absolut ginger

Day 3 – 8th January 2009, Friday

We would be making our way back to Guilin town today. Breakfast this morning consist of soya milk, yao char kuai, fried noodles and dumplings, the usual. How I miss nasi lemak! It was still very cold that Friday morning. It’s amusing to see the people in Yangshuo making fires along the roads with a few of them huddled together over the fire burning from sticks and plank of woods!

View at Shangri-La

After breakfast, we went to a place they called Shangri-La. It’s a place where we get to see people from all tribes in Guilin in their “natural” habitat. I still feel it’s man made and very, very fake. However, some of the places looked quite nice, especially the withered trees in winter.

Some tribe sitting around a fire with jakun tourists looked on

Here, they have all kinds of activities for tourists to participate in. We also get to sample their native plum wine. Both May and I missed the drinks because we bypassed a sea of people drinking more than a cup. They have sale of all things embroidery – from a picture to small little balls, clothes and little knick knacks. The colorful embroidery were very much welcomed as they added vibrancy and life to the otherwise pale winter.

Nice embroidery

After that, we went to have our feet massage at Bao Shu Tang. That’s where we could get the famous Bai Fu Ling ointment at 250 renmenbi. My mom swore by this. She said it’s good for her aching joints and muscles, so I bought another tub for her. During the feet massage, the curious interns from Hainan Island asked if we had been to Yangshuo. We said we did. The two boys requested to see some pictures. So May showed them her video. It was kinda sad as these children haven’t been anywhere in China apart from their hometowns and now, in Guilin to work. Times are hard and these people work extra hard. That’s why TIME Magazine honored the Chinese workers in their “People of the Year” award.

We were famished by the time the foot massage finished. After lunch, we went to Fubo Hill. It was a well manicured garden with a small pagoda perched on top of a rocky mountain. Under the rocky mountain, there is a cave with inscriptions. There were also carvings of holy Buddha figurines in the cave that, the guide told us not to take pictures. I didn’t want to risk it so I didn’t.

A Garden in Fubo Hill

To my surprise, they even have a shop in the garden; the jade shop. The owner claimed that he had made a lot of money that day and told us, he said he would not talk about business and claimed that he’s from Melaka, studied in the US since he was 7 and graduated from MIT. From the way he spoke, I don’t think he’s telling the truth. He pronounced “glass” as “grass”. Hahahah! However, everyone was sold by his charm and most of us bought some horoscope jade as “amulet” as protection. Ladies are such suckers for charming personality!

By the end of the visit to the jade shop, most of the people in the group were somewhat pissed with the amount of time spent at designated shops. We missed some of the important landmarks within the compound such as the statue of goddess of mercy on top of the cave. The Klangites were furious and wanted to file a complaint against the tour guide for time mismanagement. I guess they didn’t realize that most trips to China are considerably cheap as the hotels and food have been subsidized by these novelty shops and it’s the tour guide’s duty to ensure that, all these shops which sponsored the trip are visited for at least an hour each!

It was then, I received 2 smses from home. It’s sad to know the state Malaysia is in right now. High court’s decision is no longer respected and acts of barbaric terrorism took place. The smses acted as an ice breaker. Most of us who didn’t really speak to each other throughout the trip began to give their two cents worth. I dreaded Guilin’s weather. I dreaded going home  even more now to a place where hooligans’ rule. God save Malaysia. I can’t wait for the next election! Please people! Get registered! Change your address if you are not voting from home unless you prefer to fly back to respective hometowns to vote! Stop complaining things are not done right when you don’t even bother to vote at the first place!

Night view of the pagoda around Banyan & Cedar Lake

After dinner, we were off to Zhenyang street, where the flea market is. Here, you could get all sorts of things. I think it’s a great place to shop for winter apparels. Everything was somewhat cheap but you could still bargain it up to your preferred price. I wished that we could have more time to buy things.

Before going back to the hotel, the tour guide took us around the Banyan & Cedar Lake again to get the night view. It was rather breath taking. However, the weather was too cold that the four of us decided to stay put in the bus and enjoyed the night view from the bus!

Cutest shot

This concludes my very short trip to Guilin. I guess it would be better if we could get around Guilin on our own and spend more time admiring the beauty of this place, rather than spending time at those novelty shops with a bunch of loud hooligans. Also, the tour guide is a dumb prick for  rudely waking us up and expect us to get down the bus within 30 seconds after we stirred from our sleep. My eyes couldn’t even adjust before I clumsily walked down the bus!

Perhaps, it’s better to visit this place during spring! The winter in January was too cold for me that it even dampens my mood to shop!

For more pictures, please check it out here.

PS. We met this cute little girl on our way back to Kuala Lumpur. The mother was such a dumbass for not buying a seat and almost ended sitting in between May and I before I glared at the air stewardess to let the mom and daughter to sit in front of us. There were like 30 empty seats in front of us and Air Asia had to slot two of them in between us!

Also, the Klang hooligans tried to make themselves comfortable by sitting on the hot seats in front without paying and totally ignored the announcement by the Chief Stewardess to follow the designated seats. Memang BTC! They eventually moved back because they were asked to buzz off. Haha! Apart from the annoying hooligans, the flight back on AK103, 9th January 2010 was a pleasant one . The Chief Stewardess is very attentive. When I ordered Ipoh White Coffee, she actually gave me an extra cup of water because she said, it’s too sweet and I might need to add water! Bravo to this Chief Stewardess!

Oh yeah.. I totally forgot to write about Mr Fuyong Tan. We gave him this nickname because during our meals, he asked for a menu to add on some dishes and we all thought he’s going to order something exotic.. since we are in Guilin…  but he ended ordering fuyong tan! LOL! Can’t blame him though as he has a sensitive stomach. Anyway, this Mr Fuyong Tan was in Guilin with his new bride for their honeymoon! I guess it’s best to have honey moon here since there’s nothing much to do at night. LOL!

9 Comments | In: Travel | tags: china, guilin. | #
Posted by Gina

Day 2, 7th January 2010, Thursday

We were given 7 am morning call. Today, we would be making our way to Yangshou, the smaller town outside Guilin and stay there for a night. Breakfast consisted of stir fried kueh teow, some cold noodles, plain porridge, steamed potatos, dumplings, mini meat paos and yao char kuai. That’s about it. No egg, rice or lap cheong. Si beh sien!

Yangshuo is about an hour bus ride away from Guilin. I was about to fall asleep the moment I got on the bus as the tour guide was super boring! But, I tried to keep my eyes opened and it was worth it because there was beautiful landscape of rocky mountains along the way! Slowly lulled by the chilling wind, most of us slept in the bus.

We were rudely awakened by emergency brake. The driver stopped for a group of water buffaloes to cross the road. Since it’s about 30 minutes more before reaching our destination, we tried to catch some sleep again. It was then, 3 hooligans in the family group of 8, sitting behind me spoke at the top of their voices in Klang hokkien, with total disregard for other people. We learned about who she was going out with, who she’s fucking and then, ended with one bitch with very badly colored ah lian hair laughing hysterically like a bloody witch. May, Lil and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.  Sibeh tulan! The witchy bitch then complained that, the tour guide didn’t do her job properly by talking throughout the journey to Yangshuo. I was very tempted to tell her, who needs the tour guide when we could listen to your bed stories? But I kept my mouth shut.

The moment we got off the bus at Yangshuo, we went to use the washroom. To our horror, the four toilet cubicles do not have doors!! The ladies were apprehensive to go but then, rather than holding our pee throughout the 30 minutes ride, we might as well go. We took turns to shield each other to avoid baring our asses. Everybody was amused. Macam free show!

Cruising on Li River

The cruise on the two rivers and four lakes was not very inspiring because the lakes and connected rivers were very small indeed. It looked like some big longkang only. Well, it’s because January is the driest month with the least rainfall. However, the water was clear and shallow.  I guess the view would be much better in spring. We sat on a bamboo made raft with roof. We were served cold tea and groundnuts. I didn’t touch the tea because it was too cold and the groundnuts didn’t look appetizing at all.

The fisherman and his birds.. LOL

Then, we were “entertained” by fish-catching show by the fishing birds. The bird’s neck was tied with a rope so that, as soon as the bird catches a fish, the fish would not be able to pass through its throat and the fisherman would harvest the fish. If the fishes caught were small, then the bird could eat the fish. It was somewhat an inhumane exploitation. I seriously hope that no one would sign up for this thing anymore even if it was indeed a dying “art”.

Actually, we didn’t plan to go to this place as we opted to watch only the “Impression of Liu San Jie” but then was told by KL’s travel agent that, this show is NO LONGER IN PRODUCTION. What a dumb fuck! It’s always there! Just that, usually the show is closed for a month during Chinese New Year as most performers would take the month off to return to their respective hometowns. So, the travel agent in KL is totally fucking irresponsible to tell me – no longer in production!! They could have told me to sign up for the package when we reached Guilin instead. If you want to know which travel agent I am talking about, please write to me. I don’t want to be sued for libel or defamation, even if they are such pricks and dumb fucks.

Colorful “Silver” Cave

Anyway, after the fish-catching show, we were hurried to go over to the Silver Cave for a look see. To me, it was not really impressive. It’s typical China’s way of trying too hard to impress tourists with their “natural wonder” further enhanced by artificial lighting in the cave. I’ve seen the similar thing in Halong Bay before, so I was not impressed. Further the cave is  so warm – about 20°C compared to the outside temperature of 2°C. So imagine how my camera “sweated” in both cold and hot area at the same time.

As soon as we were out from the cave, we were rushed to have dinner. The tour guide kept reminding us to eat faster as we were running out of time. In the first place, you should have cut short the visit to the cave, or maybe don’t force us to sign up for this nonsense. Then, she came by to our table as soon as we wanted to get a second helping and said, you have 3 minutes. I was fucking pissed having to gobble up the dinner and most of us ended eating half way – especially those slow eaters. Damn fucking tu kao lan!

Impression of Liu San Jie

We ran like mad to the bus and then, when they dropped us at the Impression of Liu San Jie’s area, we brisk walked in the rain to the show. The show already started when we reached our seats. It was a good thing that they provided us with plastic rain coats. Thank goodness I wore my long john that night. Otherwise, I would have frozen to death. Since it was raining, it’s very cumbersome to snap photos. I didn’t want to my camera to get wet! Anyway, it was quite an impressive show. Our jaws practically dropped and touched the ground! Haha! There were so many people performing on the lake, overlooking picturesque rocky mountains. They were skilled boat men and women. There were fires, lights, flowing cloth, full costumes, etc. It’s very “Zhang Yimou”-ish. Poise, grace and artsy-fartsy. We enjoyed it. The one hour show seemed to end too early. Never mind even when we were at the verge of hypothermia.

When we got back to the hotel, it was already almost 10.00 pm. Even though it rained and it was super cold, we took baths as we couldn’t stand not taking a shower entire day. We got out from the hotel around 10.45 pm to visit West Street and most shops were already closed. We ended having McDonald’s pork burgers! Perhaps it was a Malaysian thing. Haha.

Not so nice pork burger

When we got to McDonald’s, there is no pork listed on the menu so we asked the cashier. She took out a separate menu and showed us two value meals of the pork burger. I chose the pork burger with two fried chicken drumlets and orange juice. Then, both May and I went to find a seat.

Mana tau… we waited and waited and both Ah B and Lil were still stuck at the counter. May went over to check what was going on. The cashier keyed in ala carte prices for the burgers and she said she couldn’t cancel it. If we want the drumlets or chocolate pie, we had to buy it separately. This is so damn fucking stupid. They talked till the manager came out and he also insisted they cannot cancel the order. The thing is, it’s the cashier’s mistake and not ours. We specifically wanted 4 value meals and she ended keying in 4 pork burgers only. My gawd. Sometimes, I really don’t understand what is wrong with these people? Can’t even understand simple instruction.. Is our mandarin that bad meh?? Ah B is Chinese-ed mah!

Anyway, we went on ordering fries and drinks. We ended the night walking a short distance along West Street. Some of the pubs were also closed already and it was not even midnight! Since we were already tired with whole day of rushing up and down, we called it a night. Oh.. I forgot to mention the horror that, most (all!) hotels in Yangshuo do not have elevators.. so get ready to move your things up yourself!

6 Comments | In: Travel | tags: china, guilin. | #
Posted by Gina

Day 1 – 6 January 2010, Wednesday

I stayed over at Ah B’s house so we could get to the airport together and share the cab cost. After meeting up with May and Lil at 5.10 am, we proceeded to check in for our 6.40 am flight and had our coffee break.

Air Asia AK102 was on time much to our delight. When breakfast was served, the kanjiong air stewardess – whom I recognized from my trip to Bangkok last September bypassed us and didn’t give us our pre-booked meal. Sibehtulan! We were sitting on the sixth row and she just pushed the cart hurriedly right to aisle 15. I looked fucking stupid waving our boarding passes at her. May was very amused with my tulan-ed face.

After having our meals, the nasi goreng (with satay) tasted like overnight rice and I almost broke a tooth chewing, we slept. It was not a good sleep though as there was a guy sitting behind me, nicknamed Fuyong tan (stories later) sneezing repetitively and blowing his nose away.

Port where we embarked our boat for a cruise along Lijang River

We got down to a rather chilly weather. Before getting down the plane, we were advised to get back on the plane because there was no officer at the thermal scan and also, I think at the immigration counter, which was super ridiculous lah. Lucky for me, I had time to put on a jacket otherwise, I would be freezing to death.

The Elephant Trunk Hill

We were greeted by our tour guide, Ms Tan Li from Guilin. Gathering the group of 26 seemed like forever because everyone somewhat suffered from uncontrollable bladders that made them going to toilets a few times within the 20 minutes wait, we were set to go to our first stop – a cruise along Lijang River.

I love China!

We were quite excited with the cruise initially but then, when some inconsiderate people behaved anally by smoking in the boat, we were fucking pissed. Then, we went up to the boat deck for some fresh and freezing air. It was damn cold!! So, we had no choice but to go down to the hell hole of smoke and increased our risks of cancer.

Wolf-dog running along the river

Negativity aside, it was quite interesting to watch the inhabitants along Lijang River going about their daily activities unfazed by cruising boats of camera trigger-happy tourists. Most of the pictures were pale as the skies were in perpetual grey and dark shades due to winter. January is the coldest month in Guilin!

Daily activity

We also visited Banyan Lake & Cedar Lake and that’s where the famous twin pagodas that made were the backdrop of  Guilin’s landscape in tourism brochures. Here, the elderly danced, exercised with swords, doing qigong, played chess, etc to wile the day away. It’s really stress free for the elderly here.

Elderly chatting away the coldness

The twin pagodas – Gold & Silver towers

Then, we went to some silk shop. I think. I could hardly remember anything about this trip as most of the time; I closed my eyes the moment I got on the bus. Haha! Lil bought a silk quilt and the only one in the group buying silk! I think Suzhou probably has the best silk. Of course, followed by the tea factory, etc. You know. Those typical China tours packed with shopping, shopping and more shopping at selected places catered for gullible tourists like us. A note though, I think the pu er tea at Dr Tea is worth buying. You can get a box of 15 year old tea leaves cake for CNY200 – and bargain for other little freebies like Osmanthus Tea and Tian Qi leaves. We were told that, only unmarried girls are allowed to climb the tea tree to pluck leaves. So, in Yunnan province where most pu er tea trees are grown, the young ladies as young as 15 climb trees.

The plain meehoon – quite ok tasting

Mee hoon is their main staple, other than rice. We were served meehoon on several meals. They could be cooked in soup or kon lou style. I bought a few packets home for my mom to cook for the family. I think I am going to eat the mee hoon later for Sunday lunch. Haha.

It was an exhausting first day. We went to watch Dream Like Lijang after dinner.  We were sort of “coerced” into buying this package together with the trip to visit a cave for CNY250. The tour guide said if we don’t go for the cave tour, we might be stuck in the bus doing nothing. I felt somewhat tulan about this but let it go. Since we were all there, we might as well use our time to the fullest and be cincai a bit lah.

At the Dream Like Lijang show, I think the acrobatic performers watched us instead as most of us were sleeping. I woke up only to clap whenever the crowd clapped. It was something that you usually watch on tv, so nothing surprising. Unless you haven’t been to China before, or maybe, totally no exposure on Chinese acrobatics; you might probably be impressed by this show.

We called it a night at Guilin Licheng Holiday Hotel. It was quite ok hotel. The only complaint is probably there is no bidet to wash your ass if you don’t feel like taking a shower in the cold weather. Haha!

A very cheap and nice supper!

We bought some instant noodles for supper. It cost only CNY3.50 (about RM1.75) for one big bowl compared to RM5 to RM6 back home!

11 Comments | In: Travel | tags: china, guilin. | #
Posted by Gina

Day 5, 24th October 2009, Saturday

It was pretty hectic day on Saturday. Most mornings were wasted at those specialty shops. The trick to visiting China’s specialty shop is – to be the last one to get your deal, you would end up having the best deal. When we were visiting the green tea shop, we also “made” to pass by their shopping centre located on the way out. We gotten 5 packets of Taiwanese mochi for 100 yuan where another group of girls gotten theirs – 7 packets for the same price! You tulan or not??

So, when we were visiting the chrysanthemum plantation on the last day, we just showed disinterest. At first, they were selling 2 boxes of good grade chrysanthemum for 200 yuan. We ended carting away 5 boxes of good grade chrysanthemum for the same price. So people, repeat with me – Show disinterest, be the last to bargain, get at least 50% off (this does not apply to the green tea though. But you can bargain to get more freebies).

I think I like Tongxiang Leather Market the best. We went on a hunting bargain. I managed to get two pairs of leather gloves at 70 yuan and a nice hobo leather bag at 100 yuan (original price was 500 yuan!). It’s really thrilling to do the bargaining here. Anyway, if you are a local, they would straight away quote cheaper prices. We were looking at some wallets as presents for my dad and cousin brother when a local group dropped by. The sale assistant immediately offered them 20 yuan per wallet! As for us, we had to bargain till the cows come home and we still have to pay 40 yuan!

Soongchen transports you back to ancient times

Anyway, after the “brutal slaughtering” of prices at Tongxiang Leather Market, we went off to Soongchen. It was a theme park in Hangzhou. Here, the staff all dressed in their ancient clothings. It surely transported you back in time during the glorious days of the Chinese Dynasties the moment you stepped into the place. We had a good time walking about the area. However, since it was a weekend, there were seas of people again! A whiff of foul-smelling tofu lingered in the air, peddlers actively selling their food and wares, jugglers performing, fire eaters, acrobats showing their gracefulness, puppets play, etc. There was even a guy holding a gong and hitting it periodically like the olden days – asking people to beware of fires at night.

Graceful dancers, fit for a king

After a brief walkabout, we went to watch the Soongchen show: Romance of Three Kingdom. Actually, I seriously have no idea what the show is all about but then, it was spectacular! Imagine – rain falling in the theatre! They even have waterfalls, live battles with canons and real fire and live horses running about! The scene I enjoyed the most is probably two dancers dancing in the dark with only two green spotlights. Made it looked somewhat artistic and futuristic. The show was put up by “second” grade dancers according to our tour guide. They don’t look like second graders to me! They are simply awesome! There were many oohs and ahhs throughout the show!

Very, very yummy chicken thighs

After watching the amazing show, we were given time to walkabout again the place and of course, we had some dinner here. The baked chicken thighs are delicious!

Qihefang

Our last stop for this Eastern China’s trip was Qihefang. It’s Hangzhou’s walking street. Here, I think the walking street is about 10x longer than Jonker’s Walk in Melaka. There are rows of shops and little stalls in the middle of the lane. The place is quite spacious so you don’t have to bump into people while walking. It’s very comfortable to walkabout and not having to sweat because of the slightly cold weather. Get your things from the little stalls as the prices in shops are not negotiable. There were fireworks at the West Lake nearby when we were shopping there. It was really a lovely night!

We ended our fruitful trip with bags of silk quilts, pillows, green tea, pearls, wuxi pork ribs, chrysanthemum, teapots, leather goods, fake goods and little knick knacks. Of course, also the privilege to know some really nice people throughout the trip.

Some tips on going to the airport though. Please have your meals at the lower ground of Hangzhou airport before checking in. Hangzhou Airport is very strict as they scan your temperature even before letting you go to the check-in counters. Once you get into the check-in counter, you are not allowed to go out. So you had no choice but to go through immigration already.

After the immigration counters, there were only 3 shops selling food and drinks and I tell you, they cut throat! One sandwich meal is about 50 yuan! Many of us ended eating instant noodles as they are the cheapest! Please buy things from the shop nearest to the immigration counter as they are cheaper! Here, one bottle of 500ml mineral water is about 3 yuan while the last shop sells at 5 yuan for each bottle! You may also bring your empty bottles in as they have water dispenser there – but if you meet a group of aunties and uncles, then you won’t get any water because they would exhaust the warm water as if there were no water in Malaysia!

So, this post concludes the 5D4N trip to Eastern China.

4 Comments | In: Travel | tags: china, hangzhou. | #
Posted by Gina

Day 4 – 23rd October 2009, Friday

After breakfast, we made a stop at the Taihu Wuxi pearl factory. Tai Hu (Tai Lake) is also producer of fresh water oyster pearls, amongst other things. On how to detect real pearls, you just need to rub pearls against a mirror and there would be powdery substance emerged on the mirror and not biting it till your teeth cracks. LOL. The most expensive pearls are big and round ones.

Here, my aunt spent a bomb on getting a set of yellow pearl necklace and ear rings. Pearl powder in Malaysia costs RM5 for one small vial. The Chinese believes that, pearl has cooling properties, hence it’s good to consume it when you are having fever or perhaps, dab some of its powder if you have ulcer in your mouth. Here, one vial goes for as cheap as 80 sen!

After visiting the pearl factory, we went to have early lunch. Right after lunch, we were whisked away to this “Tong Ren Tang” selling herbs and Chinese medication somewhere behind the restaurant for a foot massage. I asked if we can have a foot massage right after a meal? I remember, we were advised to have foot massage on empty stomach? Not too sure, we went ahead anyway.

The thing is, the people there are really blood suckers! A guy in our group who has businesses in China said it was a bit overpriced. After getting our diagnosis – me being overweight (yes, one need not feel pulse to find that out!) and my aunt’s blood sugar is too high (she is partially diabetic), we were persuaded to buy some 2,600 yuan worth of medicine. Of course we didn’t buy anything. Apparently, this shop is a bit seedy and I was somewhat disgusted by the pushy “doctors” and person manning the place. Bloody hell.

We went to a Jade factory after that. As usual, they would tell you of their history and eventually hope that you would spend to buy something there. According to the guy who has businesses in China in our tour group, it’s very difficult to tell whether or not the jade is genuine. It’s because sometimes, they could fake the jade color by injecting colorings into jades. So, because of that, we didn’t want to buy anything. Further, I don’t think I have any interest in purchasing jade.

There was an argument broke out when the Kuching lass tried to bargain for a cross pendant and a jade ring at cheaper rates. I didn’t watch the entire commotion but, the argument went on for some time coz we all waited in the nice, breezy compound for them. When they came out, they looked pissed but eventually got what they wanted.

Then we made our one hour long journey to Shanghai. It was already about 7 pm when we reached Shanghai. We were greeted with a long stretch of highways with skyscrapers flanking both sides of the highways. Our jaws dropped in awe when we see the endless highway with buildings touching the skies! Most cars are imported – Buick, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volkswagon, etc. Heck, even the cabs are all Volkswagon or Mercedes Benz. The people here surely know how to travel in style!

By looking at the buildings alone, you could tell that Shanghai is so prosperous! It surely makes Kuala Lumpur look like some small kampong! At an intersection where the 6-tier highways were connected, there was a huge pillar with 9 golden dragons surrounding it. Since I couldn’t take any photos coz the bus was moving, here’s a scribble on how the highway looks like!

Illustrated Shanghai Night skyline along the highway

We were left at Shanghai Hong Qiao Da Tong Yang Market to shop for stuffs. The luggage bags here were cheap. You can get one 28 inch hard cover trolley bag for 280 yuan (RM140). I got myself a winter jacket at 200 yuan. Actually, we could have gotten it cheaper if not for the time limit imposed on us for shopping. We were given only an hour and half to shop and eat at the same time. After shopping, we went for a dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant. the owner spoke to us in Hokkien. He’s quite friendly. The food served was quite good. We had minced pork rice, saba fish, some ocien (yes – my aunt ordered it, I don’t know why), some stir fried pork and a plate of vegetables. Behind this restaurant, there was a group of kids practicing football. From the faces of the kids and the coach, I believed they are Koreans.

Football Night

Shanghai ‘s traffic on Friday night could be pretty daunting. The jam was horrendous. Our guide told us that, they have closed the Bund for construction of tunnels so in future all tourist buses and vehicles could be parked down at the tunnel in order not to overcrowd the Bund. These were all done to prepare for Expo 2010 Shanghai China next year from May 1 to Oct 31, 2010. So people, it’s not a good idea to travel to Shanghai next year on the respective months as it’s going to be crazy!

A night scene in Shanghai

We were then taken on a ferry to see the Shanghai skyline instead. Well, the tour guide is probably right. If you have been to Shanghai and didn’t go to see the beautiful night skyline, then you have never been to Shanghai. It was breathtakingly beautiful. My picture didn’t do any justice. You ought to visit Shanghai yourself.

Everything looks yummy in Nanjing Road

After the ferry ride, we made our way to Nanjing Road, the business district of Shanghai. Here you could find shops upon shops selling branded goods, pharmaceutical, restaurants and little knick knack shops. After a brief stop at Nanjing Road, we headed to  Xintiandi, the “Bangsar” of Shanghai. It’s definitely 10x more happening than Bangsar! Imagine tall girls with sexy long legs walking about in the knee high leather boots. High fashion seemed to be the order of the day. There were many mix of people from all over the world – all  dining and eating, and watching the night goes by, sitting side by side.

Stir fried pork slices

By that time, we were already too tired due to the traveling time. We called it a night at Hunan Hotel in Shanghai. This hotel is very old school. It somewhat made you think that you have traveled back in time during the “Shanghai Triad” time. They don’t serve mineral water in bottles. They put water in a glass flask, which I find really good for promoting environmental consciousness!

9 Comments | In: Doodles, Travel | tags: china, jade, pearls, shanghai, wuxi. | #
Posted by Gina