Chinaful Insider Guides: Where to Eat, Drink, See, Shop, and Stay

"You've lived in China," a friend or acquaintance will say to me. "What do I have to see when I'm in Shanghai? Where should I stay in Chengdu? What are the best souvenirs from Beijing?  What's the best bar in Hong Kong?"  

          

{Traveling by sleeper train to Holhot, Inner Mongolia}

In China, it's best to use the recommendations of friends to make the most of your trip.  In that spirit, Chinaful Insider Guides are on their way. Each will contain personal recommendations from me, or my contacts in China, on the basics -- where to eat, drink, stay, shop, and see. If you have specific questions, ask them in the comments or email chinafulblog@gmail.com. You'll get advice, straight from a friend. 

Regions to be covered include:

• Beijing
• Shanghai
• Hong Kong
• Macau
• Tibet
• Inner Mongolia
• Qingdao
• Chengdu
• Guilin

Reader Questions: "Searching for Silk" in Shanghai

 First, I'd like to say I LOVE your blog! It's been great to read and share with others that are headed over to China - thanks for all that you share.

I am actually headed to Shanghai from Mississippi and really wanted to go to some good quality fabric stores. We are staying at the Portman Ritz Carlton.

Any suggestions of fabric stores in the area or in Shanghai in general? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks so much,
"Searching for Silk"

Dear Searching,

Happy to hear you enjoy the blog, and thanks for sharing it with others!

First of all, you will love the Portman - it is beautiful. There is an amazing acrobat show right at the hotel, so be sure not to miss it.

Shanghai Fabric Market is best (399 Lujiabang Rd). (If you're not familiar with Shanghai, have the Ritz write the information on a card for you to show the cab driver -- and get a card for the hotel to show the driver when you want to return!) Check out this post (though a little old) from "Life on Nanchang Lu" that gives a review of several stalls - while some may have changed by now, it's definitely worth checking out. When you visit, don't forget to bargain. Pretend to walk away if necessary. Shanghai shops aren't as flexible as Beijing or other parts of China, but you should still push to get at least 20-30% off. 

While you're there, be sure to check out these highlights of Shanghai as well: Yu Yuan gardens, Fuxing Park on the weekends to see daily Chinese life (check out my post on it here), and Shanghai soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung.

And if you have time, take the train to Hangzhou for the day - it is said to be the most beautiful place in all of China.

Enjoy!

{Yu Yuan Gardens, Shanghai}

Have a question you'd like answered about China? Leave a comment, email chinafulblog@gmail.com, or drop a note through the Contact page.  I'd love to hear from you!

The Great Wall: Overnight on JianKou

The Great Wall. One of the seven wonders and a piece of history with origins as early as 700 BC, even before the Qin dynasty. If you've never visited, you might think it's all one wall. Instead, it's many sections, all located a couple of hours outside Beijing. Each is different, both in surrounding locale, popularity (read: crowds), and status of repair.

{MuTianYu Section, 2006} 

Evaluated on these criteria, my favorite Great Wall section is MuTianYu: lush greenery, minimal crowds, well-maintained. A previous ChinaSnap! featured a picture from Jonathan's trip to BaDaLing, a very popular section of the Great Wall due to close proximity to Beijing.  

But my best experience on the Great Wall was when I hiked and camped overnight with friends on the JianKou section. Overgrown with plants and crumbling in many parts, JianKou is not for everyone. In fact, not all parts are open to the public. Truthfully, I'm not at all sure the part we hiked was open to the public. But we went, we hiked, and I wrote an account of the trip that I will share with you now.

The trip started with a long drive and visit to Great Wall section Si Ma Tai, and then further still to the home of our guide. While we thought we were stopping at the home to pick up supplies, we soon learned that we would actually be departing on the hike to the wall from his backyard.  The hike to JianKou was unexpected but relatively enjoyable—relatively since it involved over 2 hours of hiking in pitch black darkness.  We had few flashlights, and when I would dare to shine mine down at my feet I would see spiders as big as my palm scurring over, around, and hopefully under my shoes. At many points, we would have to scale the deteriorating walls and cross our fingers we wouldn't fall. 

{Climbing JianKou, 2009}

But the trek was well worth it when we arrived at the Wall.  We were pulled up and over into the tower which would be our home for the night and started the BBQ.  After playing two truths and a lie and eating barbeque skewers, I headed to sleep in a tent on top of the tower, freezing but inspired by the view of the Wall that I could see through the settling mist.  We woke up at 4am in the morning to try to see the sunrise but were again met with mist, making it seem that we were on a 20 ft. by 20 ft. block of stone wall floating in the clouds. 

{JianKou in the mist, 2009}

We started the hike at 7am after a breakfast of bread with jelly and hard boiled eggs, and hiked another 5 hours through JianKou to MuTianYu. Mist encircled our every step, and the hike was a silent meditation not to slip on the slick bricks and rubble. The hike was unintentionally extended when our guide became lost and we took a wrong turn off the wall in order to avoid the complex section of the knot that was not safe to walk on in its non-repaired state.  I became increasingly skeptical whether our overnight on JianKou was permitted when we came to a fence disallowing hikers to cross from MuTianYu to JianKou.  We were on the wrong side of the fence.  No harm, no foul, right?

{Border of JianKou and MuTianYu, 2009}

Xi'an Terra Cotta Soldiers at the Bowers Museum, Orange County

In the '70s, a farmer in China's Shaanxi province dug a well and instead of hitting water, struck clay. Thousands of clay warriors, in fact, encased in an underground metropolis serving as the burial grounds for the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇). Only a portion of the tomb is open - I'm not sure if it's a myth, but I was told that sections where the emperor designed "rivers" of mercury to flow remain closed because excavators are unsure how to safely open them. But if I hadn't told you parts were closed, you'd never feel you were missing out. It's an unbelievable sight, with multiple caverns the size of airplane hangars filled with an army of men, horses and chariots. Truly something you have to see to believe.   

Xi'an Terra Cotta Soldiers

If a trip to Xi'an isn't in your near future, the soldiers might just be coming to you. The Bowers Museum in Orange County, CA is exhibiting Terra Cotta soldiers until March 4 - if you're in Southern California, don't miss this chance to see one of the great wonders of world history. (I'm going to try to go, and I've already seen them.) You won't get the entire experience of seeing an army, but the soldiers individually are works of art. Each soldier has unique features, some crafted after their maker or perhaps the maker's family members. It's believed that those who constructed the soldiers and the tomb designed it as their legacy as they were buried alive with the emperor at his death. (That might be a myth, too - but you'll have to check out the exhibit and find out for yourself!) 

ChinaSnap!: My first camel kiss + Gobi Desert

It’s the day after Valentine’s, but the love doesn’t stop here at Chinaful.  Here’s a ChinaSnap! to bring a little smile to your Wednesday.   

Chinaful - ChinaSnap! Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia

This is... documentation of my first camel kiss and my first trip to the Gobi Desert.    

At the time I took this ChinaSnap! I was... in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia and feeling caught in a dream. I was wearing "sand boots", those red socks sewn as a way to keep the sand out of your shoes.  I was hot, but it was a dry heat so it wasn't miserable like you might expect a desert to be.  

I remember... my camel being pretty cranky and not all that comfortable to ride, but a total blast. We also tried "sand skiing", sliding in our boots down the dunes. The sand dunes cut against the bright blue sky and even though I grew up on the Florida beaches, I had never seen that amount of sand in my life. In Chinese, the Gobi Desert is 瀚海 (Hanhai), which means "endless sea." That's exactly right - the sand appears like waves that never cease. The Gobi Desert is a sight you really have to see to believe.  (A guide to Inner Mongolia, including the Gobi Desert, is coming soon to Chinaful.)

This qualifies as a ChinaSnap! because... obviously, it’s hump day! (I'm usually not punny, but that one was too good to resist.) 

Submit a ChinaSnap! of your own to Chinaful by emailing chinafulblog@gmail.com and we'll post it with your answers to the bolded sentence-starters.  Anything from your favorite Chinese food dish to you in the Forbidden City, we want to see what's Chinaful to you.