Our itinerary in Shanghai was a bit different since there was less to see and more free time. Our car and guide picked us up and drove us to our hotel. We were far away from downtown but our hotel was amazing. We were put in a suite and it had a gym!
The first night my mom and I decided to explore our hotel area. We ate simple noodles and dumplings which were SO cheap and then headed back to our hotel for rest. The next morning our tour guide picked us up and we went to the Jade Buddha Temple, walked around the French concession, and went to a Silk Factory. The tour also allowed us to go shopping in one of the shopping plazas but it was just as if I was in Irvine. Prices were not any cheaper than America and that really bothered me. There was a huge thunderstorm that night so we just stayed around our hotel area again that night.
The following day was our only "free day" and my mom and I had a blast walking around Shanghai. The city is easy to navigate, subway is easy to use, and we kept finding things to eat, like 85 degrees- my FAVORITE bakery! Boba is super good there too.
We went shopping, a museum, an amazing bookstore, and saw the sights at night. It was really great and chill.
So after Shanghai we went to Hong Kong. Our flight was delayed (of course) so we were not sure what would happen with our tour guide since we knew we would not have a private guide anymore. Eventually we found her and we went to this hotel that seemed to have a MILLION guests. The man who made it was the founder of the Cub Scouts.
Our first night in HK my grand aunt and my auntie met us up and we ate some delicious seafood. We were actually on the Kowloon so we walked across the millions of shops and saw HK at night. I LOVE cities so HK was definitely right up my ally.
The next day we had a group tour and we saw a market and Victoria's Peak. I did not really like the group tour because we spent most of our time in the bus listening to our driver make bad jokes. We drove by a bunch of beaches and I wish I could have gone out to them. That night my mom and I went shopping and bargained for our items. Thanks mom for the fake Toms!
The next morning we went to Macau. Macau has 28 casinos and is a rival to Vegas. Well, I did not see any of that. After the boat from HK to Macau we were shuttled along to a bus where we did random touristy things. We only had 20 min in a hotel so I am sad I did not get to see more of it. Macau had nice fresh air and really good pastries.
That night we met up with an old friend from church and tried to see the Symphony of Lights. We thought the Symphony of Lights would be sort of "disney" because our tour mates raved about it. It was more like a search party but hey, that's cool HK.
Our trip was then over! Thanks Mom for a fabulous taste of the motherland!
