First taster of Asia | FindPenguins

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Trip start
June 11, 2025
First taster of Asia Traveler
Amsterdam-Shanghai, let’s go!
June 11, 2025 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
After visiting so many continents and countries, Asia has been missing from my list - well, not anymore!!! My good friend Yi moved to Shanghai almost three years ago and we’ve been planning my visit ever since. And also, my amazing Spanish teacher, Ana is Colombian but lives in Taiwan so I thought this is going to be the perfect combination for dipping my toes into Asia. The plan is two weekends in Shanghai and Monday to Friday during the week in Taiwan. Here we go!!! 🤩Read more
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Shanghai, first impressions
June 12, 2025 in China ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
A few days before my flight to Shanghai, it turned out that Yi will only be able to come back home Friday end of day due to work obligations so I had to change my I-am-visiting-frirnds hat to ready-for-a-new-adventure hat. So I did my usual research to see what’s fun to do in Shanghai so I can entertain myself until Yi is back. 👏 I had a bit of a stress situation at the airport as most European apps only work with a VPN but for the love of god I couldn’t connect to the airport wifi to set up my e-sim so I was very close to be stuck at the airport for forever haha. Luckily, I don’t give up so easily so after an hour of sweaty trial and fail, I succeeded!!! Jumped into a taxi and after an hour I reached Yi’s home and I made it into the flat. Yorick, Yi’s boyfriend happened to be home so we chatted a little bit, I took a shower, chilled for a while, and then headed out to explore the neighbourhood. And I must say that it’s just absolutely lovely. 😻 There are little nature parks with plenty of birds giving you the feeling as if you’re in a big Chinese forest and all the locals were out for their daily mental health walks, jogs, stretches with kids and eldery. I walked along the water to this new, fancy plaza called 1000 trees which looks really cool from the outside. I didn’t go inside but instead I walked to M50, an art space and came across an exhibition with the sweetest curators. They spoke really good English so they told me all about the artist. Unfortunately, it was almost closing when I got there so I’m planning to return while I’m still here. 💛 Yorick and I eventually went for dinner together to an uyghur restaurant and the food was so delicious. On the way there we passed by a park where locals were dancing and enjoying life together. Shanghai is making the best impression so far, can’t wait for more! 🤩Read more
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Shanghai, exploring the city
June 13, 2025 in China ⋅ 🌧 28 °C
If you’ve been following my tracks for a while, you know that my favorite ever activity is the free walking tour. I always try to start with doing one when I arrive to a new city. So this is what I did in Shanghai too! 😍 In the morning it was raining a lot, so it was impossible to get a cab, so Yorick encouraged me to take the metro which apparently was a super fun but also fairly easy challenge. The metro system is super well organized, fast, has everything written in English, very impressive. ✨We met at 10 am with the group, and Dinna was a great tour guide, took us around the most famous buildings on the People’s Square, we walked down the big shopping street, Nanjing road, which is only for the tourists as the locals never go to physical stores anymore, just order online, then we walked to the Bund to check out the stunning skyline of Shanghai, and we finished in the old China town, Yu Garden which is funny enough also still fairly newly built except the most inner garden - that bit is from 16th century, so old old haha. 😀 We stopped for some great food during the walk, and after the walk I made some friends and we hang out longer and went back to a restaurant recommended by our tourguide and had some delicious food. Warning: don’t be surprised if you’ll see a fat version of me by the end of this trip, the food is just something else here. 🥹😂 I got home around 8pm after walking 20 thousand steps, and Yi made it after 10pm. We were so excited to see each other, chatted a bit, and then gave in to our exhaustion so we can make the most of the weekend. It’s so great to be here! 💛Read more
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Shanghai, touristing with Yi
June 14, 2025 in China ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Today was finally all about Yi & I, it’s been too long since we last saw each other, and it’s always been stolen time that we could spend together, these two weekends are truly special not because of Shanghai, but because of us. 🥹😻 Okay, because of Shanghai too! 😀 We started of with the Jing’an Temple which was my first ever buddhist temple to visit with the twist that it’s in the middle of a 30 million city surrounded by skyscrapers haha. Then we explored the French Concession which is a leftover from the time when Shanghai was a french colony, famous for the skinny building resembling the one in New York. We had some matcha and another tea called Hojicha, both are from Japan, but the food and cuisine in Shanghai is so extremely international that you can basically get any kind of food from any part of the world in top quality and affordable (except if you want to go crazy and spend thousands of euros, you can do that too 😀). We checked out the propaganda museum with posters promoting the Chinese party and its beliefs and we had a little chatGPT session to fully understand why Chinese communism works and resulted in this crazy economical boom while Russia… well, let me stop right there. 😅 At night we went to The Stage, an observatory deck that they just opened and lucky me it the sky was pretty clear for the stunning view. We finished the night with a cocktail in Lieben, a german-inspired cocktail bar. Oh, and I didn’t document the food we had today, but trust me: good stuff. 🤓 I’m genuienly blown away by Shanghai, full of cute neighbourhoods, cafes, bars, it’s massive, but walkable, everyone is riding a scooter or bikes, most cars are electric, so the city is super quite, people are generally happy and content with life, and it’s SO safe, not for a moment you have to worry or watch your back. I didn’t know what to expect, but Shanghai truly surprised me in the most positive way!!! 🥹Read more
🥹 [Korinna]
6/15/25Reply
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Shanghai, the city of endless surprises
June 15, 2025 in China ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
I can with this city, honestly. 😻 It was raining pretty heavily today so we took our morning very slow, chatting, sipping matcha, and then headed our for our next adventure. We went to 1933 Old Millfun which is an old slaughterhouse with a very peculiar architecture. Nowadays it’s an event center and a host to many art studios, galleries and made the whole neighbourhood quite artsy. It reminded me of some scenes in Star Wars, super cool!! ✨ Outside of the building, we bumped into a robobar where robot arms are making the cocktail of your choice. Sadly, the internet is not strong enough to upload videos, so you have to wait to see the process, I did upload one photo of the result. It was fun haha. 🤖 After the slaugtherhouse, we got hungry and super randomly Yi found a cafe nearby that resembles Friends, the series. It was uncanny!! I had a club sandwich while watching the show, such a nice surprise. 😻 Then, we walked around a bit more to explore some more local neighbourhoods with old cinemas and shops, then hopped on a bike and went to the area where Yi spent a few years growing up. We accidentally crossed a dumpling place that sells the best soup dumplings in town so even though I was still full from the sandwich, couldn’t say no to try - and it was so worth it, yumm. One more kilo and counting. 😀 The evening we spent relaxing, ordered in peking duck pancakes and watched one episod of the new season of Black Mirror. Hoping to sleep early tonight as tomorrow we’re waking up at 5.20 am to catch our flights - for me to Taiwan, for Yi to her project. See you later, Shanghai! 💛Read more
🦾 [Korinna]
6/16/25Reply
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Shanghai-Taipei-Chiayi, hello Taiwan!
June 16, 2025 in Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C
Apparently I’m back to my usual travel schedule when the wakeup time is never after 6 am haha I was too excited anyway to sleep as today it was the time to catch my flight to Taiwan and give a massive hug to Ana. 🤩 Everything went smooth at the airport and with the flight then with the metro, it was even easier than in Shanghai, some people even speak English and they are a lot more proactive with guiding you to the right direction haha. Ana waited for me in Taipei central station, we went for some early lunch in a japanese restaurant, then we thought it’s a good idea to pass our leftover one hour with visiting one of the most famous sights in Taipei, Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall built for the “gangster” (as Ana’s boyfriend, Jimmy calls him), the first president of the democractic Republic of China. It’s so massive, wow! I only have a few photos but there’s a video where you can see the four massive buildings, it’s insane. 😮‍💨 Well, the one hour passed so well and so fast that we ended up missing our train, ups. 😅 Luckily, we could just move it to the next train and soon jumped on our train to Chiayi. The city is famous for it’s street food, especially chickenrice which is made of turkey, nonetheless, it was delicious. 😻 We didn’t come to Chiayi for the food, we came here to take an early bus to Alishan, a nature park for some hiking in the mountains tomorrow. Another early morning, oh well! 🌙Read more
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Chiayi-Alishan-Keelung, in a fairy tale
June 17, 2025 in Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Honestly, it’s a little hard to believe that I’m only here since yesterday morning and not for a week already haha we’ve done so many things. 😀 Here’s another post that starts with the usual: so we woke up at 5 am… 😂 then we jumped on our bus from Chiayi to Alishan nature park expecting a proper hike and getting a magical fairy tale like paradise instead. 🥰 Alishan is home to some of the oldest and tallest trees on the island, the photo where we are standing with the two of us, it’s in front of three generations of trees altogether aged over 1500 years, imagine that!!! 🙀 We explored almost all of the park in a couple of hours and made our way back to Ana’s home in Keelung where we met up with Jimmy, Ana’s boyfriend to grab dinner at the night market (just wow!), walked around a little bit around the harbour, and finished the day with chatting about culture, politics, life until late. I had no idea of the gems of Taiwan, it feels like the Latin American version of China in a way - love, love love! 💛Read more
Traveler😻😻😻
6/19/25Reply
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Keelung-Jioufen-Keelung, an old-old town
June 18, 2025 in Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
Today Ana had classes in the morning (oh, she’s teaching Spanish online on Preply, this is how we also know each other 😇) but we managed to squeeze in a workout, I had to compensate a little bit for all the great food I’ve been having haha. 😀 After her classes, Ana prepared me a super delicious lunch and then we went to Jioufen, an old mountain town that was established in the early 1800s and boomed in late 1800s/1900s due to gold and they say it inspired the movie Spirited Away. We got lucky as it didn’t rain and it wasn’t crazy busy so we could walk around in peace. 😇 Little story to my photo with the funny face: we walked through a tunnel leading to a tea house that was used to transport gold back in the days, and we ran into a massive bug that looked like a wasp just with the size of 10 cm and it was dragging a dead spider with itself that was also 10 cm, and it could fly and apparently we were bothering his territory and it was definitely not happy to have us - we claimed defeat and ran for our lives. 😂 In the evening we went to have hotpot together with Jimmy, it was so yummy and my god, so much food… but oh well, some icecream still fit afterward haha. We went for a walk in the area to aid our poor bellies full of food and called it a night. It was another magical day! 🥰Read more
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Keelung-Waimushan-Taipei, beach day
June 19, 2025 in Taiwan ⋅ 🌩️ 31 °C
It seems like Taiwan has it all when it comes to nature: mountains and beach - a little paradise. 🏝️ Ana had classes in the morning, and once she was done, we headed to her favorite beach remindig her to her favorite beach in her home town, Santa Marta. I’ve been as well, so brought some great memories back as well. 🥹 Once we had plenty of seawater and sand in our faces due to the windy weather, we returned home, took a big shower, and it was time for me to pack my backpack as I have my flight tomorrow morning. The last night we decided to spend in Taipei out of convenience and to explore a bit more as well, of course. 🤗 In the evening, we looked up a latin bar to have a drink and maybe a little dance, sadly it was closed, so we had one drink in the area and made it back to the hostel for a good night sleep. 🌙Read more
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Taipei-Shanghai, back in town
June 20, 2025 in China ⋅ ☁️ 34 °C
And the sad moment has arrived - it’s my last morning in Taiwan together with Ana, the days just flew by!! 🥹 We got some great breakfast at the hostel as a goodbye and it was already time to make our way to the airport. Thanks god that we already have some plans when to see each other again, so it’s a see-you-later, definitely not a goodbye! 💛 In the evening we went for some dinner and drink with Yi, and I had to realize; I missed Shanghai, so good to be back, yay for a few more days to enjoy! 🥳Read more
Travelermwaa🥺
6/21/25Reply
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Shanghai, back to M50 & nightout
June 21, 2025 in China ⋅ 🌧 32 °C
The first time I went to M50, the creative space with many exhibitions and studios, I only had around 10 minutes before they closed, so I really wanted to return - so I did. 🤩 M50 is literally the coolest place in Shanghai, but I feel like I keep on saying this about many places haha. 😀 We ordered in for dinner, then Yi showed me the nightlife of Shanghai. First we went to a rooftop bar/club, met Yi’s girlfriends, then had a cocktail in a hidden space on the top floor of a bar playing blues, and eventually went to a 6-floor club. It was quite the night, definitely had a culture shock by the end of it. Now I feel like I’ve seen most sides of Shanghai haha. 🐒Read more
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Shanghai, making the most of my last day
June 22, 2025 in China ⋅ 🌧 23 °C
After the long night, I stayed in bed for a little longer and it was pouring rain outside and we got no plans with Yi so I thought maybe we’ll just chill today - right until my adventurer side kicked in again 😂 Can’t help it, I’m hooked!! And thank god I am. 😻 I did another round of quick research, what more is there in Shanghai and it just clicked: circus!!! Luckily, they even had a show coming up in a few hours, grabbed a ticket then a taxi and went back to being a kid all over again. I was in awe!! The show was outstanding. 🎪 After the circus I still had a little bit of time before dinner to visit a place called Tianshan Tea City and bumped into the sweetes sisters owning two teashops in the building and ended up spending 2 hours with them tasting their tea, chatting, and learning so much about Chinese tea. It was such a special experience!! 💛 Later we had dinner in a restaurant with Yi’s mum and aunt, then packed our luggages to be ready for our flights tomorrow. These 2 weeks flew by, it’s already time to return home, damn! 🥹Read more
Travelerwoo nem semmi🤩
6/23/25ReplyTranslate
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First taster of Asia Traveler
Shanghai-Amsterdam, thanks, Asia!!
June 23, 2025 in China ⋅ 🌧 23 °C
The morning started off with a little stress as there was so much traffic on the roads due to the rain and Yi almost missed her flight 😮‍💨😮‍💨 she went for a run and just made it on time!! I had plenty of time at the airport, breakfast, check-in, downloading content for the flight, and 13 hours later I was back to Amsterdam. 🥹 Asia, you’ve been great, I feel so lucky that I could visit Yi and Ana, it was a super special trip. 💛 Now heading to the gym to lose the wieght I gained during the trip haha. Thanks for reading me!! 🥰Read more
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Trip end
June 23, 2025