Shenzhen China Travel

Shenzhen is a vibrant major Chinese southern city neighboring Hong Kong. With a population of 15 million people, the city contains a diverse group of people with a large expat community. There are tons of places to eat, shop, and meet interesting people (including those who speak English)!

Chinese transportation is so easy and advanced which makes traveling to Shenzhen China a cinch! Take an 11 hour bullet train ride from Shanghai or an even easier 30 minute train ride from Guangzhou. If you’re like me and visit Shenzhen from north of Shanghai (i.e. Beijing or Jinan), domestic flights are quite cheap and will only take you a couple hours.

My route from Jinan to Shenzhen

Top 5 things to do in Shenzhen China:

1. Xiaomeisha Beach Shenzhen.

This is an easy 35 minute public bus ride out of main town LuoHu district. It will cost 5 kwai to get there and another 5 kwai back. There are two Meisha beaches: Dameisha and Xiaomeisha. I suggest Xiaomeisha as it is cleaner and less crowded, however, there is a 30 kwai ($5 USD) entrance fee whereas Dameisha is free. *Fun fact: Mei = beautiful and Sha = sand. So, put together it literally means Beautiful Sand!

Xiaomeisha Beach Shenzhen China

Did you know such beautiful beaches exist in China?

2. Dongmen Market.

Dongmen Market is small and very condensed area contains hundreds of knock off goods and street food. Many Chinese tourists come here to shop, enjoy food, and experience a fun time within the modern and ancient pagoda building architecture. At night, these streets are even more packed and lights brightly lit. Located right near Laojie metro station (Line 1 & Line 3) in Luohu District (1 hour from Shenzhen International Airport).

Dongmen Market during the day

Dongmen Market at Night…. Packed, Vibrant & Alive!!

19 😉

3. Travel to Hong Kong or Macau!

Located right next door, Hong Kong makes for an easy day trip or extended few days vacation.

4. OTC Loft.

A posh art & design district which hosts multiple exhibits. There are outdoor terrace restaurants which have pricier, yet tasty, drinks & food. Bookstores and small local designers also sell their work in boutique stores. Located right near Qiaocheng East metro station on Line 1.

Main OTC Loft Area

OTC Loft!

5. Shenzhen China Massages.

There are lots of massage places that will give you a thorough massage for a cheap price. I received an hour long $7 USD foot massage and holy cow was it great! I even drifted off to sleep for a minute (at least I think it was only a few minutes!) *Heads up: Massages in China are a bit different from other South East Asian massages because Chinese use more pressure to work out the kinks in your muscles and joints.

Shenzhen China is a fun and easily accessible city to travel to in China. You won’t have to worry about breathing in air pollution either, as this coastal city has better air quality than Beijing, Jinan, and Shanghai. Below is a map to get you started! Be sure to check out our others posts on backpacking China!

Let me know how you enjoyed doing my Top 5 in Shezhen! 🙂

Shenzhen China Subway Map, click to enlarge 🙂

With love,
+Danners

Traveling Chongqing China

Backpacking Chongqing China is the experience of a lifetime. Chongqing has a population of twenty nine million people. Think about that for a moment. That’s over 50% more than the population of the metropolitan New York City area. Yet, nine out of ten Americans (including us before Hesh encouraged us to visit) have not heard of the city!

Chongqing features the confluence of two of China’s greatest rivers, the Jialing River and Yangtze River. Thus Chongqing is known as the “city on the rivers.” As in most areas of China, we were greeted with warm smiles, open arms, and lots of positive energy from the Chinese people!

Where is Chongqing

Chongqing is in central China near the infamous Tibetan Plateau. Chongqing is approximately 1,100 miles away from both Beijing (in the northeast) and Shanghai (in the east). This is about same distance as NYC to Orlando, FL.

What’s Unique About Chongqing China?

• The spicy food and the spicy women! Chongqing is known for hot, spicy food, especially “hot pot” dishes. Chongqing is also infamous for aggressive women.
• The sheer number of people (29 million people in Chongqing metropolitan area)
• The confluence of two major rivers. In Chongqing, two massive rivers meet (Jialing River and Yangtze River)

Beautiful Temple in Chongqing

Brian in front of Chongqing Library

Only in China:

All my posts about traveling China include an “Only in China” section where we try to share with you the most ridiculous, random, hilarious oddities of traveling this wonderfully wild country!

Ducks outside a restaurant in Chongqing

Chinese Families eating dinner and playing Ma Jong

The ducks have been trained to eat and then return to their owners

Getting a workout in?

The alleyway where the hostel is located, the Chinese are creative in transporting goods!

Gods love shining on us in the middle of China

The Chinese often struggle with English translations but not this time 🙂

Last line: “How surprised it is!” A more typical Chinese translation 😉

Massive amounts of skyscrapers going up in Chongqing

Chinese woman’s dog all dolled up 😉

Chinese “gamers” in a dark secluded internet gaming lounge #addicted

Brian with a monkey on the streets of Chongqing

A view of Chongqing from our boat cruise on the Yangtze River

Large building in Chongqing where the two rivers converge

Where to Stay in Chongqing China

Back to backpacking Chongqing China ….. Chongqing has many high quality, inexpensive hostels. We stayed at Chongqing Urban Trails Youth Hostel and highly recommend it.

Urban Youth Hostel is difficult to find because it is tucked in inside a narrow alleyway that cars cannot drive on. Once you get there, you’ll find a simple (in a good way), inexpensive, clean hostel in the heart of Chongqing.

My favorite part about this hostel was the friendliness of the staff, particularly an employee named Tiger Tang. All of the hostel staff were helpful (giving us the local lowdown on where to go, what to see, etc) and outgoing. They were so curious to talk to Americans because 1) They’re from Chongqing (see below on nightclub experience) and 2) They’re always trying to improve their English 3) The intrigue factor because so few Americans travel to Chongqing.

The alleyway where Urban Youth Hostel is located

Weather in Chongqing China

The weather in Chongqing China is very moderate except for the summer when it gets very hot and humid. The winters are mild. The ideal times for backpacking Chongqing China are from March through May or September through November.

Getting Around Chongqing

You have options. Since transportation is government subsidized in China, taxis are very cheap. You can also get around Chongqing by bus or subway. Chongqing subways are immaculately clean, efficient, and FAST.

Top 4 things to do Backpacking Chongqing China

1.Eat spicy Chongqing hot pot!

If you’re backpacking Chongqing China, you simply cannot leave the city without eating spicy hot pot! Hot pot is an experience anywhere in China but Chongqing’s hot pot is the most unique hot pot in the entire country. Due to the Sichuan peppers that are used, Chongqing hot pot spices create a unique sensation taste that is indescribable. If you do nothing else in Chongqing, eat hot pot! Note: Vegetarians can access hot pot too. Veggies are cooked in the hot pot, not just meat/fish.

Traditional Chinese hot pot meal, The searing hot spicy broth cooks the raw meat/veggies/fish

Cooking our own Hot Pot in Chingqing

Brian cooking Hot Pot in a Chongqing restaurant

Blurry photo of Paz enjoying hot pot with another Chinese patron

2. Go out to a Chongqing night club

We were planning on going back to the hostel after dinner but happened to stumble upon a night club. We were wearing athletic shorts and tee shirts but still decided to stop in. We figured it would be uneventful and that we’d stay for five minutes or so.

In most cultures, it is the men who are the aggressors. In Chongqing, it is the opposite… and boy are they aggressive. Go out to a bar or night club and they will probably approach you and want to take photos, hang out all night…. all despite the fact that most don’t speak a lick of English.

The great part about Chongqing is even if you don’t know anyone, you will within two minutes of entering a social scene. Whether it’s a bar, restaurant, or store, most people are outgoing and curious. This made for a great night and an opportunity to meet people and spread positive energy.

The Chongqing “Spicy Women

DJ in Chongqing nightclub

Not a lick of English but smiles are universal 🙂

The crowd erupted when the famous singer made an impromptu performance

3. Check out Jiefangbei Square

Chongqing’s premier shopping district. You can always get a good sense of a city by its markets and stores.

The View of Jeifang Bei from our boat cruise

4. Visit the Chongqing Golden Chinese Buddha

Golden Buddha in Chongqing China

Food in Chongqing China, What to Eat:

• Fresh seafood from the fisherman and hot pot. Located at the confluence of two major rivers, Chongqing has amazingly fresh seafood.
• Check out a new niche food that has sprung up in the past few years, Indian rotis!

Chongqing Indian Roti Artist at Work!

This guy was awesome!

Indian Roti maker bringing the Positive Energy All Day!

Paz Enjoying the Finished Product, Indian Roti with Banana 🙂

• Goji Berries. Heralded as a superfood in the West, the Chinese rarely eat Goji Berries. Instead, they are used for medicinal purposes in Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal. Chongqing is relatively close to the Himalayas, goji berries are dirt cheap here (about 20x cheaper than at a Whole Foods Market in the US where they sell for $21.99 USD per pound)

A Woman Grabbing me a Handful of Goji Berries in a Chongqing Market

Average Daily Cost of Backpacking Chongqing China: $31 Per Day

Hostel: $15 USD Food: $14 USD Transportation: $2 USD

Backpacking Chongqing China

Overall, is a crazy, interesting, unique city and probably the biggest city you’ve never heard of. We met friendly, open people and ate amazing food without paying a lot. Here are some of our other posts on traveling:

• Backpacking Langkawi Malaysia
• Traveling in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
• Tips for Traveling Osa Peninsula Costa Rica

Traveling to China for the first time? Post a question in the comments section below, we’ll respond with advice! If you liked this post, please share it with friends and leave a comment!

3 Things You Didn’t Know About Tea and China

Every other Wednesday night, my friend Jane from Hangzhou, China, meets a few of us at the local library for Mandarin Chinese lessons. It’s a small group, usually me, Jane, and Thomas. Thomas is a great guy who’s passionate about Mandarin and more advanced in his knowledge than I am.

Jane and Thomas:

Jane is an incredibly kind person. Not only does she donate her time and teach us for free but she’s so focused during our meetings and I know she genuinely cares about us. She’s also very smart and concise and she asks poignant questions (as do many of my Chinese friends.)

Here’s Jane and me:

This past Wednesday, Jane brought us Long Jing Cha. Long Jing Cha is China’s most well known tea. In English, it is known as Dragonwell Tea. This tea is grown in Jane’s hometown, Hangzhou.

Look at the detail, art, and care put into the package:

The knowledge and wisdom we attain every other Wednesday is not constrained to language. Jane is passionate about Chinese culture I’m amazed at all the new things I learn every week despite the fact that I lived in the country for a brief time.

This past week, I learned a lot about a beverage that I drink on a daily basis: Chinese loose leaf tea.

Long Jing Cha (Dragon Well tea):

A healthy Long Jing tea leaf picked at the perfect time:

A healthy, perfect leaf (top of below picture) compared to one that’s not top quality (bottom of below picture):

Can you see the difference? The leaf on top has two stems (the sides) and a blossom (in the middle) whereas the bottom leaf has two stems and no blossom. The “perfect” leaves sell at a premium. The tea that we drink in the US is mostly poor quality chopped up and put into a bag. On Wednesday, the three of us drank our tea “Grandpa style,” named after the older generation in China who would drink their tea with the leaves in the cup (no straining.) 😉

A cup of steeping Long Jing tea (Grandpa style):

Learning from Jane

It’s not just the culture and language aspect that I’ve learned from Jane. I’ve learned a lot from her in terms of being a kind person. I admire her generosity of donating valuable time to help others learn. That’s a beautiful gift.

For a year and a half now, I’ve had hopes of following Jane’s example. I want to tutor those who are learning English as a second language. I plan on doing this free of charge in an attempt to help others as Jane has helped me.

The problem is, I set that goal nearly two years ago and still haven’t achieved it. Hopefully, sharing this goal with you will help build my willpower and accomplish this goal!

What’s your favorite kind of tea? Do you drink loose leaf tea?

If you’ve ever spent time living in China or traveling in China, you’ve noticed drastic differences from living in the West.

One of the most fascinating differences that I noticed is that the Chinese prefer to drink their water when it is at room temperature, warm, or hot. The reasons for this probably stem from Chinese medicinal theory.

Their theory helped me realize that I had never even considered an alternative to cold water growing up because that’s all I knew. From then on, I’ve embraced warm and hot water and I’m working towards becoming agnostic in terms of drinking water temperature preference.

There are several reasons why we might consider amending our dependence on cold water:

1. Our internal organs are somewhere around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The Yin and Yang theory of Chinese medicine suggests drinking water that is close to this temperature helps maintain harmony within the body. In my personal experience, I can feel the negative reaction within my body immediately after drinking ice cold water.

2. Warm water aids in digestion. Warm water increases circulation through the digestive tract, helping you absorb nutrients and discard waste and toxins.

3. You’re more likely to be present in the novelty of drinking hot water. Since it will be a new, exciting experience, you’ll be more mindful. Also, if you can easily burn yourself with each sip, you’re more alert and aware of this. Drinking water in slow, mindful sips leads to a more joyful, lucid practice.

4. If you drink boiling water, you’re less likely to be drinking water with any contamination. Self+explanatory.

5. Imagine a wild animal abstaining from drinking water because it wasn’t chilled to their liking. Not going to happen. Animals drink whatever they can get. Realize that subtle programming has created our perceptions.

Have you ever considered drinking warm, hot, or room temperature water?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23109029

Jump to BBC to see three snow leopards spotted together in the Yushu hills in central China.