Exploring SHANGHAI Like a Local 🇨🇳 Travel China's MEGA city!

Shanghai, China's futuristic megacity. A bold, buzzing home to 24 million people. But there's more to this city than its dazzling skyline, and on my very first visit, I'm diving deeper to uncover the soul of Shanghai. From vibrant local neighborhoods and rich historic charm, to sizzling street food and hidden gems, we'll explore the best of both the famous and the unexpected. There is no better way to start your day here in Shanghai than with a visit to a lively local market and sinking your teeth into some delicious local food. This is a typical breakfast from North China. There's some delicious kind of crepe with some crispy stuff in there, a salty plum sauce, and all kinds of other goodies. This beautiful lady has just made this fresh for us to try, so let's give it a go. It's really good. It's really, really good. The middle is really crispy and the outside is soft. I actually think I saw this at a hotel buffet breakfast recently. I tried it and it was terrible. This one's really, really good. How much was that? 7 yuan. That's a bargain. You'll find local markets like this dotted all over the place around Shanghai. And while online shopping is really popular, there's still plenty of people that like to come down and have more of a hands-on experience. Totally get it. If I lived in Shanghai, this is where I'd be doing my shopping. Everything in here looks so good. I would have arms full of noodles and vegetables. Why have one breakfast when you can have two? Our next delicious street eat is this fried onion pancake. And what I love about this is you get to watch them make it fresh in front of you. This thing looks like it's going to be very oily and I am very excited for it. If you had a really big night on the beers and you woke up feeling a little rough, or if you were like super jet-lagged or something, this would be your treat. That's so yummy. The outside is nice and crispy. There's all the good green onion in the middle of it. A little bit eggy, but not too eggy. And again, 7 yuan. It's like $1.50 or so. So good. Yum. I love mornings like this. This is the kind of stuff I love to do when I travel, to come to a local neighborhood like this one and have a walk around and get really immersed in the local life. Everyone's being so nice to me, talking to me, saying hello. They're so happy to see me trying their local food. It's just so warm and welcoming and inclusive. And I love it. We are off to a great start already. The Yu Yuan Garden was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1559. And the original owner constructed it to please his parents. And now it is a peaceful, tranquil escape from the busy streets of Shanghai. When you step outside the Yu Yuan Garden, you are thrust into a world of street food and shops. It is busy out here. And we've come to this spot. It's Lubou Lang. And they're famous for their pastry. So we've got a rose pastry to try. Let's get our teeth into this. I'll be the judge of that. It tastes like rose. Almost like a pastry stuffed full of rose jam is how I would describe it. It's sweet. The pastry is lovely and fluffy. I like it. So far, I've been making do with Starbucks coffee in China. It's been fine. It gets me through when I really need it. But my lovely guide today has recommended something else. Because she too is a coffee lover. She's brought me to Pete's. I believe Pete's to be a chain, but a good one. She understands the magic of the Australian flat white. Apparently, these guys do a mean flat white with the oat milk. I'll be the judge of that. Please be good. I need a good one. It's been a while. It's much better than Starbucks. You know, I love you, Starbucks. I love you for calling me Phoebe. But that is just what the doctor ordered. One thing about China. If you're coming here, you better love to eat. There is so much food everywhere. We've just stumbled into a random food hall. And basically, what I'm seeing here is a dim sum buffet. I didn't even know this existed. And now I'm seeing it. It makes so much sense. I don't know how I am possibly going to fit more food into my body right now, but I'm going for it. I'm just going full Shanghai. We've come for a little bit of a sweet treat, I believe. Visually, this one's low. This one's low. This is a two out of 10. Allegedly, that's some kind of a steamed something with a sesame filling. And I believe it to be a dessert. Very quality. It's very hot. Very hot. That looks like something you'd find in a pond. That does not look like food. But you know what? It tastes shockingly good. It's a really good earthy sesame flavor. And it's sweet, but not too sweet. And then the filling is like a chewy... Is it like a sticky rice kind of a thing? It's actually really tasty. I am not exploring Shanghai all by myself. When I was trying to decide the best way to explore China, I wasn't really sure how to do it. I was just going to do my usual solo travel styles. But I decided to book a private tour. I did that through Audinovo Tours. I'm obsessed. I've been having the best time. And one of the things I have loved about it is the guides. In each city I've visited here in China, I have had an amazing guide. They've all been women and they've all been wonderful. And Shanghai is no exception. Now, our beautiful guide today, Qi... Qi is here in the car with me, but she doesn't want to be on camera. But Qi is going to stick her hand in the frame and say hello. So you know she's real. Hi, Qi! Nice to meet your hand. Nice to meet you. So Qi is guiding us around Shanghai today. And she is taking us to some of the very best spots. I mean, you guys have seen already today. I am loving it. And I feel like having that local person show you around and take you into the neighborhoods and all the best spots in each location. It makes all the difference. I feel like every location I'm visiting in Shanghai is vastly different from the last. We started with the super local authentic market this morning. And then we're at that beautiful garden. And then we're exploring the shopping area with these gorgeous traditional style buildings around. And now we're in a really modern area. This is Xintiandi. And it is a more upmarket, high-end kind of shopping area. Everything here is fancy. Lots of upmarket, high-end stores, cool restaurants, bars, cafes, all that kind of thing. And it feels so fancy in here. It is such a blend of old and new. I cannot get over how gorgeous it is. And really, I'm shocked by how different Shanghai is to anything I thought it would be. It's extremely modern. It feels more like Singapore and Hong Kong to me. I thought Beijing would be this big modern city. But Beijing feels a lot more traditional. And Shanghai feels super trendy. But it still has a whole lot of heart. To get around here in Shanghai, I've got a private driver because I'm a real fancy cat. No, I've got a private driver because it's included in my tour. And honestly, it's making this whole day just so much easier. We're able to jump in and out of the car, get from place to place really seamlessly without having to worry about hailing rides or losing time on the subway or anything like that. So if you can, I definitely recommend doing it this way. Now, if you are going to be trying to navigate with rideshare or public transport, things like that, make sure you have Alipay downloaded on your phone. You can also use WeChat. WeChat Pay is a thing. I'm using Alipay. I've never used WeChat. And I'm very happy with it. Just get that installed on your phone and then you can pay for everything as you go. That includes paying at restaurants, buying your subway or bus tickets, that kind of thing. I also have a VPN with Surfshark and an eSIM with Aerolo. And those things combined are making my whole time here a lot easier. You cannot come to Shanghai and not have dumplings. So we're going to have some dumplings. We've come to Su Dim Sum. This is a really cute little spot. We've got a bunch of food. Let's dig in and try some stuff. Vegetarian dumplings. Now, it would probably be most people's decision to try traditional Shanghai dumplings when they come here. And they would have pork and soup inside. As you guys know, I love my veggies. So I've got the veggie version. We're going to dip this bad boy. Oh yeah. Oh, I really like that. The filling inside is mushroom and bok choy. It's so flavoursome. It's so easy for a steamed dumpling to have a really lazy filling, you know? And have no flavour, especially the veggie ones. These ones are epic. Get another dip of that vinegar. Fill them up inside. They're really good. I like that a lot. Greens. They are radioactive. I have never seen green veggies that look like that. I feel like I'm about to eat flubber. They're cold. They're tasty. Crunchy. Good. I like that. You know those look good. You know it. Yum. Um, those are really good. Noodles. Chewy. Tasty goodness coated in this beautiful sauce. Kind of sweet. There's some shrimp in there. Yes, please. Good morning, you guys. We are starting our day off here in the French Concession. Let's start with a coffee. A good one. I said we're exploring the French Concession this morning and that is more than just the name of a location. It's a really interesting part of Shanghai's history. So it's kind of hard to believe when you're looking around. But Shanghai started as a small village. It saw the rise and fall of many dynasties over hundreds of years. And then in the 19th century, it became a treaty port under foreign rule. That is when the Americans, French and British established concessions here, which basically allowed them to operate under their own systems. And the French Concession is where we're exploring right now. To dig a little deeper into the French Concession, we've come to an area called Tianzi Fang. This place is cool. It is a winding network of bright lanes and alleyways packed full of boutiques selling everything from clothes and jewelry to arts and crafts and everything in between. There's also loads of tea stores, cafes, cool spots to grab a bite and hopefully it's going to be our lunch spot too. I've been in China for a while now. Unsurprisingly, I've been eating a lot of Chinese food and the old body needed a change in cuisine today. So we've come to the Japanese restaurant. This is just one I saw walking around in this area. It looks really good. The menu looks good. Lots of people in here. It smells amazing. So I've ordered a bunch of stuff. We're just going to eat starting with some nigiri. It's really good. Oh yeah, let's try a piece of tuna. Oh, my hands are frozen. It's really cold today. I can't use chopsticks. My hands need to defrost. That's exactly what I needed. I'm also like an indoor barbecue. Look at me go. Oh, those are ready to flip. A little cube of butter there. They're giving me that. It's in flavour. Shiitake. Tipping some soy sauce, I guess. Oh, it's going to be searing hot. I don't know why I'm taking that directly off the barbecue and straight into my face, but here we go. Shiitake is the best of all the mushrooms. The best. I need to apologize. I'm doing something really touristy. I'm inside the M&M's store on Nanjing Road. I don't know what's happened to me. I've gotten swept up in tourist mania. I've never even been inside the M&M's store in Times Square. And now I'm pretty much in China's Times Square at the M&M's store. All of a sudden, all I want to do is eat M&M's. Don't judge me. Don't judge me. I'm going to have some. Hello, purple M&M's. That's insanity. I've just paid 12 Australian dollars for what I would probably pay two Australian dollars for at the Lawson, but I had to have it. Something took over me. Stretching some five kilometers, Nanjing Road is the place to come for shopping here in Shanghai. There are a lot of shops to see and explore. There's street food to try. Lots of places that you can wander in and around here. But it's more than just a big modern shopping hub. It was first built in 1845 and is one of the city's oldest commercial hubs. It feels pretty touristy here. There's a lot of people. This is the most tourists I've seen since I've been in China, but I'm still glad I'm seeing it. It's nice to check out the shops and I guess experience it at least once in my life. No trip to Shanghai is complete without a visit here to the Bund. Now, it stretches some 1.5 kilometers along the western bank of the Huangpu River. And what stands out to me is that on one side, you have these incredibly historic colonial era buildings. And then on the other side, you have this vibrant, modern, dazzling, futuristic city. It is the ultimate clash of old meets new. And if you are going to visit it, make sure you come after dark like I have. It's about 6 p.m. right now. It is absolutely freezing and very crowded, but so well worth it. Those lights are incredible. It was cold out there. I needed to get a taxi back to the hotel so I could get cozy in my robe and get all warmed up, you guys. I'm really genuinely so sad to be leaving China. I have had the best time here. Visiting Chengdu a little while ago really opened this country up to me. And then coming back to do Beijing, Xi'an, Nanjing, and now Shanghai, I have fallen so much deeper in love with China. I really genuinely love it and it's become one of my all-time favorite travel destinations. And that's not something I say lightly. I will definitely be coming back again, hopefully later this year because there's so much more I want to see. So if you've been to China or you're from China and you have any recommendations on places you think I must visit, please put them in the comments below. I really want to know what they are. And with that, you guys, that brings this week's episode and this China series to a close. I really hope you've enjoyed it. Now, if you don't already, be sure to subscribe right now so you never miss a single episode and say hello in the comments below. I hope you have a great weekend ahead and I will see you with a brand new episode next week. Love ya!