31th May 2007

Morning call at 6am, it was a rainy and windy day. First stop, we went to ????, used by both motor vehicles and train. ?? is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa, and the Amazon in South America. The river is about 6,380 km long and flows from its source in Qinghai Province, eastwards into the East China Sea at Shanghai. The view was simply spectacular!!

Advancing to ??? (not the Li MoChou from Legend of Condor heros!) its called sorrow-free lake, and used to be Rock city lake. The triangle-shaped lake exhibits varied flowers and trees which lie amidst Shenqi Pavilion and other ancient structures.

Nanjing is also known as a “Crystal City”, many craft artificers, especially those who draw inside the crystal as the raw materials for art production and research. Our next stop is the Nanjing jade carvings workshop. Inside they sell a lot of different jade, so if you like jade, this will be the place for you. I got myself a signature-stone-chop. You know those type where people have their names carved on a stone den chop the stamp instead of signing? Yea! so happy! But this one very cheap, is make for fun one. When i become big boss den i make a good one : ) After a hour of waiting for those people who want to buy jade, we had lunch there, as we are still in Nanjing, Salt water duck is a must-served dish, the other dishes are all very salty, not to our taste buds.

Our last stop before leaving Nanjing, we went to the Ancient City Square, built about 600 years ago where the ruins of the Ming dynasty underground palace is. A stele on the turtle shape has been written to praise Zhu Yuan Zhang (first Ming emperor) by his son Zhu Di. Leaving Nanjing, we carried on our journey to Wuxi, a 2 half hours bus ride. Zzz…

Wuxi is an old industrial city in Jiangsu province. Split into halves by Lake Taihu, Wuxi borders Changzhou to the west and Suzhou to the east. The northern half looks across to Taizhou to the north over the Yangtze River, while the southern half also borders the province of Zhejiang to the south. Because of its recent development, Wuxi has been dubbed the “little Shanghai”

When we was in Nanjing, we received news that Wuxi water has problem, because most of its water is from Taihu, the lake was overtaken by a major algae boom authorities are blaming on the lowest water levels in 50 years. However, low water levels alone do not usually cause the blooms. In increase in nutrients, from fertilizer, for example often create conditions conducive to algae blooms. The algae has given the water a blue color and a foul smell, making the water unusable. The water was smelly and stinky, after eating can’t wash hand, after going toilet can’t wash hand, even at night some people never bath : )

Anyway back to the journey, our first destination is Li garden (in memory of Fan Li - the lover of Xi Shi). When we reached, the wind was very strong, so it was rather cold taking a stroll in the garden. We have to battle wind and rain, but for the scenary its worth it!

It was about evening time after we finish at Li garden, so we went to the restaurant, but as it was still a bit early, we went to take another stroll in Wuxi central garden, there is a lot of buildings build for filming purposes. Does this picture looks familar to you? Yep we are in Europe!! haha

Dinner time, Wuxi Pork ribs being the famous local dish, is very nice. Wuxi cuisine (unlike Nanjing cuisine which is salty) is sweeter, every dish is sweet sweet one. Beware, lots of sugar! haha. But i like their cuisine, more suitable for Singaporeans i feel.

We went shopping after dinner at Parkson (opened by the malaysia shopping centre yes), nothing much to buy one, the price about the same as Singapore, so everyone ended up in the basement floor, shopping in the supermarket. lol 

Wuxi is quite prosperous too, mayb not comparable to Shanghai & Hangzhou, but still better than Suzhou. After Hangzhou, i quite like Wuxi, if not for the smelly water! We will visit Three Kingdom city, the pearl factory & the china pottery factory tomorrow. Next stop: Back to Shanghai

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30th May 2007

We began the day with a visit to ??, taking a boat ride one round around the lake which is 15km. ?? is a famous fresh water lake located in central Hangzhou. ?? is divided by three causeways called Su Di (??) , Bai Di (??), and Yanggong Di (???). The name ?? is also used by a large number of lakes in China and surrounding countries (with 800 West Lakes in China) . However, the lake in Hangzhou is the most famous of these, and the terms “West Lake” and “Xi Hu” generally refers to this lake. The scenary of ?? is simply mesmerising, with three small island in the middle of the lake.

Traditionally, there are ten best-known scenic spots on the West Lake, each remembered by a four-character epithet. Collectively, they are known as the “Ten Scenes of West Lake” (????). Each is marked by a stela with the epithet written in the calligraphy of the Qianlong Emperor.

After a 30min ride around the lake, we headed to our next destination. ????. Its a garden beside the lake, the tablet is written by Qianlong, did anyone spot any mistake? Yep, the word ? is purposely written wrongly (not that Qianlong don’t know his chinese). The word ? should have 4 dots, but in the tablet he wrote it as 3 dots because he believe 4 dots mean fire, fish in xi-hu can’t be living on fire rite? : )

Inside ????, there is a peacock garden, the peacock roam around the garden freely with tourists standing by the side taking photos and admiring their beautiful feathers. White Peacock! Cool huh?

Proceeding on to ????? to understand the tea culture. Hangzhou, also called Tea city, produces ???? which is praises as “Green Queen”and “National Tea”. There we learn about how to appreciate tea, the usefulness of drinking tea, and how to differientate top grade tea with a lower grade tea. For the top grade AAA tea, it cost 1300RMB per 600g, AA grade tea 900RMB per 600g and A grade tea 600RMB per 600g.

Following lunch, we carried on to Nanjing, 4 half hours road trip!! The longest journey throughout the 8 days, so sleep and sleep. We stopped at a rest-area in Yixing (south of Wuxi) after two hours. The place is just beside ??, which is the intersection of Jiangsu & Zhejiang Provience. ?? is four times the size of Singapore and being a fresh water lake, it rears many things such as white prawn, white fish, pearl and the famous Da Zha Xie (crabs)

Another two hours of bus ride, we finally reached Nanjing. By the time we arrived in Nanjing, it was dinner time, so we went to the restaurant straight at ??? to taste Nanjing Famous Salt water duck. Nanjing cuisine is renowned for being salty in taste, and its really true, all the dishes are salty, so we ate lots of white rice and drink lots of water after the meal. In my opinion, throughout the eight days in China, the meals in Nanjing is the most-not-nice, mayb we can’t get used to the salty-dishes.

Finishing dinner, shopping time at Qing Huai river!! The shopping time was too little, 1 half hour only, we barely got enough time to shop. When nighttime falls, the whole area of Qing Huai river lights up and become very beautiful.

The place is also quite famous for ???, and the guide told us where the best one can be found. First conclusion of ???? Its really very smelly! But after eating it, quite okay not as smelly.

We reach our hotel at 1030pm. Ah, forgot about the brief description of Nanjing. is the capital of China’s Jiangsu Province and a city with a prominent place in Chinese history and culture. Nanjing has served as the capital of China during several historical periods, and is listed as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. Nanjing is also one of the fifteen sub-provincial cities in China’s administrative structure, enjoying jurisdictional and economic autonomy only slightly less than that of a province. Somehow Nanjing feels more eerily, according to the guide, it is because Nanjing has been through many battles, and during the Japanese occupation of Nanjing, they massacre a lot Nanjing people. Being a “stone” city, it is easy to defend against, and good place to launch attacks from. Next stop: Wuxi

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29th May 2007

Waking up 630am early in the morning, we find ourselves in Suzhou. After having breakfast, we went to the Silk Factory and learn about the process of silk making. The silk was as smooth as silk (very nice to touch!!) Anyway, most of us got psycho about how good the silk blanket and silk pillow was, one silk pillow is 240RMB (S$48), silk blanket 400RMB (S$80), and also the silk bed protector 500RMB (S$100). After leaving Silk factory, we find our wallets considerately lighter.

Lunch was at a restaurant serving local farmers food, the food was nice, with a special dish called red baised lamb.

The journey carried on to ??. 1 half hours from Suzhou to ??. Does the name ?? sounds familar to you? Yep! Thats the place where S.H.E shoot their newest album first hit ???!! Go and see ??? MV now if you don’t believe. haha. ?? is a water town with its original taste, a culture with a thousand years of history. Also called the “little Venic water town” There’s a river which flows right through the town, and the town is preserved in its original state, that means its not a place build to attract tourist, but its exactly how it used to be. 

The guide bring us and walk upstream along the river to see different places; the local people house (yes there are still elders living there), the local people wine house, the clothe dyeing factory, how the local culture is, and many more. But to tell the truth, it was all dull work. Especially because the weather was very hot and humid that day. But luckily we only need to walk once, on the way back, we took a boat (must buy tickets one) following the river downstream back to the entrance. The river and the scenary was really very beautiful!

Coming to an end at ??, we proceed on to Hangzhou (another 1 half hours bus ride). Hangzhou is a sub-provincial city in the People’s Republic of China and the capital of ?? province. As one of the most renowned and prosperous cities of China for much of the last 1,000 years, Hangzhou is also well-known for its beautiful natural scenery, with ?? as the most noteworthy location. There is a praising sentence for describing Hangzhou and Suzhou, “????,????” which means Above the heaven there is the paradise. Below it, there are Suzhou and Hangzhou.

After reaching Hangzhou, we went to ????, which is built in 1489, being the largest institute of higher learning in the Hangzhou region during the Ming & Qing dynasties. Its name was further renowned by the legendary ill-fated lovers , ??? & ???. were said to studied in the same class for three years.

Carried on to ?? one of the three famous bridge in Hangzhou (the other two being ??& ???). At ??, it was build by the side of ??, and from there we could see the famous ???.

We progress to ?? Museum next, there is a model-size which shows the whole of Hangzhou city. Stunning isn’t it? The Museum gives us a better picture of the culture and history of Hangzhou, some of the famous people which had lived in Hangzhou before includes Su Dong Po, Yue Fei.

Dinner time! The local speciality today is Dong Po meat. The meat is nice, but too fatty for Singaporean’s liking. We emphasis on healthy lifestyle remember? : )

Beggar Chicken! Another Hangzhou dish, made famous by Ji Gong monk, it was said that he stole the chicken and was spot by the boss, in order not to get caught, he buried the chicken into the mud of the lake, so when the boss leave, he dug out the chicken and the meat was very nice.

Tonight we had nightlife entertainment. No no, not to clubs and pubs, but instead we went to Dong Po theatre to see a show, ????. The ticket was 150RMB per person (this amt not included in the tour, we have to pay extra for the “extra entertainment”) Anyway, the one hour show was excellent, full of excitement, chinese Gongfu by Shaolin monk, chinese acrobat, and plenty more. Very hard for me to describe the show in a few words, and too many pictures taken but could not show here : )

After a full day of journey, we finish and head to the hotel for the night, the hotel in Hangzhou should be the best among the many hotels we stay in for the whole trip. Coincidentally, out of the five cities, i personally feel that Hangzhou is the best, the city is so vibrant, although you may say Shanghai should be the most prosperous city, but somehow Shanghai has more of a Singapore-city feel, while Hangzhou gives a different feeling. From what the guide says, he describe the different cities in different manner, Shanghai money is spend on branded goods, Suzhou money is spend on decorating their homes, and Hangzhou money is spend on entertainment. Thats why Hangzhou is very prosperous because their people come out to spend money. Next stop: Nanjing!

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27th May 2007 

The China trip is to the following cities: Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, & Wuxi. The flight is Garuda plane (not luxury at all) at 2am, we need to check in at 1150pm, but we end up arriving super early at 1030pm. The plane food is not nice at all so i wont be showing the pictures. We arrived at Shanghai Pudong Int’l airport 7am 28th May. Shanghai is the biggest city in China also known as - The Oriental Paris

As the 8 days journey has too much things to share, i will be breaking down into 8 parts to desribe the 8 days, everyday we encounter a lot of things and took a lot of photos, so not possible to share everything, but i will try to highlight the essence of the tour. The tour is under SA tours, there is two bus, bus A & B, we are under bus A which has 31 person, and B has 22 person i think. But i am really glad we are in Bus A and not B because the people in A are younger (a lot children & teenagers), and also partly because the people from B are those typical-rich singaporeans; english-speaking and snobbish. Our bus 31 person is break down into 5 groups, group 1 consist of 6 malaysians; 1 mother, 3 kid, 2 young adults. Group 2 has 2 elders, 1 mother and her daughter, all also from malaysia. Group 3 has two parents, with three daughter, the eldest daughter, Veron is same age as me (singaporeans). Group 4 has 9 members from two family, Liwen, her mom, aunt and sister, and Yixing, his dad, mom, brother and grandma. We are in group 5, our family of 4 with my dad friend family of 3.  As you can guess, out of 31 members, 19 are from malaysia, i think the reason why i prefer our bus to bus B is because the malaysians are more friendly, and also bus B has more elders : )

So after leaving our luggage on the Coach, we went to take the Maglev train. Experience the world’s first 430km/hr (or so they claimed) on board the train, for a normal vehicle to travel that distance it is 40mins, but taking the train, we took only 7mins. But the thing is even as we took 7min to arrive at the stop, we have to wait another half an hour for the coach to catch up and fetch us. lol

First stop: ??? has lots of tourist going, from the place we alight, have to walk 5min before we reach the place. The buildings there are all low-traditional with ??? feel. But inside there are stores like starbucks, haagan-diaz, and lots of small shops selling chinese products. We had our first taste of the famous ??? in Shanghai, the guide say this store is the most famous selling ??? so we wait for the long q.

Do you know: The Shanghai version of the xiaolongbao were originally from a town called Nanxiang, a suburb of Shanghai in the Jiading District. The inventor of xiaolongbao originally sold them in his first store in Nanxiang next to the town’s famous park, Guqi Garden. From there on it has expanded into downtown Shanghai and outwards. Two specialist Xiaolongbao restaurants are traditionally regarded as the most authentic. One is the Nanxiang Bun Shop (Nanxiang Mantou Dian), which derives from the original store in Nanxiang, is famed for its crab meat-filled buns.

16 xiaolongbao for 20RMB!! How cheap is that man, one xiaolongbao barely cost 30 Singapore cents. There is also another type, filled with crab egg. That one is 6 xiaolongbao for 20RMB, we did not tried that because the restaurant was full, but its definitely better than the normal xiaolongbao filled with meat i guess. But still, the xiaolongbao we tried is the authentic xiaolongbao in Shanghai. 

After that, we went walking around, there is a food-court type selling all the Shanghai ??, but not much people eating, and the food does not seems too hygienic so we did not try any. After shopping around for 1 hr, we head back to the bus and go for lunch. One thing i’ll like to say now, during our 8 days tour, we did not have too special food, every meal is very normal, chinese restaurant serving 8 dish 1 soup and plenty of rice. Steamed eggs, xiao bai cai, steamed fish, meat, are some of the dishes which we almost had everyday. But on occasions we had some of the special dishes like Hangzhou Dong-po meat & Beggar Chicken, Nanjing  Salted water duck, Wuxi Pork ribs. Other than that, our lunch and dinner are simple meals with simple chinese dishes, join tour is like that one, they can’t be providing good food every meal. So i will only be showing the special local food we have sampled.

After lunch, we leave Shanghai and head for Suzhou (we come back to Shanghai on the 5th day). The journey to Suzhou takes about 1 half hours. Suzhou is a city with a long history on the lower reaches of ??, and on the shores of ?? in the provience of ??. The city is renowned for its beautiful stone bridges, pagodas, and meticulously designed gardens, which has become a great tourist attraction. Suzhou has also been an important center for China’s silk industry.

Anyway, upon reaching Suzhou, we passed by the Singapore Industrial Park, and went to ?? which consists of two parts, East garden and West garden. ?? represents a unique Suzhou garden architecture, in old china days it is a garden in the house of a rich offical. But to be honest, listening to the local guide explain about the history of ?? is very boring. So i am very glad when we leave there and went to Guan Quan street, its the most famous shopping street in Suzhou, there we brought the local food products, some sweets and snacks.

After one hour shopping at Guan Quan street, we proceed to ??? which is also known as Fengqiao temple, which was delicated to a Tang Dynasty abbot who once presided there. After which, the bus bought us to Qi li shan tang river where we took pictures of the beautiful river. We had dinner at a typical chinese restaurant, Suzhou cuisine taste is plain. Here’s a interesting fact, China beer is very cheap, two bottle of beer can only be exchange for one bottle of coke. Guess how cheap is that? haha

Following dinner, we head to the hotel for the night, Greentree Inn to rest. We reached the hotel quite early about 7pm because the previous night we did not have much of a sleep (5hours on plane). The hotel is not too shabby, just that the location is quite remote. That marks the end of the first day in China Suzhou, i did not show too much pictures due to space constraint, i have taken a lot pictures, if you like to see, i can always send you the pictures : ) Next stop: Hangzhou!

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