Travel

February 17, 2025January 20, 2025 Kirsten

China Diaries: May 2024 #8 ~ Chengdu>Hong Kong

Onto the final part of my trip – time to visit Hong Kong for the first time! I had a great few days in Chengdu to round up my time in mainland China. When I was looking at flights, there are no options from Chengdu directly back to Europe, so I was going to need to transfer somewhere like Shanghai or Beijing – I’d already started my trip in Shanghai, and I was in Beijing back in September 2023, so I had a look around and found Hong Kong was an option. With both pandas and Disney to see, I was sold!

August 26, 2024September 15, 2024 Kirsten

China Diaries: May 2024 #4 ~ Ya’an to Dujiangyan City + Dujiangyan Schedule

My original plan was to spend 2 nights in Ya’an and do 2 full days at the Ya’an Bifengxia Base, but because Yang Guang and Tian Tian weren’t on show I didn’t really feel the need to have a second day here. So over an afternoon ice cream, I changed plans and decided to travel on to Dujiangyan that evening together with my friend. In the end, I don’t think it added too much of a cost, if I’d gone back to see the pandas again the next day it would have cost me two taxi rides and the entry ticket, which wasn’t that much less than the cost of a hotel room.

July 15, 2024July 1, 2024 Kirsten

China Diaries: May 2024 #2 ~ Shanghai to Ya’an, let’s stroll in Ya’an centre

After 2 nights at Shanghai Disneyland, it was time to head on towards the main purpose of my trip – to visit the pandas in Chengdu and the surrounding area! So let’s get started with the second part of my diary on this trip, getting myself from Shanghai to Ya’an, a trip I’ve never made before:

June 17, 2024December 29, 2024 Kirsten

China Diaries: May 2024 #1 ~ arriving in Shanghai, let’s check out the Toy Story Hotel + Disney Town

Welcome to my China travels of May 2024! I’d been thinking about this trip since November 2023, to cut a long story short, myself and some colleagues thought there may have been a conference going to happen in May, so I planned a bit of a crazy trip to see pandas. By the start of April we determined the conference wasn’t going ahead and I’d really worked out the plan in my head, so decided to go ahead and book the trip anyway. This was my first time in China for only a holiday – the other 5 trips have all been for conferences and I’ve added on extra days for seeing other things, so this did feel like quite a different experience. So despite only booking 5-weeks out, and probably not getting the best price for the flights, I pretty much knew my complete plan, where I wanted to stay and what to do already. Nevertheless, I made a fully packed itinerary and it was exhausting but so exciting and completely worth it!

So lets get into Diary 1, my travel day(s) and sharing about the Toy Story Hotel and Disneytown at the Shanghai Disney Resort: