Category Archives: China

Shanghai: Zhong Plaza (Updated July 2015)

Shanghai’s landscape is ever changing. The boom in new restaurants, bars, malls, is bigger now than ever. It’s no surprise then that developers have thought that one Xintiandi is not enough and decided to create another food & drinks hub in an old quarter somewhere. They found their location in Jing’An. (And right behind our home, lucky us!) The new place is currently referred to as “Zhong Plaza” or “That new place on Taixing Lu”.

Most of the restaurants and bars are already open and are having their soft launch prices and menus, some are still in development, but all of them look promising.

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Xian: 3 Day Itinerary

As flexible as we try to be on travels, some form of pre planning is always vital as it allows you to get the most out of the destination you’re visiting. Sometimes, it even turns out to be as exciting as the travel itself. We like looking up places that we could see, activities we could join, food we could eat, and the list goes on. Instead of putting these information away, we thought it might make sense to share some of the information and itineraries on the blog. Lest, some of you end up visiting the same places we did. After all, getting tips from others have always helped us too. We hope they’ll come in handy for someone, if not just for us to revisit the things we did. (We’ll share more of our personal experiences and pictures in the upcoming posts). x

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Nanjing: Tangshan Hot Springs (Remedy for Winter)

Though we did this trip a long while back, we thought it’s nice to share our experience here, especially now that the weather’s getting cold. So, within a week of me moving to Shanghai, we packed up and made our way to Tangshan in Nanjing (not to be confused with the one near Beijing). It was the Lunar New Year so offices were officially closed for a week which gave us enough time to squeeze a little staycation somewhere in the midst of a chaotic move.

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Hong Kong: The Peak

[Super backdated post, sorry. Just discovered it was just sitting around without being published like a dejected child.]

So, mid autumn’s weekend was spent in Hong Kong. It’s actually a first trip there for me, and for a Singaporean, that’s pretty embarrassing. But hey, I made it in the end and absolutely understood why so many have fallen in love with the city. It’s a charming mix of cultures.

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Shanghai: Storm (Electronic Music Festival)

Storm Flyer
*Flyer from SmartShanghai

So I was browsing through what’s happening in the next weeks… And I came across this. Benny Benassi, Icona Pop already sounded interesting. Then I read on and one of my personal favourite DJs (Fedde Le Grand) will be spinning as well, alongside Zedd, and Axwell. The full line up hasn’t been announced but the current line up sounds convincing enough. Afterall, we don’t get big names thrown in ours faces often enough here in Shanghai! (But that’s definitely changing).

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Shanghai: Mr X Puzzle House

[Update: Seems there is now a new outlet in Beijing as well. Please see thebeijinger.com for details.]

When the question is posed “What should we do this weekend?” The answer for us usually revolve around eating, drinking, exploring the city, bumming around at someone’s place. A puzzle house is not exactly the most common thing to suggest. But a new experience is always welcoming after weeks of doing the same old things.

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Hong Kong: Australian Dairy Company (Cha Chaan Tengs)

I’ve heard a lot about this place. It’s a simple cha chaan teng (茶餐厅) most popular for its scrambled eggs, and steamed egg white pudding with milk. What way to best experience local Hong Kong than in a cha chaan teng. While queues are long at almost all times, the turnover is relatively quick. We soon understood how we got a seat so quickly.

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China: Facebook, Twitter, etc

The moment you relocate to China you realize that it might get a bit difficult to stay in touch with your friends / families / colleagues using your usual known and loved social networks. Facebook, Twitter and many other social network and news sites are blocked in China, and – unless you are rather advanced in reading, writing and speaking Mandarin – the Chinese equivalents like Weibo are not really an alternative :). However, there are of course several ways  to regain access to those international sites again.

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Shanghai: Qipu Lu (Cheap Shopping)

This is a must for my female guests who love shopping and love a good deal even more. It’s like Chatuchak in Bangkok, except a whole lot cheaper (most of the stuff in Chatuchak is made in China anyway). It’s also a one stop shop for souvenirs. Especially useful for lazy souvenir shoppers like me. Most of these come direct from the factories and is usually where most local clothing stores get their stuff wholesale. You’d have clothes, shoes, and accessories, for adults to babies to even different sized pets here.

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