Suzhou a Noodle Affair

I ended up spending more days in Suzhou than intended. Suzhou had that kinda of effect on me for it was a city that had a vibrant mix of new and old with a twist of way too many tourist which in itself created a spectacle just for tourist to watch other tourist. 

The high end hostel was also another reason for a comfotable extended stay. I was thinking then, that backpacking China would be a luxury if all the hostel was like this and so far Shanghai and Suzhou hostel standard was pretty damn good but then my dreams would be crashed immediately in Hefei and Wuhan.

Suzhou Noodles 

The first introduction to Suzhou Noodles was from the Hostel Owner and I trusted my gut and tracked down the recommended restaurant ignoring all the rest along the way. Turns out to be a more ‘atas’ place but still affordable and the first place set the tone and I knew that this city is going to be a noodle hunt of sorts when the noodles itself is named after the city.

There was so many interesting Noodle shops all around Suzhou that I had to pick carefully since stomach capacity is limited. Suzhou Noodle was a clear broth type with barely any seasoning showcasing the delicate and fine texture of the noodle itself. While I could choose the noodle shop, ordering the noodles was like a multiple choice question in an Alien languege, hence at one stall while trying to order noodles I got Suzhou Dumplings instead.

Suzhou Noodles 

Suzhou Noodle's Shop 

Suzhou Dumpling's

As a first time tourist to Suzhou, I still had some responsible tourist things to do. Hence a visit to the Humble Administrator’s Garden was in the list. Ticket entrance was RMB 70 off season. It was November after all and most of the greenary had already shed preparing for winter. Still it was an impresive garden mixed with a little history which was quite enjoyable.

Humble Administrator's Garden - Suzhou

Humble Administrator's Garden - Suzhou

Bonsai Plant Collection - Humble Administrator's Garden - Suzhou

Linking close with the Humble Administrator’s Garden was the Suzhou Museum. While free to enter unfortunately the quota was full and there was no more tickets for the next whole week. From what I could see, the tour groups had filled up the quota quickly being a free stop. I took a walk to Pingjiang River after the Gardens and it kept me occupied most of the days in Suzhou.

It was interesting to see all the nooks and little old building architecture with the main canal as a focus and of course then there was the shops selling all kinds of touristy trinkets and food. But lastly there was the ‘make up’ parlours which dolls up the tourist for them to dress up like ancient times and go around taking pictures. Half the fun is watching the girls and their photographer do their thing.

Pingjiang River Walk - Suzhou

Pingjiang River - Suzhou

Pingjiang River Walk - Suzhou

Make Up Parlour for Tourist 

Tourist Favourite Activity in China - Dress up + Photography 

I was really tired of walking around Suzhou. The place has that effect on you for each step brings new scenic spots and new stalls to observe and before I knew it, I had walk from 10am all the way to 8pm without much stops. It was just one sight after another. My feet was really aching by the end of the day.

Traveled on: November 2023

Unlocking Skills While Exploring Suzhou

Travelling day! Today is the first time I had to travel between cities in China but instead of the long distance bullet train or busses I’ll be using only the metro line. From Shanghai there was Line 11 metro which goes all the way west, last stop Houqiao Station and at that same station one could transit to Suzhou metro Line 11. So the two cities metro network actually meet up touching like fingers at the edge.

The ride was interesting if one had the time I suppose. The metro goes overhead hence one gets to see the outer city landscape of Shanghai which tourist usually wont have any view off. The people travelling the line was also different from those within downtown Shanghai. More solemn, knowing their journey home is a long one.

Xuanmiao Temple - Suzhou

I stayed at MeetU International Hostel which was slightly dificulty to find as they were really really new. It was actually one of the best hostel I have ever stayed, top grade high end hostel. I was lucky in a sense as they just newly listed on booking.com with barely two reviews hence I got it for cheap at RMB 20 per night. Their usual price was around RMB 70. The hostel owner and staff helped me translate a few things I was unsure of in the ALIPAY app and gave me all the recommended things to do in Suzhou.

Walking all around Shanghai was really brutalizing my feet hence the motivation to get a bycycle to explore cities in China was really priority one. With some new info from the hostel I set out to unlock a bike. The first bike some random orrange colour one cant seam to work and I got frustrated and gave up deciding to walk to the night attraction area called Shantang St. Halfway walking and I cooldown my head and tried again looking for the more common blue bikes. Even used the inapp mini programe of ALIPAY to figure out how to find the bikes. Turns out there was a bike locater as well built in. Stupid me.

Hello Bike in China 

So the bikes I could use were only the blue ones under the brand HELLO which has a tie-in with ALIPAY. A few more tinkering with the app and I finally manage to unlocked the bike. When I say tinkering, well its cause the ALIPAY app is mainly in chinese. Although they have an in app translation tie in with google translate, it’s still not perfect so I keep doing screenshot and then using google lense to translate to get a better translation. Make sense ? Anyway somehow I managed it and now I could bike around China.

Cycling around Suzhou City 

I cycle to the attraction vanue and realized I could not just park the bike anywhere, checking the app again showed me the designated parking area. Not too bad I guess and parked the bike and manage to lock the bike clocking out without much issue. I wondered how much it was going to cost but so far there was no notification.

Shantang St

I had no idea about the night attraction at Shantang St. If I did not randomly ask the hostel owner of whats nice to explore in Suzhou, this would be a definate missed out. Back home, I would call it a night market, or rather a tourist night market, China style. Tourist night market in China are usually set in historical or scenic old towns that makes beautiful picturesque yet filled with food outlet, suviniours and many expensive local produce.

Shantang St - Suzhou

Spice Shop at Shantang St - Suzhou

Sweet shop at Shantang St - Suzhou

Shantang main Canal - Suzhou

Shantang St main Canal - Suzhou

Underpass Mural - Shantang St 

The main cannal was really beautiful and vibrantly lighted up but just a turn down one parelel street and the old city become eeriely quiet and dark with most of the houses unoccupied. It was really a contrast that I could not explain.

After visiting Shantang St, I thought of biking back to the hostel. When I opened back the bike miniapp, there was a notification of RMB 1.5 pending to be paid. I tried to pay it ... multiple times but apparently the linked international credit card had a minimum payment requirement of RMB 0.1. 

A little turn at Shantang St - Locals selling BBQ Skewers 

A little turn at Shantang St - Quiet Dark alleys in stark contrast from the brightly lighted up main street

A little turn at Shantang St - Locals selling street food

A little turn at Shantang St - Locals selling steam crabs 

The app stupidly gave me a discount for first time use of RMB1.49 so I only had to pay RMB 0.01 which was not possible. Trying to get rid of the discount was also perplexing yet somehow and I dont even know how I did it, closed and open again many times and viola, pay RMB1.5 and now I was allowed to grab a new ride.

After all that hard work tinkering with the miniapp to pay for the bike, I now realized while I could get the bike, there was a no parking zone where my hostel is. The hostel was in downtown Suzhou within the moat, and the whole downtown was no parking for HELLO bikes. I guess that answers a question of why I could not see any blue bikes near the hostels but there was plenty of those orrange ones. Business monopoly at it finest.

Traveled on: Nov 2023

Day Trip from Shanghai to Qipao Ancient Town and Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

With the power of wikitravel my trusted guide, I decided to take on the daytrip to Qipao Ancient Town and Zhujiajiao Ancient Town which was way far out of Shanghai downtown. It was a long ride to Qipao Ancient Town via the Shanghai Metro and in a sense the ride felt like I was now part of the local daily commute.

Just to have an Idea, you can see from the cut out map below. Shanghai downtown and greater area encompas the big purple circle. Just getting around the circle area would require the metro and bus or even a taxi and easily takes anything from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. Qipao was further to the west and Zhujiajiao even more. Its a proper daytrip alright with transportation to and fro Shanghai taking up a good portion of the time.

Qibao & Zhujiajiao Ancient Town from Shanghai Downtown

Qipao Ancient Town was a quint little go back in time nostalgia type of tourist trap. It felt touristy for it was I was still climatizing to what is the norm in China. Thinking back, this was rather mellow with the tourist comprising of locals with barely any international tourist. The place had little signs of daily life which makes it really authentic in China instead of those artificial built up traps. One just somehow need to make a wrong turn out of the well marked tourist path.

Qipao Ancient Town Entrance 

Qipao Ancient Town - Souvenir & Trinkets Shop 

Qipao Ancient Town - Tourist Street

I find Qipao more interesting than Yuyuan Old Town in Shanghai which feels totally destroyed of life. In Yuyuan, the buildings are old, the architecture are genuine but the people felt gone. Qipao felt more authentic but craftily designed to funnel the mainstream tourist crowd through the little shops for some suvinours.

A Turn off the Tourist Street in Qipao Ancient Town

Small Guide Map of Qipao Ancient Town

A Little Turn away from the Tourist Street, Quiet pace of local life - Qipao Ancient Town

Qipao Ancient Town

After Qipao, I made my way to Zhujiajiao Ancient Town. AMAP really help me this round in navigating the local way and instead of backtracking the metro line to downtown Shanghai to change to the Zhujiajiao line, I took the metro to Dongjing Station. From there, somehow find the 1 hour bus shuttle to Zhujiajiao and this time I had to asked since the bus had no number but pure written wordings.

The fringe of Zhujiajiao Ancient Town 

Zhujiajiao was even quieter than Qipao, but maybe it was because I was there late evening. This place felt similar to Qipao. Tourist footpath with lots of instagramable things to see and buy, side path to get lost and explore the mundane life of the locals still living in the old building just minding their own stuff watching TV. I was there during the sunset hour and it was a beautiful view.

Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

Zhujiajiao Ancient Town - Tourist Street at 5pm, almost void of people

Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

Sunset at Zhujiajiao Ancient Town

Traveled on: Nov 2023

Camoflauge as a Local Tourist in Shanghai

Trying to master the art of sleeping while seated with one eye closed at Shanghai Pudong Airport was not easy. One arm on the bag and a comfy seat in a dark corner of the airport at 3am in the morning where all my excitement after flying became a sleep deprive grumpy mindset. By 7am in the morning, the Meglev opened and I could finally head into the city proper.

The Shanghai Meglev which is a high speed train running on levitation technology base on magnets to make the whole train floats while moving forward. The ride was amazing espescially when the train does tight curve at 300km/hr where even sitting inside one can fill the curverture tilt to compensate the g-forces. As fun and cheap a thrill the Meglev was only a short 10 minute ride.

Meglev Pudong Airport Station

First Train in the Morning - Meglev Pudong Airport Shanghai

Naturally I was in Shanghai downtown way too early in the morning. Took the long way and decided to walk all the way to the hostel instead of taking the metro a few more stops. I guess I underestimated the map. A few stops is a really really far away but in a way I stumble upon the local Shanghai day to day life of wet markets and local routine.

Morning Walk just slightly outside Downtown Shanghai

Shanghai would be expensive most warn me but like KL, just a turn away and the local still need to live so its reasonably priced if one knows the layout. First bowl of noodles cost about RMB 25 (SGD 5) and so forth. Drop my bags off at the Hostel and I had 6 hours to burn before check in.

Naturally I hit the town for a walk while sleep deprived. Shanghai was really easy. Most places of interest is on google maps and hostels dont really give much more advantage. People in hostel are reserved mostly with many mainland locals here in Shanghai long term for temp work.

Locals Dance Practice at People's Park - Shanghai

Locals Dance Practice at Peoples Park - Shanghai

The Marriage Market at People's Park - Shanghai

Saw the famous Shanghai bund, then round back again the next day to see it at night, checked out People’s park and stumble upon the marriage market and while I was very courious, and got scolded for taking a picture up close. 

But then, how was I to know what the writing was about without using google len’s to translate. Later after some research on the web, I finally understand the notority of the place. Old folks writing up their kids biodata trying to find a match for marriage. In this day and age especially in downtown Shanghai it was definately a interesting sight and culture to witness.

Nanjing Pedestrian Street - Shanghai

Nanjing Pedestrian Street - Shanghai

The Shanghai Museum was closed unfortunately but the Shanghai History Museum which is a old historic Race Course building was open. Their collection was quite small and revolves around the people of Shanghai’s history and cultural development. In a way it was interesting yet not captivating even for someone like me that is of chinese heritage.

I spend most of my time in Shanghai just wandering around the streets getting lost. Google map and some other blogs on general things to do in Shanghai was my main source of information of what to explore. Not the best opening experience to a travel but Shanghai while dazzling can be lonely. 

I hit the Yuyuan Old town, Jade Buddha Temple, Jing’an Temple and Nanjing Pedestrian Street. I didin think too much about it and just thought to have a walk. I kept trying to find a land marker for the G318 which is the famous route from Shanghai to Tibet but no obvious tourist marker was found.

Yuyuan Old Town - Shanghai 

Jade Buddha Temple - Shanghai 

At one point I started hopping onto public busses without knowing where the bus will take me. Drop in 2 Yuan and no question was asked where I was going. Once I feel there was an interesting street to explore, I would just hop off and take a walk and repeat again by hopping onto another bus. Eventualy I ended up much in the outer fringe of downtown but was not that hard to hop back to the metro network.

Shanghai supprisingly did not cost me a bomb in term of expenditure. I avoided the observation deck or any attraction that require a ticket and just wandered around using all the local transport including the ferry to cross the bund which cost only RMB2. 

Local Ferry across the Bund - Shanghai

View of Shanghai from the Ferry Crossing

Random Bus, Random Street - Shanghai

Random Bus brought me to this eating place in Shanghai

There was a expensive tourist cruise option but I managed to find the public ferry. There was absolutely no challage at all to explore Shanghai, communication with people was also almost non-existance. For a city of 23 million people, it can be lonely visiting alone.

Traveled on: Nov 2023

Backpacking China Survivor Tips

Before I move on to the awesome storytelling of travelling through China, I feel that there is a need to talk about the rudimentary nessecity to actually navigate through China not just on a map but also through the systems of systems which is built entirely for Locals and not for International tourist. Its the nicer way to put it, for it can be said that China is living in the future already and that us tourist are the pre-bronze era.

Shanghai - China

Granted that some might dispute this statement above that China is totally international travel friendly and I dont doubt it for a moment espescially when you hit the popular places, but as a backpacker a little tricks opens up a whole new level of exploration.

Now I have a slight advantage of being able to speak the languege (Mandarin) on a rudimentary 12 year old kid level but I have no clue on how to read any of the words. In a sense, I am uneducated and illliterate in China’s perspective. Haha. However it does help being able to speak the languege making connections and immersing with the locals much easier as there is not much pause waiting for each google translate app to transfer the conversation.

Anyway I’ll break down the Survivor Tips into five sections namely, Languege, Internet, Money, Navigation, Accomodation and Transportation.

Languege
As mention, I could speak the languege, but at rudimentary level of a 12 year old kid I still had to have a backup sometimes. Google is blocked in China but supprise, Google Translate App is not. Even the Google Len’s Translation works in China and all one need to do is download the offline dictionary of simplified Chinese to English and it will work even without a connection to the web. It is however suvivor level skill only, and will not allow deep conversation to blossom.

Internet
As many knows, there is a Great Firewall of China when it comes to the web. Many things are blocked such as social media, google and who knows what. Most people mention things about VPN but the only sure way I know that works is by using a roaming sim card. Data Roaming to be exzact.

If this was maybe two years ago, the cost of Data Roaming a whole month in China would probabaly be more than the trip’s expenditure itself. I used a Singapore sim card which have a package of Asia Pacific roaming plan, paying SGD 20 per month for a 3GB of roaming data. 

Its not much and it works to get me out of a pinch. That said, I was definately tracking my data carefully. On the flip side, things that dont need circumvating the firewall can be brouwsed using wifi which is abundant in China.

Money
This one should be a hot topic with many people writing on the e-wallet payment in China. China has really almost successfully become a cashless country. Everyone has a phone even the poorest guy on the street that is asking you for some change will have a phone. 

With a phone comes e-wallet function like Alipay or Wechatpay which everyone uses to buy and receive money. Small time fruit vendors walking up to street tables selling pineapple will only accept e-wallet payment for a RMB5 purchase which is like SGD1 as they have literaly no cash in hand.

I have two forms of payment system setup when travelling in China. Alipay is one of them and the other is the Malaysia e-wallet TouchNGo. Both works the same way and both have the same limitation that I could only pay for things and not receive any money. I also could not pay directly to a person and that the QR code must be the business type and not personnal money transfer.

I wont go into the nitty grity of foreigner using Alipay or using TnG overseas for there are many write ups already on the web. I do have some comparison on both of them which will show how I use my money with the apps.

ALIPAY 

• Must install for all the miniapp fuctions. Allows for usage of public transport by obtaining a virtual bus card
• Allow for use of selective bycycle rental which is scattered all over the cities in China
• Allow for use of E-Hailing services such as Didi (Uber/Grab equivilent)
• Able to check the massive bullet train scheduel and also reserved the ticket (only if you obtained a Chinese Sim Card)
• Best for small transactions under RMB 100
• NOT good for large transaction ABOVE RMB 100, a 3% service fee is charge for these big transactions

Figuring out how to unlock an E-Bike using Alipay. 
Too many steps all in Mandarin which was hard for us that cant read. 
I partnered up with another traveller which also cant read and basicly using Google Lense Translate to go around the setting up procedure. 

TOUCH’N’GO

• Good for large transactions above RMB 100. NO service fee is charged.
• Only good for payment of goods.

COLD HARD CASH

• Good for deposits in hotels. Any transfer of money through the E-payment above means the hotel will have a hard time refunding you once you check out as they have no cash.
• When the above two fails and you have already consumed whatever it is you consumed, somehow they will accept the cash reluctantly.

Navigation
Ok so this is where doors open up a crack. Navigation for me is done using the chinese app called AMAP. Fully downloadable in google playstore, and totally in mandarin without a hint of english. Its function is a good or better than google maps and in a sense while in China, its 100% better than google maps coz it works.

I can’t read but zooming in and out of the map one can still find places when compared to google map or just ask locals to search the location in mandarin which I sometimes do. Once a location is found, mark a star or pin. With this Star the navigation become feasible. 

I navigate the app through icons mostly for its really like sign languge in written form. The bus icon means tranvel by bus and the walk icon means walking pretty simple.

This gives a great navigation via public transport of local city buses and train. I could now figure out how to navigate the local bus system going from one place to another just looking for the bus number. 

AMAP Navigation using local Bus
All I used was the bus number B9 and constant monitoring of my GPS position while the bus drives 

Bus information totally in Mandarin. 
In desperation, screenshot and Google Lens Translate may deceipher a little insight. 

With the Alipay app above, I do not need to know how much to pay but just scan the app to board the bus and check the fare later once deducted. While inside the bus, GPS show my location in regards to the bus journey navigation so I would know when to get off the bus.

AMAP also works with bullet train scheduels and tinkering with start and end point gives many combination for travel in China. Half the time I was tinkering to find the next long leg journey. Price, journey time and even train ID is listed which makes things a lot easier. Imagine queing up at the train station only to find out that the journey to the next city will be a crazy 24hours or that the next train departs 6 hours later.

Unfortunately, trying to learn the app before arriving in China wont do any good. The bus and train function is closed if accessing from outside China. One would need to learn on the road but once you figured out the few key icons, the maps navigation is totally worth it

When accessing AMAP outside China only the drive function is available.
Bus Route and Train Routes wont be shown until one is in China

Accomodation
I use Trip.com mostly in China. Other websites just dont have the large exposure of hotels that is in China. The goodside is that you can find really good hostels, hotels that are not listed anywhere else but the downside is that most of the time the establishment would only be able to speak and read mandarin.

Its local and legal and cheap. Finding the hostel location and trying to check in can be challanging when choosing the cheapest stay option espescially in the countryside but its definately a backpacker budget friendly. 

Once booking has been confirmed on Trip.com, one can access the full address of the Hotel
Its the Thrid Line with the location PIN mark
Good to screenshot to ask locals 

Screenshot + Google Len's Translate gives the Unit Number and Tower Block
This gives the final last mile search easier to Hunt the Hotel

The little trick I used is that Trip.com has a navigation button which directly link to AMAP. This gives me access to local busses when the hostels are far away from the train station.

That Map Icon is clickable and when AMAP is installed can be directly linked

Transportation
Backpacking in China means Trains. The country is just too big. The train system is definately the best and most comfortable and no doubt the most value for money be it Bullet Train or normal Train.

Using Alipay App, one could book the train tickets provided they have a chinese phone number. I made that mistake not getting a chinese sim card back at the airport which cause me to lose access to a few function such as online train bookings.

While I could not book trains online, Alipay & AMAP app allows for search of train schedule and pricing. The rest was just rocking up to the train station an hour earlier to manually purchase the tickets from counter.

Traveled on: Nov 2023