I Left China's Big Cities to Discover a Side of China You Don't See Online 🇨🇳🐉 weekend vlog

We're off. And I think this is going to be a really really busy weekend but I'm quite quite excited. I've got my huge bread, look at this. It's literally the size of my face. This is my brunch and we are on the way to Mao Ming. I'm so excited to see the dragon boats and the view on the train is really really amazing. Although I have to say this is the loudest train I've ever taken in China. You guys in Mao Ming, you have so much energy. Let's have some fun. It's cute. Let's go on a little weekend trip to Xinyi in the mountains of Guangdong province. I've literally never seen this before. The train is changing direction so everyone just spun the chairs around in the other direction. It's like really crazy. I didn't know what was going on. So I arrived at the hotel. Welcome. It's a Hilton. Actually it turns out that there's two girls that I know coming on this trip as well. Well actually I met them both through social media before but one I went for a lunch I went for a dinner with her like I sent her a message and then another girl we just I can't remember how we met but we just we haven't like really met but we just bumped into each other in Shenzhen before briefly. So I think it should be fun. Can make some friends and we just came to drop off the things at the hotel and now we're gonna go and get on with the itinerary. I'm not so sure what we're doing but we'll go and find out. And it's super super hot today. Let's let's go let's have some fun and I'll take you guys with me. So for some context Xinyi is a really small little city in Guangdong but the government is really trying hard to develop this area. You know most people haven't even heard of this place but they have recently built a full olympic size stadium that looks like a lychee. There's olympic swimming pools with AI safety detection and huge state-of-the-art sports facilities. They also rank as the second best equipped city for people with disabilities following after Shenzhen which is kind of crazy seeing as Shenzhen is a tier one city and this is just a small countryside city. So first stop we've come to this sports and exercise facility and they have a lot of different kind of sports here. I think it's to encourage children to do sports in the area and they've just developed this whole sports facility. Like there's football there's bmx like mountain bike riding huge swimming pool a lot of different different things. I'm getting a free tennis lesson. It's good because I'm really not very sporty so I have no idea how to play. So yeah let's try. But something that I really love about China is even though they're developing so fast they still do a lot to maintain the traditions and culture. So while we're here for a weekend let's get into it. So we just had a dinner. It was really delicious full of Cantonese food and now I think we're gonna go and watch some kind of show. It's super busy. It's like everyone has come out at night. Like look at this. That's beautiful. All the lights have turned on and it's a lot less hot. There was a huge rainstorm earlier like kind of typhoon situation and now we're gonna go and look around the night market I think. I don't know. I'm not really sure what's happening but I'm having fun and I will just keep showing you guys. There we go. But tomorrow is the main event. Let's take a moment to appreciate this sunset. Look at that pink sky isn't it beautiful. This is the show. You can see these kids are like climbing up on this big dragon and they have all face paint on. It's quite interesting and they're gonna perform a show for us. Is they really tiny these little kids? It's really cute. These are the dragon boat champions from today. Wow so many photos. That was funny. It seems like we're even more popular than the dragon boat riders. But of course not but that was really funny and now they're going on the parade now. Okay let's go and see this dragon boat. Hello. So cute. Hello. That was really funny because we ended up meeting the winners from today's dragon boat race and then they were all taking photos of us and then we were taking photos of them. We were just like surrounded by a huge crowd of people but they were like really friendly. Obviously we're there to see the dragon boat and see all the things. I feel like it's some culture sharing in that moment. Yeah it was nice and seeing the dragon boat is really impressive. It's huge. I didn't expect it to be so long and like it's huge actually. Let's go to watch the Chinese opera. Looks amazing. This is beautiful place. I've come in to watch this kind of opera and traditional shows in China. It's so beautiful. You can see all of the clothes, the outfits. It's really sparkly. The makeup is amazing and look at the surroundings. Like it's so nice with all these trees in this little courtyard. It's so... I just feel like I stepped back in time. It's really nice and we have the front row seat. And listening to the opera is so interesting as well. There's all different kinds of things going on right now. There's a guy playing the erhu which is a Chinese traditional instrument. It's amazing and they're writing Chinese calligraphy and there's a whole orchestra over there. I'm surrounded by Chinese culture. It's beautiful. It's time for the lion dance. They are so strong. Like this is crazy. I feel like something's gonna happen. Wow. So we went upstairs and saw some of the basket weaving and now this dragon show is so cool. I'm actually loving this little show here. Oh my god, there's fireworks. Oh my god. They love this like coming to see all of these different shows. I feel like you're really just thrown into the culture and you get to see all of the traditions. I love this side of China. Like working in China is one thing but coming to travel and seeing this just reminds me why I'm here. And like it's so beautiful. You guys should be really proud of your history and culture like for real. I think it's really beautiful. I really like that I can get involved in the Chinese culture and I love the outfits. The clothes they're wearing is so beautiful. Yeah, it tastes really good. Yes, I really do. I like it a lot. Come to the convenience store to get my absolute favorite drink and then this is little kids and they saw us and they tried to start speaking English. It's so cute. Really cute little kids in here. They just say I don't know and then start laughing. Vitamin C brand sponsor me. So good. Good morning. It's the main day and you'll never guess what we're gonna do today. We are going dragon boat racing. This is like the ultimate side quest and it's so early. It's 8am. We already arrived and they've got this huge concert going on. Welcome to China. So loud and so crazy and fun. Amazing. Look at this. We got the electric guitar and the sunglasses. So cool. Kiss and smile. The dragon boat racing. There's the women's dragon boats right now. They're all from different cities. It's impressive. Like they have the drum at the front and they're all running together. There's so many teams here. The atmosphere is like really, really lively. So many people taking photos, wearing crazy costumes. Like it's fun. Look at that blue one. Xuanxuan jiayou! Xuanxuan jiayou! And actually I also like how they have women teams and men teams here. That's pretty cool, I think. But it's also a good job that it's early in the morning because it is so hot today. I can't imagine doing that dragon boat competition if it's like the middle of the day in the hot sun. A few moments later. I'm kind of nervous. We got a... We had like a little lesson and it seems very serious. I don't want to let the team down. Oh my gosh. Let's go. It's time. Okay, we're on the boat. Put in the water. We're gonna go. It's a little crazy right now. Okay. Okay, we're moving. You have no fear. When you hear the sound of the drum, clap your hands. Clap your hands. Okay. Ready. Go. Hey. Ready. Go. Hey. Yeah. Hey. I don't know if I'm helping much. The dragon boat racing was really really fun. It was pretty hard work but it was such an amazing experience to take part. Although I was kind of freaking out being so close to the water, so low down. I was kind of thinking that our boat was going to tip over at any moment. But it was definitely fun to be part of a team and rowing all together in unison with the drum. That was a really cool experience. How do you feel? It was fun. Fun really. Five minutes later. Wow, private AC room. Guys, this did not go as I planned. I somehow ended up in the ambulance. I just totally overheated after the dragon boat. And then thought I was going to pass out. The dragon boat racing was so fun. But when I just came off, I think I just got too hot because it's like under the midday sun. And then I was just sitting down like, oh my god, I think I'm going to pass out. And then surrounded by... I didn't pass out but then a lot of people were there like giving me eyes. And the doctor came and now I'm just sitting in the ambulance to like cool down a bit. I'm really embarrassed. Like I'm so embarrassed. Because like what the hell, I was only outside for maybe 20 minutes. But it wasn't difficult. Like it was so fun. I really would like to do it in a less direct sunlight day. But I'm really happy that I tried and it was good and fun. And yeah, just like maybe... I don't know how these guys do it in the midday sun. Maybe they're more used to it. Oh, and I'm wearing suncream as well. So thank you Xinyi for having me. You were so hospitable. It's such an amazing place to visit. I definitely recommend people to go and give it a try. Not just stick to the big cities in China. Take a chance on the small towns and cities too. Because that's where you will find some real authenticity, real friendly local people and have a really good time. So see you next time. Bye!