After months of planning I finally arrived in Shanghai on the 23rd of October. I took a one way flight from London Gatwick direct to Shanghai via Air China and it cost me just £345. Before arriving I had set up a e-sim on my phone so I could connect straight to the internet and find my way from the airport to my hostel. I booked 3 nights in Dayin hostel in the city centre right near The People’s Square. It was in walking distance of most things. It is a very tourist friendly lively city and after a couple of days exploring The Bund, Oriental Pearl Tower, Tianzifang and trying alot of different food, I decided to book a train to Beijing.

The train took approximately 6h 18m and cost me 598 RMB (£65). I booked yet another hostel and it turned out to be a bit difficult to find seeing as google maps doesnt always work very well and Amap is sometime hard to follow. The hostel was called Dinghe Youth Hostel but on the maps it was advertised as Wohkoon Hostel, luckily I had read a review saying to search for the second name to find it. This hostel was unfortunately solely chinese people who could not speak english, except one lady I had breakfast with from Argentina. Also the beds were incredibly uncomfortable and each night every two hours I had to change which side I was lying on, never mind it was cheap. The next day after arriving I booked a tour of The Forbidden City. With each attraction you require your passport in Beijing, this works as your ticket for entry. The tour lasted around 2 hours and was very interesting although, the sky was full of smog all day. After the tour I went to try some Peking Duck at a restuarant recommened by the tour guide. I booked a taxi via the DiDi app. This was my first time using the app and it told me to show the driver a four digit code, no problem. When the driver arrived I got in and he asked for the code, the code had now disappered from the app. At this point I did not realise it was the last four digits of your phone number and the driver was going mental, shouting in Chinese. After about 10 minutes with him pulled over I managed to work out it was my phone number, thank god. This was the only time I had a bad experience with the chinese people but, I suppose it was my fault. Anyway the duck was pretty good.

The next day I arranged to go to The Great Wall of China. I had met an Australian guy in Shanghai who recommened a good tour company. It cost me 1,065 RMB (£116) and was with a group 5 others and the tour guide. We left at 9am and the mini bus took 2 hours to arrive at the Jinshaling section of the wall. I had asked the tour company to recommened a part of the wall that might not be so touristy as I had seen videos online of the wall and it looks so overcrowded you can barely move. We arrived at around 11am and considering how smoggy the sky was the day before, we could not have had a better day. The sun was beaming and it wasn’t too hot, a perfect autumn day for some hiking. We spent around 4 hours of the wall and covered a 9km stretch. After completing that the tour guide Gary took us to a Chinese restuarant to try some local dishes. The food was amazing and it topped off the day. We then took the mini bus back which took 3-4 hours due to a crazy amount of accidents on the motorway. In the space of about 2km there must have been 10+ crashes. On the way back Gary helped me too book a reservation to see Tiananmen Square on the WeChat app. I did want to visit Mao’s mausoleum but unfortunately all the museums are closed on mondays.

I got up early monday morning and headed to the square, I hung about here for a hour or so and Mao’s mausoleum is on the square so at least I could see it from the outside. If you are coming to Beijing I would suggest booking in adavance as everything is very busy, I did not know this but was lucky to still see the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall. I booked a train that afternoon to Xi’an.

Beijing was good to see and there was so much history but, it did feel a little intense at times and after arriving in Xi’an I felt alot more relaxed. I arrived around 7pm, I booked the train through the Railway 12306 app, this seems to be the best app for booking trains. It took 4h 12m and cost me 577 RMB (£62). After seeing there was no hostel life in Beijing I assumed the same for Xi’an so, I checked into a Ibis hotel for 2 nights that cost me 211 RMB per night (£23). The next day I went to see the Terracotta Warriors. The site was a 30 minute drive from the hotel and cost 96 RMB (£10). Transport and food in China is very cheap, accomodation is also relatively cheap. The Terracotta Warriors was really impressive and the story is unbelievable, I did not know the full story before coming to the site but it can really blow you away. Although the amount of tourists, mainly chinese was crazy. 1 hour at the site was enough for me so I left and exited through what seemed like a never ending street of restuarant and souvenir shops. I took a DiDi back to the centre to the muslim quarter. I read online there was good food to try here. I spent the next hour trying some local food then took the metro back to my hotel. I grabbed some food from a 7eleven and chilled at my hotel before going to the the Ancient City Wall that evening. Entrance fee was 54 RMB (£5-£6) and it was well worth it. The wall looked beautiful lit up at night time and I picked up a Tsingtao and explored. I didn’t feel great so after a hour I headed back to my hotel. When I got back my whole body was aching so I got a early night. Waking up numerous time and feeling less then 100% I knew what was wrong, FOOD POISONING! Hows my luck only 1 week in and I had already got food poisoning. I knew the culprit already, a oniguri from the 7eleven that afternoon that must have been sitting there a bit too long. No stranger to food poisoning whilst travelling, I knew the procedure to help me get right. Get up and get it out! The next morning I was fatigued and very achey so, I went to reception and booked another night to recover. I just stayed in the room all day and slept until the following day I booked a train to Chongqing.

That afternoon I took a 5 hour train to Chongqing and it cost me 280 RMB (£30). I had seen many videos online about this futuristic cyberpunk style city. I arrived and was impressed how modern everything in the city looked compared to Beijing, it looks like China has really pumped money into the place. Big skyscrapers, neon lighting, busy roads. I had decided to book another hostel here as there was a couple in the city with a rating of 9+. I stayed at Only Cafe & Backpacker, a hostel situated on the 31st floor of a skyscraper and it cost me only £6 per night. I checked in and then that evening headed out to Hongya Cave, one of the few cool places I had seen videos of online. It looked really cool with all the yellow lights on the older style buildings, behind the skyscrapers and next to the river. Yet again though there was so many Chinese tourists you could barely move but, I still managed to get a couple of good photos. I headed back to the hostel that night and the next day I planned to take the metro to Liziba station, where you can witness a train passing through a building. This was another video I had seen online. Once again there was a lot of tourists here so I didnt stick around too long and spent the rest of the day exploring the city. Chongqing is known for its hilly terrain so everyday here was a workout. I planned to try the famous Sichuan spicy style food here but, after the food poisoning I dont think my stomach could hack it unfortunately.

My last day in the city I met a guy from the US staying in my hostel and that evening we headed out to another hostel hoping to find some people to party with. As like the rest of China there wasn’t much hostel life in the city either. We met a french guy and headed to the nightlife spot in Jiafangbei Road. The place was busy and had plenty of bars and nightclubs to pick from. I noticed how the Chinese people like to watch online gaming on a big screen in busy areas, maybe its like the British watching football at the pub? im not sure. We found a cool bar and shared some drinks then played some card games with a group of local girls. I had a train to Hong Kong early the next day so I called it a night about 2am and left the guys there.

I really liked it in Chongqing the place is like nothing I have seen before, I would have liked to try more of the food there but never mind. Maybe one day I will go again you never know.

I enjoyed my time in mainland China but for the food poisoning. Although when I arrived in HK it was a really nice feeling to be able to use cash no problem and be able to communicate a lot easier with the locals. Of course some places you can use cash on the mainland but  majority of places want a digital payment method such as WeChat or Alipay and to be honest after 10 days on the mainland, I was sick of having to use my phone for just about everything.

If you are are travelling to China be prepared for little english and make sure you have some translation apps on your phone for sure. I probably met a handful of people who spoke english, not that im saying everyone should learn english to help me! I managed to see the majority of places I wanted to see in China but, I am also thinking of maybe spending another week there before I head back to the UK. I would like to see the Avatar mountains in Zhangjiajie and explore some more of the Hunan province, aswell as experiencing some of the Shanghai nightlife. My visa is a 2 year multiple entry so I have plenty of time to re-visit but the amount of tourists at most of the attractions and the digitalised society does give me second thoughts. China is such an interesting country with a giant history and there is so many places to see. It has been top of my list for a longtime and in whole the experience was great. I am also interested in seeing or taking part in Kung Fu and Tai Chi and the Wudang Mountain was also in my original plan but I think it requires some more planning.

Here are so apps I would recommend if you are travelling to China.

• WeChat + Alipay – make sure to get verified before coming to China as most places will accept both of these methods of payment.
• Amap – if you have a sim card with VPN google maps will work to an extent but its not great so I suggest using this app.
• DiDi – use this app to book any taxis, just remember you might need the last four digits of your phone number!
• Railway 12306 – this is the best app for booking trains around the country.
• Mapway – use this app to view subway maps in Beijing or Shanghai.
• Trip.com – this is probably the most used site for booking hotels in China but you can also use booking.com, agoda etc.

Thanks for reading and if you are planning a trip to China I hope this helps.