Trip to Hong Kong, Zhuhai, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Shanghai

2026-02-03

From January to February of 2026, Joanne, baby, and I went to China!

1 2026-01-15: Arrival in Hong Kong

I arrived in the early morning in Hong Kong at around 3 am. Joanne and baby had already arrived a month earlier and were in Zhuhai. After wasting some hours in the airport, I took the airport express to downtown to take photos by myself! First, I went to Tsim Sha Tsui to get dawn cityscapes across Victoria Harbor.

Then, without further ado, I took out my 500mm lens!

A colourful ferry with skyscrapers rendered grey by the smog.

I ate a breakfast of piggy bun (a plain bun which does not contain pork) and then went to take line scan photos. Due to technical difficulties caused by vibe coding my capture code, I had to disassemble my line scan camera and repair it in the field. I soon fixed it and captured a couple of pics of the MTR Airport Express.

MTR train. This one is not the Airport Express but the actual Airport Express image turned out really bad quality.

Afterwards, I had lunch at a random Tsui Wah location (curry beef), and then took the bus to Zhuhai to be reunited with my wife and child!

2 2026-01-16: Day trip to Foshan

We hired a seven seater car for the day to go to Foshan. My wife, child, mother in law, and aunt in law all came. On the ride there, we saw some amazing viaduct construction projects. Coming from California, where a single bridge/viaduct for the California High Speed Rail took decades, billions, and tons of hand wringing, it was awe-inspiring to see such immense structures being built.

2.1 Zumiao Temple

We arrived at the Foshan Zumiao to watch a martial arts performance and lion dance. After all, Foshan is known for its martial arts as that’s where Ip Man comes from.

Drummer and percussion players for the lion dance.

2.2 Lunch in Lingnan Tiandi

Then, we went to the neighboring commercial area/old town of Lingnan Tiandi and had lunch at Darongshu Efu.

After lunch, we had dessert.

2.3 Liangyuan

In the afternoon, we went to Liangyuan. It was the abode of an influential family. This garden was very amazing, and I took some truly wonderful photos of my family which I will not be sharing here.

2.4 Back to Zhuhai

We went back to Zhuhai and ate home cooked dinner. Then we strolled around the neighbourhood.

3 2026-01-17: Day trip to Macao

My line scan camera parts arrived (I’ll be writing more about this in a separate blog post), so I spent some time in the morning transplanting my line scan camera guts into the new CNC aluminum enclosure.

Old 3D printed plastic enclosure on the left; new enclosure on the right.

3.1 Lunch: Omakase

Before heading to Macao, we went to a restaurant called Pan in Zhuhai. The omakase was really amazing and only cost about $50. It is easily on the same level as $100+ omakases elsewhere. Of course, rent and labour are really cheap in China, but also they saved a little by sourcing some seafood from Dalian. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my sushi lens.

Bluefin tuna akami. It's Spanish farmed bluefin tuna, somewhat less expensive than the Japanese wild ones but still quite good. — Bluefin tuna akami. It’s Spanish farmed bluefin tuna, somewhat less expensive than the Japanese wild ones but still quite good.

Exterior of the restaurant. The interior (not pictured) is also amazing, very spacious, clean, and modern.

3.2 Trip to Macao

We went to Macao for a coffee expo.

Fellow Espresso Series 1. We didn't end up buying this. — Fellow Espresso Series 1. We didn’t end up buying this.

We had several cups of coffee. Then we went back to Zhuhai, caffeinated.

Smoggy skyline of Macao seen from the shuttle bus.

3.3 Dinner: porridge hot pot

Porridge hot pot is where you dunk thinly sliced meat and stuff into a pot of simmering rice congee. The congee itself is plain but the idea is that the starch in the congee softens up the meat and unlocks extra flavor. This is a markedly different kind of hot pot than the spicy kind most people are familiar with.

Fish skin salad (it's a side dish, not meant to be dunked into the porridge). — Fish skin salad (it’s a side dish, not meant to be dunked into the porridge).

4 2026-01-18: Flight to Chongqing

View from our apartment in the early morning.

5 2026-01-19: Extreme Chongqing sightseeing

First we woke up and ate noodles.

5.1 Liberation Monument

Then we went to get coffee, then we headed for the liberation monument. It was very rainy.

We went to get snacks. It was in a ludicrously noisy food court. There’s a kind of food called 钵钵鸡 (”boboji” or “bobo chicken”), which consists of a variety of skewers that you can choose from, and it’s served cold in spicy chili oil broth. Despite its name, you are not required to choose chicken skewers, and it is quite common to get boboji without any chicken in it. We also got some tangyuan, some tiny fried dumplings, and random other foods.

A variety of skewers on display for boboji.

5.2 Mountain City Alley

Then we walked to the Mountain City Alley (shanchengxiang).

A fish tank in a random store on the way there.

Some guy's balcony and kitchen with an amazing variety of cured meats. — Some guy’s balcony and kitchen with an amazing variety of cured meats.

Rainy view of the Nanjimen railway bridge.

5.3 Lunch: Steamed combination

For lunch, we ate at a random touristy restaurant and got the “steamed combo”. To our surprise, after a while, a chubby chef came out holding an immense bamboo basket that was about one meter in diameter. It contained many tasty dishes. Outermost ring clockwise from top:

Meatballs in clear broth
Squash
Potato with pickled vegetables
Chili with mountain yam (剁椒山药)
Peanuts
Pork belly (烧白)
Glutinous rice with jujube (八宝饭)
Osmanthus cake (桂花糕)
Steamed pork with sticky rice (粉蒸肉)
Glutinous rice balls

Inner ring clockwise from top:

Braised pork intestines
Cured pork belly (腊肉)
Braised beef with beans (红烧牛肉)
Chinese sausage

Center dish: Fish cake (鱼糕).

5.4 Shibati

Then we went to see the Eighteen Stairs (shibati). It’s a “traditional style architecture” village.

5.5 Liziba

Then we went to look at the monorail going through a building at Liziba Station. I didn’t bring my line scan camera.

5.6 Hotpot

For dinner we went to eat authentic Chongqing hot pot!

6 2026-01-20: Extreme Chongqing sightseeing

This day was not as extreme as the previous day, due to tiredness and poor weather. We had a basic breakfast of takeout in the hotel, and then some delicious pastries and an extremely intense matcha ice cream in the mall.

Horse decorations at the mall for the year of the horse.

Then, we had a quick lunch of peking duck in the mall, as well as some dumplings and a “dry steamed beef” (which was kind of mediocre to be honest). But it was quite affordable.

Then we went to Xiahaoli. It’s another traditional-themed village.

A really lame man-made waterfall with "inspirational slogans" plastered everywhere. But the village itself was very charming. — A really lame man-made waterfall with “inspirational slogans” plastered everywhere. But the village itself was very charming.

Generally, the mountainous terrain of Chongqing made it impossible to use a stroller, so we left it in the hotel, and then I had to carry the baby and the umbrella at the same time. It was a great workout for my biceps.

7 2026-01-21: Chengdu

Morning view from our Chongqing hotel before departing.

We took the high speed rail to Chengdu. Somehow, we were always in a rush, so I didn’t take any pictures. Even after arriving, we were also in a rush to get to the hotel, so I didn’t take any pictures either. Plus we had a lot of luggage and our hands were sore from carrying a baby.

A three-wheeled car at Chongqing station.

Plastic surgery center across from our hotel. There's a nicer hotel (Atour S) on top. — Plastic surgery center across from our hotel. There’s a nicer hotel (Atour S) on top.

7.1 Lunch: Peking duck

We weren’t super satisfied with yesterday’s shopping mall-tier peking duck, so we went to an actual nice restaurant.

7.2 Coffee in Yulin

We went for a stroll in the old Yulin neighborhood of Chengdu. There, we found a lot of old people just chilling or playing Chinese chess or mahjong outside, as well as some very expensive and bougie coffee shops.

We had some coffee at the Carpark coffee shop.

A chill neighborhood with lots of old people relaxing outside.

There was a block that was full of shops selling dried and cured meats and seafood with lots of old people buying stuff. Very cool.

A lady just casually sitting next to an open fire while fresh pork hangs outside.

A leviathan of a spicy dried fish (30 kg), along with some pork bellies and stuff.

Then, we went to the IFS mall.

For dinner, we had takeout noodles in the hotel.

8 2026-01-22: Pandas and Dujiangyan

We went to see pandas! After a quick breakfast in the hotel, we headed off to the panda reserve. We hired a car for the whole day to drive us and our American friends around.

8.1 Pandas

A Volkswagen Santana police car. The Santana used to be super ubiquitous but stringent emissions control and improved quality of newer Chinese cars have rendered it obsolete and it is pretty rare to see one on the streets nowadays.

Extreme panda merchandise peddling outside the panda reserve.

8.2 Lunch: Traditional food

We had lunch at a traditional restaurant. Our driver recommended a spot but we checked the reviews and they were consistently really, really bad. So we found our own place.

It was alright. It was located in a village. The food was not bad but it was quite expensive (by Chinese standards). The restaurant was a collection of huts and the server basically never came to check on us, and since we were by ourselves in a hut we couldn’t flag down a server.

Super expensive chicken soup made with old village chicken.

8.3 Dujiangyan

Dujiangyan (都江堰) is an ancient irrigation system built 2000 years ago. It diverts a river to provide water to Chengdu. The civil engineering project was of a truly amazing scale and it is quite cool to see.

First, we hired a tour guide and went up the Yulei mountain to get a good view. There was a really long escalator going up and a pagoda, both relatively recently built (after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake) but in a traditional style.

View of Dujiangyan city from the pagoda.

Then we hiked down the mountain with the tour guide, who explained to us the amazing history of the irrigation project. It is really cool how public infrastructure and civil engineers are so well respected in Chinese culture and even revered as gods.

On the way, we also saw the Erwang (two kings) temple. The temple complex was really big, but I was holding the baby so I didn’t get many good shots.

Petting this good boy at the temple brings good luck.

One of the trees in the garden. There were also some 1800+ year old ginkgo trees (not this one).

The ancient town (mostly rebuilt after the 2008 earthquake as well) was also quite fun. There were tons of interesting shops selling cool traditional goods.

Anyway, we were tired from hiking an extreme amount of stairs, so we called it a day and headed back. During the drive back, our driver, who was ethnically Tibetan, started blasting some Tibetan pop songs. I hadn’t heard this kind of music before so it was an interesting experience.

Upon arriving back at the hotel, our driver wanted to park on the sidewalk, which was a common thing to do, albeit in contravention of certain traffic laws. However, an old man pedestrian, who was waiting at the traffic light, didn’t want to budge to make way, as was his right. Our driver squeezed the minivan past him, got out, shouted some bad words and started engaging in a bout of fisticuffs with the dude. It was very surprising and both mildly horrifying and very hilarious. We didn’t want any drama while carrying a baby so we just slunk back into the hotel.

9 2026-01-23: More Chengdu sightseeing

We went to Tianfu square, People’s park, Wide and Narrow alleys, and Chunxi pedestrian shopping street.

9.1 Tianfu square

We took the metro to Tianfu square.

9.2 People's Park

We walked over to the People’s Park.

We had some tea in the park.

9.3 Wide and Narrow Alleys

For lunch, we ate traditional Sichuan food. We found a restaurant in the Wide and Narrow Alleys, which is another “traditional style” area. Those of you who have had Sichuan food in the US are probably familiar with such staples as Kung Pao Chicken and Mapo Tofu. These are actually authentic, traditional dishes. So we got them.

An interesting dish we've never had before. It's a mild tasting pile of white chicken pudding. It's very soft and slippery, like egg whites, unlike any chicken I've ever had, but has a chickeny flavor. Whatever it is, it is probably quite rich in protein. — An interesting dish we’ve never had before. It’s a mild tasting pile of white chicken pudding. It’s very soft and slippery, like egg whites, unlike any chicken I’ve ever had, but has a chickeny flavor. Whatever it is, it is probably quite rich in protein.

Then we walked around the Wide and Narrow Alleys.

Ding's Coffee. The dark-skinned character represents their founder, who is ethnically Chinese, but just has slightly darker skin than usual. — Ding’s Coffee. The dark-skinned character represents their founder, who is ethnically Chinese, but just has slightly darker skin than usual.

I sent a pair of postcards to my parents and my sister. My sister only received hers two months later.

9.4 Chunxi pedestrian street

The bling bling "gold palace". — The bling bling “gold palace”.

9.5 Dinner: Hotpot

We went to a relatively low-key hot pot spot popular with the locals. Since we were travelling with American friends who didn’t want to eat too spicy, and we already had fairly spicy food for lunch (not to mention Chongqing hotpot a few days ago), we opted for the mild “sour soup” and the completely non-spicy pork bone broth. The server was in complete shock when we told her we didn’t want the spicy broth. This was quite unheard of!

9.6 River stroll

After hotpot, we went for a stroll to take photos of extreme bling bling LEDs along the river.

10 2026-01-24: Chengdu temples

We went to the Wenshu Monastery (文殊院). It was Laba festival so they had free porridge. The monastery is associated with good grades so many students came to get their porridge.

For lunch, we had tasty local food at the recommendation of a friend. It was very cheap and delicious.

Cured pork belly served in half of a fake antique vase.

Then, we went to see a show. It was great!

11 2026-01-25: Flight to Shanghai

Just like that, our Sichuan trip was over.

We flew to Shanghai. Due to carrying luggage plus baby, I didn’t take any photos of the travel. Also, I accidentally forgot my CPAP (used for my extreme snoring problem and sleep apnea) on the ride share to the airport in Chengdu, which was very annoying.

We had some nondescript food on the plane.

Anyway, we arrived in Shanghai, just in time for dinner.

Crab noodle. Extremely delicious. Dozens of small river crabs were steamed and shucked to make this shockingly umami bowl of crab.

A funny thing happened. We originally wanted to go to a certain restaurant, which was located on the upper floor of a mall, so we went upstairs, got seated, and ate, and then wanted to pay. In China, it is normal to pay with Meituan coupons which typically offer some discount. So we looked up the name of the restaurant, and bought the coupon. We were about to step out when the staff member came running after us, saying that we hadn’t paid yet. Apparently, we accidentally dined at a different restaurant than the one we were originally planning to dine at, and never realized this throughout our entire meal. Actually, Joanne found that the menu on the app doesn’t match the physical menu in the restaurant, but we thought it was just because they hadn’t updated their web content, rather than us sitting at the wrong restaurant.

Anyway, the restaurant staff called up the other restaurant, which was located adjacent to the one where we ate, and they were able to refund us. Then we paid the correct restaurant. The restaurant we ate at was in fact higher rated and probably more delicious than the one we originally wanted to go to.

12 2026-01-26: Shanghai fun

We went to do some casual shopping and sightseeing. First we went to check out some camera shops but there was nothing I wanted to buy. Then we got some extraordinarily delicious Fujian food at a restaurant called Xizuo 席作 · 福建会馆.

We got:

squid
oyster omelette
taro in pork broth
vegetable
Hokkien seafood noodle

The food was incredibly flavorful. The seafood noodles had a really rich broth. The squid was spicy.

Then, we went to a cool indie clothes store. The store was located in an upstairs apartment in an old-school heritage building in Shanghai. We couldn’t find it at first since it was just a residential block.

In the evening, we went to visit my friend Yan. He was the owner of the Cessna in my flight on a friend’s Cessna, but now he lives in Shanghai.

13 2026-01-27: Free day

Our hotel is near Xujiahui so we went for a walk there.

Police cars outside the Shanghai Stadium.

Due to my extreme snoring, and the fact that we accidentally lost the CPAP in Chengdu, I had to stay at a cheap different hotel from Joanne and the baby.

The hotel was only around $30 per night.

14 2026-01-28: Longhua temple

In the morning, I went to get coffee. I found this spot called Black Cat Coffee that has a really amazing Kees van der Westen Speedster espresso machine! This machine costs like $20k.

Due to the fact that the previous customer ordered like 20 lattes, which the barista had to prepare one at a time meticulously with his single group head machine, he invited me to sit down inside. Unfortunately, the coffee shop’s cat, who is called Yang Rou (lamb meat) and is in fact an orange cat instead of a black one, was feeling unwell that day so he did not show up.

Then we went for a walk around Longhua temple.

For lunch, we had fish hot pot with my parents, aunt, and uncle.

Longhua memorial of the unknown martyrs.

15 2026-01-29: Lunch with aunt and Qibao

For lunch, we hung out with my aunt and we had some incredibly tasty Cantonese food.

In the afternoon, my parents and I went to Qibao old town.

One of the stone bridges in Qibao old town.

In the evening I went for a walk near my parents’ apartment.

Black stone mansion, a historical building and landmark.

A modern building with a tree growing through it.

16 2026-01-30: Tea and Italian food

We had tea with a cousin of mine. He’s super accomplished, has grandkids, and was formerly the district head of a district in Shanghai.

For dinner, we took my parents to a fancy Italian restaurant. We had:

Prosciutto with burrata
Endives salad
Calamari
Ossobuco
Crab spaghetti
Grilled bluefin tuna (the special of the day, and super expensive!)

The bluefin tuna came on a really hot sizzling plate. My mom said the tuna looked raw, so she pressed each piece of tuna firmly into the plate to cook it thoroughly. We accidentally fed the baby some ossobuco, not realizing that it was both kind of spicy and contained alcohol.

17 2026-01-31: Family

On this day, due to important family events, I didn’t bring my GFX camera. In the afternoon, I went on a great city walk along Huaihai road with my dad, who showed me a lot of marvelous architecture and told me lots of great stories about the history.

For dinner, my aunt, uncle, parents, and we went to eat a truly delicious traditional Suzhou meal, including:

Squirrel fish
Crab roe xiaolongbao
Small eels
Noodles
Traditional Suzhou desserts
Vegetables cooked in cooking wine
Lion’s head meatballs

I accidentally gave baby some of the vegetables cooked in cooking wine again, which had a strong alcohol taste when I tried it myself later. Oops!

18 2026-02-01: Flight to Zhuhai

Yep it's an airplane. — Yep it’s an airplane.

19 2026-02-02: Picnic at the Huangyang wetlands park

We went to Huangyang wetlands park. I brought my 500mm lens (which I didn’t bring on the Chongqing, Chengdu, and Shanghai leg due to trying to minimize weight while travelling with babby), and found some wildlife.

Some people were fishing despite signs saying not to fish in the protected wildlife refuge.

A guy with a large amount of ornaments on his bike and blaring loud music.

20 2026-02-03: Went to the mall

21 2026-02-04: Photography session with babby

We went to a photo studio with the baby to take some Chinese New Year pics. I’m not sharing them on my public blog though.

Then, for dinner, we had food with relatives.

22 2026-02-06: Going to Guangzhou

We departed for Guangzhou on a weekend getaway!

We went with our friend and her eight-year-old son.

Due to our place in Zhuhai being really far from the train station, we decided to take a bus to get there. Unfortunately, tickets for the bus we wanted to take were all sold out and we had to wait three hours for the next one. Most displeasing!

Anyway, we got on the bus, held babby for two hours, and arrived at Guangzhou South station. Then, we took the metro to the hotel. For dinner, we walked over to a sushi restaurant in a mall.

Guangzhou is one of the old cities with a lot of old school architecture and it is really cool to see these classical buildings.

The sushi was “Chinese-style sushi”. This means:

a lot of mango
a lot of salmon
a lot of mayo
domestically grown foie gras

Funnily enough, the restaurant gives each table an hourglass with a guarantee that if your food doesn’t come on time, it’s free. Actually, the hourglass is just for show; the guarantee is based on the actual timestamp on the receipt, but they do honour it. Our foie gras sushi was about 30 seconds late so we got it for free.

After dinner, we went to look at the sights, like Canton Tower. Since I’ve been there before, and we had to carry the baby, I didn’t take many photos.

23 2026-02-07: Guangzhou sightseeing

We went on an extreme city walk!!!

Itinerary:

river
Beijing road
Sacred Heart Cathedral
Shangxiajiu pedestrian street
Yongqing Fang

The river walk pics turned out very mediocre because of boring lighting and we weren’t walking along the most interesting part of the river. There were many old people jogging along the river.

23.1 Sacred Heart Cathedral

We went to the Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Super high resolution panorama of the front view.

23.2 Pedestrian street

We went to the Shangxiajiu pedestrian street. For lunch, we ate at a random Hong Kong cha chaan teng.

23.3 Yongqing Fang

Yongqing Fang (永庆坊) is a complex of preserved/rebuilt old school Lingnan-style architecture, canals, and bridges.

23.4 Heading back

We took the metro back to Guangzhou South station. We took the brand new Line 22, which is affectionately nicknamed “the big subway” because the trains go super fast (160 km/h) and the stations are spread very far.

For the return trip we took the train instead, which is vastly more comfortable, goes at 200 km/h, is entirely grade separated, and offers great views along the way.

The armed police at Guangzhou South station had a booth where you can get first aid and free chrysanthemum tea.

Upon arriving back in Zhuhai, we took a Didi back to Doumen and then ate some “sauna chicken” (桑拿鸡), a traditional Cantonese dish (from Shunde) where the chicken is steamed over boiling broth and the juices drip down into the broth below and then later you get to drink the extremely tasty broth.

Random shot of the raw chicken before it gets subjected to an authentic Finnish experience making it cooked.

24 2026-02-08: 500mm day in Zhuhai

On this day I took my 500mm lens and gamboled about Zhuhai.

Here’s the obligatory meme photo.

Zhuhai opera house with a random traditionally-styled restaurant in front of it.

Pylon of the Baishi bridge with Macau Tower in the background.

Pylon of the Baishi bridge with the Grand Lisboa in the background.

25 2026-02-11: Stroll around the neighbourhood

In the remaining days, I was mostly working and chilling with family rather than doing any sort of extreme sightseeing, so some days are entirely devoid of photos.

On 2026-02-11, we wanted to go see a light show, but its admission cost money and didn’t look too great so we decided not to go anymore.

Instead, we went to eat barbequed skewers.

After eating barbeque, we walked back and took pictures of the night streets.

26 2026-02-14: Valentine's day omakase

First, I went to buy a coffee, and on the way, I took a picture of a cat in a shop, as well as a vegetable garden.

Then, we had omakase again at the same place we had last time. The Valentine’s day special omakase comprises the following dishes:

amuse-bouche

snow crab, ebi-imo

appetizers

scallion hamachi
mehikari, a small fish
ankimo liver
abalone with liver sauce
red salmon dashi
shirako (fish sperm) with dashi

sushi

hotate (scallop)
botan ebi
shima aji
tuna o toro
saba (mackerel)
uni (sea urchin)
anago (conger eel)
temaki (hand roll)

soup

miso soup

dessert

assorted seasonal fruits

After sushi, we went to hang out with a cousin. From their place there’s a great view of the recently completed Huangmaohai sea-crossing bridge, which is notable for being extremely big.

27 2026-02-15: Rooftop 500mm shots

I randomly climbed onto the rooftop of our apartment building.

A random school. The slogan reads "educating people for the Communist Party; educating talent for the country". — A random school. The slogan reads “educating people for the Communist Party; educating talent for the country”.

28 2026-02-16: Hiking

For the last day, we hiked up a hill called 尖峰山 (Jian Feng Shan, literally “pointy peak mountain”). It was super tiring because it was very hot and humid and we were carrying a baby. The views from the top weren’t even that great.

Then, the next day, on the 17th, it was Chinese New Year! But instead of celebrating we just took a cab to Hong Kong airport and caught a plane back to California.