Ah good old China. I could feel that my ancestor was from China. As I observed Chinese people, they behaved like my grandparents or parents. And they kept talking to me in Chinese as I did not understand.
China internet
I think first thing you will notice, when you go to China is internet! It is different. As you may know many sites has been blocked. I prepared VPN. But it was not useful or too slow in China (I tried in Mongolia. It was very good). So if you go to China for short time, just get ready to live without internet. And if you stay China for a long time, find a good VPN. Here is the Chinese blocked list.
Chinese Food
I loved very much. One of tastiest countries in the world to me. In Shanghai, I kept spending my money on street foods. Between my hostel and a metro station had a lot of foods. It was less than 5 min walk, I was very full by the time I got to the station. I did not take any photos of foods (I was too busy eating). I much prefer dirty little places with no English menu. Those places were likely filled with locals. I could read a bit of Chinese, so I was able to order things. But once in a while, I tried my luck with just pointing menu to order. I also tried nice clean place. I did not like much unfortunately. Tasted like undeveloped. So I highly recommend to go to dirty little street foods, even if you don’t know Chinese.
Chines Train (Speedo as theme song)
I had been traveling with Chinese trains since leaving Moscow. In China, trains are modern and fast. The tickets seem sold out fast. I had a limited time in China. So I used this agent, China Travel Agency. They book your ticket in advance and give you some options to get physical tickets. They can email you booking number, the go to any train station to pick it up (need booking number and bring passport or Chinese ID, if you have one), or they can send the ticket to hostel or somewhere you want to pick up with extra charge.
I paid about just over 100US$ (including booking fees) for Beijing to Shanghai. It was a high speed train. It traveled nearly 1,300km long (It’s like Auckland and Wellington return). And it only took about 5 hours of travel. By the way, from Auckland to Wellington takes about 12 hours (only one way).
You can also find little places where selling train tickets in China. That was how I got my ticket to go to see my old class mate, Hanna in Ningbo. She worked in Ningbo, near Shanghai. That was a good day trip from Shanghai. I had an awesome time to catch with her. We went to some Chinese place for kai. It was mmmmmmmm. Dumplings were the best.
I also took sleeper train to Shenzhen to go to Hong Kong. Nice clean train. Just like any other Chinese train, boiled water on the board.
Ska Overlander 