I arrived in Shanghai at noon with a sunshine attenuated by the freezing air and overpowered by the bustling crowd of platform 11. I was carrying my 60 L backpack and my day pack, plus big boxes of Aunt Xi Ling–whom by the way, I met in the preceding 14 hour train ride. Together with Max and Lene, we dumped the duct tape cocooned packages in the trunk of the cab for our motherly train seat mate. Aunt Xi Ling gave me a hug and uttered something in mandarin before …

Shanghai is where China first met the west. Since then, it’s galloped off at a pace that the rest of the world is finding hard to keep up with. This bustling, thriving and ever growing metropolis is at the forefront of technology – the city continues to grow and develop at a rapid rate. Sky high buildings dot the skyline and are some of the city’s most iconic landmarks – along with shopping centres, modern architecture and designer bars and restaurants.
You might be wondering what the attraction is for backpackers …

I will be dedicating all my posts about my trip to China to the people I met on the road, people who helped me along the way, strangers who transformed my lonesome trip to a very meaningful journey.
I never tried doing lone backpacking before. It was three days before our flight to Shanghai when I found out that Monette ran short of time for her visa and I will definitely be flying out alone, I thought of canceling the trip.
Few hours before my scheduled flight, I was still contemplating of scrapping …