Our First Time in Shanghai China’s most overhyped city?
what's up everybody Welcome to Shanghai Wow first time in China's largest city roughly around 26 million people in one city it's overwhelming sounds overwhelming um there's a reason that we've put off coming here for quite a while now it's obviously been sort of the number one arrival destination of your favorite travel YouTubers everybody arrives here everybody's shocked about it but today we're going to give you our first impressions of Shanghai and our honest first impressions as well but first to start off we just checked in to our hotel and wow not too shabby I have to say this is the U Lee hotel and we're actually in the Hang po District which is very Central here in Shanghai so we're very grateful about that but have a look at this big beautiful double bed with I'm so shocked to be in Shanghai I'm so shocked it's so modern they have roads they have malls they have malls oh my God shocking um this hotel is roughly around 66o um or x amount of R&B per night so it's way out of our budget actually to what we usually spend but I think it's the location that sells it here's the bathroom sink you have a fancy Japanese toilet which is nice you can have a warm bum and then this is our shower situation so it's actually quite a nice bathroom and the room itself has no windows uh which is always a little bit of a let down especially if you're spending more than 60 a night but again we're in Shanghai what do you expect so it's a large city it's it's quite expensive a lot of people messaged us actually warning us that this is three four five times more expensive than a lot of the rest of China so we're going to have to deal with that we're only here for a few days though we're going to show you as much as we possibly can we're both actually pretty surprised that uh the snow window situation in the hotels is actually an option because like we have never considered it so we weren't really paying attention while booking it I guess so it's the second time that we have a no window room which is uh great for Sleep actually because I'm struggling with like light pollution quite a bit so I'm happy that I at least can like properly sleep and luk as well and yeah but still kind of weird to not have a window it is time to start exploring Shanghai we made it to the yuyuan garden and Bazaar area the general area of it I do believe that the yuyuan garden is just over here on the right side but I thought I'd show you this kind of intersection here it's all um pedestrianized but the traffic lights are still there it kind of seems a little bit like it's a perfect photo op uh if you're looking to do any social media pictures basically people are still hurrying every time that the traffic light changes not too sure it does kind of seem like a pedestrian Heist area uh there might be one or two cars here and there but not not really that much but the entire area here is really really nice now this lower part here seems to be a little bit under construction but you can see at the top all of the beautiful traditional Chinese architecture which is just so so stunning and by the way there's so many foreigners in Shanghai we haven't seen this many foreigners in a very very long time uh I kind of feel like nowhere where we went in China so far has had any amount of foreigners really maybe one or two here and there but like not this amount so yeah it's kind of cool to see it's kind of cool to see that people are starting to take advantage of the 14-day Visa yeah that guy just pointed at us and said irand oh no thank you all good thank you oh yeah you pointed at us in said irand Ireland yeah it's because uh I do believe in China we're known as the Irish Explorer couple instead of the two wheelies thank you nice no thank you maybe if I was 12 if I was 12 years old we're not 12 years old yeah yeah Shang Shanghai is a very Western like in terms of the western tourists Jesus it's crazy how many of them there are a lot of you guys have said that Shanghai is kind of like the beginner version of China and I definitely see that it seems to be like the entry level City almost it feels like we did it backwards we basically started in the madness like in one of the harder Parts in the Sichuan Province and then we slowly worked our way to easier cities almost that's what it feels like but it's nice to be here and I'm very very excited to see more of it it's chaotic though I have to say 26 million people it's very vast it's very large there's a lot going on but it's our type of Buzz actually watch oh no thank you there's a lot of people actually weirdly enough I'm not used to this is Hing on the street I haven't seen it anywhere in China like this I haven't seen it so far yeah like people like approaching you and trying to like sell you stuff in perfect English as well we haven't experienced this so far in China very unique I think we really did our tourist experience of China different like we started the hard way and are now made it to the easy way it's kind of weird wow look at that you can see beautiful Tower off there in the distance I can't think of the name of it but it's a very popular viewing point you can apparently go up over 100 Floors I think 110 or 114 floors and it gives you a spectacular View and the area we're in at the moment is the yuyuan garden which is supposedly something worth checking out and that's what we're going to do you want to go in yeah let's go in let's check it out don't know how much the ticket price is we have to see yeah are for the two of us oh you speak English very good everybody speaks English oh I do believe this might have been the first time that we actually saw this if you are a tourist here you can actually pay with a Visa card as well I do believe in a lot of the other tourist places that we've been so far it's only uh with payment with QR code which is very very convenient for us but obviously if you are very very new to China it's kind of like a I guess like a little bit of a hurdle sometimes because not every Foreigner has aqr code payment system but uh yeah uh can you believe how busy it is here this is crazy there's so many people so many foreigners as well which is always really really nice to see again so many foreigners are making use of the new Visa regulation I do believe uh as of like 1 of July or something like that other countries like New Zealand Australia and so on were also added to that scheme which is really really great great oh wow from here you can have a great look into one of the buildings it's really nice but my God it is crowded so many people this is crazy I'm not really sure where we need to go it's uh summer I guess so yes so it's kind of uh it's also summer holiday all over Europe at the moment so I do believe kind of the European summer holiday people come together with the Chinese summer holiday people at the moment here so yeah it's like double the amount of people possible probably we always pick the best times uh during the year to visit certain areas which is maybe not so smart I guess but it's okay I have to say the structures the buildings the architecture the whole way that these Gardens are laid out it is pristine very very beautiful I can't imagine what it would have been like living in here it's so Grand gorgeous wood as well and it's kept uh very very well as well I have to say so well done to the local government here for looking after this place this was built by the way in 1577 by the Ming Dynasty believe it or not so that's a very very long time ago and the fact that a lot of this is still preserved and looks so beautiful so nice in fact that people can stop take photos and it looks so stunning it's absolutely incredible I have to say I'm Blown Away by it so far the only issue so far is the sheer volume of people I think if you are going to plan a visit here I'll tell you right now avoid this time of the year because well if it was a bit more quiet I think that this whole sort of Garden area would be a 100 times more enjoyable for sure I do have to say though that all of the decorations up here like these two twin dragons that are facing each other are very very nice you're rubbing the line yeah yeah you have so much nice sort of decoration architecture and also kind of like handicrafts I feel like craftsmanship from the Ming Dynasty all around here wow I should have brought my head newly bought fan because it is um surprisingly humid in Shanghai I kind of feel like it's a little bit more humid here than it is uh even though suja was really not that far away suja felt a little bit drier I want to say and also hanga and ning and so on as well everything felt a little bit more uh dry I want to say this is a really cool view here so nice en day very nice they recognized us hello thank you byebye I didn't even realize that they had recognized that I just kept walking I don't know I was kind of in um deep buried deep in my thoughts so I wasn't really paying attention so sorry yeah we are uh currently looking for the exit because uh it is a little bit more kind of crowded and hectic than we expected it to be which was in all honesty it was anticipated because this is like one of the main tourist things in Shanghai but yeah I don't know it's still a little bit more than we thought it was going to be I know I keep speaking about the architecture I do want to point out however that this as Luke already said is I believe built by the Ming Dynasty so it does actually look very very different a lot of the places that we have seen where for example from the northern Song Dynasty or something like that and then the buildings and the architecture did look very very different uh I feel like with the Ming Dynasty you have a lot more sort of details uh in front of the windows so all of the windows are highly highly decorated and it also seems like you have a lot more of these sort of tips on the rift so yeah it does differentiate quite a bit if you compare Ming Dynasty architecture to to Northern Song Dynasty architecture and the other architectures that we have seen so far this one seems to be a little bit more detailed I suppose detailed might be the right word for it and this view here is actually really really funny because you have obviously the direct comparison between the old and the new you have the giant Tower there in the back which I believe that you can go up to and have a nice view over Shanghai and then this part here obviously is the old part uh but I do feel like this here in general looks really really nice you have loads of um kind of fish swimming around I do believe maybe some people are feeding them over here at the bridge but yeah the direct comparison the new and the old it's always cool I always like seeing how sort of the old gets a little bit incorporated into the new instead of being completely flattened and eradicated so this part I really do love absolutely everybody we're seeing here like literally hundreds of people over in this direction they're all having this super steamed bun with crab and pork this one right here these guys have one as well and you and this guy's getting one too it seems to be incredibly popular so we're going to give it a shot no idea what to expect out of it uh looks very suspect if I'm being honest you get a straw with it as well so you have to basically drink the soup out of the steamed one and then you can eat it as well sounds very good two of what everybody else is is eating I saw people have to put this stuff over it so that's exactly what I'm going to do I have no idea but it seems to be type of a hot soup or so oh I'm going to spill it I put too much on mine you got to put some soup on babe put some soup on yours it's vinegar oh it's vinegar oh okay it does it smell like vinegar yeah just a little bit same same he wants the same as us oh so you do get uh The Dumpling itself or the steam bun it's actually not a dumpling sorry it's like a soup soup bun or something like that and you do get a straw so what you want to do is you want to pierce the skin of The Dumpling and then it's probably going to be insanely hot I'm a little bit scared actually oh yeah very very hot I think she gave us the crab bro one crab bro yes yes it's very very fishy but it's nice maybe a little bit much fishy for my taste oh it's extremely hot though isn't it I can feel it on my hand just how hot it is I absolutely drenched mine in vinegar I don't know I didn't know what it was so I was I just saw everybody putting this stuff on it um so I was like yeah go for it I didn't want to put it at all probably not the best idea but hey let's give it a shot really really careful it's very hot oh yeah that is crabby a little bit fishy um and very very soupy it's going to be an absolute mess oh my God you're dripping vinegar too messy it's like I don't know what to even make of it to be honest but do as the Romans do that's what we do and uh I think if we make our way through it I want to try and like open it up a little bit so I can show you this girl is very interested in your one as well ni hello are you going to get one as well um on the inside it's basically just liquid um with crab some crab on the inside too and lots of vinegar a little bit of pork as well but W that is just sum it up cha chaotic it's a little bit chaotic I have to say I'm going to put it put it down and let it rest for a bit it's a bit on the messy side of life especially if you add 2 lers of vinegar on top yeah I don't know it's l dripping on the floor I'm going to smell like a fish and chip shop oh that's all right just smell like vinegar for saler top hello hello wait I I have tissues if you want yeah please wow I know I don't want to touch the camera because I just smell like fish and chips but hey and chips yeah I try something new and I think it's a little bit of a failure but once it cools down I'm going to try some more of it and see if it gets any more tastier or makes any more sense in my mind yeah right now I'm not so impressed yeah right now it's a little bit questionable but uh we also have to say though we are in the main tourist area so you can't really expect the highest of the high end right so you have to look for the proper local restaurants in order to get the best of the best usually and this is kind of like the main touristy area here wow have a look at this so this guy is literally hand making or hand rolling some scallion pancakes they've got Shanghai scalian pancakes and it seems to be basically the dough and then you've got like chives and an egg batter and it goes onto that dough and then you basically fry them in a like a shallow shallow bed of oil here on this and then this is basically the end product it smells absolutely Divine it's basically deep fried heaven right here except it's not deep fried it's shallow fried sorry they also they also have some Citron pepper ground up here on the side I believe maybe they add a little bit of that uh on top of the pancake and there's also some sort of filling going into this one oh yeah it looks like he's adding like maybe some shrimp or something like that could be shrimp could be pork could be anything um but nonetheless this place where we are right now is very fascinating it's basically I guess a a Bazaar of some sort you could call it like a like a nice sort of a market and a look here as well this here I think is deep fried so this is the Old Shanghai spare rib rice cake there's a whole lot of stuff going on in there from dumplings to everything that you can imagine and these seem to be the spare rib rice cakes here that this guy is dishing out right now he's just basically going to take the oil off and then you serves them up here and again the is unbelievable but I think we need to walk a little bit before we consume any more calories we had those soup type of vinegary uh disaster dumplings um but they weren't too bad they were just a little bit on the fishier side of life and I have to say the streets here the old beautiful streets the way they're kept is gorgeous it's like something out of a story book here I have to say kind of seems a little bit like a theme park of sorts nearly it's almost like a theme park like a like an ancient Town type of a Vibe but it's different this Shanghai is the first time that we're in a situation like this where it does feel very very unique and different some of the products as well again as in all of the ancient towns are kind of a little bit repetitive but I do feel like Shanghai might have a little bit more variation to the ancient Town part so they do have some like for example here you can get your own t-shirt made uh with sort of a print on top um you have lots of fans lots of bracelets and stuff like that I kind of feel like there might be a little bit more variation to it than you would usually find but it might also be due to its size right guys we made our way to the Yuan Bazar so there was the Yuan garden and Bazar right and this one here is the bazaar part of it I suppose uh it's kind of I don't know not like very very obvious where the entrance is at the beginning I was like why is it called the bazaar I thought that the ancient town was going to be the bazaar but uh no there's an actual normal looking Bazaar from the looks of it uh which I didn't anticipate because we haven't seen like actual bazaars so much in China of course we have seen like Farmers Market farmers markets and kind of stuff like that but not proper bazaars and um but a lot of the things here that you can buy seem to be um um sort of souvenirs types of things you have some hats you have shoes um some household kind of items and uh yeah lots and lots of bracelets oh it even seems to be having four floors oh Jesus Christ I didn't think this was going to be so big it was not very obvious the and um I'm not really sure if I enjoy this part of this this is the first time in China where people are sort of attempting to do a proper hard self on us which I'm not sure about it's kind of it's just an introduction of uh basically tourism usually Western tourism so whenever there are westerners like us that show up in a city like they are in Shanghai I see tons and tons of westerners for whatever reason it just attracts um this kind of culture of like scammy weirdness and like trying to like overpriced for stuff over charge for stuff and um that's just me being honest it's the way it is in Europe as well it's the way it is in America it's just what tourism brings I guess um a lot of the stuff here in this market just seems to be basically bulk sort of Bot so probably um you know the typical uh large scale production and then a lot of it is put in here and then the vendors basically try and make a margin on it that's what it seems like anyways Wow have a look at this so this is Guang Park very close or right next to the amazing hang Po River which we're actually going to go now and have a little Glimpse at I have to say Shanghai is a very vast and beautiful city First Impressions so far it's hectic it's chaotic it's vibrant and it's Lively I can't wait now to see the Hang poo River and also to get a proper look onto the skyline of Shanghai cuz that's what Shanghai is really known for as well is the beautiful Skyline especially once the sun goes down now it's obviously kind of just in the afternoon at the moment roughly around 3 or so but let's go to the river have a look and see build up some expectations for later on tonight when we're going to have a sort of a nighttime Peak as well wow I'm excited Shanghai is giving me a sort of a it's reinvigorating my energy it's uh there's something about this city has a lot of energy and like I said so much going on this park is literally rammed full of young kids that are working out or kind of working out and enjoying themselves and that's the number one thing it seems like people are enjoying themselves here in Shanghai it's so interesting as well how different Shanghai actually is like I I do feel like we have seen an extensive amount of China of course China is a giant uh country and you need probably a lifetime to see it all but I do feel like we kind of have a little bit of a feeling for what different provinces are like and I feel like Shanghai really stands out with with its own Vibe it's it feels very very different the people are different and the culture also seems to be different so it's kind of cool 100% you feel a little bit of a different aspect as well of China well well well you guys we made it to the Hang poo River pier as you can see there's loads and loads of people now we just met actually we just met a friend on coincidence that we made in hanga and she said that this time around actually it's really empty in the evening time it's like super super full of people here so we're uh kind of considered lucky I want to say for not having an insane amount of people here um and she also said if you walk all the way kind of to the end it gets gets uh less crowded cuz everybody just kind of comes up here takes a picture like Luke does at the moment I'm being a tourist okay exhibit a and then sort of walks back and uh kind of moves on with whatever other tourist activities so the most crowded area at this time of the day is probably here and then you can um sort of walk all the way till the end and then it gets less and less crowded the further you go I suppose but wow there's so many people on that boat oh yeah can you see this here so many people on the back of the boat oh I do think that the entire boat came out to this big scenery let's wave see if they wave back oh no nobody's waving back nobody's waving usually when people are on boats they really enjoy waving at each other not these people that is that's a crazy amount of people it's like 500 people on the back of I do think that both uh both floors just walked up and came to the back of the boat to be outside and enjoy the scenery probably yeah just up here is the what hello hello there's also this guy who's just running up and down yeah he's working out nice [Music] huh I think he's speaking to oh from Jo's really slowly running away like this oh he's running backwards oh no wait he's going to go again is he going to Sprint no Run Race it to the end let's go he's doing some Lun just now French Olympics oh my God the French Olympics uh just up here by the way is the popular it's called the bond um oh yeah I have genuinely no idea what it actually is but it's a popular area with tourists and apparently also gorgeous views as you can see I don't think there's a bad place to be here on this River yeah uh it's very very beautiful all the way around it's so so beautiful and you can also see the beautiful TV tower here which is probably featured in every single Skyline that you will ever see of Shanghai this TV tower will be part of it and also this giant building here which I believe you can go all the way to the up uh all the way to the all the way to the up you know you can all the way you can go up all the way to the top now that is a difficult sentence for somebody who's not a native English speaker and uh obviously you have to pay money for it but you can get a really really nice view over U all of Shanghai and some of these towers even have some restaurants on the top so you could kind of go up and enjoy your dinner but obviously that's going to be a little bit of a expensive experience I suppose we need to have a look of what actually you can do and how expensive it is maybe we can do something like that as well depending on how this Shanghai trip kind of evolves I do think that this yellow and white ship here it kind of looks like it's just a ferry that's going back and forth no maybe looks a little bit like that lots and lots of really really big boats here wow but these boats here kind of look like I don't know they don't look like they're moving around they kind of seem to be a little bit more stationary and then sort of the boats that are on the second row those might be the boats that are moving back and forth not sure though oh sorry I think we might be part of a family picture here should I should I photob bomp it and just put myself beside them and act as if I'm part of the Chinese family you've done that in probably like a thousand photos now stage I don't know it's kind of like a really nice experience to be doing that because that's a lot of times how you make people laugh but also of course you disturb them a little bit but it's okay you can always take another picture with your family wa WEA oh this Tower is entirely golden I didn't realize that and the one here in the back as well is really really nice this one all metal sort of on the outside with an interesting structure on the top this high is gorgeous I have to say like I'm very it's like I said it's making me very uh sort of Happy on the inside and it's also making me very excited for the sun to go away cuz once it uh lights up you probably don't want to be here cuz it's going to be overwhelmingly packed but I'm sure there's like little secret Areas uh that we're going to have to figure out where to go so we can get a proper sort of a more peaceful view yes exactly but this is also the perfect spot to just kind of go for a stroll and enjoy your afternoon I suppose it's really nice out here and you have the most stunning views all over the skyline I'm so happy to be here now if I told you that this was a Parliament building somewhere in Europe you would probably believe me and have a look at this clock tower as well very interesting I think there is quite a bit of colonial history here from the Americans the French probably a couple other countries as well I'm not too up to scratch on my Shanghai history to be honest but we're going to be learning a lot more over the next few days and I think First Impressions so far of Shanghai very positive positively impressed I have to say the views here on this side of the Modern Skyscrapers and these beautiful gorgeous buildings as well contrasting over here with this big gray Mega sort of monolith building um it's very beautiful and I like the contrast very very much of the old and the new but yeah first impressions of Shanghai this place is a vibrant City indeed there's a lot to see and there's a lot to do and that's what we're going to do over the next couple of videos so stay tuned for that there's so much hustle and bustle going on here in the city it's very very Lively and uh I do enjoy kind of the first the first Vibe the first impressions that we got are very very enjoyable very positive and as I said again very different to the rest of China but I feel like that's kind of the case with every single province with every single city that you visit it's always a little bit different but I feel like Shanghai really stands out there with everything being different basically yeah very exctly it does certainly feel or gives the vibe of the or the aspect anyways of being the sort of easy entry point for any westerners that want to visit China so if you are a Westerner and you want to sort of almost like add a little bit of Vaseline onto your trip and slide in a little bit easier into China um Shanghai is your first choice I think uh a lot of the cities that we've experienced there's a lot of sort of small nitty-gritty things you do have to figure out along the way you might have to be in China for a little bit longer before you figure that out but Shanghai so far smooth sailing very very little obstacles from a foreigners perspective which might actually be similar also in Beijing we're not too sure we haven't been there but Beijing is another one of those Chinese cities where a lot of Western foreigners are right so I do assume that Beijing might be um similar that it's like very very Foreigner friendly and very sort of easy sailing um very little obstacles very little things that are sort of uh making your day difficult I want to say not ruining your day but making it a little bit difficult and uh yeah I really do like Shanghai so far so from the Hang pooo River here in Shanghai we're going to say bye-bye for now stay tuned plenty more videos coming your way from Shanghai for now my name is Luke my name is Naomi we are the two M explorers and this is your reminder to keep exploring see you guys in the next Shanghai Adventure cha for watching byebye bye-bye know mama
2024-10-21 21:27
