While in college, I went on a six-month student exchange to Xiamen, China. In December, Matic was finally able to come and visit. 🙂 🙂 🙂 After three and a half months of Skyping, we were insanely happy to be reunited again. 🙂 First, we had spent a wonderful couple of days in Xiamen, and for Christmas, we decided to take a four-day trip to Shanghai. It was our first big trip together – our first pre-honeymoon honeymoon. 😉
Shanghai is one of the biggest cities in the world. It is a global financial and cultural center. It’s renowned for its Lujiazui skyline, amazing modern architecture, beautiful historic monuments, rich history, and a vibrant cultural life.
* Low-quality photo alert!!! 🙂 Our photography skills were very limited and our camera was very poor. We apologize! 🙁
Our four-day Shanghai travel itinerary (things to see and things to do)
DAY 1
First of all, I have to admit that we spent most of the trip in bed, so we didn’t get to see nearly as much of the city as we could have in four days. :O 🙂
First, we went to visit the Bund. The Bund is a waterfront area in central Shanghai, overlooking the iconic Lujiazui skyline. We took a nice long walk through this popular tourist area, visited some of its main attractions, and enjoyed the view of the skyscrapers on the other side of the river. The view was sadly somewhat foggy due to the air pollution, which is a big problem in Shanghai and other major cities in China.
In the evening, we decided to cross the Huangpu River. There are several ways to do that – you can take the metro, a ferry or the pedestrian transit tunnel, also known as the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. We chose to take the tunnel, which is a tourist attraction in itself since there are colorful light effects projected onto the walls of the tunnel. The experience was fun, but, in our opinion, slightly overpriced. On the other side of the river, at the modern Pudong district, we saw some of the city’s best-known buildings, including the Jin Mao Tower, the Shanghai Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center, and the Oriental Pearl Tower. The streets were filled with people, laughter, Christmas lights, decorations, and love. <3 We instantly fell in love with this vibrant city. 🙂
DAY 2
City center sightseeing day. At the heart of Shanghai is Nanjing road – one of the busiest shopping streets in the world. Although the street consists of two sections, ‘Nanjing road’ usually refers to Nanjing Road East, a pedestrian mall running between the central section of the Bund and the People’s Park. We went shopping and had a delicious Christmas dinner at a romantic candlelit restaurant. We had a blast! <3
DAY 3
We spent most of the day in the hotel room. After so many months without seeing each other, it was honestly hard to focus on anything else but each other. 😉 In the evening, we decided to take another walk on the Nanjing road. We walked to the People’s Park – one of Shanghai’s main tourist destinations. People’s Park features several major museums, a large pond, some cafe-bars, restaurants, and other attractions. We had dinner and afterward, we returned to the hotel. 🙂
DAY 4
On our last day in Shanghai, it was time to visit the Old City, the traditional part of Shanghai. Wow! After seeing some of the trendiest buildings in the world, it was amazing to see traditional Chinese architecture. We visited a rooftop restaurant, where we enjoyed a view overlooking both the old and the modern part of the city. It was overwhelming. <3 Afterwards, we visited a traditional tea ceremony, where we learned a lot about Chinese history, culture, and, of course, tea – one of China’s greatest inventions. 😉
After that, it was time to end our beautiful ‘pre-honeymoon honeymoon’ in Shanghai. In the evening, we took a flight back to Xiamen.
♥ Top romantic experience
Sadly, we didn’t have enough time to search for adventures. The most romantic experience, however, was to see the amazing combination of modern and traditional Shanghai. <3
Are you wondering about the daily budget, the best time to go, visa and immunization requirements, local customs, currency, electricity standards, safety tips and where to stay? Here you can find out all you need to know before visiting China.
Have you already been to China? We invite you to share your top romantic experience and top adventure in the comment section below. 😉
Very inspiring overall tour. I have never been to China but from your description it sounds like a amazing place to see. I think my favorite part would be the old part of China where you ate dinner ate rooftop restaurant.
It really is too bad that there is that much smog though.
Thank you for sharing your adventure
Hey, Melissa!
You’re more than welcome. And thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. As for the smog, we stay positive and hope people all around the world will start to realize how important nature is and will minimize the pollution eventually. Let’s just hope that won’t happen too late.
Love