China & Hong Kong🇨🇳🇭🇰

China has been on my list to visit as an adult for a very long time. The last time I visited my birth country was when I was fourteen years old. As Ned had never been, we decided to end our big trip visiting China, exploring the country and seeing my family, some of whom I haven’t seen since before Covid-19. We spent three weeks here, doing some fast-paced travelling, seeing and doing some pretty cool things!

China as a whole is an incredible country, it’s generally extremely safe, the metro in every major city puts the London underground to shame and the food is incredibly tasty and cheap! However, there are some huge cultural differences to the west, so it is important to make sure you have things organised before your trip. A blog going into my tips and recommendations can be found here, which go into detail on what to do and expect!

Shanghai

🏨We Flow Hostel

First stop in China was Shanghai! Coming straight from Mexico, the time difference was fourteen hours, meaning we lost a whole day. This meant our first two days were pretty hard during the day, as we had to fight jet lag. However, we made the most of it and spent three days exploring this city! If you have more time, we would recommend at least five days here because it was our favourite city of the whole trip! The incredible skyline, vast food options and just amazing city as a whole is worth exploring!

We stayed at We Flow Hostel, which was decent, had a social area and good air-con in the dorms. Ned and I were split up as our hostel didn’t allow men and women to share the same dorms, but other than that it was pretty good. It was located on one of the main strips of shops, big mall across the street with loads of cafes and restaurants around the corner. It is pretty hard to find the entrance as we were using Google Maps, so it took us completely the wrong way. If you don’t have an alternative map app downloaded, you can find the entrance using Apple Maps. It is located next to the STAPLE store on Shanghai’s Huaihai Middle Road. You cannot miss it as the entrance is right next to the huge pigeon poking its head out of the window!

The Bund
The Bund is this incredible walking path, which overlooks the river and skyline. It is the perfect place for your morning walk or run and we went every morning before the midday heat to see the amazing views of the city. It is also a prime spot to visit for sunset in the evening, as you can watch the city lights begin to turn on! It does get very crowded, and by crowded I mean, unbelievably busy with people pushing and shoving! So take this into account if you want to go in the evening, however, it is worth it for a few minutes to see the views!

Yu Yuan Garden
The Yu Yuan Gardens are an incredible complex in the middle of the Huangpu District. The area is free to wander around and is famous for its classical Chinese Garden and surrounding bazaar, full of shops and food spots. You can explore the Ming-style buildings, beautiful temples and variety of different gardens. If you want to go inside the inner temples and gardens, you will need to buy a ticket, which is around 40 Yuan. We spent the afternoon strolling through the gardens, popping into shops and street food stalls.

Shanghai Tower
If you want to see spectacular views of the city and distant skyline, you have to go up Shanghai Tower. It is expensive for China, with tickets costing £20 each to enter, but the view is completely worth it! We went at 8:30am, taking the ferry over from the mainland and we were able to see clear panoramic views of the city.

French Concession
Explore French Concession and the different streets of stalls, boutiques and cafes. There are so many to visit, with some stalls being perfect for souvenir shopping, buying traditional Chinese items, clothes and toys.

• Tian Zi Fang.
• Wukang Road.
• Fuxing Park.

Nanjing Road
Nanjing Road is the main strip of shops and restaurants, it spans across 5.5km from The Bund towards Jing'an Temple with all kinds of shops to high end to Chinese brands. We spent the morning walking down both sides, popping into shops, browsing items and buying street food.

Other things to do in Shanghai:

• Oriental Pearl Tower - another tower that you can go up to see panoramic views of the city.
• Shanghai Disneyland - if you are looking for a fun, but expensive day out, you need to visit a China Disneyland!
• Jiang’an Temple - is a gorgeous, famous, historic Buddhist temple located on West Nanjing Road.
• Apoli Itabakery - TikTok famous bakery, which is worth the hype.

Beijing

Next stop is Beijing! We got the High Speed Railway, which took five hours and cost us £157 for both of us. The whole process was pretty easy, we bought tickets on Trip.com, spent the morning exploring Shanghai before going to the station.

Forbidden City & Tiananmen Square
The Forbidden City is the most impressive thing to see in Beijing, in my opinion. It is a huge ancient palace complex, which used to home emperors and is full of thousands of rooms and grand halls, which you can explore! Tickets to the Forbidden City get released a week in advance, so if you have a date in mind, make sure to set a reminder to buy your tickets!

Tiananmen Square is also connected to the entrance of the Forbidden City. It is located in the heart of the city with deep historical significance, through use of military parades, national celebrations and political gatherings.

It use to be free to walk around, and although it is still accessible, it was recently changed to requiring tickets. The Chinese government decided to tighten security to maintain the space and prevent any commemoration of the 1989 protests. Tickets are free to book, and can be booked between 1-7 days in advance. I tried to do it there and then for the next morning, but you have to do it via WeChat, which is pretty tricky to do. If you have Forbidden City tickets, you might be able to walk through Tiananmen Square as the entrance to the city is across the square. If you don’t have any tickets they will not let you through!

Combined to not having a ticket to Tiananmen Square and accidentally booking our Forbidden City tickets for September instead of August, we realised that we might not be able to see either of the main attractions! We only had two full days left in Beijing and everything was fully booked.

This meant, we annoyingly had to join onto a day tour with a guide and head sets to wear. Doing this kind of tour, is both mine and Ned’s worst nightmare. We like going ourselves and at our own pace, but instead we were stuck in a huge group for six hours. However, as we messed up our tickets, this was the only way we could visit the Forbidden City and in all fairness, we did learn a bit of history and probably explored a lot more grand halls than we would have done if it was just us two.

Day Tour
The day started meeting at 8am, before heading to the entrance. From here, it takes a pretty long time to get into the grounds, with it taking over an hour for us. There are so many tour groups and private parties entering, that the queues are horrendously long. You then have to go through the ticket section with your passports, put your bags through the security scanners and then get patted down. This part is very strict, if you have anything in your possession, which gives a religious significance, such as a bag with flag patches on it, a bible or playing cards, they will interrogate you to what it is and sometimes confiscate them. Our playing cards, which we have had for three years, been to every country we have been to, were sadly taken off us. The reason is because they prohibit any form of items, which facilitate sitting down, such as playing card games. Once you are through security you, you will make your way across Tiananmen Square into the Forbidden City.

Temple of Heaven
One temple you need to visit, is the Temple of Heaven, which is an elegant, religious complex near to our hotel. These grounds were where emperors prayed for good harvest and now serve as a public park, with different temples to explore.

Jingshan Park
After exploring the Forbidden City, we went to the Jingshan Park Hilltop, which offers incredible panoramic views of the entire palace layout below. From exiting the Forbidden City grounds, it took us around twenty minutes to get to the top. Tickets for the park cost 10 Yuan each and along the way there are food or sweet treat spots.

Great Wall of China
One of the most popular sights to do from Beijing is to see the famous, Great Wall of China, which is another Wonder of the World! Beijing is the main city to visit the Great Wall from, with many spots accessible from here via train, driving or a tour. We did it ourselves and spent two days there exploring the incredible World Wonder. A blog going into what we did and how we got there will be here.

Other things to do in Beijing:

• Summer Palace - The Summer Palace is the largest, and most well-preserved imperial garden in China, spanning 2.9 square kilometres. It features a variety of beautiful lakes, gardens and palaces surrounding Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake.
• Hutongs - Traditional narrow alleyways, full of old courtyard homes, small shops and local restaurants.
• 798 Art District - This area in Beijing is full of modern art galleries, cafes and sculptures.
• Great Wall of China - The Mutianyu side is the most popular, scenic section of the Great Wall of China. It is the side that everyone visits from Beijing as it is the closest with incredible surrounding views of mountains, which can be hiked to or reached by cable car. It is also famously known for being able to Toboggan down the Great Wall from Watchtower 6.

Xi’an

Our third stop of the trip is to Xi’ian, which is famous for holding the incredible Terracota Army. We took another high speed train from Beijing which cost £150 for us both. We were here for only one night, but had a whole day in Xi’an as we were catching a late flight the following evening.

Terracotta Army (Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum)
The main sight to see in Xi’an is the Terracota Army Warriors. They are a collection of around eight thousand life-sized Clay statues, which represent the military forces of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. The ruins of these warriors were buried around 210-209 BCE and created to guard the emperor into the afterlife. They were accidentally discovered in 1974 by local farmers and were labelled as one of the greatest archaeological finds ever.

We bought our tickets on Trip.com for a morning time-slot and spent a few hours exploring the three different Pits. From the hostel, we got the metro to the nearest station, which can either be Xi’an Railway or North Railway station, before hopping on the shuttle, which took us to the grounds of the museums. Once you are through security and the ticketing office, you can walk fifteen minutes to the first Pit. It is recommended to go to Pit 1 first and end with Pit 3, but it honestly doesn’t matter.

Although, it isn’t classed as a Wonder of the World, for us, it definitely was. Seeing the Warriors and learning about the history of them was a pretty cool experience! None of the warriors are exactly the same, every single one is unique, with different facial expressions, hairstyles and features like their armour to reflect their ranks. They were originally painted in bright colours and quipped with real bronze weapons, however, over the years the paint has faded and the remains of the weapons have been put in the museum. The grounds as a whole is very big and they don’t time each entry, so every inch of Pit 1 is covered with people, pushing and fighting to the front to get a good look at the Warriors. It can be quite intense, but just go at your own pace and be prepared to wait for a small opening to see the warriors. A majority of the people are in tours so they come and go in waves making it easier to grab a spot before the next tour rushes in.

Once you have explored each of the three pits, you can go to the museum hall, which has additional artefacts and goes into further detail of the findings of other warriors.

Xi’an City Walls
One way to explore Xi’an’s City Walls is either walking the whole square or hiring bicycles. Tickets to the wall cost 50 Yuan each and we went in through the South Gate. The City Walls is a pretty incredible walk and shows a complete contrast to the buildings inside to the skyscrapers outside of the city walls. We spent an hour or so walking around the walls, before staying at the South Gate for sunset, where we were graced with a beautiful one.

Other things to do in Xi’ian:

• 9 Yongning Palace Hotel - sunset drinks.
• Bell & Drum Tower.
• Great Wild Goose Pagoda.
• Xi’an Tree Mall.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

One of mine and Ned’s most exciting stops in China! We had to visit the famous Zhangjing National Park, famously known as the inspiration for the Avatar movie. It is an incredible place and involves a lot of planning for your visit. A blog going into our trip will be here.

Hong Kong

Our last stop in China, is Hong Kong! We got the High Speed Railway train from Nanning, Guangxi which cost £112 for the both of us and took us four hours. I made sure to end our trip here, as we had to see my family who all live here! We ended up spending five days in Hong Kong and then two days in Macau, which is a ferry/ bus from mainland China! It is also the easiest city to fly to London from, which is another reason why we ended here.

Victoria Peak & Tram
Get a return ticket, costing $116 HKD and take the tram up Victoria Peak for panoramic views of the city skyline. Get there before sunset and explore the different shops and cafes at the top. Then wait till the sun begins to set. If you walk fifteen minutes to Lugard Road Lookout, you will find different places where you can watch the sunset. If you are lucky like us, you will see a beautiful one! If you stay till 8pm you will see the Symphony light show, which happens every evening, giving you spectacular views of the city below as it lights up.

Star Ferry & Victoria Harbour
Catch the Star Ferry at night once the city has lit up to see the incredible views. End the trip at Victoria Harbour then walk along the Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront to see the movie star plaques.

Other things to do in Hong Kong:

• Mong Kok Markets: Night Market, Ladies’ Market and Fa Yuen Street.
• Temple Street Night Market.
• Tian Tan Big Buddha on Lantau Island.
• Dim Sum at Local Tea Houses.
• Ding Ding Trams through the city.
• Tai O Fishing Village.
• Man Mo Temple.
• Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple.
• Browse the different Shopping Malls.
• Hong Kong Disneyland.
• Ocean Park.
• West Kowloon Cultural District.

Other places to visit in China:

Our trip to China was predominately organised to see my family, so we didn’t have a lot of time to properly explore other parts of China. Other places we would recommend to add into your itinerary are:

• Chengdu - see Giant Pandas!
• Jiuzhaigou Valley.
• Guilin.
• Yangshuo.
• Chongqing.
• Guzhen Town, Zhongshan, Guangdong.

Overall, China is an incredible country to visit! There is so much to do, places to visit, with each of them being so different from one another. It was the perfect place to end our 11 month backpacking trip and we really wished we had more time here!