SH-Hangzhou Day 5-6: Train to Grand Central Hotel Shanghai, Nanjinglu & Flight Home

DAY 5

I woke up at 6.45am (I'm used to waking up early to prep my kids for school) and we proceeded to Coffee Garden Restaurant for breakfast.

My choice of breakfast 😋

We checked out of our hotel by 10.20am and hailed a DiDi (CN¥15) to the station to catch our train to Shanghai. 

We had booked our tickets via Klook about 2.5 months in advance, with actual tickets confirmed only 15 days prior to travel (same as our train to Hangzhou). There were many routes to choose from but we chose the 12.17pm train, which would take 1 hour 45 minutes and cost S$9.88 per adult. Although the journey was significantly longer, it was the best timing we could find and cost 50% less.

Saying goodbye to Shangri-La Hangzhou!

After approximately 25 minutes, we arrived at Hangzhou Railway Station, which looked much older than Hangzhou East Station. The train we took was also much older!

Waiting at the station for our turn to board our train

A visibly older train

The journey was very smooth

On arrival at Shanghai South Railway Station at 2pm, we hailed a DiDi (CN¥33) to our final accommodation for this trip.

Heading to the ride-hailing pick up point

The journey to Grand Central Hotel Shanghai was about 30 minutes. We liked that it was value-for-money and conveniently located close to the famous Nanjing Pedestrian Street (Nanjinglu), where my family and I had enjoyed shopping previously.

Grand Central Hotel Shanghai

Old school atas vibes

We booked the Deluxe Twin Room at S$186 per room per night. The room and twin beds were super spacious and luxurious!

Love the huge beds and spacious room

Small kitchenette

Wardrobe and office table with the usual amenities

Bathroom had twin sinks and additional toiletries like mouthwash and L'occitane lotion  

Spacious bathtub and separate shower

Hotel facilities

For the level of luxury we experienced, I felt the hotel was worth what we paid! 😁

We walked to Nanjinglu for shopping since we were located just behind Minisoland.

Busy Nanjinglu

Huge racket at the Fila store (left) and Minisoland (right)

We walked down the street to Hongyi Plaza and decided to have a late lunch at Yang's Sheng Jian 小杨生煎.

I spotted the advertisement outside of the mall (left) and looked for the small restaurant at B1

We ordered dumplings, spicy noodles, soup and two servings of their famous shengjian bao because they were soooo good!

Despite ordering a whole table of food and eating until we were too full, the bill was only CN¥85.50 (S$16)! 😄🤩

We were so full that we had to walk it off by heading to the end of the street to see Shanghai's most famous skyline, The Bund!

Selfie with the Oriental Pearl TV Tower

The Bund in the day

Bank of Shanghai and other cool buildings

We were too early for the Bund light up so we continued shopping at Nanjinglu while waiting! When the sun finally set, we headed back to the Bund for the famous night view! 😄

The Bund at night

We were super hungry from all our walking and decided to get beef skewers for supper 🤭

Yummy beef skewers

Spotted this bubble tea shop and decided to satisfy my craving

We found really good butterfly cookies here! 😋

We headed back to our hotel and enjoyed some time in the lounge.

Having a drink in the lounge

View from our hotel room 

I can't believe that it was our last night of the trip! Time flies when you're having fun! 😄😆

DAY 6

The next morning, I woke up at 7am and went for a swim at 8am (while the Twin went to the gym). There was only one other person at the pool so I was able to do laps for half an hour without distractions.

Indoor swimming pool with a comfortable temperature

After our exercise, we headed to Chua Lam's Dim Sum at Yuehui Mosaic mall for breakfast when they opened at 10am. My family loved the food when we first tried it in Guangzhou and though the Twin and I had a little taster at Disney Town, we knew we had to eat a full meal before returning to Singapore!

Chua Lam's Dim Sum at Nanjing Road

We wanted to order so many things on the menu but since it was only 2 of us, we had to prioritise our must-tries! 🤭😋

Sponge cake and prawn dumplings

Their famous pork buns and red rolls! 😋

We were so full and satisfied from our meal! Super happy! 😆

We did some last minute shopping before heading back to check out. Thankfully we managed to get late check-out till 1pm.

It was time to head to Pudong International Airport Terminal 2 via DiDi (cost CN¥134). The journey took close to an hour and we arrived at 2pm. Can't believe that our trip was ending! 😭

Arrival at the airport

Using the self check-in kiosk

After clearing customs, we had a late lunch at Canton 8. We just love Cantonese food! 😄

Canton 8

My favourite Hong Kong milk tea, spicy dumplings and beef soup. So yummy! 😋🤤

Our flight was slightly delayed and departed at 4.40pm.

Our meal on board, including an ice cream!

After flying for 5.5 hours, we arrived in Singapore at 10.15pm. Thank God for an uneventful trip! It's good to be home! 🥰

My Reflections

As a first time visitor to Hangzhou, I really loved the beautiful West Lake! I can honestly see why millions of people flock there every year to experience the culture and see the sights! It's also only a short 1-hour train ride from Shanghai, hence I highly recommend it!

I saw a lot of 老夫老妻 (older married couples) at Westlake, enjoying a nice vacation by themselves. I told the Hubby that we should return without the kids and do the same! 😆 Until next time!

<< Back to Shanghai-Hangzhou Day 4: Hangzhou Museum, Taiziwan Park & Su Causeway

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Shanghai & Hangzhou, China as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!

SH-Hangzhou Day 4: Hangzhou Museum, Taiziwan Park & Su Causeway

We woke up by 7.30am and proceeded to Coffee Garden Restaurant for breakfast instead of the Horizon Club (the only one I know that does not serve breakfast)!

Buffet breakfast

Chef station and variety of food

Love the selection of ice cream!

The donuts and ice cream were too good to resist!

Braved the cold to take photos with this sign! So cute!
(Sign translation: "I'm waiting at West Lake for the wind and for you")

After breakfast, we took a DiDi (CN¥15) across the lake to Hangzhou Museum 杭州博物馆. Admission was FREE for all visitors!

Hangzhou Museum North entrance

You'd need a local identity card to generate a QR code via an app, which will be scanned at the gate. As we were not locals, the security officer brought us to the counter where we registered using our passports.

I found a lot of similarities between the artefacts on display in Hangzhou Museum and those at the National Museum of Korea. It's unsurprising, seeing as this part of China is geographically located close to South Korea, separated by the Yellow Sea and East China Sea.

Artefacts from the Liangzhu Culture, which were found in an excavation site in Hangzhou

Hangzhou was known for its sophisticated jade artefacts

Jingdezhen porcelain from the Yuan Dynasty, famed for its beautiful coloured porcelain

I bought a pin, which was inspired by a ceramic stem cup on display, from the museum's shop

Historical stone pillar encourages guests to learn about the 3 pagodas in Hangzhou:
Leifeng Pagoda, Baoshu Pagoda and Liuhe Pagoda

Art and architecture in Hangzhou

We enjoyed exploring the museum and learning about Hangzhou! It was very intellectually stimulating! 😄

After leaving the museum, we explored Hefang Street in search of food since it was lunch time.

Analysing this signboard to get out bearings

I spotted a restaurant across the road and decided on it because I had a good feeling (I'm learning from the Hubby to follow my gut feeling when it comes to food 😄).

Beef noodles at Taizhou Peninsula Taizhou restaurant

Yummy beef noodles

Although it was a long wait because the restaurant was packed with people, our food was cheap and good so it was worth the wait! 😋

After lunch, we walked along Hefang Street for some shopping.

Cultural part of Hefang Street

When it was time to leave, we hailed a DiDi (CN¥20) to Leifeng Pagoda but the app insisted on a dropoff that was very far from it! We didn't realise it until our DiDi dropped us in the middle of nowhere, near Hang & Tang Tea Culture Museum.

Hang and Tang Tea Culture Museum

I tried to hail another DiDi and this time, kept trying to drop a pin as close to the pagoda as possible! The system finally allowed me to pick a dropoff point about a 15-minute walk from the pagoda, which was close enough. The journey was longer than usual as there was a huge traffic jam to the dropoff, which we later realised was because we were approaching the West Gate of the famous Taiziwan Park 太子湾公园! No wonder there were so many people!

We decided to join the crowd and check it out since we had to cut through the park to get to West Lake anyway. Everyone had to register with their local IDs but as we were foreigners, the staff allowed the both of us to enter without registration 😅

Early blooms of different Tulip varieties

Love the pink ones!

More tulips near the Lanying Pavilion

It wasn't easy trying to squeeze through the crowd and take this selfie! 😅
Worth it though! It was beautiful 😍

Took this picture to prove that there was indeed a huge crowd!

We exited Taiziwan Park via the North Gate and crossed the road to the South Lake 南湖.

Many people were paddling their boats on the South Lake

The road was fenced up, no wonder it was so hard for us to find a dropoff near the Laifeng Pagoda!

A guide map to West Lake National Park

We walked to the start of the Su Causeway and finally saw the Leifeng Pagoda 雷锋塔 across the lake!

View of the famous Laifeng Pagoda

We were near the Reflecting Ripples Bridge (see map below) and had to cross the West Lake in order to get to our hotel on the other side near Xiling Bridge.

Photo credit: travelchinaguide.com

The fastest way back would be on foot through the Su Causeway to the other side because it was very difficult to get a DiDi from where we were. There were 6 bridges to cross in total and we were only at the first one!

Exploring the Su Causeway with countless others

Beautiful view of West Lake and the Laifeng Pagoda from one of the bridges on the Su Causeway!

Midpoint along the Su Causeway where we stopped to capture the beautiful sunset at the West Lake! 🩷
I was so excited that I called my family to show them the view!

One of my favourite photos of West Lake! 🩷

It took us about 40 minutes to walk across but it was so worth it as the views were spectacular! I'd definitely do it again if given the chance! It's too bad that we did not have enough time to cross the Bai Causeway! 😅

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madeline Heng (@madpsychmum)

We arrived at our hotel just in time for evening canapes at the Horizon Club Lounge. After clocking 18,000 steps, it was time to replenish our bodies with good food! ☺️

Happily eating all the food and watching the Paralympics on TV!

I was all ready for a warm bath in the bathtub as it was quite cold outside! I was so relaxed that I fell asleep super early! 😴😅

Continue to >> Shanghai-Hangzhou Day 5-6: Train to Grand Central Hotel, Nanjinglu & Flight Home
<< Back to Shanghai-Hangzhou Day 3: Train to Shangri-La Hangzhou Horizon Club & West Lake

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Shanghai & Hangzhou, China as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!