Dividend Funded China Trip

 

I am finally back on Chinese soils, after 23 years when I first visited Shanghai as a teen. Since the pandemic, intense lockdowns have made it difficult to visit China. 

Now that borders are reopened and flight prices have subsided, I decided to make a trip to China for sightseeing and chillaxing.

This is a budget trip with promotional Singapore Airline flight at $277 round trip per pax and 3 star accommodation for $200 over 5 nights.

I get to experience the impeccable service of Singapore Airlines. Watching Euro match between Slovakia and England on a plane while sipping Singapore Sling at 36000 feet above ground in the skies is something so surreal. There is also free Wifi for economy passenger with Krisflyer membership. Supper and dessert are sumptuous too.

This is a fully digital payment immersion in China as we went cashless totally by equipping with Alipay and WeChat apps linked to Youtrip, OCBC app for scanning UnionPay QR codes and DBS UnionPay debit card as contingency.

All-in budget is merely $1k for a week in Shenzhen and Hong Kong for 2 pax, fully funded by dividends collected in the past weeks.

Shenzhen has enjoyed tremendous advancement and growth in the past 2 decades to become a modern smart city with standard of living comparable to Singapore's but edging out with more widely adoption of technologies such as analytics, AIs and robots.

We hope to experience a week of local lifestyle living life carefree while enjoying freedom to the maximum, without splurging like tourists.

Arriving early in the wee hours from the redeye SQ flight, an overnight bus from Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport to Luohu district costs 50 Yuan for 2 pax or S$9.43 using Alipay.

A bowl of noodles costs 13.9 Yuan or S$2.62 in a simple restaurant which is cheaper than Singapore.

In the evening, we visited the bustling Dongmen Pedestrian Street flooded with Tiktokkers singing and dancing activities. We enjoyed delicious snacks sitting down while different dancers whizzed by and street peddlers took up positions randomly.

On the 2nd day, we crossed the Shenzhen Luohu Port border for a day trip in Hong Kong. Clearing immigration on both sides was seamless other than the hazzle of filling up arrival forms manually.

We tried to go cashless in Hong Kong by just using Visa credit card where their MTR accepts Visa credit cards for selected gantries. The processing takes a day and I was appalled that it costs more than $7 to travel on MTR from Lo Wu to Tsim Sha Tsui East, where we visited the Avenue of Stars, Victoria Port and took a ferry to Central.

Handprint of many HK stars including Jackie Chan at the Avenue of Stars

View of Victoria Harbour

We paid just HK$5 for the ferry to bring us across to Central at the opposite end of the river for less than 10 mins ride.

We walked to Two IFC and headed up to L55  Observation Deck and Hong Kong Monetary Authority Museum which is open to the public including foreigners for stunning awesome view of the landscape and brief education of Hong Kong's monetary and banking history all for free!

We then headed to Central Market mall for lunch followed up ascending up the longest escalator in the world, the Central Mid-Levels.

We hopped on an electric pram, Ding Ding which has flat fee of just HK$3 (regardless of distance) to Quarry Bay MTR station, enjoying the ultimate roof top tourist experience.

As an MPACT shareholder, I visited the Festival Walk in the evening for dinner before heading back to Shenzhen. The mall is larger than expected and bustling with activities. It is surprising that a mall comparable to Vivocity in terms of retail presence is of subpar performance financially due to geographical differences.

On the 3rd day, we went to an outlet shop, Bigoff in Kingkey Banner Centre in Shajing, Shenzhen to do some shopping of branded authentic clothings. Prices are incredibly low as those are leftover stocks 2 to 3 years ago from the pandemic days. Puma, Reebok and Adidas tees range from $4 to less than $18 on average. Shoes are arranged according to foot sizes and many are outdated designs.

Wrapping up the 3rd day, we visited the Sea World where the focal point is a cruise ship, Minghua surrounded by many shops and restaurants with cool vibes.

As at time of writing, I am merely into the 4th day of this eye-opener mainland trip and has been enthralled by the overall experience, not just the digital payment, but also witnessing toilet analytics, robots entering lift and making coffees, smart hotel room controlled by voice, smart food ordering via qr scanning and so on.

It has been tiring with a lot of walking and exploration but I hope to enjoy more surprises and great experiences in the next 3 days before heading back to Singapore.

A decade ago, I could not imagine that I could travel without worrying about finances. After investing for close to a decade, I am finally able to do so with passive cash flows from dividends.  

This is a just quick sharing on my current travelling experience.

Thanks for reading.

With love & peace,

Qiongster