Culture Shocks and Disney Magic... in Asia!!! A TR on all Asia Disney Resorts! [Update Dec19!]

Day 5 [part 2]: Alright… Off we go! Into the foreign world!




When we got onto the platform, we just missed a train. The Disney Resort station is at the very end of the line. The only real plans for the day that we had were that we had lunch reservations at a chain restaurant called Din Tai Fung. They’re famous for their soup dumplings, and even though now there are locations EVERYWHERE, we figured it would be most fitting to have it while we were in Shanghai. SO all we knew was that we needed to get off at People’s Square and we can make our way from there. Fastest route from our maps app showed us that we needed to do two transfers to get there. (Jenna bought a small travel package for data use while in China, so we were able to have some bit of internet)


Map reference:
Cn21rIS.jpg



Our “here we go! Into the city we go!” faces
reOnXo9.jpg



Since we had just missed the train, so we did a little bit of wandering and looking around at the station. It was pretty clean and nice looking. So far, our city experience has been pretty decent! We laughed at this since we hadn’t actually gone into the city yet…


Cute things
vBr1Am1.jpg



Signs!
q090G6K.jpg



Ahh. Floor signs to show that if you are wanting to get on, wait on the side
lpqqTNO.jpg


Some warning signs
bTmNzyy.jpg



The Disney decorations for those arriving to the resort
Kwtuseo.jpg



It’s so cute!
NDyf9jA.jpg



We found these video boards


We THINK it’s to tell us when the next train is coming. So we are guessing that the next train is coming in about 45 seconds, and the next one in ten minutes. So we guess it’s time to get ready to catch the train!!!




OUR FIRST SELFIE ON THE PUBLIC TRANSIT IN SHANGHAI!
(Whoops, I was a little bit over excited, it’s blurry)
DwlI4FI.jpg


We were literally the only ones on the train at our station haha. Very few people got on the next little bit. But then we got off and transferred at the Luoshan Rd. Station and it seemed like we were definitely going where people started to live.


Few more people on the train!
3D8gEXI.jpg



Courtesy Seating sign. I don’t know why but the illustrations amused me
Jt7dvAd.jpg


The train reached up to 90 km/hr! That’s pretty fast for a public transit train! We also noticed that visibility was okay… We were definitely able to see things out the window, but not very far. At the same time, we didn’t see a single person on the train wearing a face mask. But also, it was looking like it would get a little bit better throughout the day.


When we got off at Longyang Rd. station to transfer to our next train, we were definitely feeling like we had entered the city. Loads more people… Everyone going every which way. Jenna had to use a washroom, and she was majorly terrified of having to use a squatter. Luckily, we found a wheelchair assessable washroom! For sure they’ll have “western” toilets!


When we got onto the train, it was packed!!!
yQwtJWv.jpg



Arrival at People’s Square Station!


Stepping out of the station and seeing the CITY!


For people from not-so-big-of-a-city back home, these buildings are TALL!!! They look to be at least 5 times as tall as our average downtown core building haha. It’s not like we haven’t seen big buildings before, but something about seeing them in such a foreign of a place seems like the biggest deal haha. It just definitely made us feel like tourists. Disney is familiar, and this is so entirely unfamiliar. It was an interesting feeling haha.


More city
Rmxckbp.jpg



Ooooh we walked passed this Shanghai Grand Theatre. It does indeed look grand. It took up the whole block
nFP5lZQ.jpg



Public bus!
ajsmUvU.jpg






Day 5 part 2 continued.
 
Day 5 [part 2 continued]: Into the foreign world!


Our first road crossing in the middle of the city!


We took our time during our walk to the restaurant to really look at everything we can haha. The buildings go from old to new from small to grand. The streets are wide. Lots of people walking, lots of people driving.


Look! A group of… uniformed men waiting to cross the street.
pYSNv1g.jpg



For some reason we had a feeling we weren’t supposed to take a photo of them. So I took a photo from behind a tree..
m6y3pGa.jpg



Watching traffic while we wait for the light to change


The telephone booths also have wifi??
CznCyrT.jpg


This is a giant green wall billboard
iSWZWTH.jpg



We seem to be walking down a street full of designer stores
sSGbM2H.jpg



WOW! Shanghai, you are so neat… grand tall buildings, density… and then you have some really old style buildings below it all
vqwBDbo.jpg



We walked by the Breguet store. We’ve never seen one before!
umVCS3w.jpg



LOOK AT THIS STREET! THE TREES!!! (I loooooove trees)
CowgBl3.jpg



THIS IS SO MUCH FUN! Plus I think accidentally getting the man on the bicycle in the photo tops it off.
yjH71Me.jpg



We ended up finding the restaurant. It is in the upstairs portion in a mall. Checked in for our reservation, and we just waited a little bit before getting called in! (It was so busy already!!!)


S9eZcFW.jpg






Up next… LUNCH! More wandering and exploring!!!
 
Last edited:
We love soup dumplings! (Well any dumplings really). When we were in China 7 years ago we didn't really get to try any. Looking forward to going back, eating dumplings, as well as hitting Disneyland in Shanghai & HK.
 
We love soup dumplings! (Well any dumplings really). When we were in China 7 years ago we didn't really get to try any. Looking forward to going back, eating dumplings, as well as hitting Disneyland in Shanghai & HK.
We've only just discovered our love for dumplings the last couple of years! YUMMY!!!!

Hope you get to do so soon!
 


Day 5 [part 3]: CITY LUNCH! POST LUNCH WANDERINGS!


I got a correction: we did NOT have a reservation for lunch… we just went and hoped to get in. SO when we got to Din Tai Fungi we put our names down for lunch, and waited about 15 minutes and got seated.


Walking in!
PRzQXfC.jpg



Very large table for the 4 of us
pkJ2UVS.jpg



Menu views
YU19nB6.jpg


kXurV1M.jpg



Cute soy sauce and vinegar
l7BJeXG.jpg



Restaurant name on menu
J8u6lbN.jpg



I ordered a honey pomelo drink. It was lovely!
8oSQpDm.jpg


They had a pretty large menu, and we weren’t too sure what to order. Do we solely do soup dumplings?? Or a variety of food? We opted to go with a chicken dish, one large order of soup dumplings, some sort of rice dumpling, and a mushroom bun dumpling thing.


Chicken dish
41xgn2Z.jpg


Not really sure how we feel about this! I think I was the only one who seemed to like it. It’s a cold chicken dish. But it’s also kind of…. in some sort of almost vinegar sauce. It reminded me of all those pickled vegetables we had at Barbossa’s Bounty… which only I enjoyed ahaha.


SOUP DUMPLINGS! XLB! XLB!
fT4FqiM.jpg


VNtuIF8.jpg


Ahhhhhhhh. We went with one with a pork filling. And we were not disappointed.​



This is the rice dumpling thing
5kh0xsd.jpg



It was kind of like a dumpling in which the filling was flavoured rice. I’ve never really had dumplings that weren’t a meat or vegetable filling before, so these were a little peculiar to me haha. A very… mushy sticky dumpling. Tasty but the texture was not for me. (You can see we devoured the soup dumplings haha)


These were the mushroom filled ones
dlhRPhe.jpg


Very different than the soup dumplings. There’s no soup in these, it’s straight up full on mushrooms. Some flavouring but not too much sauce. Very MUSHROOM! We’ve never really had anything at home where it’s a straight up mushroom filling. So this was interesting if you like mushrooms!


We were still wanting more food so we also ordered a rice dish
LZPnEdP.jpg


We enjoyed lunch, but looking back we decided that the soup dumplings were easily our favourite thing and wished that we just went for it and had an entire lunch of soup dumplings haha. The entire meal wasn’t overly expensive… but felt that all the money could have gone towards super delicious soup dumplings haha. The other dishes were a little bit… more foreign than we were anticipating. We enjoyed it but it didn’t WOW us. But the soup dumplings did!


Neat and cute place though. Wall of celebrities in drawing form. They’re all hand signed by the celebrity
ayhM6Tu.jpg



View from our table
EzG6fo1.jpg



And that’s a lunch wrap! Goodbye Din Tai Fung!
ihQMtsO.jpg



Really neat feature wall!
Rd1RSmX.jpg


Definitely excited to hopefully in the future visit another Din Tai Fung (it's a chain restaurant in TONS of cities including in North America just not where we are yet haha)
After lunch we decided to do a little bit of wandering around the area we were in since it looked really cute when we were walking in. Plus Glendon wanted to go into some stores that carried some designer items that we can’t find at home.


The entire time we were eating lunch, we kept looking out of the windows to this building here.
2Mx3Gkz.jpg


We couldn’t really figure it out, but it was … interesting. It LOOKS like an apartment building but it also says “Work. Redesigned.” And the other sign said “Naked Hub”!!! We ASSUMED it’s just some work-live loft building but we laughed that they named it naked hub?! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?! We were kind of curious and sort of wanted to inquire. But that could have also been bad so in the end we left it. But will be forever wondering… “What is naked hub…”


More views of the area we were in. It’s a full on walking street and there’s tons of coffee shops and shops all along this walking street
H9Tq4xV.jpg



Loads of sign streets with more doors to stores/businesses
JmFr96g.jpg



8jvEZWB.jpg



This area was packed with people. We honestly had no idea where we were but it was fun walking around in such a bustling neighbourhood. There were tons of fancy people that sounded British that looked like they either lived in Shanghai or do tons of work business in Shanghai around this area, just sitting in all the coffee shops chatting away.


Greyhound cafe?!
JnojgvE.jpg

I wonder if greyhound the bus company that we know and this greyhound cafe are same company? I mean, it’s the same font and same logo.


K, seriously it’s so cute here!
4kLS00L.jpg



It really seemed like the hip place to be. We saw tons of trendy people meeting around here. So cool!



When we were leaving to cross the street we found this sign
UjKA74z.jpg



Ahhhh, so this place is called Xintiandi
wp3qfnj.jpg



We looked the place up, and turns out this is a popular tourist spot to check out. Specifically because of the culture here! It’s an entirely pedestrian road, and the entire district is of reconstructed traditional mid-19th century Shikumen houses (stone gate houses) on narrow alleys. (Thanks Wikipedia and travel advisor for this info haha). And now all these adjoining houses serve as restaurants, cafes, book stores, and etc! Tons of both indoor and outdoor seating. A very hip place to be! (Apparently the most expensive place in China to live. This would explain the tons of super fancy looking people we saw around.) Neat info! Glad we got to see a cool place, even if by accident that we ended up here haha.


vaO6znh.jpg


WKc89kP.jpg


Lastly before our next city adventure… a random photo of Glendon while we were outside the Leica store
rEX8ou7.jpg



Why? Well, we were excited to see a Leica store. And mostly because I was extremely intrigued by the way we all looked under the smog-filtered-sun. I just can’t get over that golden overcast! Everyone looks soooooo GOLDEN!









Up next… More city wanderings! The bund!
 
Last edited:
OK, I finally got caught back up. I started reading when you started updating in October, but between my trip to Disney and everything else going on it took me that long to read all the updates. Way too many things to comment on but between your report and PrincessInOz's report, I'm starting to get a good handle on Shanghai Disney and what attractions there are and how the different hotels and such fit in there!

Another one to mention Din Tai Fung! I learned about it from chunkymonkey and there is one only half an hour from my house. I've never tried soup dumplings and while they have them in the frozen section of Trader Joe's, I think my first time trying them should be at Din Tai Fung. I just need to make the time to go there for lunch!
 
OK, I finally got caught back up. I started reading when you started updating in October, but between my trip to Disney and everything else going on it took me that long to read all the updates. Way too many things to comment on but between your report and PrincessInOz's report, I'm starting to get a good handle on Shanghai Disney and what attractions there are and how the different hotels and such fit in there!

Another one to mention Din Tai Fung! I learned about it from chunkymonkey and there is one only half an hour from my house. I've never tried soup dumplings and while they have them in the frozen section of Trader Joe's, I think my first time trying them should be at Din Tai Fung. I just need to make the time to go there for lunch!
mmmmm yummy you really should! I would love for there to be a din tai fung half an hour away from my house! haha. Hope your disney trip was good!
 


Day 5 [part 4]: More random wanderings. Then the BUND!
[This post is mostly a series of photos. We didn’t have any plans so it was a lot of “Here is what we see”]​


We decided to wander the city some more. Tons of the giant buildings had shopping centres in the bottom few floors, so we went in and out of most of them just to see what kind of stores they have.


HA5RUEK.jpg



We decided to go look for one of the Apple stores that were near by, and on our way there we crossed this pedway
zByWIuv.jpg


Is that… what I think it is?
sXoBNkK.jpg



So much Cartoon Network???
BOScxrr.jpg



It’s a Cartoon Network cafe!!
JlZTu4v.jpg



They had a stack of the bears from We Bare Bears!
veNWsRx.jpg



They’re currently my favourite Cartoon Network show so I was really happy
PidActz.jpg



Now here is a Pizza Hut
vXznqJA.jpg


Glendon for some reason LOVED that we found a Pizza Hut. He says they’re fancy in Asia hahaha.


Here we are outside of the Apple store and that pedway is where the Cartoon Network Cafe was aha.
Ru7BSW0.jpg



Traffic that looks confusing
f1w6LSi.jpg



We stumbled upon this neat art installation thing where you make wishes and make cranes
hoLCwTg.jpg


L5di1ZT.jpg



Not really sure what was going on but we see that Vivienne Westwood’s name is on it hahaha. It was a neat walk through display in the atrium of another mall area.


Then there was THIS building where the entire outside wall was a waterfall wall
gDfKYY5.jpg



There’s even a lighthouse thing at the bottom haha
82kuY3l.jpg



It says I Am Here
RT0ljl2.jpg


Okay after our mindless wandering we decided we should make our way over to the Bund so we can get our postcard photos. We didn’t really want to bother with trying to figure out the train system on how to get there, so we decided to just flag a cab. The man understood well enough and got us there haha.


There is a LOT of history when it comes to the buildings on the Bund and to be very honest I cannot remember any of it. Architecture style is very… oh goodness I can’t think of what I’m trying to say here. Not colonial… old British style… I’m having brain farts. That’s okay. Anyways the Bund is a waterfront area by the river. It’s on the one side, and when you look across the river you face the skyline of the Pudong district (the skyscrapers, kind of their business district.) Your iconic “here I am in Shanghai” view basically!


THIS VIEW
h0ZQV7x.jpg


You knew what I was talking about haha. In it you can easily see the Oriental Pearl Tower, a Super Grand Mall, HSBC, Shangri-La, and that HUGE building at the very far right that is the Shanghai Tower! (This was only started construction that last time I was in Shanghai so this building makes the skyline look sooo different!) Plus lots of other buildings too! (The Disney Store is there somewhere closely to the Oriental Pearl Tower… but we didn’t get a chance to go)


Considering we had a very bad smog warning for the day, we actually had a good view. I’ve known people who have gone and you can barely see across the river to the buildings on the other side. We had a little bit of brown haze, but I think it’s not that bad! At least we got our postcard view!


Here is a look at the Bund and the buildings on this side
JXt1Pkf.jpg


E5cqOrd.jpg



Another skyline view!
OOFNsJW.jpg



Our obligatory tourist photos with the skyline background
Zl74fEy.jpg


wRjaUmy.jpg


Just look at our golden glow hahaha.


Then we looked down into the water. And omg. That’s a floating diaper
eZlo5d9.jpg



This photo makes this area look quiet and serene, with no crowds at all!
55lb2zM.jpg



That’s a lie. It’s PACKED!
P5Ufopg.jpg



So here’s yet another photo of the view haha
R3MmXer.jpg



When we walked down the Bund area a little bit, we found this tunnel entrance thing.
bmOQr8i.jpg


It says “Bund Sightseeing Tunnel” so we thought maybe we could check it out, see if we can learn a little bit of history or what not. Even though it looks kind of creepy. Why are we going down into a tunnel? Spoiler alert… there was nothing there. It was a bad waste of time ahahaha.


Now that we have finished with taking photos, we decided to wander a little bit on this side of the river. We decided maybe we would check out some of the hotels on the river like the Fairmont. Here are wandering photos of the buildings we walked by


tT30sUI.jpg


bVxH8Fg.jpg


hRmUWU1.jpg



Omg…. look at the sun behind the smog!
kOAKvIo.jpg



Anyways we were just doing more mindless wandering, and we figured eventually we would possibly hop into another cab to bring us to another tourist attraction. Little did we know, from wandering and following crowds, we ended up in a place I recognized from being here ten years ago, and it’s also in a ton of movies… the world famous Nanjing Road! This place… is basically the main shopping street of Shanghai. It’s an all pedestrian street and it’s lined with shops upon shops. And the buildings are basically malls with multi-levels. It’s crazy!!!!



We were excited to get our photos and check everything out, but at this point we were all starting to feel a little bit blah. We weren’t sure if it was from being out and about all day, or more than likely, because of the air quality. Jenna and I decided it was probably time to put our face masks back on. (We took them off throughout the day because we definitely felt weird and it wasn’t exactly a super comfortable accessory haha.)


So here is a selfie of Glendon and I
REVWGKu.jpg





Up next! NANJING ROAD! The good, the fun, the bad, and the ugly.
 
Last edited:
So, after I read your post about Din Tai Fung, I got a craving...and well, they have a location about 10 minutes from my house. So I made a stop there for soup dumplings and a fried noodle dish! So yummy! There was also an Uncle Tetsu (Japanese Cheesecake) location in the mall and they didn't have a wait, so I also got 2 cheesecakes!
 
So, after I read your post about Din Tai Fung, I got a craving...and well, they have a location about 10 minutes from my house. So I made a stop there for soup dumplings and a fried noodle dish! So yummy! There was also an Uncle Tetsu (Japanese Cheesecake) location in the mall and they didn't have a wait, so I also got 2 cheesecakes!
YUMM!!!!!
 
Day 5 [part 5]: NANJING ROAD! The good, the fun, the bad, and the ugly.

We didn’t have a plan, so we decided we wanted to wander and look at some shops. The first shop that REALLY caught our eye was one that was along the street and seemed SUPER POPULAR. It was a store called Miniso!!! We’ve never seen Miniso before!!! Very similar to Daiso the Japanese dollar store. And this looked to be a similar idea! (Side note, our city JUST opened our first Daiso-like store a few months ago. Then last month Miniso was also brought here.)


Some fun things… WE BARE BEARS FACE MASKS!
CHBnlv9.jpg

(Oops, sorry blurry photo, I was very excited.)​


It really was like a dollar store, so we didn’t want to spend too much money buying silly junky stuff. I couldn’t help it, and grabbed a few of the face masks (it’s literally just all packaging) and Jenna and I each got ourselves a small glass water bottle.


A random side street we walked by. There is a Starbucks. And other… interesting looking places
FHHwLBy.jpg



Here we are at the crosswalk waiting to get to the Nanjing Road on the other side (all pedestrian on the other side there!)
BoLZF8Q.jpg


Two things. First, omg look at that ball of fire that is the sun behind that smog layer!! And second… Jenna and I were really pretty excited to get some innisfree face masks to bring home. Apparently this is one of the things that my asian friends love to bring back when they visit home, is face sheet masks from innisfree. They’re extremely inexpensive and feel pretty good haha. But for some reason we decided not to go into the store. We thought we could find some in Japan when we had more time. (We were wrong. They don’t have innisfree in Japan?! None that we saw anyways…)


Looking back after crossing the street:
dMij3Rr.jpg



AND HERE WE ARE! Shops, shops, shops! People! So many people!
wnzEjw2.jpg



We went into a building and found Uniqlo!
Za1tDKW.jpg


This is one of Glendon and I’s favourite shops ever! We don’t have any at home, and the nearest store in Canada is way too far (they only JUST opened in Vancouver.. and pricing still isn’t great in Canada) so usually we just shop when we’re in Disney World haha. But here we are! We found some cute Disney shirts (We decided not to get any, thinking we would have a bigger selection in Tokyo and better pricing. … again we were wrong haha. I think in Tokyo the Disney stuff sells really fast, when we went selection wasn’t as big, and pricing was pretty similar, but with the Chinese Yuan price conversion to Canadian dollars just SLIGHTLY cheaper.)


Okay. This display of White Rabbit Candies I HAD to send back to my mom
St3dl7M.jpg


They are GIANT White Rabbit Candies. When I was a kid these were our favourite Chinese candies ahahaha. If you’ve never had them, they’re kind of like… a milky gummy thing. Texture is similar to a tootsie roll I think? Anyways it’s like, milk flavoured. And at some point, you couldn’t buy them in Canada anymore. They were banned for import!!! Something about ingredients or so, according to my mom anyways. They only just started coming back into stores a few years ago haha. They’re not that big. Literally similar to a tootsie roll, the small bite sized ones haha.




Random alleyway tunnel
v5KavRk.jpg



Obligatory “I’m standing in Nanjing Road” photo
cHBlc8W.jpg



Side street of food stands
CNO9nUl.jpg



More people! All of the buildings!
nr4WguB.jpg


At this point, we were all feeling a little bit BLAH. I was feeling really crampy and wanted to find a washroom. This is where the bad and ugly of Nanjing road come into play. We had this idea that our best bet for finding at least a decent washroom would be to try the large department store buildings.


From the land of the vast, our malls and stores just don’t go that high up haha. This was cool to look at
ghyhHoa.jpg



pvn3lKg.jpg


I was NOT doing well and so I made the decision to use the washroom at one of the random clothing stores. (I actually think it was in this store called Meters/bonwe that is HUGE). I had brought with me those travel pack of 1-ply toilet paper in those plastic cases… and Glendon held my purse while I went down this terrible dark hallway and entered a terrible… washroom I guess. It’s probably not even the worst washroom out there but it was still awful. First of all… there was no toilet paper ANYWHERE. So luckily I had thought ahead to bring my own. And it’s squatties only. Which… I guess… is the better option since everything was soooooo filthy I probably would have squared over a toilet anyways. Anyways. I wasn’t feeling great so I had to go right? I only went number 1. And turns out I wasn’t feeling so great, because I was extremely dehydrated and my body seemed to be filled with toxins. I have never seen my pee look so orange before. Sorry if that was just way too much information. BUT I THINK IT’S A GOOD WARNING that even though you might be scared of using the toilets, it’s probably a way better idea to keep hydrated throughout the day and use a washroom when you can that’s NOT a terrible gross one because that was the only thing available when you needed an emergency toilet ha…


Okay here are some more cool building photos
YxS4Fe5.jpg


And we are back to the good and the fun of Shanghai. I seriously love the interesting culture that is the expansion of Shanghai. You have all these classic and old buildings, and then you see the beautiful shiny new glass buildings around too. And the trees haha.


4lxhSaE.jpg



YgatiK6.jpg





aqeBpg0.jpg


Okay at this point everyone was getting cranky. No one was feeling good, and everyone just wanted to go back to the hotel. I insisted we had to stay until at least sundown so that we could see the lights turn on!!! Except we didn’t know when that would be, so the group was getting frustrated with me haha. “DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING TO COME BACK TO SHANGHAI ANYTIME SOON? WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE LIGHTS. YOU HAVE TO.”


I mean… I think we’re getting close, right?
1BYyvkY.jpg



There goes the sun
mlDYTyi.jpg


So… since everyone was cranky… we went to McDonald’s.



This is Glendon’s YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS face
4QTjw20.jpg



“It’s soooo good!”
OA1UQ7w.jpg



bgzSST6.jpg



It was a chicken burger ahaha. Even though he had a bit of a stomach ache he still went and ordered a spicy chicken sandwich. We also had some wings. And it really did help. Glendon LOVED his spicy chicken burger. “It’s DARK MEAT!” Goodness, we only just realized we hadn’t eaten since lunch. But guess what… when we finished and stepped out…


THE LIGHTS WERE ON!
VKk1pqO.jpg



TOTALLY WORTH IT
pznzfgM.jpg



And we are again back on the good. SO GOOD!
lmPi1t5.jpg



BfYlGYF.jpg




Hurray!!! This is what you come into the city for, right? Even though we were just there to look, we had a great time. We got to actually experience the magic of Nanjing Road.



Apple store
vsfE1jU.jpg



tHCkcsk.jpg



It keeps on going!
wA4vU2l.jpg







Up next… More night time photos at Nanjing Road. Then back to the hotel and then it’s goodbye Shanghai!!!
 
Last edited:
Day 5 [part 6]: NIGHT TIME AT NANJING ROAD! And then it’s Goodbye to Shanghai


Okay, so I can’t get enough of the fun neon lights at Nanjing Road!!! The atmosphere is AMAZING! So… here is a series of our collection of photos haha.


Aww, a pretty good photo of Glendon and I
on0c7zC.jpg



AND TREES
AYUnBQm.jpg



Trolly
woqIlcv.jpg



That green glass booth thing is a Coca-Cola stand
Ydbrb2r.jpg





cAyaPEa.jpg





Every time we saw this store all of us kept reading “send nudes”
mlqyIsl.jpg


Another bathroom story… At one point, Glendon decided he might as well use a washroom before we head back to the hotel. We went back into one of those mall areas. The mall itself was pretty clean so he thought it was a safe option. Goes in, two seconds later comes back out with a terrified expression. “What happened???” (this was verbatim, so excuse the language..) “There were globs of sh**...… everywhere.”


Okay it was officially time to head back to the hotel. We decided that since we were already at a busy tourist area, it shouldn’t be too hard to hop back onto the train to go all the way back to the resort area.


Entering station… and look at the fun Garfield chocolate ad thing
Glbhcr1.jpg



Oops. Blurry photo… but it was to tell me that we went in at East Nanjing Road Station
HrvLiR8.jpg



TICKET PURCHASING!
DHgIpvg.jpg



Hurray!
p4atkHK.jpg


CnrQGWM.jpg


(We definitely each loaded the cheapest option onto an additional card that we weren’t going to use to scan into the machines, so that we could take home a ticket souvenir!)






Okay it was a VERY busy station. Probably didn’t help that everyone had the same idea it seemed, and everyone was headed to wherever they needed to be after finishing at Nanjing road. While we’re waiting for our train, poor Glendon REALLY had to go and use the washroom. And since earlier in the day when Jenna went at the other train station and it was okay, he thought he was safe. Plus he REALLY had to go. Ooooops. We forgot that Nanjing Road station is probably one of the older stations!! Glendon came back with a look on his face like he’d faced his biggest nightmare. Which he really did. He explained it that the washroom wasn’t a washroom at all. It was just walls and a trough in the ground. He was traumatized (the rest of us laughed pretty hard. Brian had read about these men’s “washrooms” but since they hadn’t encountered one yet he forgot about them.)


Train was SO BUSY! Blurry selfie with ALL the other train riders haha
Srhp5g5.jpg



Then we switched over to the resort line. Not busy here!
8tcX7SR.jpg



Look who I’m sitting with
G4tRF3W.jpg


So cute!
T2Bxg9b.jpg



fffqMMS.jpg



And that's it! We're back!



The station is so empty!! I guess not a lot of people go back to the resort at the end of the night, right? The station is really cute, with Mickey and friends all around!


LEUIIuN.jpg


gPZM8mj.jpg


mwuCh1F.jpg


6tJ6cKp.jpg


They also had some stores at the station including this Italian Healthy Gelato place that really interested Glendon haha
DLko6EM.jpg



Other stores included a convenience store, a cake place, mostly grab and go places.


They also had a ton of these cartoon safety posters around.
bzBgOcZ.jpg


Beautiful station!
IspEgUn.jpg



Since we didn’t have a proper dinner, on our way back to the resort through Disneytown… we stopped at BREAD TALK



MMMM all the bun goodness!
n0WPwMY.jpg


To be honest by the time we got back to the resort we were exhausted. Guest Services were amazing and helped us grab our luggage from bag check, and they helped us arrange for transportation to the airport. Which was a set price… of 300 Yuan or less. SO not the 500 Yuan we paid to get here!!!!! I’m pretty sure it ended up being about half the price. We totally got ripped on our way in! But now we know. Also we didn’t die on our way in, so no REAL harm done, right?


Toy Story Hotel, why you gotta be so cute? On the luggage carts
4c9vp5R.jpg



Goodbye Toy Story Hotel =(
ywaZF6A.jpg


Nothing exciting happened on our way to the airport. We were all super tired I think we all fell asleep. Then suddenly here we are. At the airport!


XhOLuY7.jpg


We had to wait in line a little bit to check in to our flight. We went budget and booked on a cheaper airline, and they only did the one flight out of Shanghai to Tokyo. SO the counter wasn’t open yet when we got there. That gave us time to make sure all our stuff was packed properly. They had signs everywhere that said you can’t keep any portable battery packs and the like in your checked bags, they HAVE to go into your carry on. This included those little portable battery banks, camera batteries, laptop batteries, etc. And there’s a limit too. So we divided up all our batteries between all of us haha.



Oh my god, there was another white person in line waiting for check in. He had long dreadlocks and looked like he was doing the whole backpacking trip. And he kept trying to make eye contact with us (there weren’t any other white people other than Jenna and Brian… and this guy. We knew he could hear us chatting in English, and it looked like he wanted to come say hi just to chat or something) At first we didn’t think much of it. If he wanted to chat that’s fine. But then when the line started moving and we ended up closer to the guy… HE WAS SO STINKY. Stinky in the smells like dirty old pee way. Like, you could smell him from pretty far away. NOOOOO please, don’t come over to us we don’t really want to be near you. Dear Asia, WE SWEAR WESTERNERS DON’T ALL SMELL LIKE THIS.



We got to the gate and since dreadlocks man was ahead of us, he was already there. We made it a point not to sit anywhere near him. We only felt a little bit bad. But… he was honestly SO stinky. It hurt all your senses.



While we waited for boarding, Glendon went to go buy a pack of gum. Look! Chinese Stride!
IOBMETd.jpg



And for fun we decided to open up our weather app again
0ZrwPAs.jpg



I don’t think we are quite cut out for smog life. It really made us all feel really crappy. Luckily this was the only day that gave us the “very unhealthy air quality” label. The other two days were pretty okay.



Here is our little Peach Airlines plane!
k9brhAF.jpg



Our flight out was on time, at 1:25am China Time Zone. The plan was definitely to sleep on the plane. Overall, the flight was interesting. All the flight attendants were the cutest girls ever, and it was very efficient. But when it’s a red-eye flight you kind of expect the planes to have the dimmed lighting and very little announcements except when necessary, right? The flight was pretty smooth, but it felt like they were doing some sort of announcement every 20 minutes! And each announcement starts off with a very audible BING!!! We all slept on the flight, but it definitely did not feel like we did haha. The only thing that told us that we actually slept was that the flight flew by and we arrived at Haneda Airport!



(We prayed that stinky dreadlocks man was NOT sitting close by to us. It was a full flight. Luckily for us he was seated far away from us. But the poor poor poor people sitting next to him. I don’t know how we could have survived that flight if we were next to him.)







UP NEXT!!! Quick Shanghai Recap, then...
TOKYO!!!!!!!
 
Last edited:
I love looking at your photos! Back in the day there was a "theme park" in Orlando called Splendid China, and when we went for a field trip in elementary school I tried the white rabbit candy (you are right, so good) and... lost a tooth! Seriously! I saw your picture and couldn't remember if that was it, but I remember it had the edible wrapper, so that was *definitely* the candy I lost a tooth on.
 
I just found your trip report and binge read it all the way through. I really love hearing about all of your adventures in asia and hearing all of you stories. I can't wait to read about all of the other parks and cities!

Ps. It is nice to read a fellow Canadian's trip report!
 
HIATUS UPDATE!

To all those who have been following along on this trip report, I just want to again thank you for reading! Sorry it's been a few months since my last update. I was taking a small break initially because Glendon and I were doing another Disney World / Disney Cruise trip, and I was fully intending on coming back and finishing this trip report up. Unfortunately, during the time we were away, my grandpa unexpectedly got sick and had a very sudden passing. It hit me really hard, and I've been non-stop upset that I was not home with him and the rest of our family when he passed. It has taken a LOT for me to go back and pull up these great memories when in the forefront I'm still rather unhappy. I've been keeping busy with day-to-day activities like overloading on work, haha. That being said, I am starting to get back into the groove. So hopefully I will be able to get back into getting these updates through for you guys! So again, thanks for following along, and thank you for your patience in all this.

I am excited to continue on with my trip report as JAPAN is coming up next!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top