China - $49 Nine-day Jiangnan Deluxe Gourmet Tour - Days in Shanghai

This was my first time travelling to China. What shocked me was that the China visa was about $140, but it is for multi-entry for 10 years, so that was ok. I participated in the 9-day Jiangnan Deluxe Gourmet Tour. I was more into food than China at the beginning of the trip so my expectations were low.

Here is a link of the destinations : Click here for link!

Technically the trip is 7 days (a week) because you spend 2 days on your trip to and from China. It is best that you have a foundation of good Chinese speaking and understanding because you are entering a different country and please be considerate of another country's customs. For the price of $49, I was blown away. The hotels were 5-stars and the food was good. Basically, you buy stuff from the sponsors (jade, silk, pearls, tea) and they pay for your hotels and food. Below is our itinerary for the week. You just have to pay for your round-trip plane ticket and the tips for the tour guide at the end of your entire tour.


Day 1 - leaving NYC to Shanghai

Day 2 - Shanghai - We were picked up by a driver that was hired by the hotel from Shanghai Pudong airport and the rest of the day was free for us to roam around. So we went shopping around Nanjing Xi Street and meet up with a family relative later for dinner. Below is a temple just 5 minutes walk from our hotel.



We stayed at the Portman-Ritz-Carlton Hotel which is at the central of luxury shopping. We were hungry but didn't want to eat alot before dinner so we went to Food Mart and got carry-out sushi. It was pretty good for US$5.

  

Not including in the tour.  We met up with my uncle and eat at Lu Lu Restaurant 上海鷺鷺酒家, located at 南京西路1266号恒隆广场5楼.

  

 Afterwards we did a bit of night market shopping. There's a lot of Korean cosmetics brand shops here. But I got my haul in Taiwan so I wasn't interested here. I kind of regret not getting the Bioderma product there. There's always my next trip to Asia...

  

 Look at the China flags on the streets.

  

 

Police cars and tour buses.

 

Downtown and the main attraction at night. 

 

Complimentary breakfast at the hotel in the next  morning.  My favorite part of the day.

 

I separated the entry blogs by locations so after the entire trip we went back to Shanghai.

I'm going to jump to Day 9 because we came back to Shanghai. I wanted to keep each post on one city. The next couple of post will continue after Day 1 - The last day of the trip means coming back and saying good-bye to Shanghai. We woke up in Shanghai at the Crowne Plaza Shanghai Pudong Hotel and pack and went to the airport for the 11am flight.

 

My entire perspective on China has changed since physically visiting China. I think if you have an slight interest in China or Asia, you should visit here once in your lifetime.