A trip to Zhujiajiao (朱家角古镇) which is also sometimes known as “The Venice of Shanghai” had been on my list of places to visit for the longest time but it was also somewhere that I had never got round to visiting. So when I found out that my next trip to Shanghai would be my last trip to China for the foreseeable future, I knew that I had to make an effort to visit so I finally made the trip out to Zhujiajiao in September last year. (more…)

Last week I finally had the opportunity to visit Shanghai once again after being away for so long due to the pandemic. Given what has happened in China during the last few years where they had the strictest rules and lockdowns imaginable, constant testing for everyone and long quarantines followed by the subsequent riots across the country when people desperately started to fight back against all the protocols after seeing that the rest of the world had moved on, I was truly interested to see how it would be. (more…)

As you have probably already guessed if you’ve read my blog, I love visiting all the Disney parks around the world and Shanghai Disneyland which opened in June 2016 is no exception. Since my first visit during opening week, I have visited several more times since and finally returned to Shanghai Disneyland once again this week in October 2023 after many years of not being able to visit China – we all know what happened there! So many people have asked me various questions about the park over the years so I decided to list all the tips, tricks, help, advice and handy need-to-know (as well as up to date and current) information that I can think of in one place. I really hope that this blog will help anyone who is planning a trip to Shanghai. (more…)

In November I was lucky enough to be able to visit the amazing Shanghai Disneyland again. It was my fourth visit after first visiting the park during opening week in June 2016 and then twice again in November 2016 on two separate visits to China. (more…)

I truly believe that anyone my age will still happily sit and watch any episode of Friends again and again and easily be able to quote most of the episodes off by heart. Who didn’t like Friends? It’s hard to believe that the series finished in 2004 as it honestly still feels like yesterday when we were watching Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross every Friday night. (more…)

Since Shanghai Disneyland opened in June, I have found myself travelling to Shanghai more than ever. Because of this, I started researching different things online to see and do as well as looking if there were any character cafes that I could visit.  One of the first I found was the Mr Bean Coffee Shop – yes you heard that correctly. (more…)

I was so excited to be finally heading to Shanghai Disneyland that I woke up every hour on the hour during the night panicking that I had overslept before falling back asleep again. I finally got out of bed around 6:00am in the morning to start getting ready for the day ahead. With some trepidation, I opened the curtains and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw a perfect morning with clear blue skies outside – hopefully it would stay like that for the rest of the day and not rain like had been forecast. (more…)

In June this year, I was finally on my way to China to visit Shanghai Disneyland. The only thing that was not looking good was that the weather whilst I was in Shanghai was forecast to be 90% rain and thunderstorms for the whole time I was there. Still I was looking on the bright side and was just excited to be visiting so soon after the Grand Opening of the park the previous week. (more…)

If you were to ask someone for their opinion on the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel in Shanghai, they would probably tell you that it’s a tourist trap and to avoid it at all costs and to save your money. I am however, not one of those people. (more…)

On my recent visit to China, as well as searching the internet for any information about catching the train to the Great Wall of China, I was also looking for information about the new G-Class bullet trains that travel between Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station to Beijing South Railway Station. (more…)