Shanghai. After our visit to Beijing and Xi’an, Shanghai was our third stop in China. We had only one full day to explore this incredible and bustling city due to our tight plan and had to find a way to explore as much as possible without getting totally exhausted. After a short night in Xi’an the day before we decided to take a nap upon arrival in our hotel – Les Suites Orient, Bund Shanghai. Rested and a coffee to go in our hands we felt ready to explore another part of China and started with the Bund area which was right outside our hotel. The skyline was fascinating and we had a breathtaking view of Pudong with all its skyscrapers and the Oriental Pearl Tower. Pudong is a new area by the side of Huangpu River, opposite The Bund, and is known as the financial area of Shanghai. We walked along the Bund and took a couple of pictures. Later that day we had dinner at a nice restaurant (I don’t remember the name) and went back to our hotel since we were really exhausted. Well rested and after a huge breakfast we were ready for our full day tour around Shanghai.

After two incredible days in Beijing, we left the city by train, to reach our second destination: Xi’an. Xi’an is a large city and the capital of Shaanxi Province in central China. We decided to take a time-effective overnight sleeper train – Chinese trains are an experience in itself – don’t miss that fun adventure on your trip. The famous Bullet Train was unfortunately not scheduled that night so we booked tickets for the regular train in advance with help of a Chinese booking company I can recommend. We purchased our tickets (Luxury Soft Sleeper) online at travelchinaguide.com and paid via PayPal. We received an email confirmation the next day with a side note that we would have to pick up paper tickets at the railway station in Beijing, before boarding the train. Our confirmation was in English and Chinese language, which made the whole “project” easier. Two hours before our train left we arrived at the railway station and noticed immediately that this was a different part of Beijing we had never seen before.

Inside the Forbidden City, Beijing, China – August 2016. Before I start to share my personal experience I would like to give you a couple of background information about the Forbidden City.

Historical information about the Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is the best-preserved imperial palace in China dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is one of the largest ancient palatial structures in the world. Nowadays called the Palace Museum it was nominated in 1987 as World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. The Forbidden City has a rectangular structure with – the numbers run from 8,707 to 9,999 – rooms, covering 183 acres and is surrounded by a 20-ft deep moat and a 33-ft high wall with a gate on each side including four corner towers. All the major buildings are wooden structures roofed with bear yellow glazed tiles, red walls and surrounded by a white marble terraces. The Forbidden City is divided into two parts: the Outer Court (or Southern Section) where the Emperor held the office of his supreme power over the nation and the Inner Court (or Northern Section) where the Emperor lived together with his family, through 1924, 14 Ming and 10 Qing emperors had lived here.

Asia! Throwback to our biggest adventure so far – Asia, August 2016. Traveling in today’s super busy and fast moving world for a whole month sounds – to be honest – like a dream. Exploring different cultures and countries, getting a chance of tasting and smelling new scents and odors every day, being away for four weeks without any obligations sounds impossible. However, my husband and I were able to do exactly that. Traveling for a whole month! We came up with this idea a couple of months ago during our stay in Brazil. Hungry to explore more countries and filled with thousands of imagines in our heads we decided to spend this time in Asia. Well, I agree, Asia is a huge continent and a month is by far not enough to explore every single city or town. We needed a well-organized plan and we had to choose the cities we really wanted to visit. After endless hours of research and planning, we decided to start in China. Before you book your flights or hotels, be sure to have a valid VISA. You have to fill out a special application form and apply for it. This may take a while so plan in advance. After we had got our visas we started immediately with our detailed plan. Our very first stop of this incredible journey was Beijing.