I took it incredibly easy today and didn’t get up to a huge lot. After a sleep in I made the trip to the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Center. The Center exhibits one mans private collection of a muge amount of original propaganda posters from over the years.

After soaking in the inspirational messages I headed back towards Nanjing pedestrian street before heading to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center.

I finished out with a dinner close to my hotel.

Today was a big walking day. I started off with a trip to Xintiandi and saw the site of the first CPC national Congress.

I walked to Tianzifang to see the sights, some more Shanghai style architecture and a very fun alleyway market. I also met a very friendly dog.

Then I walked back to the peoples square, seeing some cool things on the way

It doesn’t sound like a lot but this was a massive day.

I started my first day in Shanghai with a quick walk from my hotel to the Shanghai bookstore.

After a browse of the Xi Jingping classics I walked down Nanjing pedestrian street.

I then walked down the Bund towards Yuan yuan.

After Yu yuan I made my way back towards Nanjing pedestrian street for some dinner and the night time views.

I decided to take it easy today and only get up to a few things. I started with a short train over to Longmenhao Old Street.

I then walked up the road to one of the cable car stations and rode back across the river.

My final sight to see was Arhat Temple which I wandered around for a while before wrapping up for the day

Ciqikou, Shibati, Baixiangju, and Chaotianmen.

I began my day with an hour long train ride out to Ciqikou Ancient townbto see the Mahjong museum and wander for a while.

I trained back into town and walked to Shibati for a coffee and then went on to the Baixiangju residential building for some more sightseeing.

From Baixiangju I walked along the coast to Chaotianmen where you can see the river confluence between the Chang Jiang and the Jialing Jiang. 

I trained back to a station near my hotel and got some hot pot for dinner.

Flea Market, Lonely Leary, Guanyinqiao, and Jiefangbei.

Today started with a trip to Dongjiaxi Xitiaozao Flea Market where I practiced my haggling abilities. 

After the market I made my way to Guanyinqiao Pedestrian street for a coffee and a walk around, this is kind of the secondary CBD area in Chongqing and definitely has a different vibe to Jiefangbei.

I took the subway to Liziba, the iconic apartment train station, I also visited a vintage shop where I got the Zya jackpot, a signed copy of Passenger on The Eve by Lonely Leary.

Next I trained to Zhongshan 4th Road where I briefly stood outside of the Communist Party of China Chongqing Committee, walked up some stairs and visited an art gallery.

After the sun set I headed into the central city to see the sights starting with the People’s Liberation Monument.

Next I saw the Chongqing Guotai Artistic Center building.

Finally I ended my night with a visit to Hongyadong.

A visit to the Temple of Heaven, Beijing Opera, and kinda Tiananmen Square

Today started off with a trip across town to pick up my tickets for a Beijing Opera show in the evening. After sorting the tickets I decided to go all the back to the other side of town to visit Tiananmen Square.

Unbeknownst to me visiting Tiananmen requires booking at least a day ahead, after going through all of the stages of grief in quick succession I decided I would try to book for the flag raising ceremony tomorrow morning (~4am). Adding insult to injury I realized after I had gone through most of the booking process that a Chinese phone number was required 🙁 so alas I will not get to see Tiananmen. I briefly considered crying and throwing up in front of one of the PLA guards in case they took pity on me but I decided against.

After my tragic time outside the walls of Tiananmen square I went all the way back across town to visit the Temple of Heaven. The temple is in the middle of an absolutely massive park, it ended up taking me about 30 minutes to get between the main ticket gate and the temple.

After the Temple of Heaven I made the fascinating decision to walk to the Theater. I was in so much pain by the end of this mission, but it was made up for by the Beijing Opera.

The Palace Museum

I started today like I do most most days — with a coffee on top of a building. It was quite a cute place about a twelve minute walk from my hotel.

After coffee I headed straight to to the Palace Museum (Forbidden City) where I spent most of my day. It’s hard to get across just how massive the whole thing is, you could easily spend a full two days exploring everything. The highlight for me was definitely the Imperial Garden.

I decided against Tiananmen, I would love to see it but my legs were not up for even more walking. After my Palace Museum visit I took the subway to Heping and had some lunch and a couple cocktails.

I followed up my stop at Heping Pub with a coffee (on top of another roof) the barista also gave me a recommendation for dinner which is where I went to next.

It turns out Jingyi resteraunt also features on the Michelin list, well deserved I think. After dinner I decided to give myself a rest and turn in for the night, I did have great schemes of trawling around some shops but that will have to wait until tomorrow, CCTV13 isn’t going to watch itself.

A visit to the Lama Temple and a walk around the hutongs.

The day started off with a delicious bag of bao, a bao bag if you will. 

After a short subway ride and a small walk I arrived at the Lama Temple, the most well maintained Tibetan Buddhist temple in China, I wandered around here for about an hour and a half, there were a few museum style exhibition rooms giving some of the sites history with some Xi Jingping cameos.

I also asked one of the monks if I could take a photo of him, he said yes.

After the Lama Temple I made my way to South Luguo lane to explore some of the hutongs and to visit Houhai lake.

I decided to walk all the way around Houhai.

After seeing Houhai I walked over to the Beijing bell and drum towers to sit around for a while, these were surprisingly cool. 

I also wandered around the surrounding hutongs for a little bit before heading briefly to the National Art Museum of China, they had closed admission for the day but it was still good to see.

I then took another train to Wangfujing to get some food before heading back to my hotel. I ended up staying longer than expected and got some night views.

Finally I headed back to my hotel for the night.