24 hours in shanghai | traveling alone, walking around the old city, good coffee + books

Good morning guys, uh, we're in shanghai today I don't know how this happened So I recently started reading this book the last rose of shanghai and a couple of days ago I found out the shanghai book fair is happening this weekend So I booked myself a spontaneous trip to shanghai for 24 hours alone. Well, actually with you guys I thought it'd be nice to loosely trace the steps of the main characters in the book Take a serendipitous walk around the old city find some nice coffee Bookstores and check out the book fair if we can make it. But if not, i'm not gonna stress about it So we're gonna do A city walk today, which is a very popular activity in china for the moment It's a fancy word for literally just walking around the city. So let's be trendy and do that Look at that tree over there Those tiles on the building And if you look over there like in the very far end There's some red fruits on the tree. Do you want to find out what it is? I feel like it's persimmon tree Let's go let's go find out It's pomegranate This is the best day ever It's a monday afternoon and the streets of shanghai are packed with people who don't have to work if you're new here I also just quit my job difference between me and them is they probably have trust funds and all I have is a youtube channel Oh, this is a very trendy secondhand store in china. I think they have some cute clothes and books I'm feeling a bit hungry. It's like 2 p.m. It's about time to find something to eat I have been wanting to eat And they're like my two most anticipated foods every time I come to shanghai because now that i'm vegetarian I can't eat Or xiaolongbao. I don't have any place in mind. So let's just take a walk and find a place that looks good It looks like an international grocery store Select your tampons Petition for trader joe's to move to china Every single time I had come to shanghai. It's given me a lot of Anxiety because everyone here is cooler than me. They're more dressed up more Cosmopolitan even little kids speak fluent english. Um, but walking around the streets today made me feel a lot more comfortable I don't know. Maybe it's making Serendipitous encounters with little things. Maybe it's taking my attention off of things that I Would normally compare myself with today. I actually feel like I wouldn't mind living here but I probably won't actually live here because I live in guangzhou in the south of china and This time next year i'd probably be in europe. I don't know you you never know these things Do you hear? The cicadas Some of you guys might feel awkward eating alone in public, but I promise you Eating alone won't feel awkward anymore if you have to film yourself doing it in public I wanted to take you guys to this bakery, but they're closed on mondays But I still wanted to show you it because my friend who grew up in this neighborhood Actually told me about it. She said it's been around for over a decade now and over the years They've never done any sort of branding or advertising or marketing Because it's a community bakery People from this neighborhood are all super supportive of it There's a very chill little patio on the second floor that not a lot of people know about it just feels really lovely that there's this sense of Community in shanghai that people actually come out and support the shops in the neighborhood Which is really heartwarming because it's not The sort of thing that you see a lot here in china at the end of every day neighbors come here to help clear out Anything that's left on the shelves. It just occupies this tiny little spot on this tiny street Not a lot of tourists would go in so it's like a little secret of this neighborhood, but now it's our secret, too I feel like that leather couch is a bit much for me, but this one I've been super into open houses and Furniture stores lately because after my eviction drama a couple of months ago. I just Really want to feel a sense of belonging and a sense of home So I just like imagine these stores as my own home and hope that one day i'd be able to afford one I'm Absolutely exhausted. I think i'm gonna go Find some dinner. So in the last roads of shanghai the main character ie owns a nightclub and in an opening scene She goes to the peace hotel in shanghai, which is a very famous historic hotel In the bund so I thought you know when in shanghai, why not go there? Let's head over Good morning. So last night I stayed at this hostel. It's the cheapest one I could find online for like ten dollars But I was honestly so surprised to find that it was actually converted from an old building with Tinted windows and wooden window frames. This might be a safety hazard But I think it's super cool. Like I did not expect old shanghai vibes to come with $10 Accommodation, but this is this is amazing So I went to family mart to grab some breakfast. I ended up getting so again, because it's literally the Only vegetarian thing I could find but I also found this honeydew milk. I want to try this first It's very yummy and very refreshing it tastes almost exactly like the Honeydew ice cream bars that I used to love when I was a little kid I remember when I was in college in indiana, I used to get it from like the korean grocery stores Okay, let's try the noodles. I feel like there's no way this is going to be better than oh There's meat in it I can't eat it so the bookstore Was a bit disappointing There are a few relatively new books and it always makes me happy to go to a bookstore always makes me want to read more But the publishing industry being as slow as it is It's even slower in china because every single book that gets imported needs to be thoroughly Checked so when I went to bookstores in ireland or england I get to see titles that I have never seen before at that bookstore there were like relatively new books, but not the newest ones anyways, the Floor is getting really hot. Let's head to the actual book fair I'm soaked. This is the original manor coffee It's kind of like the starbucks of china where they started as a small bespoke coffee shop now They have shops all over china. My flight got delayed Probably because the rain this is probably gonna be the last thing we do in shanghai. So I thought we get a coffee together The outro I filmed turned out to be unusable, so i'm just gonna do it again This trip was very special for me because it's my first time traveling alone in a while I feel like when you're in a relationship This is one of those things that are really hard not to feel guilty about doing alone but I think it's such an important thing to do because at least when i'm in a relationship as A woman who grew up in a chinese family who are unintentionally but still quite sexist I've been socialized to be understanding and make compromises and sometimes that makes it really hard to Remember who I am and what I want to do So you guys are actually here for a journey of self-discovery whether you knew it or not. I think there's someone Going out of this building. Okay I will see you guys next time Bye So I actually didn't finish the last rose of shanghai, I don't dnf books liberally This book just didn't quite vibe with me. I love a well-researched nuanced historical fiction And this one just feels like a lot of romance tropes with the author explaining the plot It has a really good review on goodreads. So maybe it's me I would still recommend this book if you've never been to shanghai and you want to hype yourself up for the trip If you have read this book, please let me know in the comments if i've come to a judgment too quickly also Bye for real now