China Completely Changed Our Minds

We came to China with absolutely no idea what to expect and our first few hours were already a disaster. But that was our first encounter in China and that was not good. But what happened after that completely changed how we saw the country. Every time we moved to a new city it felt like we had crossed into a different country and the crazy part was our favorite place kept changing. I'm loving it. So after traveling from Guangzhou all the way to Macau, which part of China surprised us the most? Good morning guys. Ni hao ma. We are officially in Guangzhou, China. This is day number one. If you can see back there, Canton Tower. So the place we stayed in Guangzhou, it was actually about 44 kilometers from the airport. We'll have to say something. We got here at three in the morning from the airport and we were just desperate to get to our hotel and we had our first encounter with a taxi scammer. We didn't get anything on film. We should have, but I was too busy. Wanting to kill the guy and Emma was too busy trying to keep me from doing that. He wanted to charge us 851, which is roughly $125 to go 44 kilometers. And that's just not the case. The real price when you do Didi travel through Alipay is actually 89.1. So we ended up giving him 201 just because we were trying to be nice and the fact that it was three in the morning. So it became quite a ---- show. We were arguing in the front office. He started at 850 and then he went down to 400. And we said, look, all we're giving you is 200. You either take it or call the police. And this is all three in the morning. So we shipped our hotel and the desk service guy was just, he felt bad for us. I think he was a little embarrassed. That guy was trying to pull a typical foreigner scam thing. So we stood our ground. We paid 201, even though it was maybe 101 more, but it was 30 bucks, roughly USD. So we lived with it. We got in our bed. So we didn't film any of it. But that was our first encounter in China and that was not good. But we got a good night's rest. Located in the southern China, Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province and home to almost 19 million people, formerly known to many as Canton. The city has long been one of China's major trending hubs and is especially famous for Cantonese culture, food and the world famous Canton fair. But numbers don't really tell you what Guangzhou feels like. And these were our first impressions. Loving it. It's beautiful. It's very clean. It's very good energy. It's the first city that we are in China, but I would love to come back because it's another level. I will have to say guys, Guangzhou, China has blown me away and I can see why a lot of people love it. It's funny, the American mindset of the government will have this kind of stigma against China and CCP or what have you. But I tell you what, as far as organization goes, cleanliness and how beautiful the infrastructure is here, how clean it is, it's exceeded our expectation. Everything is squeaky clean. You don't see graffiti anywhere. Everybody's behaving. Nobody's trying to scam you. Nobody's trying to sell you stuff. It is absolutely gorgeous here. Just makes me think as far as Western Europe goes and some parts of America, man, we really got to get our ---- together. And one thing Guangzhou is especially famous for, it's its food. And completely by chance, while walking along the river, we came across what looked like a small street food festival. We'll start serving all kinds of different dishes. So obviously, we had to try a few. Do you like some sort of dumplings or something? You can try. You try one? Yeah, why not? Camembert, Camembert cupcake. Nuts and oatmeal. Cheers. It's Guangzhou food. Let's try it. Very good. Oh, okay. What is this? Oh, it's warm. Look at that. I don't know what it is, but it is scolding hot. Let's try it. It's good. It's kind of like... Oh, that's ginger. Is that not? It's very meaty. I don't know what that is. It's almost like some sort of tree bar. They don't speak English here, so we're not really sure what that is. If you know what this is, let us know in the comments. But here's the concoction. It actually tastes very good. It's almost like an oatmeal sweet taste. Yeah. We're gonna get half and half. Hopefully she understands. And then some here. It's like your classic Chinese dumpling. Very tasty. Very good. We paid 18 yuan for half of this. Now I'm gonna try the potato. So far, very good. Very delicious. Very low cost. I give it a 8.7 for both of these. Guangzhou might not have given us the smoothest welcome to China. But by the time we left, it had given us our first real taste of the country. And honestly, we already loved it. But what we didn't realize yet was how different every stop on this trip was going to be. Because from Guangzhou, you can hop on a high-speed train. And in around an hour, you are in Hong Kong. And the moment we arrived, it felt like we had entered a completely different country. And technically, Hong Kong isn't a separated country. It's a special administrative region of China, operating under the one country, two system framework. Let's go through our immigration stuff and see how this works out. For the past few months, we've been traveling with the Level 8 Voyager Carry-On 20-inch. And one of my favorite things about it is the wide handle design. Instead of having the handle rails running through the middle of the suitcase, they are positioned along the sides, which give you a complete flat interior. So you can actually use all the space inside without having to pack around those bars. And for such a compact carry-on, the amount you can fit inside is honestly impressive. It has 43 liters of capacity. And I've personally packed close to 15 kilos into this suitcase before, which still surprised me considering its size. Another thing I really appreciate is the wheels. They are incredibly smooth and quiet. And even when the suitcase is fully packed, it's still really easy to move around. The shell is made with German Makrolon polycarbonate, so it's lightweight but also flexible and impact resistant, which is really important for us because our luggage gets used constantly. If you want to check it out, you can get 10% off through the link in the description using code 2TICKETS10 at checkout. A big thank you to Level 8 for sponsoring this video. Yeah, I know. I thought we already left. I thought we were in Hong Kong. All right, I can't show this. We made it. All right, guys, we just left the Hong Kong train station. And now we are going to walk. We're like two kilometers away from where we're staying. So we are going to walk to our Airbnb. And we'll see you guys when we get there. We'll show you the place, tell you how much we paid for the accommodation and where it's located once we get there. OK, guys, we just arrived to our humble abode in the mean streets of Hong Kong. And these are our accommodations at Airbnb. It's not the nicest place we've stayed, that's for sure. But the thing is, with Hong Kong, we looked at some places and I mean, some of the basic dingy looking hotel rooms were like $200, if not even more than that, for just two nights. Some were up to like $600 for two nights. And the accommodations were, let's say at best, like a rated four. So this had good reviews we found on Airbnb. And it was $168 for two nights. And it's right in the main area of like where we want to go walk around, which you'll see later on in the video when we go around. So on the walk here, the streets are crazy. It's very busy. So we're going to get ourselves together and get the gameplay going. And we're going to head out. Now we are going at the river park to see the island during the night. I don't know if we can be able to see the Symphony of Light show that they do at eight o'clock every day. Look how packed it is with people. I mean, this is a Sunday, but there's definitely no shortage of people here. It's crazy. The famous bamboo scaffolding, kind of. And then if you look down here, guys, it's not even buckling. They literally just go in the ground. Sketchy. So we're coming out towards the river here. We're going to be looking at Hong Kong Island. And as you can see, this is the thing to hang out at. China Construction, man. Yeah, we're not quite in China. No, thank you. Okay. No, thank you. Yeah, I know. Tough day. We will see if here in Hong Kong will try to scam us or not. If it's a safe place. But it looks beautiful. I already had an Indian guy try to sell me a Rolex. So, I mean, I'm sure it was real. Why would it be when you've got an Indian guy trying to sell you a Rolex in Hong Kong? This place is booming. I don't know if this is tourist season or if it's like this all the time, but it is packed with people. It's amazing. Yeah, look over there. I mean, it looks surreal. But it is. There are so many people. So I don't know. I have a people phobia. We made it to the Hong Kong River Island. There's the Hong Kong Island behind us. Way back there where all the lights are. And it is packed with people here. It's beautiful. It's unreal. All these lights. The island part is amazing. A lot of boats and cruise ships and stuff. Not cruise ships, but like little cruise boats going out jamming music. All right. So we found this cool little place that's right around from where we're staying of our Airbnb. It's called the Mei Hin Roast Goose Restaurant. I'm going to have the fried egg and barbecue pork with rice. And then Emma is going to have roasted goose with rice. I'm going to try some of Emma's goose. That's a healthy bite. Not all of it is. Yeah, let me get that. Get a little goose here. Very tender. That melts in your mouth. I think it's really good. One of the highlights of any trip to Hong Kong has to be Victoria Peak. Hong Kong is incredibly hilly. So instead of making the climb ourselves, we decided to take a taxi up to the hill. One thing we quickly realized was that the Alipay setup we have been using in Mainland China didn't work for our taxi here. Something definitely worth keeping in mind when moving between Mainland China and Hong Kong. And once we reached the top, we could immediately see why Victoria Peak is so popular. The view is unreal. Breathtaking. You can see all the Hong Kong mainland. And just when we thought we had seen how diverse China could be, Shanghai completely changed the picture again. So guys, here's the Bun Sightseeing River. As you can see, because of the weather, it's not participating. There's nothing that you could see. This is just part of traveling. Like I said, man, you just never know. Maybe we're going to try to come here at nighttime and hope that the silhouette and all the lights kind of light up the building so we get some sort of view. Tonight might be a different story, but check it out. We just left our hotel. We're heading to the Bun because it is a clear night and we're excited. So we're going to be able to show you all the lights, the skyscrapers. The night is going to come alive. We do feel rested. So we're excited. We're going to be able to head over to the Bun. And then we're going to go to, what's it called? The Yuyan Garden? Yuyan Road. Yuyan Traditional Road. Yuyan Historical Road. It's incredible. Not even better than we expected. Putting politics and propaganda and all that nonsense aside, man, it's undeniable that China is an ascending country. The infrastructure is something that's out of this world. It's futuristic. It's super clean. The people here are civilized. They're well-mannered. I'd be lying if I was saying that I'm not extremely impressed and almost jealous of just how amazing China and Shanghai and Guangzhou when we visited. It's undeniable how beautiful this country is. And it's a template of what the future should look like. The moral of the story is step outside your bubble, guys. Go out and get that passport. Travel the world. Travel the places that your government tells you not to go to. Because sometimes that's where you'll be most surprised. And you'll have the most fun. And you'll have some of the greatest experiences to take. Go back to your family, to your friends, and tell them it's nothing like they thought it was like. So it could be a hell of a learning lesson and an experience. And that's the beauty of travel. This road is 400 years old. And it's very traditional. A Chinese traditional road with the traditional Chinese architecture. And it's very different from the part that we saw till now. The European part. The futuristic part. Now we are at the ancient side of Shanghai. This area truly feels like ancient traditional China. It is so beautiful here. And lights and just everything. It's like a theme park for traditional China. Very cool. So we just came out of the Yuyan Garden. I'm mispronouncing that. But it was crazy. Emma actually got emotional. But it is one of those places that's like enchanting. Like almost mystical. It's probably one of the most beautiful places you can come when you're in Shanghai. It felt very surreal being here and watching by ourselves. It feels like you're in a Chinese ancient movie story. Fairy tale kind of. Because you see all these young girls that are wearing the traditional Chinese wear. And there's all this beautiful serene Chinese music in the background. So it really encapsulates you. And you really feel caught in the moment. So it was really special. Definitely probably one of my coolest favorite places in Shanghai to see. By far. And then what's even cooler. You come out and all these kind of ancient style buildings. And there's no traffic that's allowed to come through here. So you just have all this road. And look all these lights and beauty. And it's just completely open for pedestrians to enjoy all that there is. What a great place to come and see. We left Shanghai thinking it would be hard for the next place to impress us even more. But we were wrong. Because just outside Shanghai we discovered Suzhou. And it ended up becoming one of the biggest surprises of our entire trip. Just 30 minutes away by high-speed train. We arrived in what felt like a completely different world. Suzhou felt calmer, more traditional. And almost magical compared to the huge modern city we had just came from. This really kind of shows some of the historic value of the canal and the houses. Just peaceful. No boats. No nothing. Then you come here and you get pure insanity. This gives the vibe of an old bazaar, you know. And it kind of reminds me of where we were at in Taipei. Where was that? Yufan. Yes. Yufan, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Is that tea? I don't even know what this is. It looks like sweets. Guys in the comments, what are these? Is that like tofu? No, I think it's kind of sweet. Here's some sort of a wine. Probably like a rice wine maybe. Very beautiful jars though. I like that. Tell you what, there's no shortage of the guys on the scooters hauling ass through these little areas. And they don't care about you. They're just gonna honk and hope you move out the way. And I will say the Chinese love their cigarettes. My god, they smoke everywhere. They smoke while they use the restroom. Haven't seen that one before until China. So John will try some oysters. These, no green. You have this one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this one. And then, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So it's just five for one. It looks like oyster loaded with garlic and maybe rice, I think. And it's five. It's cheap, very cheap. 70 cents for one. So what is she doing there? She's grilling it. Oh, nice. Here are some small shrimps. We call those crawdaddies in Texas or crawfish. They're known as crawfish in the south. Very nice. We also call them mud bugs because you often find these guys in the mud. And you got to rinse them off, boil them, put some seasoning. Absolutely delicious. One of my favorite things I miss is the crawfish. They're very good. It's like a poor man's lobster. Okay, we got our oysters with garlic and... Which one do you want? The one that is bigger? Take the one that is bigger. First, you got to get it off the shell. Delicious. Very good. Got that kind of seafood appetizer, but that garlic kind of balances it out. I'm not a oyster fan, but... Although you did like the oyster omelette. This is a big boy. It's not as hot. It doesn't have the taste of seafood at all. You can't feel it. You can feel only the seasoning, the garlic. I said the complete opposite. It's funny. It's two different opinions. It's funny. You like the garlic. I know. It's just funny. But you like seafood, though. Yeah, but I didn't feel any taste of seafood, so... Two different palates. All right, guys. On to the next dish. So, we saw these crab dumplings in soup. And we want to try it. How much is in one? I hope you are understanding each other. What you are saying, but... 25 for four inside. Try with the hope we won't get a mess in here and make some stains on our clothes. Lean over. Good. Doing a food tour. What do you think? I think they were frozen. That's the problem. They weren't as... We thought they were, like, fresh. Kind of got burned on that, but... Nothing special. Not bad, though. Not bad. I won't say terrible, but we were really spoiled in Taiwan. China is known for the soup dumplings. And for sure we'll have somewhere else. We'll have somewhere homemade and good ones. But these ones were frozen. So, after we ordered it, so... Not the fans, both of us. Peau Jus was very famous for its silk industry. Here you will see the old school silk machine and how it threaded all this. The large wooden loom is a tool for weaving Chinese brocade. It is divided into two layers and requires two people to operate simultaneously to start weaving. On the ancient Chinese warp beam, jacquard looms the large, unique, and perfect weaving tool. So here lies the real history of Peau Jus. You'll see back in the old days, all the trading hubs, and all the foot traffic that would be coming along the village. All the machines and the beautiful silk that was woven. Very beautiful. And of course, they got all the products of the silks. So we found this cool little spot. Say what's up, Emma. We're right on the canal. And we thought we'd have a coffee. We actually have the boats coming by. You see the... It's stocked. Oh, it is. Yeah, we have one of the infamous bridges where everybody and their grandmas wanted to get their Instagram photo. Or in China, it's WeChat. I don't know if WeChat's the Instagram or it's Red Note or something. One of those. But anyways, we're watching boats smash into each other to get through the canal. But regardless, I got a beautiful view. We're gonna officially say we enjoyed a coffee on the canal of Suzhou. I'm so... I think I've said that name of... I think I've said the name of the city wrong like 15 times. So just murder me in the comments and forgive me. I don't mean to. Sometimes it's Suzhou. Suzhou. Sazhou. I'm butchering it. But I'm trying to keep in memory some of the things I've learned since being here. Maybe some of the research, a little bit of research I did. And everyone's probably gonna say, why didn't you research on how to say the damn city? I'm from Texas. You can't really expect that much from a Texas guy. They say that is the Venice of Asia, this place. It gives you a little bit of eye from the bridges, from the canals. But it's very different. The houses, the lanterns. It's the China version of Venice. Are very unique both and very beautiful. We will call it Chenice. Yeah, the new name. Yeah, this is the Chenice. Very busy with a lot of people around because it's a touristic place. Even for the local, like Chinese. A lot of Chinese here. A lot of tourists here. But it's worth it coming. Half of a day, a day tour from Shanghai is totally worth it. You get a totally different vibe. And it's really Chinese. At least when you see the lanterns, the architecture here gives the Chinese vibe. Suzhou had already become one of our favorite stops of the entire trip. But for our final destination, China was about to surprise us one more time. Because after modern megacities, traditional gardens, crowded streets and futuristic skylines, we arrived somewhere that somehow felt completely different from all of them. Macau. We are officially in Macau. What's really interesting about Macau is it's actually where Chinese and Portuguese culture have blended together for over 400 years. So you'll see a lot of Portuguese dishes, cuisines and the language still exists. So it's pretty unique. Another interesting thing I read about is Macau is actually one of the most densely populated areas on earth. I think there's like over 20,000 people per square kilometer, which is insane. So on our way to the ruins, we found like this main tourist drag area. I guess you would call it street main area. But look at all the shops. More pharmacies, cosmetics. Your typical tourist trap destination. So now it's official. We have seen the St. Ruins in Macau. And as you can see, everybody else has as well too. So we came, we saw, we got the hell out of there. We want to explore more of the streets of Macau. So we decided to adventure over to Coiti Island or Coiti area, where all the casinos are. And show you guys a comparison between the Las Vegas of America and the Las Vegas of Asia. Coiti Island is actually home to some of the most world-renowned themed casinos. Billions of dollars from Paris to London to some very high-tech style casinos to rival Las Vegas. Casinos could be a dying thing. But when you keep building casinos that are so incredible by design, by technology, and in beautiful locations, it's hard to pass it up. That's when coming out of your home and making a trip to Macau makes sense. Especially if you've got a few extra bucks in your pocket. And you have the dreams of making more money. That, my friends, is how gambling starts. What's crazy is the Venetian Hotel Casino is actually one of the largest in the world. With indoor canals, you can literally ride a gondola inside this thing. Similar to the one they have in Las Vegas, but on a much more grand scale. This is unreal. Like being in Venice. Like you are in the Doge Palace. Look at this, guys. This is crazy. Very beautiful. Very big. I'm surprised it's not really painted. I think the one in Las Vegas, they actually really painted it. I could be wrong. But this one looks really badly wallpapered. But the detail is not as there. But check out... You get the feeling. Yeah. Look at this little water fountain here, guys. Wouldn't you be in Paris? Yeah. The 8-bit failed out. Wow, look there, baby. There is the London. Yeah. Wow, it looks so... It looks like a sand castle. Yeah, it does. And here's the Eiffel Tower, guys, in Macau. Who knew? Let's walk in there. Let's check out the Parisian. I think it's called the Parisian Casino Hotel. This is really incredible. We'll have to walk outside there. And you can see more of the Londoner. Yeah, we'll get over there. Let's check out the Parisian. So we just left the Parisian. And in true London fashion, we're heading to the Londoner. And it just started raining. So not gonna be more London than rain. You should add Macau in your list, guys. Very unique, for sure. If you come in Asia, you should not miss Macau. This feels very real. Like it's coming for real. What do you think? It's crazy beautiful. Very, very beautiful. Look at that beautiful carriage. Horse carriage. Yeah. This place is mind-blowing. And I think all three of these hotels and casinos are connected. So it's been raining all day. And we haven't really stepped foot outside except for some photos. We went from the Venetian to the Parisian. And now we're in the Londoner. And it is uniquely different. It's like traveling the world inside, in Asia. Going all over Europe, in Asia, inside. Make that make sense. But it's been fun. We are exhausted. It's been like four or five hours. We've been roaming all through these hotels, traveling the world inside Macau in one country, one day. You saw it all. Let us know what you guys think in the comments. Which one was your favorite hotel and casino? For you casino lovers, what is your favorite game to play when you're in the casino? And do you win big or do you lose even bigger? This trip completely changed the way we saw China. And honestly, it became one of our favorite countries we have traveled through. Let us know which place you'd choose. And if you want to see more from each city, our full China playlist is linked below. Thank you so much for watching. And we'll see you in the next adventure.