unfortunately, we came across a lake, called Purple Lake. It was small but the gloomy weather created a mysterious atmosphere that I tried to catch with my camera, as good as possible.

After we realized that we couldn't enter the Mausoleum, we left the scenic area. It was getting dark already so we hurried up. We had to walk all the way to the metro station though which was a bit of a long way. We were already super tired but we finally made it to the temple area.

There we decided to take a relaxing boat ride to end our day in a beautiful way. It wasn't that expensive and you share a boat with many people. The surroundings were amazing. Be sure to take the boat ride when the buildings are still lit up.








We also had a not-so quick dinner at a chinese restaurant where you directly choose your food at the counter and they cook it in front of you. Because it was already quite late (almost 10pm), they didn't have a lot of food left anymore. That's normal in chinese cities which is a bit annoying. In western countries restaurants are still busy at 10pm.

Our trip came to an end, unfortunately. The next day we would head back to Yuyao which had suffered from a Taifun at the weekend.

Final rating:

Sightseeing: 5/5
Food: 3/5
Shopping: ?
Clubbing: ?
Transportation: 5/5
China Culture Food
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