In April 2019 we ticked off one of our major bucket list items, visit China. We had looked up the flights so many times in the past but had never made it a reality but in October of 2018 we found cheap flights and decided to go for it.
Flash forward 6 months and there we were in Edinburgh airport ready to explore another part of the world. Liam had been travelling to Asia his whole life to visit his dad but this was our first time in the continent on our own travels and we were nervously excited.
When choosing our flights we had specifically chosen Lufthansa’s Edinburgh-Frankfurt-Shanghai route as the long haul leg of the flight was being operated by the A380, my favourite plane. For those of you who don’t know, this is the double decker plane and one of my dreams has always been to fly on the top deck (which is usually quite tricky as it’s typically all upper class). However, after lots of research I discovered that Lufthansa operate a small economy section on the top deck so we phoned up, paid a small fee and booked ourselves into some fabulous seats upstairs.
This was so worth it. An even better perk of the upstairs cabin was that it was a 2-4-2 economy configuration which meant we didn’t have next to anyone else. You also got a large bin down the side for all your stuff which was super handy. The other perk of the upstairs was that as there was only 35 people in this economy section, there was dedicated staff for it and we got all our service super prompt.
After the best 9 and a half hours we’ve had on a plane, we touched down in Shanghai. Warning: it might not always be the case BUT clearing immigration took close to an hour and it was quite a hectic area. We weren’t sure what was happening most of the time but we finally got through after a lot of stress and paperwork. When we eventually cleared immigration we headed to the first excitement of the trip: the Maglev. If you haven’t heard of the Maglev, it’s a train that runs using magnetic levitation! This slightly freaked me out but you can’t tell the difference once you are on it (although I was convinced I could!) I just wish I hadn’t have been so tired as I might have been able to appreciate it more.
We arrived in the late afternoon and decided to have a couple of hours to relax (codeword for nap). Once we felt a little more refreshed we went for a walk and ended up at the Bund, which is the walkway opposite the Shanghai skyline. I’m so glad we did this as it was such a nice way to introduce ourselves to Shanghai and marvel at the incredible buildings that the city has to offer.
On our way home we realised we hadn’t eaten in hours so stopped by a restaurant just outside our hotel, where I had the strangest pizza I’ve ever tasted. As I was tired and cranky, I didn’t want to try any proper local food just yet so I went for a Beef in Black Bean Sauce Pizza. Now it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. Liam just laughed the entire time as he had predicted it would be weird tasting and he was right.
The next day I faced my fear as we did a sky-walk round the edge of one of the famous buildings that make up the skyline, the Jin Mao Tower. I am terrified of heights and this was one of those things that I was unsure I would actually do once I was there…however I did and I loved it.
It started off well as we wandered for ages trying to find the actual entrance. It was hidden within a building foyer and after circling the room three times we finally found the entrance. So off we went up in this elevator not realising we were about to have one of the oddest encounters of our trip.
In the lift was a tour group of Chinese people from a small rural village, they were dressed in their amazing traditional clothing, all brightly coloured, with beautiful and unusual patterns and they spent the whole lift ride staring at us. Eventually they tried to speak to us but the language barrier was too much, so they just giggled and touched our hair and arms. However, the strangest part was that after we left the lift we then spent 10 minutes having a queue of the tour group take their pictures with us. To this day, Liam and I always have a laugh and a joke that somewhere in a small rural village in the Chinese outback there is a picture of us both on a family’s wall.
After our photo shoot we headed round to our starting point. It was fairly simple we watched some videos on what was expected when out on the walkway and then it was time to harness up. The guides were lovely but spoke no English so it was quite interesting being shown how to put my harness on through the power of mime but finally I got it on and headed out to the great outdoors. Now, you could say we were unlucky as the glass walkway was covered for that month but I definitely felt more confident not being able to see all the way down.
Whilst out there you aren’t allowed to take your cameras, so they take photos for you and the one they took of the two of us is one of my favourite photos (especially as I feel I look far braver than I felt!)
The day after we did the most touristy thing we could possibly do…go to Shanghai Disney and boy it did not disappoint.
We aimed to get there prompt to avoid the queues, however discovered we would have probably had to have been there five hours early based on the lines we arrived to. We then discovered that the Chinese do not queue, they just skip constantly so after becoming quite irritated by this we decided if you can’t beat ’em join ’em. Once we got inside it was amazing. Shanghai Disney is still relatively new so it’s decorations and staging are all shiny compared to other parks. We loved wandering around and just looking at all the small details. I really loved the blossom trees and spent a lot of time making Liam take pictures of me underneath them.
After strolling past a loud and bustling Disney parade we ended up at Tron which is one of our favourite rides we’ve been on, it’s a great rollercoaster where you are on a Tron bike, and feel like you are taking part in a race. We liked it so much we went on it six times! I would recommend that if it’s super busy then get a Fast Pass for it as soon as possible as I saw people on other blogs saying they had to queue for hours to get on and only got one opportunity.
Another ride we enjoyed was Pirates of the Caribbean, which in comparison to Disney Paris is absolutely incredible. The special effects are just so impressive and make it worth the wait. We also loved the Camp Discovery section as it is very different from anything we had seen at other theme parks. This was an interactive climbing frame for both adults and children. We went on two of the routes and loved watching each other stumble and fall. However, the highlight had to be watching other people, their screams could be heard for miles.
Now Disney is famous for the food at its parks and Shanghai did not let us down in this aspect. We weren’t really feeling a sit down meal so opted for a hot dog and chips which were delicious! There is nothing better than having a greasy meal after you’ve been running from ride to ride all morning. The best food we had though was the caramel popcorn…I could have bought multiples of this. It was honestly so deliciously sweet and crunchy, I was heartbroken when I reached the bottom of the tub.
After a rather hectic day in Disney we felt for our last day in Shanghai we needed to slow the pace a little. We decided to explore the peaceful Yu Gardens. It was tucked away in the cutest area, with lovely red buildings, all nestled close together, winding round and round.
The walk around here was one of my favourite moments as you soak in so much culture and architecture. We spent ages just wandering round and taking it all in, it was such a lovely way to spend some time.
We loved our trip to Shanghai and would highly recommend it to everyone. It was such an incredible experience and gave us a very different view of China. We also loved that we experienced the two main Chinese cities back to back and got to directly compare them.
