Jiu Zhai Gou

The saying goes:"once you've been to Jiuzhaigou, you are done seeing scenic waters". Jiuzhaigou is renowned for its colorful waters and multi-level falls, one of the World Heritage Sites. What's been captured by camera is just a tip of an iceberg. It's gorgeousness is beyond the scope of imagination, you have to see it with your eyes to appreciate the real beauty of it. The best season to visit Jiuzhaigou is October when the water level is high and sky is clear. I was there in raining May, but my joyfulness when actually seeing all the colors in the water was never less. You just couldn't help but be amazed by how much innovations our mother nature has put in creating this beauty.

Huang Shan

The other saying goes:"once you've been to Huangshan, you are done seeing scenic mountains". With that said, I‘m done seeing waters and mountains one thing for all in May! Being another World Heritage Site, Huangshan is known for its sunrise, as displayed on the upper-left corner of the picture, its pine trees, the lower-left corner, and of course, the view of clouds from above when you are standing on the peak and you feel like you are standing right on top of the clouds, which makes you think you are the Creator! However, none of these would happen if the sun doesn't pay a patronization. I happened to see the sunrise and pine trees, but not the clouds, which is perfectly fortunate already in a raining season like this.

Hong Cun

Well, another World Heritage Site, to the southwest of Huang Shan, Hong Cun is a small village town open to visitors. It's the location for one of the fighting scenes in "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon", which attracted even more tourists after the movie was named the Best Foreign Film on Oscar.

Guangzhou

The Forbidden City

As the name idicates, it's the "Forbidden" city, though it's open to tourists, armed policemen are everywhere ready to suppress unrest of any kind and arrest whoever dares a bold attempt to make a protest. To get anywhere close to it, you need to go through a security checkpoint and the stares of the security crew. Police lights are always on around that area as if making a warning, "DON'T be stupid", which gives one the shudder. So this is the capital of China, the very place where Chinese emperors have ruled this country for hundreds of years.

International Hostels

If you are on a budget trip in China, international hostels may be a good choice to stay. It's Chinese decoration, western life style, and most of all, it's cheap, few dollars per night if you choose to share the room with several other travelers just like you.

We stayed in three international hostels during that trip. Shown in the above picture, from left to right, hostels in Suzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shanghai respectively. Quite coincidentally, all of them theme in red, not surprisingly, because red represents energy and vitality in China, travelers, mostly the youngs, are that group of people.

Hangzhou

When people talk about Hangzhou, there's a good chance that they will talk about the West Lake. It is most famous for the TV series New Legend of Madame White Snake, based on a legendary story there. We used to watch that series over and over and over again each summer break and winter break, just as the way how Star Trek works here.

Probably I had too much expectations for it before I was there. It's quite disappointing when I was there only to see towns of tourists heading for the same spot. And every spot you want to visit, you will have to pay for admission fee, which is not cheap. Besides, things are quite different from what I saw in the TV series. Nevertheless, it's quite a beautiful lake, a good place to relax.

Suzhou

This was taken in the ancient city of Suzhou, apparently, it's modernized with all the neon lights and lanterns. But still, it's amazing view from the river. It has been there for like several hundred years now, probably with modern reconstructions on some of the buildings. Now it's a hot spot for tourists, consequently, commercial area.

Tian Zi Fang

Shanghai

have always wanted to take a tour in Shanghai given all the domestic and international exposure of this "international city". But when I actually was in Shanghai, nothing is like what I have expected. It's like everywhere you go is under construction, totally a huge construction site. yeah, I know it's part of Expo 2010, probably not the best time to tour there. Hope to be in Shanghai again during the Expo.

Day THREE - Shenzhen

深圳行政學院
Merida深圳
深圳大學

first day of 2009 in Guangzhou

7am, 1/1/2009
Guangzhou MTR


I WAS THERE

in Shenzhen

Having got used to the rapid pace in Hong Kong, it's a little bit uncomfortable to be somewhere not that fast-moving. The thing that I hate most in SZ is the traffic lights. It takes like 3 minutes to turn from red to green, and once caught by red light, it'll be "RED" all the way down. That's many 3 minutes wasted in waiting! If you're so lucky to be taking a cab and caught by a red light, congratulations, your heart might beat faster watching these little red numbers on the meter "move" every few intervals whilst waiting the traffic light. So my advice is taking metro!