Hangzhou and Shanghai

We spent November 14th packing up, traveling to Guilin, wasting a few hours and then getting on a train which traveled through the night to Hangzhou to meet up with Kiera, Whitney, and Amanda for the rest of our vacation. We arrived in the afternoon of the 15th, checked into our hostel and then went exploring around Hangzhou. Kiera, Whitney, and Amanda left for home that night, but the rest of us girls still had another day planned in Hangzhou. Sadly, a rain storm came through so we couldn’t enjoy Hangzhou and instead spent the day wet, cold, and trying to make the best of things.

Trying to make the best of a rainy day.

Shanghai:

On the 16th Alysa, Shayne, and Leah all went back to Bengbu, but I got special permission to meet up with my friend Katie Bell to go to Shanghai and get my mission papers done (see this post for more details). Katie and I took a train to Shanghai, checked into our hostel, and went out on the town. At the hostel we met this girl from Germany, named Jessica, who spoke a little English, even less Chinese, and just BARELY arrived in China where she would be doing an internship for almost a year. She was all alone, a bit nervous coming to this new country, and we remembered how that was when we first arrived so we invited her out to dinner and explore the city with us. We had so much fun with her and we spent the night teaching her about the Chinese culture (crazy how just living here over three months can give you so much experience to share).

From left to right: me, Jessica, and Katie in front of Nanjing Road and pictures of us and other people dancing.

We introduced Jessica to a Muslim noodle place (aka THE BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER) and there we met a family with SIX kids! Chinese families are only allowed to have 1-2 years so 6 kids is unheard of. 

Two extremes of the subway—completely packed and completely empty.

Yangshuo Day 3

On November 13th, we spent the morning hiking Moon Hill. It wasn’t that long of a hike, but 90% of it were stairs and by the end we were all dying. The view was definitely worth it though. After, we went back to our hostel,  dressed up in new dresses we bought, and visited the main night life in Yangshuo. This was probably my favorite city night of all of China—there was so much to do and see, it had the best and cheapest shopping, and the nicest people.

This sweet lady followed us the WHOLE way up the mountain, trying to get us to buy something from her. We kept telling her we didn’t want anything, but she was persistent! And…eventually we felt bad, gave in, and bought some water and postcards.

Made it to the top!

We had lunch at Moon Hill café, which was disappointing, but had some interesting drinks!

Night life in Yangshuo!

Sometimes we just want American food when we go out to dinner. We found a little pizza place and met this older guy from Europe and we spent our whole meal talking to him. We told him all about what we’ve been doing here in China and at home; he told us all about his life in Europe and everywhere he’s traveled. It was really fun talking to him. Below is a creeper picture I took of him (as in he had no idea it was being taken haha).

While we were there, there was also a school group of girls that was touring around and they were given the assignment of contacting foreigners, practicing their English, and inviting the foreigners to a lunch the next day. Collectively we probably got a hundred invitations—seriously, these girls were everywhere! We actually did make friends with a few of them; they helped us get items cheaper and we went dancing for a bit!