You know when I posted about going solo more often? Well I am proud to say that I am actually doing it.
A little backstory, I originally planned on spending my break between semesters here in China traveling to different cities and just exploring. However that had to change because I ran out of money. It was at that time that I found out that I am allowed to leave China to return to the US as much as I want, which was the opposite of what I was told earlier this year. After a few flight changes I am officially returning home on the 15th of January and returning to China on the 5th of February.
This is both good and bad though because all the restaurants and food places around my campus close on the 5th. Because of this I decided it was necessary that I travel and since I was going to have to spend the extra money I had saved for next semester, I might as well use it going somewhere cool.
What is a girl to do, alone in china, for 10 days? Go to Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou of course! Here is my game plan:
I will be returning to Zhuhai from Hong Kong on the morning of the 5th. I will eat lunch with my exchange friend before he leaves for good and then take a bus to the airport. I won’t land in Shanghai until 11:00pm so I will likely have to get a taxi, which makes me sad, but we will see when I get there.
I will be in Shanghai until the 8th in which I will hop onto a high-speed train and head over to
Suzhou and I will be there until the afternoon of the 11th. I am really looking forward to Suzhou because they are known for these world famous gardens. There is also a cat café that I must visit for the sake of my friends at home.
On the 11th I will head to Hangzhou via a slightly slower train and stay there until the 13th. My flight leaves out of Hangzhou and was probably the most irritating part of my planning of this trip. I had the perfect flight lined up almost a month ago that I booked and was happy with. However Xiamen Air decided that instead of leaving on the 13th that it should leave on the 14th at the same time. That of course doesn’t work for me because I have a flight on the 14th out of Hong Kong. Instead of helping me to find a new flight or to put me on the other flight they have on the 13th, they refunded me and sent me on my way. The flight I ended up with cost me around 20usd more and let’s be honest that could have been spent on food.
Once I land in Zhuhai airport I will take the same bus I took there back and stay in my dorm for the night and then head to Hong Kong Airport for my flight later in the day.
I am really looking forward to this new type of adventure because so far all of my trips outside of Zhuhai in China have been with a group so it is both exciting and nerve-wracking to go solo for my first time. The positive is that China is a great country to go solo in as I have seen and I am excited to be able to set my own pace and explore.
I am going to do separate posts on each place I visit and hopefully have them up the day after. If you want more up to date photos you can
