beautiful monotony: Goodbye Shanghai, Hello Hong Kong!

All in all, we had our issues in Shanghai, but it really is a beautiful city and I would love to go there again. The Bund and parks were so beautiful, the food was amazing, the people were so welcoming, and our hotel room (and service) at the Westin on the Bund, was truly rejuvenating after we had traversed the entire city of Beijing and waited in Beijing traffic for hours at a time. The mix of European and Chinese cultures makes for a much more relaxed atmosphere than what we previously experienced in Beijing and it was a fantastic marriage of Chinese culture and swanky old world European style.

After some of our bad luck in Shanghai, things seemed to be looking up when we got incredible service at the Shanghai airport, including some vouchers for a few glasses of (good) bai pútáo jiǔ. We spent our time waiting for our flight enjoying our favorite beverage, reading Fodor’s, and laughing about the great times we are having.

We arrived in Hong Kong late that night and found that Hong Kong was nothing like we were expecting, although I’m not really sure what we were expecting. The terrain of the city is incredibly hilly, with lush jungle-like vegetation but the urban fabric reminds me of San Francisco. We arrived at our hotel, Hotel LKF in the night life epicenter of Hong Kong, Lan Kwai Fong- a narrow maze with endless swanky bars and restaurants that act as an adult playground. We were amazed at the ubiquitous club music playing throughout the street and the throngs of people spilling out of clubs and onto the streets enjoying their evening out. We couldn’t wait to check out the night life, but we were exhausted, so we instead hopped into bed and threw in our hotel provided earplugs to drown out the sound of our new hip nightlife neighborhood.