My EYE-OPENING holiday trip to China

Visited Shanghai and Suzhou

May 03, 2025

I just came back from an eye-opening and amazing trip to China (specifically Shanghai and Suzhou). In those 10 days, I was treated to an extravaganza of luxury shopping malls, ancient Chinese traditions, advanced technological gadgets, adorable things, and awesome food.

If you intend to travel to China for business or leisure, you need to ensure that you are prepared, especially in the area of finance and technology. China works differently from the rest of the world in those respects. Things that you are familiar with back home and taken for granted (e.g. Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp) are not available in China. You do not want to be caught unprepared and have your trip ruined with inconvenience.

Check out my article at Stratigus for more detailed information on how to prepare for your trip to China.

Taking the subway to immigration and baggage claim?

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport was that all plane passengers had to take the subway to go to the immigration clearance and baggage claim area!

Lots of people everywhere, massive queues

When I arrived at the immigration clearance area, I saw a MASSIVE queue of travelers. At first, I thought, “Oh no! I’m going to wait in queues the entire night!”

But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the queue moved very fast. I hardly had time to stand and wait. I was constantly on the move.

This is one thing I noticed about China. There are LOTS of people everywhere. The queues are extremely long. However, the Chinese have figured out how to process queues very quickly and efficiently. You will be constantly on the move while in the queue. So, it is not that bad.

Tip: Don’t go to China during their school holidays

This is a little tip I can give you. During school days, there are already lots of people and long queues. If you go to China during their school holidays, you will be faced with even larger crowds and longer queues!

First morning in China

After having a good night’s sleep, I woke up in the morning and looked out of my serviced apartment room:

Jing’an Temple on West Nanjing Road

On the evening of my first day, I walked past the Jing’an Temple:

The photo on the right is what I believe to be the main entrance of the temple.

For those who are Apple fans, Shanghai’s Apple Store is just a few minutes walk from the Jing’an Temple.

First day’s dinner in China

That’s my dinner on my first evening:

The dish on the far right is “stinking tofu”. That was the first time in my life trying it. It stinks, but its taste did not comport with its smell. It tasted YUMMY!

After dinner, I came across this restaurant:

The name of the restaurant, translated to English, was “Poisonous Snake Noodle House”.

“Hmmm… should I try eating snake for the next day’s dinner?”, I thought.

Further down, I came across this building:

That building is a hotel today. I was told that in the past, it was a nightclub for the uber-rich in Shanghai.

The Bund

The next day, I went to the Bund, which is where the historic Western-style buildings were.

That was the Shanghai Bull:

That’s the Customs House, which was built almost a hundred years ago:

Down the Bund,

Across the Bund was the famous Shanghai Tower, which is the tallest building in China and the world’s third tallest building:

Yu Garden & City God Temple

Next, I went to the Yu Garden and the City God Temple:

Shanghai Tower

The next day, I went across the river from the Bund and took a lift up to China’s tallest building, Shanghai Tower:

Looking down from near the top of the building:

The lift was fast! It travelled at 10 metres per second!

Luxury mall

After that, I went to the luxury mall with all foreign brands and foreign imported goods:

That’s where I saw the BIGGEST crab in my entire life!

This crab cost 1999 yuan, which is about AUD 435!

Then I saw something familiar:

Chobani is an Australian brand of yogurt that is sold everywhere in supermarkets in Australia. But in Shanghai, it is sold as a luxury foreign brand. I was even offered a sample to try! But I declined, as I explained that I'm from Australia and had plenty of opportunity to try it back at home.

Disneyland

Then I visited Shanghai’s Disneyland, the happiest place in China!

There are a lot of young social media influencers at Disneyland. They are followed by professional photographers, making cute poses, and dressing up as anime characters:

This girl must be a social media influencer. She was posing for a professional photographer when I took this photo of her at a distance:

I saw lots of kids dressed up as anime characters. This is one example:

Also, a quick tip for Disneyland: Do not buy food inside. It is extremely expensive! Exit the gate and there will be restaurants outside at much more reasonable prices. This is where I had my lunch before re-entering Disneyland:

Shopping!

The shopping malls are tempting, with lots of gadgets, technology, and cute stuff:

And I saw the largest Pingu I’ve ever seen!

Popular Uyghur restaurant

I walked past this Uyghur restaurant and could smell the tempting fragrance of cooked BBQ meat. Judging from Google reviews, I could tell that it is very popular. Finally, the smell overpowered my taste buds and I ordered lamb skewers from the Uyghur chef cooking meat in the open air. You can choose between lamb, beef, or pork. It was DELICIOUS!

Bullet train to Suzhou

The next day, we took the bullet train from Shanghai to Suzhou.

From Suzhou, I took a ride-share to my hotel:

I’ve noticed that most cars on the street are electric vehicles (EVs). In fact, in some areas, EVs are the vast majority of vehicles, including public buses. All my ride-shares are on EVs. Most of them are made by domestic brands I have never heard of and not for exports.

In China, how do you tell that a car is an EV? Easy! If the license plate is green, it is an EV. If it is blue, it is an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. If the license plate is green with a yellow tag beside it, it is a hybrid vehicle. I saw green license plates everywhere, outnumbering the blue license plates. In some places, I hardly see any blue license plates.

Finally, I arrived at the famous Gate of the Orient (东方之门), an iconic building representing Suzhou: