In 2017 I was selected for an exchange program at the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. I spent almost a month in this unique country. Here’s how to visit Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai and how I experienced it.
Beijing
We arrived in Beijing. The first thing we visited was the Great Wall, one of the World Wonders. I was surprised to see that there were barely any other tourists at the Pan Long Shan Great Wall Scenic Area. Make sure you’re wearing good shoes to conquer the many steps of the wall. Next we went to the huge forbidden city, ate Peking duck and window shopped at the fake designer mall.
The highlight of our time in Beijing was riding our bikes through the historic Hutongs. This is the last traditional part of the city, threatened by newer and bigger buildings. We had lunch with a local family and attended a tea tasting at the Bell and Drum Towers. Join in on the fun leisure activities with the locals on the squares.
Hangzhou attractions
As tourism students studying in Hangzhou we included a lot of visits, of course! The school organized a field trip to a Belgian/Chinese chocolate factory/museum called Afición Chocolate village. Which looked a lot more Chinese than Belgian. There were lots of decors for photoshoots, which seems to be a big thing in China.
I loved walking around the old village of Tangxi, near Hangzhou. There are lots of lovely traditional shops, but it’s not very big. Another one of the trips we did, was to the Xixi Wetlands. After the visit we were free to have lunch wherever we wanted. We took a taxi to a restaurant, but when we wanted to get back there wasn’t a single taxi that wanted to take us. After losing a lot of time and running very late, we spotted an old Chinese man with an old bus along the road. We convinced him to take us in his old bus, what an unexpected adventure! Luckily, we made it on our school bus in time!
We also visited the beautiful Temple of Souls Retreat and Longjing tea plantations. The Songcheng Theme Park blew our minds. Acrobats performed an incredible show with the craziest decors and laser shows. Lastly, we visited the incredibly beautiful West Lake by boat.
Shanghai
We spent our last days in Shanghai. First thing we did was go to the top of the second highest building in the world, the Shanghai Tower! Once we reached the top, there was not much of a view because of the smog. However, it was cool to be so high up in a building.
The city is mainly modern, except for the very crowded City God Temple. I wouldn’t say Shanghai is a must when you go to China, but the boat ride on the Huangpu River along the skyline by night was amazing once the smog cleared and we could see the top of the highest building.
Also, if you think you know what it’s like when something stinks. You have no idea until you have walked on a Chinese market. I am not saying that they are dirty, but WOW.
I hope you like this guide on how to visit Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. There is so much I still have to experience there. I would love to go back one day for 2 months to see all the rest. Here’s the after movie of this trip. I also made a Q&A in Dutch with English subtitles where I talk everything through with video clips of the trip. You can read all about studying in China and going local in Hangzhou in THIS ARTICLE.
If you are interested in exploring more of Asia, check out my article about my time in Tokyo.