First Impressions of SHANGHAI, CHINA! Travel Vlog

all right welcome to [Music]

China so yes guys I am here in Shanghai China it's been a long time coming I've been wanting to come here for years and years obviously there was a whole big lockdown

during Co but now China is back open so as soon as I was able to I booked a trip to come here and it's going to be an awesome couple of weeks here in China we start here in Shanghai then I go to Shian Quin Ming and then Beijing so make sure you get subscribed if you're not already so you don't miss any of that

coming up so right now I'm in the people Square it's very Central here in Shanghai a lot of people out here today it's Friday and it's also Chinese New Year kind of the the tail end of it Happy Chinese New Year to all that are celebrating um guys in this video you know how it goes I'm brand new here I

just got here yesterday haven't seen much yet so this is going to be my first impressions walking around as an American guy in Shanghai let's see what I discover let's see what I come across it's going to be fun that is for

sure meow yes one please you go all right breakfast time juming okay this is Jen Bing I had this

last time I was in Shanghai years ago and uh it's basically like a Chinese crib so there goes an egg on top of the batter

and what's going in all of these different vegetables a little cilantro maybe some green onion and I don't know what that is now she's going to fold it up in a

second this is like I think hoiston sauce or something similar Ean little bit a little bit of

chili luckily I know how to say a little bit fold it up and inside went this crispy wafer that gives it some nice texture in the bag huh okay do I pay here

okay and now it's Mobile payment time so I got to figure out how to do this alip pay scan okay and this is how payments work here in China it's very very common I mean you can use cash but it's very common to use these mobile payments this

is alipay there's also one through WeChat I just scanned this this uh QR code in the app and then I don't know the numbers so I just held up the phone

he typed it in seven that's like $1 for this so we're going to confirm I'm going to put my passcode in and then it should go through done okay we're all set bye-bye and it's

just like that you also have your own barcode in the apps uh which they can like charge you through their payment system and then you just hold up your code and it charges you automatically but for that you put the amount in and scan their barcode so it works both ways very efficient and uh as of 2023 you can

link non-chinese bank cards or credit cards to your alipay or WeChat account so you can pay directly from your credit card through the app so anyway we got it let's find a place to take a seat and we're going to try it all right gem Bing

Chinese breakfast crepe it's two halves I don't know if you're supposed to eat them one at a time or just go all in but I think I'm just going to go for the double decker here we go it's got all that freshness from the greens and the onion in there it's got

the crisp from that fried wafer thing that they put in there it's got the eggs and it's got a good kick from my Edan a little bit chili sauce that went in there so tasty though it's not too heavy or anything it's it's nice and light

very very flavorful and that cilantro really comes through too the perfect breakfast in Shanghai all right guys moving right along now we're here in the French concession area this is one of the most popular parts of Shanghai it was

actually like literally a French Colony back in the day for about 100 years from the mid 1800s to Mid 1900s now it's just like a neighborhood in the city but still a very cool trendy area and this building right behind me is called the

Wukong Mansion kind of looks like the flat iron building in New York to me and this area is absolutely packed with people obviously China has a huge population and I think about half of them are right here on this street corner so yeah walking through the French concession area they say this is

where the Chinese influencers come to get their start and as an aspiring Chinese influencer myself I figured I got to come here now the thing about being a Chinese influencer is that in China they don't really use the same social media platforms that we do in the rest of the world most of them are

actually blocked there's the uh famous great firewall of China Google Facebook Instagram Twitter X YouTube all that stuff is not used here it's blocked you can get past it using a VPN but uh in China they have like a Chinese

replacement for each of those platforms yeah this area is really cool it's a lot of like art deco style buildings it feels probably like the most Foreigner friendly area of the city that I've seen at least it's kind of trendy and there's a lot of English I noticed that in like any quote unquote trendy neighborhood

around the world they tend to use a lot of English and the names of the businesses and stuff hey look at that we got the uh Iranian Consulate [Music] General our friends the Iranians right here in Shanghai hey and right down the street

we've got the American one here we go they're neighbors all right so I'm just walking along and we've got this park here with all the old men from the

neighborhood I don't know what the game is but it looks very intense how MA it's no

huh Shi oh okay very good very nice thank you and they've got different games going on here all right guys it is time to eat once again I need to go find some noodles or something let's do

it okay guys so I've come to a different part of the city this is close to like a garden or Temple complex called U Garden it is absolutely packed here right now and I think it's got to be related to Chinese New Year because I mean I don't

think it's like this all the time it's so packed mostly with Chinese people like I haven't seen many foreigners so yeah good vibes okay there are so many food options here I I think this whole festival thing is set up for Chinese New

Year because it's just crazy like the decorations are amazing this feels like what you would expect China to look like from like a western perspective if you come to China which is very

cool into the mouth of the Dragon you got the very spiffy soldiers on the outside all right so apparently inside this area where the dragon mouth enters

into you need a ticket to get in there I just got my ticket nio together no just one and we're in all right I am in they've got a lot of beautiful

decorations up there very cool in here very crowded a lot of people let's find something to eat all right I have made it inside found myself a seat and luckily oh thank thank

you perfect thank you so much luckily that lady speaks really great English cuz I think I would have been in trouble otherwise okay guys and the food has arrived so here is just like a fried pork chop over here we've got some

simple noodles can take the broth and pour that right in there yum and then we've got some soup dumplings I think it all looks amazing I'm so hungry let's do it

okay and in these noodles there's like little baby dried shrimps I think and some other greens of some sort let's give it a try that was the bite I was waiting for wow the noodles here are just they're

something different they're like the perfect amount of alente chewy but not mushy they're just insanee okay guys and uh Shanghai is famous for their soup

dumplings shaolong B this one has pork and crab inside and uh the way you do it is you put it on the spoon you bite a little hole in it then you suck out all

the liquid and then you can eat The Dumpling there goes the soup and now so good they're sweet and they're Savory almost has like a maple syrup flavor I know that's crazy people are going to come at me for that but it has

that essence of like a really sweet goodness I don't know okay I've been roped into trying a bunch of rice wine this is like my fifth one wow nice nice very nice this high

alcohol high alcohol slowly okay this nice one FL oh wa yeah you're right it is higher

oh it's 38% um it's good though it's just what I needed on a on a chilly winter

day not cold exactly I was just saying that yeah be warming right up say hi to YouTube hello you TR yeah woohoo China cheers to China gamb G

wow mberry more berries oh mberry huh all right I don't know how I got roped into

this you need to try all yeah everyone all the flavors I'm going to be in trouble thank you all

right oh that's very good Talla delicious this one is very this Chinese medicine Citrus medicine Citrus wine ah

okay wo this one 52 oh my God yes really you try you try slowly because this one is a very famous one okay all right try slowly slowly a little

bit oh it's okay it's good oh good yeah very good yeah I love them all feel like each one I try it I like it even more we're going around the whole table here she wasn't

kidding oh my goodness I think this should be my last one maybe okay very good strong yeah it is all right so yeah right after I ate I came across that

lady giving out the free samples of all the different rice wines or different kinds of wines um I think I had several shots worth and um I'm feeling pretty good

right now the sun is starting to go down it's looking really nice out here with all the decorations I want to head over to the Bund a very famous part of the city uh to end the video with quite a view so we'll go do that stay tuned

there's something about traveling in China as a foreigner that is really unique and kind of a throw back to like how travel was before the internet as I mentioned before the Western apps either don't work here or the people here don't use them anyway so one example is like Google Maps people here don't use it and

so they don't populate it with reviews and all that data that makes it so useful to us like looking up restaurants and things like that uh here it doesn't have anything on it they might not even be listed they might be placed incorrectly so as a result it really forces you to like just go out and hit

the streets and explore and I feel like that's what travel was like before the internet it was less planned it was more spontaneous and you really just had to go out and discover stuff and that is like what travel is all about and here is the perfect place to do it because you kind of don't have any other choice

all right and we have reached the Bund so you can see behind me there all these lit up buildings right along the Waterfront and then across the way is pong you've got all of the modern buildings across there including one of the tallest buildings in the world Shanghai Tower right there this place is

really cool tons of people again here still but I would say this is definitely one of the best views in the city you definitely got to come here at least once if you visit Shanghai all righty guys I have to end this video very abruptly because my camera's battery is dying but I hope you enjoyed it and stay

tuned for a lot more coming from China very very soon other than that thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one [Music] bye-bye