A Journey Five Years In The Making
Reflections from visiting Shanghai, Taipei, Bangkok, and HCM City
I once bought a one-way ticket to Shanghai in the summer of 2020. I was young, had seen enough of the corporate world, and was ready for a new adventure.
Clearly, things didn’t turn out the way I expected because of the pandemic.
Nor did I expect to have left my job in the middle of 2024 and then end up traveling around Asia.
I spent the fall of 2024 mostly focused on the job search; however, given the holidays were coming up, I decided to take a break.
It had been five years since I visited Asia, so I decided to spend an extended period of time there. I knew I wanted to visit my grandparents first, so I started in Shanghai and leveraged the 144-hour transit rule (now extended to ten days) to visit the country without a visa. I then spent a week in Taipei after Shanghai because I’d never been there before and could also visit some relatives. I was also interested in living in Bangkok for an extended period of time because I was drawn by all of the YouTube videos about living there and heard great things from friends, so I booked an Airbnb there for a month (the general minimum-length since the platform isn’t technically legal in the country). Lastly, I spent a week in Ho Chi Minh City to explore a new city and meet up with some friends who were already going to be there.
Shanghai
Although a few years had passed since I visited Shanghai, I felt a sense of nostalgia upon landing in the city - it felt like seeing an old friend. Yet I was surprised by how things changed.
I made my way to my grandparents’ apartment by navigating the metro system by memory only to notice a significant change in my surroundings. What used to be a few shacks transformed into an exotic car dealership. Old warehouses were turning into coffee shops and co-working spaces reminiscent of the evolution of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Electric cars were everywhere.
Just as how the surroundings had changed, I also felt the vibe of Shanghai change to become more inward-looking. I noticed how there weren’t as many foreigners as there used to be given many had left after the pandemic. How the country had its own payments ecosystem consisting mostly of WeChat Pay and AliPay to purchase goods and services. There was a China-specific application for everything from social media to e-commerce to maps - it was quite an adjustment to pick everything up almost from scratch.
I noticed that the average young person in Shanghai, a global city, spoke English fairly poorly compared to people in Taipei and Bangkok. It’s one thing to know a language at a textbook level and a whole other to use it practically, and it goes to show how Chinese people are now more focused on their own language and country vs. the rest of the world. China is definitely growing its influence in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa, and it shows (more on this later).
Taipei
I came to Taipei with no expectations and the city completely blew me away. I loved this city.
I couldn’t help but feel like I was in a Japanese city with the city’s architecture, cleanliness, general politeness of the people, convenience stores, and design. Even the bidets.
Overall, I would describe Taipei as a comfortable place to live. Crossing the street doesn’t require a battle with motorbikes like in Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh. The traffic is nothing compared to Bangkok. There’s great food. There aren’t too many distractions unlike Bangkok, where nightlife happens seven days of the week. There’s no need to use a VPN to access many internet services like in China.
I can see why so many Asians from the West have decided to live in Taipei and I hope the city develops further.
Bangkok
Bangkok to me is THE megacity. Although I’ve lived in New York City, São Paulo (South America’s largest city), and Shanghai, I thought Bangkok eclipsed them all when it came to the energy of the city, size, amount of things to do, traffic, and visitors from every country.
They say that NYC is the city that never sleeps, but I’d be hard pressed to find traffic at 5am in the morning with all the people coming home from the clubs. I thought the traffic in Mexico City was bad, but Bangkok is a whole other story. Being the most visited city in the ENTIRE world, Bangkok is super international. I was also in awe of the malls in this city. I had seen nice malls in Asia in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taipei, but the number of nice malls in Bangkok is truly amazing. Each one can be a mini-village.
There’s a reason why so many people are now moving to Bangkok - the lifestyle is unmatched. Picture having your own place in a luxury apartment near the center of the city for under $1k a month, complete with a pool and gym. Add on being able to order takeout all the time and eat out while still spending less than the cost of groceries in the USA. Most car rides on Grab, the equivalent of Uber, come out to around $5. Plus, no homeless people nor crazy people. You only have to be careful of motorbikes.
Of course, there are two sides to the coin. You are still in a foreign country. Although many Thais speak English, you are still in a country with a different language and culture. You will have to find a way to make an income in spite of the massive distance and time zone difference, which can make it feel like you are in a completely different world. I was also cognizant of my privilege in being able to spend USD in the country, a luxury the locals do not have.
Ho Chi Minh city
If Bangkok was a megacity, visiting Ho Chi Minh city was like exploring a new frontier. Given the city is still developing, it felt like how Shanghai was during my childhood, with lots of motorbikes, much fewer skyscrapers, and many more small buildings. In contrast to the many malls in Bangkok, HCM only had two main malls. There were nowhere near as many foreigners living in the city, and there were many more backpacker-type tourists than the digital nomads in Bangkok.
Although I say HCM is still developing, the city still has everything you need from a modern city, with plenty of restaurants, stores, bars and clubs, and other points of interest. I can see the city becoming a megacity in the coming decades.
Final thoughts from my journey to the East
After traveling through East Asia and Southeast Asia, I’ve come to further embrace my identity as a Chinese American.
Having grown up as a minority, it felt like a breath of fresh air to be amongst people who looked like me. Instead of feeling like a background character in the West nor sticking out like a sore thumb in regions like Latin America, I was just an ordinary person in Asia, especially in East Asian, Mandarin-speaking cities like Shanghai and Taipei.
On that note, I’ve found my Mandarin to come in clutch several times in places I did not expect. Naturally, I spoke Mandarin in Shanghai and Taipei to communicate with my grandparents and for everyday interactions. Surprisingly, I was also able to communicate better with several Thais and Vietnamese in Mandarin than in English.
What started with a one-way ticket to Shanghai became an unforgettable trip at a very unique point in my life. I will fondly remember the memories I made visiting relatives, catching up with friends, making new friends, and going on new experiences.
Thanks for reading! For those interesting in joining a community of Asian diaspora in the West who are interested in living in Asia, check out a community I’m part of called Journey To The East.