Inside China: The Country I Was Told Not To Visit
China a nation frequently depicted in a negative light by Western media now a 78-year-old American citizen has been sentenced by a Chinese Court to life in prison on spying charges China's pursuing an ambitious plan to create an omnipresent video surveillance Network the State Department issues a warning recommending Americans reconsider travel plans to China I'm constantly seeing news stories about not going to China or something crazy that China is doing and being the insane person that am this made me even more interested in visiting I wanted to see what China was like for everyday people not just what the media tells me so I decided to go to China for 6 days on a transit Visa in this video I'm going to show you my experience in China you're going to see me almost get scammed do this this is probably what I'm going to do this now but yeah you're going to see me go to some cool tourist spots it's definitely one of the cooler ones I've been in I'm going to show you what China was like through my in my experience unbiased I went there with an open mind and I just wanted to see what China was all about so let's go to China and let me show you what it's like today I'm Solo in China's biggest city home to like 26 million people um place is huge and honestly so far it's been really cool it's my first full day here I'm exploring so I'm going to give you all my impressions as I go along um I'm here for 6 days cuz that's all I can stay without a Visa and um I'll explain that later how you can visit China without a Visa for 6 days 6 days only let's explore China and see what China's biggest city is like so join me on this journey through Shanghai China so right now I'm in an area called the bun which is like huge tourist area with a big skyline behind me super busy it's a really cool area this is like where I think every tourist ends up in Shanghai if you come to Shanghai and you don't come here I don't think you really experience the city so you got to come to the Bund it's really good to feel for Shanghai and see the skyline a lot of people here filming for their Tik Tok and stuff like this guy over here singing and behind me on this other side this dude he's playing the saxophone and um yeah some dudes are recording both of them it's kind of it's pretty cool to see and as you can see on the other side that big Skyline Skyline that's the pong area so where all the big businesses are and that famous image you've seen of Shanghai uh the big pointy Tower thingy that I don't know what it is and a lot of other buildings that all light up at night so I'll come here some point at night to show you but I thought we get a feel for it during the day one thing I'm noticing about shingai is that for big city it's actually pretty quiet which is you know as quiet as it can be for having 26 million people but it's also very clean feels very safe and it's it's very cool you can definitely tell the city feels safe for them a lot of American cities so that's cool and it's cleaner it's cleaner way cleaner it's it looks nice the architecture is cool buildings are cool I think I get looked at a lot but it's probably cuz I'm like the only red head here so I don't really mind it's not like they're being mean but just like what is this thing walking through our city why is it so orange I would think the same thing if I were them so I'm not mad so right next to the Bund is Nan Jing Road huge shopping street here and um we're going to walk down it check it out as you can see it is raining a little bit here today not a hard rain like very light drizzle kind of feels nice but anyways let's go check out ning Road the famous shopping district and uh people square right next to it and this area is super busy it's actually like really humid out that had I was wearing was killing me but now I'm on an engine Road always busy here because guess is like the main shopping district but it's it's nice nice Road they have like every store find anywhere in the world you know there's a cool food Hall on this street it says the first food Hall I don't know how true that is I don't if it is the first food call in Shanghai but it's worth going and taking a look so on the third floor is still into the food court and look how colorful it is feels like an old retro American food court I would see in like a movie or TV show but obviously everything's in Chinese and not English but yeah let's try something a really cool food court How could a food court exist without McDonald's of course being in it I like to try McDonald's at least once when I go to new country but it's kind of sad doat McDonald's on a d when I'm in a country that it's known for so such great food I think the last thing I want to eat is McDonald's so I got the Shanghai noodles with beef that's what the lady recommended but I think it's cuz I'm white and just it's just noodles of beef it's nothing special but it's quite good so let's dig in yeah is really tasty all right I'm happy with this she was like Shanghai noodles and I was like you know what sure I I'll get that if you say so the white boy special it's delicious no complaints I suck at using chopsticks now that I've had the noodles I'm ready for something a little more sweet so let's go check out the first floor there's four floors here they got food cord food ingredient floor delices oh yeah so this is pretty cool of like food Hall three different floors and they're selling all different kinds of like local Goods it smells awesome but this floor is like yogurt flavored something rather not sure what it is is it oh little candies bought the jelly I bought the jelly things don't know why I was so intrigued by them but this is a really cool food H like they have a little bit everything IED it up with noodles and jelly candy okay I've had enough of the shopping area it's busy there's so much more to the city than just the street so let's go explore a little more shame so right now I'm in the yuyuan Oldtown area um really cool like old buildings and shops this is definitely a huge like a spot you got to come to if you come to Shanghai let's check it out and um while we walk around I'll tell you some things that I've found you know surprising about China things I didn't expect things you should be aware of if you come because um it's very different here not in a bad way but it's very different hello what's this or uh for for you YouTube H for for like for YouTube and like I do travel videos now this may seem like a friendly lady approaching me on the street but what you're about to see is an Infamous scam that happens to foreigners in Shanghai so watch as I talk to this lady and I'll explain after what exactly is going on is this one oh this is a GoPro oh okay know sometime people use the vide this like but smaller just like this little really like wow this is yeah this is kind of B video right yeah yeah it's pretty big and then I have this thing as well so pictures yeah I do video on this too though cuz this I I'll talk into this one and then I'll shoot video your phra photo video both this this this this is a little microphone to pick up so the audio on this is terrible so I attach my microphone to this and I walk and talk and wherever I go I've been I was in Japan and Thailand now I'm here I don't want to bore you with any more of this small talk we're doing so let's skip to the end so you can see what she was trying to accomplish I was born with this hair yeah you I don't know I'm just vlogging so I'm talking and I'm walking and talking yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah just for myself I'm just videoing it yeah okay the shops where the people come here take pictures see this I'm shopping like this okay you also can go here there very famous Chinese thing like okay yeah probably I mean maybe after I do my video but can do video have to do video I'll do this this is probably what I'm I'm going to do this now but yeah okay cool that is so funny that they just happen on camera it's called the t- scam if a woman comes up to you in the streets and does that do not go because they take you and then they make you basically they make you pay like a giant sum of money like they'll trick you this is the second time they tried to like someone has come up to me on the street ask me about self and then be like oh do you want to go get some tea do you want to go to a restaurant and the the trick is like oh you think they're nice oh I met someone in a foreign country how lovely then you go with them and they rip you off so I'm so happy I got that on camera that's that's awesome that's so cool I got that on camera that makes me so happy so if a woman in the streets of Shanghai in a busy tourist area comes up to you and asks if you'll get tea with her don't don't do it don't Do It um anyways I something more positive let's look at all these little shops over here over there all different kinds of like little food groups even have a KFC so if you're craving some Kentucky Fried Chicken they have it here so you can walk through and look at all the old buildings as you make your way through a maze of people and see behind me lots of really cool old architecture and um I have literally no idea how all these buildings are um but it is cool in Shanghai I really love their food halls here that's cool walk through you see tons of food both sides lots of people in here eating but the food halls are really cool like this is not as common in the US Western Nations like to this degree they're really big they got a fruit stand over here it's kind of like almost feels buff like so all these different they got bows they got salads they got a little bit of everything and there's so many of them and it's really nice to see one of my favorite things I've seen in this area is this little Cat Cafe so you can go in here it's not even a cafe I think he just paid to play play with the cats and it's pretty cute oh this guy um see if I can get his attention he does not care about me and I respect that I think he's more interested than the fly that's in there but that's pretty cute there's so many cats I could sit here for hours should I buy the China hat or USA hat tough choice tough choice to me I had my fil of that the old area right there but I want to go to a different part of Shanghai where it's like actual Old Town L touristy Shanghai because I want to take some pictures I want to see something a little less touristy the Metro by the the old area that I was just at is probably the most beautiful Metro stations I've ever seen um this is a very nice place and it's air conditioning in Shanghai every time you go through the Metro with a bag you have to put it through a metal detector so be prepared for that but it's a nice element of safety it is annoying to take off my backpack every time there's no better place to talk about Shanghai Metro then in this Metro station now you do need like use alipe Metro to get in and off you just scan your phone it's super easy and efficient and that's really cool and yeah you just scan your phone get see a QR code don't even buy a ticket works everywhere so that's been really nice year and also they they're very clean they're very um modern uh the subway cars are clean uh one thing I've noticed is in Tokyo you're not allowed to talk talk on a phone on the Metro and here people do they it be a little louder overall it's still fine it's very clean nice ride um orderly it's really safe they they there's like gates in between the Metro Car and yourself so not to be afraid of being pushed in and falling in it's impossible so right now I'm in very unique part of Shanghai uh a lot of older buildings it's kind of look into what the city looked like before it modernized and became the super futuristic modern city that it is today that you see with the tall skyscrapers and and one of the biggest metros in the world but this little neighborhood it's a lot of little old buildings A lot of them are abandoned streets are little quite me as people but it's not as busy as youd see in the other parts of Shanghai and um you still see nice cars driving through but it's interesting to see all these is really old sort of buildings and um it's really fascinating um to see a look into what Shanghai used to look like you still see markets or apartments there are people that live here but these buildings are so much older and they're just so yeah just a different look and feel than you would see throughout the rest of the city and this little pocket not too far from the Bund can still see all the T tall skyscrapers Behind These Old buildings like these are all boarded up see look at all these really cool old older buildings there's some like construction places near I think this part of the city is slowly being torn down and modernized but it's really cool to see and walk through you know something that maybe would a lot of Shanghai used to look like now today it's super you know modernized but it is a huge huge City third biggest in the world and um majority of it especially if you go over to where all the tall skyscrapers are super modern but here it's that taste of the old the old Shanghai but I'm sure it looked like decades ago but most of the city now you're kind of left with this and I don't think a lot of people a lot of these places are completely boarded up and just empty I mean you still I still see some people in a couple windows but overall it's it's quite quiet and just very empty kind of like walking through an old Museum you know it's it's really fascinating there hasn't been any point if I've been in shingai where I felt unsafe on the streets people stare at me but I think it's because I'm a random ginger man with a camera walking through the streets of China but other than that very safe here which is really nice so here I walk out of the old building place and behind me look more modern nice apartment so I'm sure with time that old area will SL fly disappear probably get demolished and be turned into more modernized apartments one thing I love about the malls here in China the little food areas are always so so delicious it's like so many different restaurants one little area it's like not like a typical food court you'd see in the west where it has a bunch of crap fast food here it's like nice restaurants and with a variety and um the malls are always that I've seen so far in changai are big all big and there's a lot of them the food huls here are always so color my favorite thing about it ooh this is the most fun one I've [Music] seen it's like feels like a Disneyland but a food courts like got this old statue you it's like a little like I don't know feel like you gone back in time like a little like it's like Old Shanghai inspired food court it's so cool like this stuff over here you got this old I don't even know what this is is that the washing machine okay that's cool you have this old um oh wow they're playing a movie up on the wall which is really cool um see this old Chinese movie walked through the projector hit me in the eye look at this this it's like a whole them Park in here it's like the coolest food cort I've ever been in and they have this little window which is playing like old like historical like footage kind of blurry but you get the idea it looks really cool it's so like old Shen eyes so this is um it's probably the coolest food Port I've ever seen so right now I'm in the French concession area of Shanghai got this cool building behind me France used to have control over this but starting in like World War II they um lost control yeah back in the 1800s France had control of this area of Shanghai this is the French concession it's like now a really trended area with a bunch of cool shops and boutiques and um it's very nice it's very very nice I like every city has one of these like Roundy typ type buildings which is really interesting like super popular design around the world one thing I see here are a lot of like really cool Chinese car brands that I never see back home the cars look really nice like I would totally get one if I could like some of these cars are a lot of electric cars super um like nice and modern looking so I think the Chinese car industry is on the rides well at least here it is but it's um it's cool to see bunch of cars I've never seen before I don't know if the US will ever allow them sadly but that would be would be cool to see cuz there's some pretty cool cars here um oh there's a bunch of little Boutique shops here let's go check them out lots of people here taking photos really pretty trendy little stores this is like definitely like a nice little trendier area of Shanghai um fun to walk to fun to see um this little Boutique Mall in the French concession is super nice because it's a really nice little spot to come see if you're here like a lot of um I'm assuming they're upscale stores they don't look cheap I see someone using a pay phone which is the first time I've seen that I think in my entire life my 30 years on this Earth so GL to see payones are still going strong here in Shanghai behind me is the bun I'm here at night and um probably one of the biggest crowds I've ever been in it's just to see a mountain a wall of people so I don't know if that really enhances the experience but it is really look at that like it's so cool to look at at night but it's very loud very crowded definitely hard to talk hard to walk Hard to uh get through people but yes it is such a cool site like look at that like that's so cyber Punk trying not to walk through all these families photos okay people are waving to the camera but if you're coming to Shanghai you can't miss this just so futuristic like it's such a cool School site I frend Blade Runner and um can't I've been in many cities where all the buildings are lighting up at night like this so um yeah it's it's pretty incredible so my time in China is coming to an end I'm leaving for Japan I only had 6 days here cuz that's all I could stay without the proper Visa but honestly I loved it I didn't have the proper tourism Visa so I use the 144-hour transit Visa to China this allows you to visit a part of China for 6 days all you have to do is show that you're coming in from one country I came in from Thailand and exiting China within 6 days to a different country any other country but the one you came from so I went to Japan and in the these six days you can stay in the one province that you flew into so you can't do Shanghai and Beijing you got to pick one and just sort of explore that Province I thought it was really cool and I'd love to come back Airport's super nice but it's like an hour out of the city it's a long long ways to get to the airport from from where I was staying near uh people square area of Shanghai so remember that if you come here but overall this has been an awesome experience I love seeing China my own eyes and I honestly would love to come back and actually see more of the country so anyways I hope you enjoyed this video hope you learned a little about China um like And subscribe and you know follow me on my Journeys I'm going to go in a lot more cool places so thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time peace out from Shanghai China
2024-08-10 11:25
