What I Packed and Wore in China

 You may have seen on my socials that my husband and I spent seventeen days visiting different areas of China this past November. I worked in Shanghai many years ago (2013-2014) and it felt wonderful to return to the "Magic City" and also explore several additional cities and regions that had been on my bucket list. You can find my Shanghai travel log here, my Zhangjiejie National Forest Park travel log here, my Tianmenshan National Forest Park travel log here, my Beijing travel log here, my Great Wall of China travel log here, my Xi'an travel log here, and my Suzhou travel log here. We visited China in late fall/early winter, meaning the weather ranged from pleasantly cool and sunny in Shanghai, Zhangjiajie, Tianmenshan, and Suzhou (65 to 70 degrees F or 18 to 21 degrees C) to frigid and windy up north in Beijing, at the Great Wall, and in Xi'an (30 to 35 degrees F or -1 to 2 degrees C). Today I want to share what I packed and wore for two and a half weeks in different regions of China. Since we had seventeen days and knew we would experience a variety of weather and temperatures, I made the decision to pack a larger checked bag instead of my usual carry-on to enable space for layers and gifts/souvenirs. In addition to a checked bag, I also packed my usual Tumi Voyageur Contine Weekender Laptop Bag. Please continue reading to see photos and details of the pieces I packed along with links to either exact items or similar current alternatives.

I will start with the dressier looks, since our trip spanned a couple of weeks that included my birthday (November 16th). I packed a Reiss tan wool coat, Reiss velvet halter neck dress, and my Christian Louboutin Pigalle 100 pumps for my birthday dinner in Beijing. In addition to the black velvet dress, I packed a paisley print silk knee-length shirt dress to wear with knee high boots. I also packed a cream sleeveless sweater, black faux leather shorts, and tights to style with the black leopard accent boots that you saw me wear frequently throughout this trip. I somehow did not take a photo of my whole body wearing it, but I also packed one of my Veronica Beard blazers--this one is a black and brown plaid print and I wore it with black skinny jeans and heels. For bags, I packed my black caviar Chanel Mini Flap and my Louis Vuitton Side Trunk PM in cognac leather.

Next I will go through the casual looks, starting with outerwear. I packed my Barbour Beadnell Barn Jacket in navy along with a Barbour quilted vest also in navy for layering. For tops, I packed multiple sweaters in navy, ivory, and navy/ivory stripe as well as a button-up denim shirt, long sleeve tees in ivory and navy blue, and several tanks for layering. For bottoms, I packed white jeans, blue jeans, black jeans, and a pair of Athleta "Endless" pants in tan for flights and additional casual wear. You see the black lace-up boots again along with a pair of Gore-tex waterproof Nike Pegasus sneakers for walking and hiking.

Since we planned a mix of city exploration and national park hiking, the final category to cover is activewear. I packed a cropped black hooded windbreaker and then also purchased a second tan cropped lightweight jacket from a Lululemon in the Xintiandi neighborhood of Shanghai. I also packed two sets of leggings and sport bras from my current favorite activewear brand (LSKD) in black and burgundy and a black baseball hat. A black nylon belt bag held all of our essentials to trade off carrying. I ended up also wearing this tan cropped jacket on our day trip to Suzhou, since the weather was mild and sunny the day of our visit.

You can shop the items I am wearing + similar items if what I am wearing is no longer available in the series of widgets below:

Packing for both cold and warm weather meant lots of layering pieces, and during our visit I ended up purchasing a fleece lined beanie (for Beijing's frigid temperatures) and the light jacket I mentioned above. I wore every piece in my suitcase at least once, with the MVPs/most worn items being my Barbour jacket, fleece vest, and Cole Haan lace-up flat boots. I hope you enjoyed this recap of what I packed and wore in China, thank you for visiting my blog today, and I hope you have a lovely week!