For Lanny and me, China had been marketed quite heavily through social media lately. Before that, most of what we had heard about China was connected to things like the Great Firewall, loads of CCTV, social scoring, or, especially after COVID, maybe even a certain image of questionable hygiene. But it felt like China had been investing heavily into marketing and improving its foreign reputation and indeed it worked (on us). At the same time, media coverage about China still felt quite limited. We were curious to see how high-tech China had become, whether the cultural sights were really as beautiful as they looked online, and what the food would be like. It felt like a country we did not actually know that much about, waiting for us without too many fixed expectations. And in this blog post I’d like to give a short overview of all the sights we visited during our China roundtrip.
Itinerary
This is what our itinerary looked like. The activities were mostly selected based on geographic proximity and weather conditions, and we tried to spread them out evenly across the days. This itinerary can help you estimate how much you can realistically plan for each day.
Shanghai
Shanghai was our first stop in China and probably a very good place to arrive. It felt modern, international and busy, but not too overwhelming. It was a good transitional city to enter China without getting hit by full culture shock immediately. It also helped a lot that we already knew David, a friend from a previous adventure who had been living there for a while and basically onboarded us into everyday China. Especially in the beginning, understanding the essential apps, payment systems, navigation and transport options made a huge difference.
The first days were mostly about arriving, getting over jetlag and slowly getting used to China. Of course, we also saw some of the classic Shanghai highlights like The Bund, Jing’an Temple and the Yu Yuan Garden area.
But a big part of the beginning was also just wandering around, finding food, exploring malls and somehow even discovering an Aldi in the middle of Shanghai.
One of my highlights was the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. It was probably the best museum I have ever visited. Everything was very interactive, user-friendly and interesting for both children and adults. In my opinion you can easily spend four to five hours here minimum.
We also visited 1933 Old Millfun, which had been promoted to us by the social media algorithm. Interestingly enough, our two local friends had not really heard about it, even though they had been living in Shanghai for a while. The building itself was not huge, but very photogenic and definitely had some nice angles to discover.
For a little break from the big city, we also did a day trip to Nanxun Water Town. In comparison to other watertowns nearby such as Zhujiajiao or Zhouzhuang, it is probably not as big, but also not as popular yet. That made it feel a bit calmer and less crowded, with more space to just wander around and enjoy life. Conveniently, we also ended up doing a Hanfu photoshoot there, which took much longer than expected but as the saying goes, no pain no gain(ing lifelong memories). Interestingly, it was not just a tourist thing. We also saw a lot of local Chinese people, who dressed up and came to the watertown to take photos.
Generally, I was surprised how quiet Shanghai felt for such a huge city. There were almost exclusively electric cars, which also kept the fumes level low. The bike sharing system here is also easy and convinient, as there is always a bike somewhere around if you are in a central area. The streets were easy to ride. Because the weather in late May was already warm, but very pleasant in the evening, I even preferred taking a bike over using the metro for distances up to around 30 minutes.
Beijing
Beijing was our second stop in China, and here as well, we already knew two friends: Maria and Will, who were nice enough to give us shelter. Shanghai and Beijing are around 1,200 km apart, but thanks to the high-speed train, the journey only took about four and a half hours and cost around 100 euros.
The Temple of Heaven was one of the first major sights we visited. It is a huge complex where the emperor used to pray for good harvests, harmony and properity. We got a Audio Guide for around 5 Euros, but to be honest, it was not worth much, than it being a good starting point to ask ChatGPT.
An important thing we learned was that some attractions really do need a reservation, especially places like the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We took Tiananmen Square a little too lightly and needed three attempts until we finally got in, even though the reservation itself is actually very easy to do online. Just do it!
Just north of the Forbidden City is Jingshan Park, where you can climb up a small hill and get a full view over the whole palace complex. We went there around sunset, hoping the Forbidden City would light up afterwards. Spoiler: It did not, but the view itself was still very worth it.
Of course, we also visited the Great Wall. We chose the Mutianyu section, which seemed like a good compromise between accessibility from Beijing and tourist crowds.
And while in Beijing, we also had to try the renowned Peking duck. You eat it by wrapping thin slices of duck into something like a small pancake, adding toppings and sauce, almost like a little roll.
I really loved the bike-sharing experience in Beijing, because the bike lanes were even bigger than in Shanghai. Especially inside the inner city, the main road layout is essentially a huge square, and you could ride straight for a very long time. The better the cycling infrastructure, though, the worse the general traffic seemed to be. Every time we took a Didi, we somehow ended up in a traffic jam or had to wait for a long time. So whenever the distance was still reasonable, we ended up cycling around town.
Chongqing
Chongqing was probably the city we were most hyped about before the trip. Social media was very successful, and we were easily influenced enough to take the bait. It took us roughly six hours by high-speed train from Beijing to Chongqing. There were two immediate differences when we arrived. The air was much more humid and there were high rise buildings wherever you look. We stayed near Raffles City, which turned out to be a very convenient area for exploring the city.
Some of the viral sights are Kuixing Building, where the ground floor suddenly becomes the 22nd floor, Hongya Cave, one of Chongqing’s signature landmarks at night, and Liziba Station, in which the train station is inside a building, and videos are going viral where people are eating the arriving train.
In both the case of Hongya Cave and Liziba Station, the secret trick is to stand on the opposite side of the river to take photos. It seemed way less crowded and much more enjoyable.
Talking about viral videos, for some people, the motorbike videos with Raffle City in the background come to mind. And funny enough, its really not hard to find production teams who shoot this kind of videos. In fact, at Nanbin Road are loads of motorbike groups offering this very specific service. I remember reading a Reddit post where someone mentioned they were stopped by the police and got a ticket. However, nowadays it seems to be more of a grey area and a flourishing business for tourism.
What I liked most about Chongqing is, that it’s just so Instagrammable. One of its iconic highlights is the cable car crossing the river. The two photo motives I found online and liked most were:
- 1)Taking a photo from the Dongshuimen Changjiang Bridge facing the cable car from the bridge with all the houses in the background.
- 2) From behind the Baixiangju Building area.
Baixiangju Building itself has a strong old, rustic, industrial vibe. But if you walk a little further into the backyard to a nearby bar, there is a rooftop from where you can take a photo of the cable car between two buildings.
A lot of people also like to take photos at Deyi World, which is not far from Jiefangbei Pedestrian Street, mostly because of the neon and futuristic lights. Sometimes you can even see livestreams of people performing there.
Another apparently popular spot is Arhat Temple. In contrast to its really old traditional temple look, its surrounded by high-rise buildings left and right. Some of those buildings have coffee shops on the upper floors and people seem to take photos from there with the temple in the background.
And while in Chongqing, don’t forget that there is a drone show every Saturday evening. The drone show faces towards Nanbin Road which is the prefered best place to watch it. Just opposite of that street is the Grand Theater which is probably the best second option to watch it from. The catch is that the drone show “faces” the other side, so if they display text, you only see the mirrored version, albeit it was only chinese characters anyway. Contrary to what I had read online, it was not that crowded. Still crowded, but not in a way where you could not find a place to sit anymore.
I loved to just walk around the city, because you would find photo spots all around town. The Shancheng Trails were recommended in some blogs, and it is a very cute short city trail. There were narrow alleys, stray cats walking around, and cute souvenir shops that were not too overpriced.
And there is also another famous spot, although not really viral. There is even a photo template for that spot. Its at Longmenhao Old Street. If you start from the Shanxinjie station and walk down the stairs its on the left side. There is even a small note for tourists to not take longer than two minutes.
Chongqing is also known as the “Capital of Hot Pot”, and there is one especially interesting place to try it: inside an air-raid shelter.
Speaking of non-viral viral photo spots, there are so many cool places to take photos in Chongqing, and so many high-rise buildings offering different kinds of views. Our own hotel room was even across some kind of rooftop photoshoot location. One of the famous spot is at Rooftop 131, where you hang down from a rope with neon city lights in the background for a fantastic futuristic shot. However, it takes 2 hours and costs way too much, especially as we already did the motorbike video. So instead we were aiming for photospots with a view over the city.
In particular, Lanny and I went to these two specific locations. The Nanshan Yikeshu Scenic Area aprovides a beautiful overview over the Yuzhong Peninsula and is easily reachable by bus. You have to pay a small entrance fee and it closes around 11, just after all lights go off.
By pure accident, we also found a rooftop café called Wode World Café. It already has a registered location on Amap, but apparently it had only opened about four months ago. From there, you get a fantastic view over Raffles City and the Jialing River flowing into the Yangtze River. However, I think you would only barely be able to watch the drone show from there, because the show happens a little further east and is partly blocked by other high-rise buildings.
We also did a day trip to Wulong Karst National Park for a change of pace. Besides its natural beauty which attracts tourists, it was also the filming ground for Transformers, and the recently quite poplar C-Drama Pursuit of Jade. The area itself is actually huge, but most people come here for the Three Natural Bridges and the Longshuixia Gorge, which can both be done easily in one day. The paths are smooth and clearly maintained for tourists, but still be prepared to walk quite a bit. I believe we clocked in around 26000 steps that day.
Maybe you might have already guessed it, but I loved Chongqing for being so photogenic. It was easy to just walk around and see picturesque scenery everywhere, given that you are into urban street photography. On the downside, because Chongqing is so hilly, there s no real bike-sharing option here. I also noticed that, compared to the other cities, it was much more louder in Chongqing. Probably because there are still some gas driven vehicles running around and the airplanes flying over the city do not help reducing noise level either. But that was just a minor inconvinience in the vast city of Chongqing. I found myself discovering something new every time I went out and there are so many small food stalls everwhere. Food and accommodation also felt a bit more affordable here than in Beijing and Shanghai.