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
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bye-bye