2023-10: Overnight Train + 2 Days in Shanghai + 1 Day in Hangzhou

Shanghai/Hangzhou was a part of our Mainland China trip, which can be summarized as follows: flight from Taipei > Hongkong > high-speed train (1 hour) to Guangzhou > overnight train (14 hours) to Shanghai > high-speed train (1 hour) to Hangzhou & back to Shanghai > flight back to Taipei.

Dialects Spoken in Shanghai: Mandarin, Cantonese when we don’t want others to hear us disciplining our kids.

Fun and FREE places we went (by timeline):

1. Shanghai 外滩 Waitan tourist attraction

2. Nanjing Pedestrian St. night market

3. Shanghai Fashion Outlet Mall & Pier Sightseeing

4. NYU Shanghai Campus Tour

5. 前滩 Qiantan 太古里 shopping area

6. Hangzhou: Westlake

7. Hangzhou: Grand Canal 大运河

Some major expenses (converted back to USD from CNY) included:

Food 食 pricing reference that I could recall:

• Zotter chocolate bars: $87.82

• Hangzhou La Bottega for 3 adults + 2 kids: $49.522

• 2 冰糖葫芦 honey-covered berries on Beijing Pedestrian St: $6.84

• Yokafe 有咖啡 latte: $6.43

• 小样生煎包 seared soup dumplings: $4.99

• Bag of 大白兔 milk candy $3.26

Things to remember:

• Get AliPay 支付宝 connected (passport, phone verification, & facial recognition check required) for:

  • ordering ride shares through DiDi (already connected in APP)

  • easy payment to street vendors, esp local ones who don’t take credit cards

  • booking train tickets, bike rentals, and hotels

  • transferring funds to friends (like Venmo)

• Download Baidu Maps 百度地图 App to get around in China (since Google products won’t work properly there)

• Guisu Homestay in the middle of Xujiahui was a fantastic idea, except we had to stay super quiet at night to avoid waking up the neighbors below.

• Get suits & dresses tailor-made if staying longer.