Meet Coco

Founder of Path & Pause · Shanghai

I am not a tour guide. I am someone who has lived on both sides of the world — and built a bridge between them.

I studied and worked in York, England for three years. Lived in France for two years. Then in 2016, I packed a bag and took my daughter Sammi — just the two of us — across 32 countries.

That trip changed everything.

The best travel moments were never the famous landmarks. They were the morning market vendor who let Sammi help weigh vegetables. The neighbourhood noodle shop with no English menu and the best broth I have ever tasted. The side streets nobody photographs.

I came back to Shanghai and founded Path & Pause — not as a business, but as a bridge. Because I kept seeing the same gap: foreign visitors who wanted to understand China, really understand it, but did not know where to start. And a China full of warmth and texture that was simply not showing up in any guidebook.

I know what confuses Western travellers here — the apps, the payments, the unwritten rules. I also know which alleyway has the best breakfast in the French Concession, which ancient town is worth the 5am alarm, and which must-see attractions you can happily skip.

Path & Pause is a one-woman company. Every itinerary comes from me, not a template. If you are the kind of traveller who wants to feel a place — not just photograph it — we will get along just fine.

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Find your path. Take your pause.