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Shanghai Shenanigans! Celebrating 5 Years of Chatsunami in China! #1
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It has been five years since we started Chatsunami and it has been an incredible journey. Huge shout-out to our amazing Pandalorians who have supported us for all this time you are all incredible!
In this episode, Satsunami is joined by his amazing partner MsTsunami to talk about their experience in China! In this part the duo discuss the region of Zhejiang as they visit Shanghai, Shaoxing and Hangzhou. Why does Satsu think Shanghai scooters are dangerous? Is Shaoxing the Venice of China? And what's the deal with Hangzhou's pagoda?! All of this and more in our incredible adventure to celebrate five years of the show!
Part 2 releasing on 30/11/2025!
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Transcript
Introduction and Anniversary Celebration
00:00:02
Speaker
o What a lovely day.
00:00:08
Speaker
Yo Martin! I am so hyped to get started on this episode. Can you believe it's the 5 year anniversary already?
Perplexing Exchange and Story Rewind
00:00:15
Speaker
Hey man, what are you exactly? What do you mean? I'm right here where you said. I don't know, you can't do what I said to me because I'm right here to be Chinatown, Asgard.
00:00:24
Speaker
That's right, China. That's what we agreed on. You weren't paying attention to meetings were you? I, uh, I'm gonna have to call you back.
00:00:35
Speaker
So, I bet you're wondering how I ended up here. Let's rewind
Language Learning Journey
00:00:39
Speaker
a little. Around the year 2016, I decided to adopt language learning as a side hobby. Of course, being a cocky 20-something at the time, I ended up hopping from language to language such as French, Spanish, and even went through an Esperanto phase. But after becoming increasingly frustrated at my progress, I decided to do something completely normal. I decided to go big or go home and switch to learning Mandarin.
00:01:06
Speaker
Mandarin is a behemoth of a language, with over 900 million speakers and infamous for its difficulty in learning. Despite the different tones and lack of alphabet, seriously there's over 50,000 of these characters, it was a daunting mission.
00:01:20
Speaker
And yet, somehow, i was excited for the challenge. Difficulty aside, Mandarin is a gorgeous language, and because of it I ended up meeting my partner mid-tsunami.
00:01:30
Speaker
One day as we were talking, she told me that I should really visit China during the Chinese New Year. I i remember thinking at the time, what? No, no, no, of course, I couldn't, no. Anyway, in February of 2018, I made one of the craziest decisions of my life and booked a flight over.
00:01:49
Speaker
It was an incredible experience, and one that I must admit I talk about often when I think about adventure
Podcasting During the Pandemic
00:01:55
Speaker
holidays. That journey changed something within me, and I felt more capable than ever. After being bitten by the travel bug, I decided to visit my friend and fellow co-host Andrew in Canada and booked a flight over in 2020. And the only thing that could stop me would be a worldwide pandemic, and yeah, you get at the punchline. 2020 was a horrible year for many. And will admit, I didn't emerge unscathed either. It was bittersweet that a year of hardship was also the year that I found my voice as a podcaster. It was a refuge where I could discuss my interests in a welcoming space, all the while taking my mind of what was going on outside. But after the lockdowns were lifted, and relative normality began again, I still continued to podcast, and met so many wonderful people. As silly as it sounds, I also yearned for adventure. that was otherwise not possible a few years
Highlights of China Trip
00:02:45
Speaker
ago. So to celebrate five years of Chatsunami, grab your passports, Pandalorians, as we catch our flight to a very special episode. Welcome to Chatsunami in China.
00:02:55
Speaker
Now before I could even think about stepping foot in China, I had to sort out the three Vs. Visa, vaccinations and vacation accommodation. Okay I'm cheating with that last one but bear with me. Also please note Pandalurians listening from abroad that this is from the point of view from someone travelling from the yeah UK, specifically Scotland. So please be aware of the rules and regulations before booking your own holidays. Trust me, saying a Red Panda made you do it isn't a legal argument. Believe me, I've tried. After scrolling through our handy dandy gov.co.uk website, they led me to this website where you could register all the relevant information. I got an L visa because I'm very cool and that of course is the one for tourists. Sadly they don't have one for Red Panda podcasters yet, but I'm working on it, don't worry guys.
00:03:41
Speaker
Once this was done, you have to then wait until the Visa Centre confirms you can proceed to the next stage for your application. This means that you have to visit one of their centres dotted around the country. For me, this was Edinburgh, but you can visit their centres in Manchester or even London.
00:03:56
Speaker
When I went, it was extremely quiet and after giving them my fingerprints... Sorry, I mean paw print. They then advised me that it would be ready in a few days. And despite the eye-watering price of it, it does last two years, so if you see me in China again next year then that's why. Vaccinations are a little more tricky. When I went back in 2018, I just popped into the local GP surgery and I was done in no time. But now you have to phone your local and NHS health board who will advise you what travel clinic is best suited for you. The people who did mine were very thorough. and could not have been nicer. So if you're like me and are afraid of injections, then you have nothing to worry about. The only issue is that you have to book these at least 8 to 10 weeks in advance before you leave, so don't be like me and get lucky last minute. Finally, accommodation.
00:04:47
Speaker
While filling out your visa application, you have to of course tell them where you're going. If you're part of a package holiday or staying in a hotel, then they'll notify the police that you're there. Otherwise, if you're staying with anyone in China, then you have to report to the
Shanghai Exploration Begins
00:05:00
Speaker
police. It may sound intimidating, but it was a relatively easy process. Fortunately I had the tsunami to help me there, but for more information please also check the guidelines online. But after booking our flights and accommodation, they finally arrived when we made our way to Edinburgh Airport.
00:05:17
Speaker
Was I nervous about returning to China after seven years? Absolutely. Since the lockdowns, I feel as if my adventurous spark has somewhat dwindled, and the older I get, the more I seem to share things in common with a hobbit, but I knew that with my girlfriend by my side, we would take on this new adventure together. And I'm totally not adding this part in as she sits beside me on the plane. One thing I also want to mention is that while we were in Edinburgh Airport, there were several people who seemed to have missed the flights, judging by the panicked calls over the intercom.
00:05:49
Speaker
Would Mr and Mrs Smith please get to the gate? Your flight leaves in one minute. Oh dear god where are you? This time we decided to fly with Finnair, who I hadn't really heard of until Miss Tsunami mentioned them. At the risk of sounding like I'm aiming for a sponsorship here, their flights are very nice, would wholeheartedly recommend them.
00:06:08
Speaker
But it wasn't long before we found ourselves sitting on a 12 hour flight to Shanghai, which I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. Not only had it been 7 years since I was last there, but I also didn't realise that Thin Air had an exterior camera to show you the flight taking off. Yeah, that was a bit unnerving, but after watching a plethora of films, eating on-board meals and most importantly catching some well-earned Zs, we landed in Shanghai and got our taxi to first hotel, where past that tsunami and this tsunami have all the details of what we got up to there.
00:06:43
Speaker
Thank you Future Satsunami for that lovely introduction. Totally not patting myself on the back there. So we have just finished the first part of our trip which is of course to the wonderful yet insanely expensive city of Shanghai and I am sitting here now in our lovely hotel room with my one and only lovely partner Miss Tsunami.
00:07:03
Speaker
Welcome. Thank you. i also want to say some of you may know me because I was on the Twitch streaming with Chastnami once and we were playing Overcooked. Yes. Overcooked. Thank you very much. That's okay. I suppress the memory myself.
00:07:23
Speaker
Because, yeah, we um unfortunately set a few fires in that game. Oh, what a game that was. We really should play that again. In fact, I don't think we have played Santa. Oh, no, it's too stressful. It's just too stressful. it's really strange. I don't want to put it our our relationship under the risk, you know. Yeah, cooking in real life, absolutely fine. Cooking in overcooked, no, that is a relationship tester. Absolutely. And yeah, I think my other co-host, especially Adam, if you're listening, you can totally agree with that. But yeah, we are on the last leg of our, at least, Shanghai experience. We arrived yesterday, as of recording this, of course, and we got in relatively... Relatively late i have to say, about just before 6, you know, we got through customs more or less. Well, I should say you got through alright, I had to wait in the foreigner line, but yeah, it was absolutely fine. And once I got through, you gave them all the information needed, we finally got the taxi to our hotel and everything, and yeah, After we dropped off our cases at the hotel, which is absolutely lovely because they were very kind enough to upgrade our room and to a bun view, which was fantastic. Any spacious room, you can probably hear an echo.
00:08:38
Speaker
Oh, aye. But we were upgraded to an ensuite room and we even have our own study room and a lounge. you know what the funniest part is? The reason that I thought was fancy as well is as soon as we went in, there was a coffee machine Oh, aye, aye. Yeah, one of the pod ones. It is nice, It's a nice touch, always. Yeah, yeah, it's really nice. After we dropped off our cases and got that very good news, we decided that we were very fresh-faced and totally not fighting off jet lag. We decided to go to the Bund, which is absolutely incredible. If you haven't been there, definitely go. And I'm not just saying that because I'm biased looking out the Bund just now. That would be the first place you will check out if you come over here. And i mean, the best time for me to go to see the band is definitely at night because you can see different lights on the different buildings. It's just amazing, like a painting. Oh, it absolutely is. Honestly, every single angle of it is very scenic. You know, you've got the Perel Tower, you've got the old French buildings as well that go across. It's just absolutely stunning. And although this time we didn't go through the cruise down the river, you can indeed do that. We did it the first time we met, which was absolutely beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, I would actually recommend the cruise because you can just sit on your seat and all the views will just pass by you and you don't have to walk.
00:10:09
Speaker
I think and that's a really, really good reason to go on cruise because the band, it's quite long. yeah It's a quite long walking. And we try to take as many photos as we can. But I just a think if photos couldn't justify the views we just see by our own eyes. I mean, if you're listening to the audio only version of this, I apologize. Please go look at the video version of this because you'll definitely see the pictures and they are beautiful. Not patting ourselves on the back. there for the videos and such. But if you are watching the video one, first of all, thank you for watching. But yeah, honestly, my lovely partner isn't 100% right. It doesn't show half the beauty as seeing it in person does. It is honestly an incredible sight. The one thing I will say, if you're not a fan of crowds, tough luck.
00:11:00
Speaker
the Bund, of course, is famous worldwide, and it's on all the t-shirts, on all the merchandise, that
Cultural Blend of Shanghai
00:11:07
Speaker
kind of thing. And it also attracts all the influencers. I want to just bring this up quite quickly. When we were walking down, of course, there were people streaming on Douyin, which is, of course, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok. They were doing dances, they were doing selfies, they were getting professional photos taken. It was honestly like a conga line, wasn't it, of just them? But what was funny was when we were coming back, and as we said, we got in quite late, so we decided to explore some of the main areas, like the shops and things, but around about 10 o'clock give or take, that's when all the main lights shut off. So if you want your pictures with the bundle lit up, you have until 10pm and everything shuts down, especially the shops as well. And what I found quite funny was it is a influencer's repellent, isn't it? The bund completely emptied, like you could barely, well, not barely move because it's very wide, you can still move through it, but it was absolutely packed, you've got people dancing, you can't see it now, I'm shouldered. but yeah as soon as the lights went off everyone just dispersed didn't they uh-huh uh-huh yeah absolutely so i think it's a a good atmosphere there you don't have to worry about or am i weird to take photos or go streaming myself yes you don't have to worry about that at all because nobody cares Honestly, if anything, I feel as if Shanghai is a influencer's paradise. Absolutely. And there's so much you can take in. Yeah, absolutely. It's like a neon city at times. It's very, I wouldn't say cyberpunk, you know, that kind of futuristic. There's lots of lights that go over and the whole city is essentially just lit up. Even when we were coming in, you know, you look out the window and go, oh my god.
00:12:55
Speaker
yes shaha It's definitely a very bustling, hustling city. And you may have to bear with all the noises and the horns. Oh yeah, all the tooting. Oh, that's something you won't experience much in UK, but it's quite common in China. It's the tooting. Yeah, because I was joking to you earlier earlier saying that, you know, unlike the city that never sleeps, which this is, it's also the city that always beeps. If you hear knitting, then yeah, unfortunately, it's just that. But again, you get that in any busy city, to be honest. Maybe a bit more here, but not overly, you know, you're not hearing it constantly. I would say the drivers are very confident, and especially the scooters. What I will say is that is the only thing to be wary of if you're ever crossing a road. Like the cars you know they're big enough you can see them they're absolutely fine an old eye on a scooter less chance on getting around that so yeah be very careful for that and also the traffic rules are different in uk and in china and just to be very careful if you go straight on the crossing you may have to watch the cars coming from your left hand side because they are allowed to come over even you see a right lights there but they are still allowed to come over. Yeah, so if you see them edge ever closer to you, even though the light's green, just be very careful of that. Just the usual rules, look both ways, and say a little prayer and then go across. It's just like crossing in Glasgow, you know, hasn't it?
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. just so you have to be careful with the traffic everywhere. Yeah, you do, but especially the scooter team. I scooter very common transport here. Sometimes they can be really annoying because some of them do not obey the traffic rules. But as I just be careful. Because I saw a couple of sneaky ones today. And again, this was just one or two ones off. that what they decided to do and instead of going through, you know, or waiting at the pedestrian thing was as soon as they got there and had to wait, they just got off their scooter and then decided to walk with the rest of the pedestrians, which I'm sure is probably allowed in some way. I actually have a really good reason for them not... follow the traffic rules because in our takeaway business not like in UK you don't have time limit to receive your takeaway you can wait as long as they need but here they do have time limit to deliver every single order yeah I don't want to make any excuses for them everyone should follow the rules every single time um all the time but it's just that maybe there is some reason to push them to just to be as fast as they can So, of course, that leads us on to today, which was definitely the busiest day so far. Oh, come on. It's just the second day. Yeah, I'm being dramatic. We only did, what, 30,000 steps, you know? right
00:15:56
Speaker
Yeah, it was 30,000, wasn't it? It's absolutely. So I'm counting on my fingers. I'm like, one, two, three,
Shanghai's Dynamic Streets
00:16:02
Speaker
30,000. Okay, yeah. and And, of course, we decided to walk to the metro and get a day pass, where are we then decided not to use the metro again, did we? Yeah, so my plan was like we may need to take the subway everywhere, but it was a really lovely day. Great temperature, lovely cloudy sunny day. Yeah. So we just decided to take the chance to experience the city by foot. And it's some streets, you just don't want to miss them. They are so lovely. So the first stop, we chose to take line 10 and so it's maybe four or five stops from the east nanjing road station then we he got off at jiao tong university station and we just ah walked out the station then maybe turn left Walk several hundred meters. Then we arrived. the first stop. It's called Wukong Building. It's actually just a traditional residential building. But somehow, I think the influencers contribute a lot to this site. And I think at the very beginning, it's just as several people started to take pictures of that building. And they posted online. Then people started to copy them. and just the talk of more and more people come over there taking photos, then post them online.
00:17:34
Speaker
It's just become a trending. Yeah, there were hundreds of influence. Well, not hundreds, sorry, that's a lie, because not would have blocked the whole street, but there was... debt It's almost blocked the whole street. Well, yeah, actually, that's true, because the amount of people leaning against lamp poles and even the traffic lights at one point, and not really many people bothered with. them You know, they just took their photos and moved on. Some lingered, you know, like influencers do. I suppose that just became the new normality. Oh, absolutely. I honestly think if you want to live in Shanghai, either you're going to live in the place that has zero tourists or you're going to live in the place that has every tourist known to the world.
00:18:16
Speaker
I think if you want to be convenient, like you stay in the city centre, then you have to bear with those tourists. So it totally depends on people's needs. I mean, no wonder, because that part of the city is absolutely beautiful. It is very beautiful. And I think it's just like the, for example, tenements in Glasgow. Personally, I love them. I think they are gorgeous. I think to many people's eyes, this Wukong building is just like the tenements in Glasgow. It has character. It just attracts people so much. Oh no, it's absolutely beautiful. And especially when you go round the corner, and this really threw me off initially, where I was looking at the way the street was laid out, it had all these beautiful trees on either side, and I kept saying to you throughout the journey down it, this looks an awful lot like Europe. Kind of with Spain and Italy and places like that. And I was like, I was really confused at first thinking, no, it's just a coincidence. You know, other countries obviously have trees going down the road. When we were walking down, there were a lot of buildings that were designed by Chinese architects. And apologies, I unfortunately didn't get the name of them, but they said that they were inspired. by British buildings, by Spanish buildings, things like that. And they managed to put their own Chinese twist on it, which was absolutely incredible. And i have to mention that because those old buildings are kind of like heritage buildings, so they were like the B1 building in Glasgow. So they were protected and you may not be able to change their appearance.
00:19:55
Speaker
We do notice on the signs of those buildings, it says it used to belong to businessman from UK. Or consulate or that kind of thing. But of course, although there's the beautiful heritage, the beautiful inspired streets and things, the one thing that really took our breath away was a particular shop that seemed to be advertising for Halloween, which was called Fluffy Mood. And the reason, of course, I bring that up is because we got some lovely ice cream from there. Oh yes, it's just very cute, very, very cute ice cream. And do think in China, because maybe the competition is so severe. If you want to sell your products, like you want to sell ice cream, but ice cream shops everywhere, how are you going compete with other shops? So let me ask you a question. What attracts you to buy ice cream? Well, that's the funny thing, because as of recording this episode, it's about seven, eight days before Halloween. And that's what I was saying to you. Of course, we're going to be outside of the UK. Not that we'd really celebrate Halloween. We're kind of one of those couples, you shut the blinds and you just put on a horror film, eat a lot of sweets or candy. But, you know, it felt quite weird to think, oh, we're going to be in China, which, as far as I know, correct me if I'm wrong, they're not very big into Halloween, unless it's themed things like in Shanghai and places like I have to say it may be popular in bigger cities. They all have like different themed parties in different places. But like my hometown, it's relatively small and relatively conservative. So this kind of festival isn't as popular. Yeah. True. That's very true. Like my dad, mom, that generation, they possibly even don't know what is Halloween. Because that is the thing about Shanghai. It feels very international. And I can kind of see why, you know, because there's hundreds of tourists kicking about. And again, when I was going down that street, I was really surprised to see that in the window. And obviously, it's not the only one in Shanghai. There were hundreds of, or not hundreds, but there were loads of shops catering to Halloween. You know, just kind of more themed either desserts or ice creams or things. And I was really surprised. Maybe it was just the time we got there, but was really empty at the time. But we got it. It was absolutely delicious. It was like raspberry, wasn't it? Kind of flavour. I think it said it's yoghurt. Oh, was it yoghurt flavour? Oh, even healthier. No.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, so definitely, especially check out the picture because it was so adorable, wasn't it? So after that, of course, we decided to walk through the city because it was such a lovely day. And yeah, we found the Jinan Temple, which i have to say is absolutely beautiful. And although we didn't go inside it, we walked by and like any good tourist, we took a couple of videos, pictures, that kind of thing.
Unique Vibes of Shanghai
00:22:50
Speaker
What is also good, and it's something you pointed out to me, which I never would have even thought, of doing is that if you go over to, there's like a bridge along from it that just goes above the traffic that hundreds of people were taking pictures there. So you can go up that and then take pictures from there if you want a more eagle-eyed view, I suppose, of it. Otherwise, you can kind of stand across the road. I suppose on the bridge you can get a more clear view because it's on a very busy road, just a beside a very busy road. And it's all the traffic, traffic lights, lamps. So a lot of things it can just stop the beautiful view. And i think the bridge helps you to get a little bit better view, just to avoid all the obstacles. It was. It was just absolutely incredible to see smack bang in the middle of Shanghai, you know. In China, actually, temples are very common, but a temple in the very city centre is unusual. Yeah, because that's what I was saying to you, that if you go to any European city or especially in the yeah UK, seeing a cathedral in a big city, that is kind of commonplace. You know, you walk by and go, oh, there's another cathedral. Neat, you know. I mean, don't say that in front of the cathedral. Your heart is failing, but yeah. At the same time, yeah, it was just, it was interesting to hear you say that because when I first came seven years ago, which makes me feel old, we went up a couple of temples and they are not smack bang in the middle of the cities. They are up hills, they are up mountains. I'm not saying that as a regret or anything, I'm saying that as a warning to anybody going up them because you will need a pair a comfortable shoes. Absolutely. Yeah, the mountains, the hills are the normal or common locations for the temples. And plus it gets your steps up as well. You have to show you're faithful. Whereas, yeah, we're just lazy. We say, you know what? Stick it the middle of the city. Right along from the gregs, we'll be fine. No.
00:24:49
Speaker
Which actually is true. If you go to St Paul's Cathedral in London, they've got a Gregg's right along from it. Very true. But the only downside about that shop is I think you better eat in, not take away, because you will not find bin near St Paul's Cathedral. Yeah, that's of course for security reasons, but at the same time, it's a pain. And in case you're wondering, how did I go to London and find the only Greggs within a several hundred mile radius? It's because we live in the north. So of course we know where Greggs are. Unfortunately, China hasn't adopted Greggs yet, but I live and hope. But that's... Oh, you know what?
00:25:30
Speaker
You know what? Maybe one day. Greggs get on it. No, jokes aside, speaking of bakeries, actually, that was a great segue. Yeah, we did a spot at a lot of coffee shop, bakery shops. Yeah, that was something you were saying, that with the younger generation of Shanghai, coffee seems more popular, because as we know, the traditional drink in China is, of course, tea, and there are hundreds of tea places as well, but coffee here especially... It's like within 100 meters you can find a hundred coffee shops there. It's literally everywhere but it's kind of hard to find a tea room. We've only saw one tea room in the Yui Garden but we didn't go in inside. When we were walking down that same street, we found two bakeries, and this threw me off guard. And I know China loves a good themed bakery shop, whatever, but there was like a French bakery, and right beside it there was a place called, i think, Amham Bakery, which was London themed. And I'm going to be honest, I didn't see the connection when I went in. thought, I mean, they've got posters of like England up and things. They had a dog hanging out, like a statue of a dog hanging out of the, don't even know, the sign, wasn't it? But I have to say the shop decorations are absolutely attractive. One thing I do think shops, no matter what shops they are, one thing they are doing great is they know how to decorate their shops and attract people. Come inside and shop there. You know, it's marketing 101, isn't it? As long as you have a theme, as long as you have a nice place to sit and everything, you are going to attract more people. And especially in the middle of Shanghai, I doubt there's many London-themed bakeries or French-themed bakeries kicking about. think we will be surprised. You know what, I think you're right, to be fair. I mean, those were the only ones I saw today, but chances are we come back and there'll be a whole street off, maybe. And their pastries, their cakes, their bread, they do look lovely. Oh, they did, absolutely. It was a bit busy, so unfortunately we didn't go into that one. But instead, we went to another rather well known place, which you might know, Starbucks, which before you raise your eyebrow through the screen and go, Satsu, Miss Tsunami, why did you go to a Starbucks? No, no, no. We didn't go to any Starbucks. We went to the Starbucks Reserve Roast, which weirdly enough, and I just want to point this out before we go on, there was a huge ship model, and I mean a full ship. It was like a Louis Vuitton ship.
00:28:04
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah if you are a fan of luxury brands, you possibly wouldn't be unfamiliar with this brand, Louis Vuitton. Yeah, I mean, there was Louis Vuitton, there was Rolex and that mall. Half of them were kind of shops, you know, you usually expect others were like high brand luxury. We have a joke, of course, that if you have to ask the price, then you shouldn't be in there. kind of thing but there were certainly a lot you thought oh that's pricey that's pricey as well oh would that shopping centre definitely is at to the top oh yeah absolutely but of course instead we decided to judge them and the starbucks reserve rose
00:28:44
Speaker
and which, while sipping our coffees, of course, but that place, speaking of the Starbucks, that place is massive because, ironically enough, it's something you said earlier, that the videos and the pictures can't really show you how big these places are, and there'll probably be couple popping up now, but oh my god, there was hundreds of things. It was almost like a...
00:29:04
Speaker
experience is the way I can describe it because they had big machines at the side that they literally ground the beans and things. They had a whole shop at the bottom. They had a whole shop at the top, which I've never seen. They had bars. They served alcoholic drinks and things, which is something you wouldn't get back home. But it was just massive. I think there was even a wedding i could be wrong but was like either a wedding or a birthday or something in a completely separate hall that was completely partitioned at the side honestly anybody listening to this when was the last time you went into a starbucks and people were celebrating a big event like that or they thought other than obviously a mug oh i'm gonna go in and i'm gonna make a whole experience of this but this place was ginormous wasn't it absolutely would blow your mind away i think it may be the biggest one in asia I would not be surprised to be honest. Yeah, I have to check it out. But you should Google that and I think it may surprise you and make you want to come to Shanghai just for that. Yeah, at the very least go visit out and get a mug and say, I've been here. Speaking of the mugs, we did get some lovely ones. I'm trying not to laugh because when you said speaking of mugs, I thought you were going to talk about the particular sign that we saw on the way. But as we were walking down, i think it was West Nanjing Road, you know, down some very lovely streets, very lovely shops. We saw a metro station and I don't know which particular metro station this is. And if there's any Pandalorians from Shanghai, please feel free to let us know. But There was a sign that had a picture of someone who looked very posh and very British. And initially I paid no mind to it because there was a lot of Burberry adverts. But then we saw this and it just looked like a regular guy in English country type clothes. And he was sitting beside this carton of milk or something and he's advertising milk. And I was like, right, okay, that's a bit weird. And then you read the sign. Apparently he's part of the royal family, isn't he? Because it is written in Chinese. It basically says UK or Britain, royal your family member. And of course, you turned around to me and said, who is that? And I was like, I have no idea. We were going back and forth going, oh my God, and I've just got a random person from Britain to pose for this. And then we had to Google it. And we found out that the person was Peter Phillips, is his name, who apparently is Princess Anne's son. I did not know that. How surprising. I genuinely thought they just plucked random guy. Yeah, I was like, oh my goodness, don't tell me this brand was fakely advertising.
Tourist Tips in Shanghai
00:31:45
Speaker
Yeah, but of all the things, faking an advertisement for milk from the Royal Park.
00:31:50
Speaker
I know, it's just, so how could you connect ah a milk brand with a royal family member? i mean, to be fair, they're never usually in Shanghai, as far I know. You know what, I think this brand must pay him a lot. What was quite sad as well was, even though they must have paid him a lot because, you royal your family, prestige and things, they must have really overestimated how popular he it was because i genuinely somewhere from the yeah uk i had no idea i just looked and went oh i have to say this brand ah it is a big brand in china oh it must be the advertising must have worked for that but if they did the same in the uk i think we would be like who all right that guy okay is he famous for milk did he get a pint of milk? I don't think he's ever bought a pint of milk in his life. But yeah, maybe so. But anyway, sorry. Milk bashing aside, of course. We continued after taking a picture, of course, of that sign. We continued and we ended up down, think it was Nanjing Road again, but it was the pedestrian road that had hundreds of shops. And again, I got suckered into checking out the Lego shop because I'm a big man child at heart. Of course. And I genuinely... And I let him go. Yeah.
00:33:03
Speaker
That's my mistake. Thank you, darling. In fact, I actually said, oh no, come on, that would just be like any other Lego shop. And that's what I said to you. I was like, oh, that's quite cool because they had a massive peril tower. And again, to mirror my darling partner's words, the pictures don't do it justice genuinely. have to see it for yourself. It was fantastic. But what also looted us in was the M&M shop, which for this, of course, it had a Shanghai twist and things. We got a couple of things from there. It was pretty cool. Not gonna lie. And do you forgot the one thing. Ooh, do tell. We saw a great wall of... Chocolate. No, of course. literally says, I think in one of the videos, it says the great wall of chocolate and it's like where you pick out all your M&M's. I would say M&M flavours, but i don't think M&M's do have flavours. It's just different colours. Yeah, pretty much. And you can mix them whatever you would like. if you love M&Ms and you're in Shanghai. That's your paradise. Exactly. yo You took the words right out my mouth there.
00:34:04
Speaker
After that, we went down the Nanjing Road again. So this is quite interesting. There was a Sega shop in the Nanjing No, it's not just that it's Sega shop. It's a Sega building and has six floors. Wow. Well, let's back up a bit. It was Sega for the bottom of it, and weirdly enough they had Sonic Racing Cross Worlds there, which is, of course, as of recording this, it's a new Sonic Racing game and everything, and people were trying out, it was quite cool, but above it is just anime, anime, anime, more anime, and, oh sorry, I forgot, anime. It was just anime merchandised through. it Is that quite common in a lot of the big cities, these types of shops? Yeah, I think so, because younger generations are really into these enemy things. Personally, i understand that, but I just don't understand that why this building has six floors. After we went there, we walked. back again and you'd recommended that we try the Yuyan garden streets, which we didn't get into Yuyan gardens itself, but we decided, you know, to go down the streets, which I think we've been down before, years ago. years ago yes I do remember that but it's just ah it's been several years yeah it's kind of like fade away the memories about that part because although it's very pretty but to be honest it's similar to other places we've been to but I I'm sure we were there before for people who would like to check Yuan Garden please note that this garden close at half past 4 p.m. but mean there was a lot to see down there i mean mainly at shops mainly it's eating places there was a lot of people as well asking if i needed a watch which was very strange and again you get this in any big city you know people trying to sell stuff it's nothing new but i kept looking at my wrist thinking am i wrist that naked in shanghai that people are saying you know what would look great on that a watch you should have it if you ever go to shanghai and if you meet to those kind of people do not even talk to them just to ignore them i think that's the best way to avoid them yeah because the two main ones that we did see was that and i wish really surprised this was very common as well because I don't remember seeing it years and years ago, but it was the people with these tablets on their waistbands and they had professional looking cameras and they were literally everywhere, both on the bund and in that historical building we were talking about earlier. were just right outside there they were offering to take people's pictures and it's just the usual if you ever visit a big city abroad or even in the UK someone comes up to you unprompted and says I want to give you the service give me money don't do it that's the general rule as you were saying like just ignore them just go on and they'll leave you alone essentially won't they I think it's a very great area and people would warn you be careful did these kind of people. Oh, yes. You don't know if they are genuine or they may come up with some excuse or story. Or story and to try to charge you more because you don't sign contract. So... Yeah, they can charge whatever they want. Yeah. Exactly. Because it does sound as if it's quite a, again, in any city, but it is quite a common scam that they say, oh, I'll only charge you for this much. And then, of course, oh, because you're foreigner or because you're the tourist in China or whatever, you must have misheard them. Again, it's just common sense, you know, just to be wary of those kind of people. But as much as sounds quite negative to say about that, that is a very minor thing because generally Shanghai is incredibly safe, even walking at night and things. I've heard a lot of tourists say that, and especially a lot of people in China say, oh, Shanghai is very safe at night and things. You can walk down at any time. And initially, you know, you might think, I don't know about that, but honestly, yeah, I felt completely safe. You know, even when the Bund was empty and we were walking back to the hotel, it was incredibly safe. There's lots of at police presence there. Again, as we were saying before, it's like an Instagrammer's paradise as well, because all the Instagrammers were there as we were walking down the Bund. And as a closing point to this whole summary of our time in Shanghai, it's just an absolutely incredible city. And if you get the chance, yeah, definitely we'll go check it out. So I would say if you would like to pay Shanghai a visit, please do your homework because you maybe miss a lot of attractions you want to go. Because it's a lot of stuff to see and you have to plan your um days depending on how many days you are going to spend there. You can either Google that or just the message Chastunami for some free tips. And I will indeed to be passing it on to my manager slash... Which is me. Yep, you can't see it. I'm pointing to my one and only manager. Because, as we know, our producer at home is working very hard in and the background. But absolutely what we feel free to reach out us if you have any questions about Shanghai. Of course, coming up, we will have ah more stories and more adventures in China for this five-year anniversary. So stick around and we will return very soon.
00:39:28
Speaker
After visiting members of Miss Tsunami's family, we decided to explore further in the Zhejiang region of China. Not only did it give us some well-earned downtime, but it allowed us to plan ahead for a big trip to Beijing. And trust me, we were going to need it. But what did we get up to? Well, without any further ado, let's find out.
00:39:46
Speaker
Before a big trip to Beijing, we decided to explore the rest of the Zhejiang region after Shanghai, which was, as you heard, absolutely fantastic.
Journey to Zhejiang Region
00:39:56
Speaker
We decided to go to two particular places that both of us are fond of, aren't we? That, of course, being Hangzhou and Shaoxing. Yes, for me, of course, I'm biased because Shaoxing is my hometown. I have a really, really deep bond with this city. And to be honest, in my eyes, I don't think it's a very touristy place because I don't think...
00:40:21
Speaker
there is nothing special for me it's literally maybe because i've been there for most of my life i think everything just too normal for me i basically take it for granted i'm really glad i did this trip with chasunami It's definitely gave me a different view to re-see this city. Yeah, because I genuinely didn't know about Shaoxing or anything about it. You know, I obviously knew about Shanghai, Beijing, you know, the big hitters, which we will be talking about, of course, later in this episode. But yeah, Even Hangzhou I didn't hear about until, of course, you and I met. And seven years ago, I got the absolutely fantastic chance to explore the city in depth. And it is an absolutely beautiful city. It is probably the Venice of China, I would say. And there's a lot of probably Chinese Pandalurians who are listening to this yelling out, going, no, our region is the Venice of China. of China. But yeah, it's absolutely beautiful because am I right in saying that it's famous for a lot of the rivers that run through it and a lot of the boats that go through? Yes, i have to say it used to be the case, a lot of boats going through the different rivers, going under different bridges. And we are famous for our rivers and bridges. But because the development of the public transport or the private cars. I don't think boat is nowadays a very common transport thing, but you still can see a lot of boats in the tourist bit. I mean, that is true because when we returned, of course, to Yemen, basically explore and such. I was really surprised when you told me Shilshin had a metro system, which, can I just say, Pandalurians, that was not the case seven years ago. i caught the bus with you, and we got a lot of DDs, some safer than others, let's just say, in terms of speed, because let's face it, a lot of DD drivers have places to be, so yeah, it was really interesting actually getting the metro. If I don't remember it wrong, I believe the Metro project started about five years ago during the pandemic or just the after pandemic as far as I remember. So it was really impressive. They did that in a really short time. No, absolutely. And it is. It's a great system to have. And if you've ever been in Glasgow, for anyone who has been there, you'll see that our metro system is so fantastic that it doesn't really have to go anywhere. you know, it's just a big circle.
00:43:03
Speaker
but ah Which you will never get lost. Very true. It's very wise words. should probably put that on a t-shirt. You'll never get lost in the Glasgow Metro. Well, I say Metro, Metro Underground, you know. I'm always surprised, see, whenever I go to another country, whether it's China, whether it was recently with my trip to Barcelona, whether it's even Germany, they have metros that actually go overground and then they go underground again. That's not the case of Glasgow, so I'm always so surprised. I feel like such a country bumpkin when I say that. I'm like, wow, a metro that goes over the ground, oh my god. Honestly, I am so easy to impress. Now, jokes aside, is a fantastic system and of course, we explode a lot of very interesting interesting sites. We went to Lu Xun's place, which is a place we visited seven years ago. have to say it was a lot busier this year than it was back then. And Xun, correct me if I'm wrong, is a very famous Chinese author, isn't He is, and I also believe he was a really big part in bringing new things to our old society, if that makes sense. So he was highly educated, and he studied in Japan at that time, and he tried to bring in new breath. into the old culture, old society and try to change, you know, the all the backward things at that time. so he's a really, really important figure in Chinese history. And if you don't know what he looks like and if you're watching the video version of this I'll pop up a picture of him right now. His image is quite iconic, you know he's got the moustache he's got the quite short black hair doesn't he? And his, I don't want to say chibi version but you know that kind of cartoony version of him seems to be mainly in the tourist bit of course but it's plastered everywhere. If you want to get yellow line with his face on it then you can get that out the tourist area if you want a selfie with a statue of him. And by statue, I don't mean like a hyper-realistic statue. i mean the kind of cutesy one. There is hundreds because we went down. It's like a historical street, isn't it? One of those streets that whenever you see the old And again, it's not outdated by any means, but you know when you think of old dramas that are set in China and things, and they go down and there's the stereotypical lanterns above you and everything, and it's quite a narrow alleyway. It's quite a popular tourist park though, isn't it? Yeah, so that area is preserved by the government and so because if you've ever been there, you will see everywhere else apart from that area is kind of modern. But only that area is more like 60, 70 years ago. So they keep that area on purpose. I suppose to show people how Shaoxing was like before. History is going to be a really important part for every city. It helps. people remember a lot about the city transforming if that makes sense i mean glasgow has a lot of old parts and you guys do a great thing to keep those old buildings and convert them into new purpose of use so for me i think it's very impressive when i first saw them Yeah, because Shaoxing is definitely a city that is, and I always remember you telling me back when we first met that, oh, that town is very small. And then when asked you at the time what the population was, it was about 5 million. Again, we've made this joke before and we'll probably make the joke later on that there's small. And there is Chinese small. Yeah. Yeah, there's always the Chinese version of something. And you know, when you say, oh, that's small. Yeah, in comparison to some other cities, absolutely. In comparison to Scotland, yeah, no, that's massive to us and especially to me. But all joking aside, it is such a beautiful city. and And I'm not just saying that because you're sitting across from me, but... Yeah, it is such a scenic city, but it is something that I think you mentioned earlier there that you wouldn't really expect many Western tourists there yeah unless they're either on a tour bus. Even not on a tour bus. And i think a lot of foreigners I saw before in my hometown, they are either English teachers Yeah. Based in my hometown, or they just came from the other parts of the world to do their business there, because we do have a huge market for textile. Yeah, because even walking around, and this is something that I'll mention in the later parts of the episode, but there was a kind of... Again, they don't want to say issue, but it's something that if there's any Westerners out there that are listening to this and they have been to China, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about here. And that, of course, is if you go to more rural areas. And again, Chilxing isn't rural as such, but compared to some of the other bigger cities where you would expect more Western tourists, you are going to get a lot of looks and stares. Again, it's nothing malicious, I didn't feel as if I was unsafe, but the best example is probably, you know when you watch those old western films and it's the cowboy that goes into the random saloon and everything, and you know he's a stranger in the town and everybody stops, even the piano
00:48:39
Speaker
player stops and they all turn to the door as if, who are you, kind of thing. And again, there's nothing malicious, there's nobody reaching for, I don't know, like mop ready to hit me over the head or anything. It was interesting, but if you're going to visit there, definitely expect to get stared at, because usually it's more the older generation, and kids especially, they'll point it out. There will be some middle-aged people that will probably stare as well, but that's something I'll probably come on to in the later part of the episode but yeah for the most part it's mainly Chinese tourists I would say that go to Shaoxing is that right in saying yes yes absolutely as we mentioned earlier about Lu Shen I think he is such a face presents Shaoxing. A lot of people know this city because of him. So if you don't know anything about this person or any of his work, you possibly wouldn't know Shaoxing, to be honest. I do not expect any people from the parts outside of China reading this guy's book. So I won't be offended if you are saying, oh, Shaoxing is not well known to foreigners. But we will be judging you. I mean, we won't be offended, but we will be judging
Shaoxing's Cultural Charm
00:49:57
Speaker
you. But I have to say, it's a good place if you've been in China for several times and andy you want to get some really authentic feeling. No, I would definitely agree with that. because it's something that I think I said to you seven years ago when you and I first met, we started dating, and we went from spending all that time in Shaoxing and neighbouring areas, and then we went to Shanghai. And the first time we went to Shanghai after that, I was immediately... again, not physically, but metaphorically slapped in the face when I came out of the metro. And it was just this very rotund English gentleman talking to his wife. And it was all these different Westerners and things. And I know, ironic because I'm a Westerner, but it was a lot more international feeling when we got to Shanghai. Whereas in Shaoxing, you're completely right, there is a lot of tradition there. And there's a lot of culture. It's absolutely fantastic, though. Because we went to a couple of the shopping malls there, you had the modernity of it, where, you know, you had a lot of shopping centres and things. And obviously, I'm not saying shopping centre equals modernity, but, you know, you had some very modern areas of Shaoxing, and then beside that, you had the more... older areas you know the ones that as you said had been preserved and everything i mean there was one place we went to which was fantastic called dong hu scenic garden where we did the boat ride i nearly fell into the water but that's another story yeah Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was this man-made river, lake, loch, as it were, and you can get a boat ride yeah around it. And I didn't realise that there are the absolutely fantastic old Shalshin boats that you can get on, and the person takes you around. Through different caves. Yeah, I didn't realize that he drove it with his foot until we were off it. I was like, oh my God, that's impressive. Yeah, that's a very unique part of this boat. It's not all about its shape. It's also about how people drive it. Yeah, so it's really amazing to see. Fun fact about that place, around 300 or 400 years ago, it was a stone mine. So people mined it for its stone and to build up bridges. to build up the roads and after that it was abandoned then a artist bought it and turned it to our very beautiful personal park or garden but nowadays it's just a park open to the public and i have to say there were quite a few tourists there, weren't there?
00:52:40
Speaker
By tourists, of course, I mean Chinese tourists coming in because it was quite busy. Again, not Chinese busy, but it was quite busy. Busy enough. Yeah, busy enough coming through, seeing the boats go up and down. We actually managed to get a seat beside, there was like a stage nearby where we got a cup of tea. We decided to watch this. Well, they said it was going to be an opera, didn't they? Oh. Absolutely. Yeah, what was your verdict of this? Because I thought it was okay, but... My expectation was a little bit high. Yeah. I thought people would at least dress up yeah for the opera and maybe sing one or two minutes for that. And they don't have to put on the full makeup. It's just sometimes i do think costumes give you more proper atmosphere yeah about that traditional opera. Although they did a very good job, they did sing well, but without the costume, I just a feel a little bit was missing. The atmosphere for it, although they did a good job and everything, felt like, and if anybody's seen the film Sister Act, you'll know what I mean, but at the beginning of that, where the main character is singing in this club and everything, and nobody was really paying attention bar one or two people, that's almost what it felt like where these people were going out they were singing you and i had a cup of tea we were just enjoying it and filming it and there was like maybe a family beside us but to be honest that it's just a bonus to the tickets yeah it's yeah totally for free yeah this show maybe just my expectation was a little bit high so yes we wrote a very angry review and No, we didn't for legal reasons. That's a joke, we didn't. Oh, I possibly shouldn't say that because I didn't even pay a penny to the tickets because I'm local, so this park is open to the locals for free. So maybe I shouldn't ask too much. I mean, I tried saying that I left my Chinese ID at home and I was from Shaoxing, but unfortunately they somehow didn't buy that, being that over six foot white guy for oh my goodness we are not blind but yeah after that um again we explored other places and we went to the city plaza which is just a big open area park place where we saw a pagoda you know imagine seeing that in china and we saw this big construction of a peacock and I have to say we were expecting it to light up but we returned there at night time to see it and unfortunately no it doesn't light up but the building beside it which looks like a kind of square pyramid that lit up which was quite cool. I can't even remember what that was if that was like an information centre or I think that building has been in different purpose of use before, but now it's just a cafe opens to everyone. You can just and maybe buy a cup of coffee, then sit there. They have books so you can borrow, then just spend your whole afternoon there if you have time. But unfortunately, we didn't have that. luxury of time because we were constantly on our foot just to try to cover everything so maybe next time we can just stop there and have a cup of coffee and the last place that we did go to of course was a place that your family had recommended which was is it long joe In Chinese, yes, you are right. It's Huang Jiu Xiaozhen. It translated as yellow wine town. Shaoxing is actually very, very famous for its yellow wine. So I think the government tried to build up this town as a tourist attraction. And of course, one side, they can attract people people to visit. And in the meantime, it's a very good advertisement for the product, you know, yellow wine. When we went there, it a thing that I think is relatively new because they're still building it. Because when we went, it was the middle of night, so we decided to see it all lit up and we took a couple of wrong turns and we were going down different areas being like, no.
00:57:05
Speaker
but This doesn't look like it. But eventually, you know, we found it and it felt very spirited away, I have to say, at night because it was all lit up. But there wasn't really anybody. Yeah, there wasn't really much. Much going on. No, because there was nobody really there bar one or two people. and Eventually it got a little bit busier. But even by Chinese standards, when I say a little bit busier, I mean maybe handful people. Four five people. Yeah. Which, considering where we went to in China, that was very, very odd. We're like, okay, this is quite... Again, when I say unsettling, you know, because it was the middle of the night and you're just not used to things being that quiet. It's not even middle of night. It's about eight, half eight o o'clock at night. True, exactly. And again, it was a beautiful area, but just, again, when I say spirited away, it genuinely felt like that, didn't it?
00:57:59
Speaker
So I think there are two reasons for that. So as we both noticed, this project was incompleted. So still some parts is under construction. And the part we went to, of course, it was completed. But because I think I do believe because of its location it's actually not in the city center so we'll be far away and in the old skirt part so although they have a metro station but i don't think people would particularly go to that place on a school night Yeah, you're right, because we had to get the metro out to it and everything. And the area, as you were saying, is, again, it wasn't overly rural. It wasn't like it was in the middle of nowhere. But at the same time, you could definitely tell it was, there was still quite a bit to do for it. So it'll be interesting if we do go back to that area in a couple of years and maybe they have built around it, you know, completed it. So that'll be interesting to see at least.
Hangzhou's Scenic Attractions
00:58:59
Speaker
We will give you some... Update. Update. Absolutely. But of course, before we decided were going to go to Beijing to explore all the touristy haunts, we decided to hop over to Hangzhou, which again is a city that you and I have been to before. The last time we were there, we accidentally ended up in a Taoist temple. Well, I say inside, you know, we ended up on the outside of it. I think a lot of the patrons there, let's just say, I think I gave them a bit of a fright. They turned round and then they were like, oh my god, who is this guy? But we kind of just wandered about Hangzhou back then and we didn't really do too much. We went on a boat ride as well, but this time around we decided that there were too things that we wanted to do one of which being the west lake we wanted to ride a boat on that again but we ended up finding a boat that i think i pointed to you at the time it was like this big boat in the shape of a dragon and i was like oh that's really cool and everything and i was like oh wonder if we'll see that again to which when we were walking down the waterfront we saw and yeah you were like oh do you want to ride on it and we decided to take yeah let's go on it where they had lot of people again this motif of to dress up as people from it the salt dynasty or something i would say so maybe not i actually don't know because the clothes from different dynasties obviously they are all different yeah they all kind of like similar so sorry i'm not an expert about all the ancient clothes so i cannot tell you what dynasty they were from or they are from but yeah they had people playing instruments there were a couple of shows kind of inside you know it was quite cool but the main thing of course it was sailing through the west lake which was really damn cool but it was quite a misty day when we went Which was a bit of a shame because we've been there when it is sunny and it is absolutely beautiful. So again, it was a bit a shame. But one thing that I didn't realise you could do was there is a minibus thing that goes right around the lake that you can catch. Yeah, because as you see, it's a great lake. I mean, size-wise, it's also great. After Shanghai, I feel like my limit was there. I couldn't walk anymore. So just to save for the big trip, I think we would better just jump onto that mini tourist bus. which decided to weave in and out the crowd of tourists, and it had like a specialised horn to let people know it was coming through, and you know what, I think we did deserve it. We definitely deserved to get a seat on that, but you know, we jumped on, we got to see, at breakneck speeds of course, but we got to see the lake go by, and eventually we reached the Leifong Pagoda, which is if anybody out there knows about Hangzhou, this is the famous pagoda of the legends. And it was really cool to climb up it because if you go inside, it's got parts of the original pagoda at the bottom. It's got the murals that have been carved into the walls and things. You go up it, you can see all of Hangzhou from the top. It's absolutely incredible. But what was really funny to me was when we got there, there was a massive line. Well, actually, sorry, two things. The first was when we got to the top of the hill, there was a massive line coming out of I was saying to you, oh God, I don't know we're going to have time to do this. We're going have to wait in this massive line. But then we realised that that wasn't a line for the pagoda. That was a line for the lift. to actually go up it. I'm like, yeah, let's take the stairs. Yeah, the stairs are surprisingly not that bad. It's not like one straight up thing. And the other thing I want to bring up as well is if you want to climb up the stairs from the bottom of the hill to the top where the pagoda is, they actually have a escalator as well. So if you want to get to the top of the hill, but you don't want to climb up all those stairs, you can go up an escalator, which again, really cool, but it was quite easy, wasn't it? It's quite easy. mean, if you can do Paul's Cathedral with all these stairs to go to the top, you can definitely do this pagoda. Oh yeah, that was a nightmare.
01:03:22
Speaker
Say it yourself. Well, yeah. No, I'm talking about St. Paul's Cathedral, not... But no, it was absolutely beautiful to see. And again, Hangzhou's one of those places where on the one hand, you've got this beautiful, you know, cultural tradition and things. You've got all the boat tours and whatnot. You've got all the touristy streets and things that you can go down. But then when you get off the metro, you've also got the massive shopping district as well, which again, it's quite cool
Transition to Beijing and Episode Wrap-up
01:03:50
Speaker
to see that. But when you get off, you look around and it's like Louis Vuitton. and Burberry and things like that. And you're like, no, no, no, we are just here for the boat ride today. Oh, those shopping malls were built on the most, I suppose that's the most expensive land. Oh yeah, absolutely. Just around the lake. So of course. Oh yeah, no one's. They need to make money back. By what? Selling luxury products, I suppose. Oh, but mean, there's luxury and then there's luxury. I mean, who's buying a Rolex in Hangzhou and then saying, oh yeah, I'm going to jump on the Dragon Ball.
01:04:24
Speaker
ah But honestly, Hangzhou, Chaoxing, they were both absolutely beautiful places. And yeah, that of course led us to going to the airport at Hangzhou International, where I took my very first domestic flight with Hanine Airlines. And yeah, we arrived in Beijing. So can't wait to tell you all about that in a couple of minutes. yeah Thank you for listening to part one of Chatsunami in China. If you would like to hear how the rest of our adventure went, then you can listen to part two this Sunday on our website, Chatsunami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. But as always, stay safe, stay awesome, stay hydrated, and stay tuned in the next episode of Chatsunami in China. From distance, the shape looks like a huge pair of trousers. Shout out to Andrew, my fellow friend and co-host, who pointed out that it looked like a funeral for this duck. I'm so sorry, my darling, because the English tour is too expensive.
01:05:25
Speaker
That's the last image you think of of Chongqing. this guy with his shirt off going, I need my clothes. Almost like a mini watering can almost, because it has long... Yes, it's long snoot. Can you call that? Yeah, long snoot. Let's go with that.
01:05:40
Speaker
I'm Chinese, right? And I'm... You're what, sorry? I'm Chinese. Oh my god! I mean, this is literally the city that has a giant hot spicy paper statue in the middle of it.