Another overdue blog post ready to publish, life is just flying by these days! Recently, over the Labor Day May holiday in China, my son Mac had a MLB baseball tournament outside of Shanghai near Suzhou. After a 48 whirlwind tournament with our kiddos coming in runner up (so proud of them all!), Mac and I decided to head to Shanghai to explore and eat and hang for another couple of days before heading back home to Beijing.
After our roughly 1 hour didi car ride into the city, we checked in and vegged out for a bit. We chose the Bellagio by MGM Grand this time around, via Trip.com. We knew we wanted to stay near or on “The Bund“, and knowing first hand via the Bellagio in Las Vegas, NV USA, I knew it was a safe bet. Although our room didn’t face the bund, it was HUGE, we could not believe the space. Plus, I may have noted in the reservation that it was also my birthday, so when we got to the room, we found a beautiful surprise- birthday decor with HBD in Chinese, plus a huge tray of candies and a sweet little chocolate cake. So much fun.
After a quick clean up & ‘fit check in the mirror, off we went to our dinner reservation, which thankfully due to a friend giving us recommendations, we had made prior. I swear, when we walked outside the hotel and started down the bund…..we realized quickly our mistake. It’s like the entire population of China was in Shanghai over the holiday weekend. No joke- police barricades everywhere, detours, people shoulder to should for MILES. It was insanity. We hoofed it about 30 minutes to the building where the rooftop restaurant was location and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief that we made it, and that we had reservations, lol! POP, on the bund, was fantastic. An American style brasserie, and michelin rated no less, was such a fun way to enjoy the evening.
Mac and I enjoyed the scenery with our outdoor table for 2, and he was such a fun partner in crime! He was up to order anything….we both had some fun drinks/mocktails, and then enjoyed a prosciutto and melon plate, caesar salads, black pork ribs, and a Spanish style whole baked white fish. We highly recommend. Of course no treats since we had birthday cake and jelly beans waiting for us back at the room!
Day 2 found us lazily coming to our senses and strategizing our day based on all the people we learned about the night prior, lol! Neither of us were honestly that hungry so we skipped our included breakfast (minus my copies amounts of coffee!) since we knew we had an all you can eat dim sum brunch around the corner at 11:30am. So we leisurely strolled along the bund to see if more without all the crowds and without all the lights from the night. It was a beautiful sunny day, minimal pollution, and was a lovely way to meander the 30 minutes to our brunch spot.
My whole family just LOVES dim sum….so we knew we had to experience some while in Shanghai, where Xiaolongbao, our absolute favorite, is from. After some research on other travel blogs, I settled on Yen Cha, located within the W Hotel in Shanghai. Huge bang for your buck, very serene atmosphere, stunning dishes that looked and tasted out of this world. They definitely lost money on us, lol. We were stuffed and loved every second of it.
From here, we took a Didi to the famous “Former French Concession” area of Shanghai. It was so beautiful and felt like we stepped into Western Europe! Tree lined streets, lots of cute boutiques, cafe, restaurants, art galleries, and more! Although it was also packed, it definitely felt a little quieter and people seemed nicer there. Strolling the streets was so fun, just checking out the ambiance and people watching.
At some point Mac and I stumbled upon this super cool alley where at the end was a random vintage toy & collectables shop. It was CRAZY. Absolutely packed with all sorts of superhero stuff, Pokemon stuff, and just random old school electronics, collectibles, and toys- it was called Huohuo Vintage. The owner told us people come from all over the country to check this place out- how cool! They had a fun huge glass box filled with surprise Pokemon collectables for 58RMB. Mac had a blast doing it twice and the shop owners couldn’t be nicer- We would go back (side note check out how small and short the door frame is- lol).
Mac was game to just stroll and check things out so we took our time strolling specifically Anfu road- it was full of things to check out. We finished with a cold beverage….but no food. We were still stuffed!
We also heard that we needed to check out Nanjing Road pedestrian street– an upscale shopping area, so off we went in another Didi back near the bund. Wowza, PACKED. We strolled around, hopped in a random but cool mall, found the Apple Store, Nike store and H&M, but then beelined for dinner when we couldn’t believe what we saw…..FIVE GUYS!!! It was music to Mac’s belly. Absolutely worth every greasy bite of burger and fries. YUM. We finished our day off by strolling home along a quieter area of the bund and walked off our day’s worth of indulging. Clocked about 20K steps, ha!
Sunday morning we woke up and knew we had just a little time to eat breakfast at the hotel and then take advantage of the quiet streets and get a little bike ride in before heading to the airport. It was perfect. Mac may not be legally old enough yet (ssshhhhh), but he’s tall enough now for the rental bikes always scattered along the sidewalks of china. Bellagio had a really nice breakfast spread complete with freshly made fruit & veggie juices. After that we got about a 45 minute ride in, and then off we went to the airport.
The Shanghai Hongquiao airport was simple enough with security and since we were only flying up to Beijing, there was no need for immigration. Guys, you will not believe it but we found Din Tai Fung!!! They have the most amazing xiaolongbao, and have closed the location we had up in Beijing, so we were THRILLED. I could not believe we fit more food in, but we had to enjoy one final bite of our favorites dumplings, haha. From there we crawled onto the flight, passed out, and made it home.
Shanghai, although busy, stole our hearts! We cannot wait to go back with David and Ava to explore more….and even venture to Disney!
So that being said….thanks for reading along,
Cheers!
xo, Kimbra
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