Hello, I've so much to talk,share and summarize about my very first vacation with my hubby after our engagement on July. Well, well, we'll definitely have our wedding ceremony just like all the Asian parents wish for.
Anyway, is not about bragging or anything. I love to keep this as a record, a sweet memory and great time I've when I was in China. I do looking forward for trip to China maybe to Beijing next time to see how fascinating and breath-taking the world seven wonders : The Great Wall.
I know lots of people enjoying back-pack, but me, it really depends. If I were going place that I completely not familiar with I will rather pay more money and join a happy tour rather than being frustrated with all the transportation,messy map etc. This time, we joined our favourite tour guide which brought us to Korea 2 years ago. She was a very nice, friendly and caring lady.
The 1st day, after our half day work, we double checked our luggage and my father-in-law sent us to the tour leader house and 17 of us took bus to KLIA airport. We took MAS airline for about 4-5hours and then we arrived our destination. Once we arrived we were welcomed by the local tour guide Ms Miao who is a very young, petite lady. After put our luggage in the bus we were then took a maglev which made us arrived to the Shanghai 'Dong Fang Ming Zhu' in just 8mins (for a distance of 36km if I'm not mistaken), we were then had a briefing while waiting for our bus to arrive. We had our buffet lunch in a motion restaurant.
After the meal, we went to a lower level still in the 'Dong Fang Ming Zhu' Tower, and goodness, see I'm stood on a transparent glass and my heart was bumping so fast, the wind blew and I was very cold, but I can't hold how excited it was.
Later on, we took a picture of the tower before we head for our next destination. Each destination literally took 3 hours by bus.
Then, we went to Nanjing road, we saw aunties, ladies dancing on the road and I had a star fish seafood nugget from the China KFC, cool!
On the 1st night, we watched the China famous acrobatics act '' 杂技表演艺术 ''. I just can say 'WOW' if got chance I would really want to see this show again. Wonderful.
The 2nd day morning we went to Hangzhou to see the beautiful scenery of the Lake Xi Hu. We had our VIP little boat that fetched us around the lake. We even heard to famous Legend of White Snake who believed trapped in The Leifeng Ta. It was a very sad love story. See the pictures, it was such a nice place and soothing effect to my soul. hahaha
Hubby bought me some tidbits to eat. I love the farmers freshly steamed chestnut so sweet.
Lalala, enjoyed the chestnut we arrived to a very nicely decorated restaurant with a hint of English style. We had our lunch there. I wanted to comment something on their food, the fish due to it is fresh water fish, it has lots of bones nono for me, I scared my throat will be pricked by the bones. Alcohol beverages are around 2-3% more like our Shandy. Ha... but still got that bitter taste.
We were then moved to the "梅家坞吃茶", according to the tour leader, for centuries since the ancient time, this village has been continually supply tea to the royal palace of China. People who lived here all have had the same surname "mei =梅", on guys married to women and followed the women's surname.
Photo below is the wok that people used to cook tea. It smells so good each time the uncle demonstrate the cook tea process. The temperature reached up to 80 celcius.
At this tea village, we were mostly introduced with the tea called '龙井' aka Longjing cha. They told us this tea can be brewed with either hot (5times) or cold water (8times) and can last for 12 hours and it still edible. It also able to reduce cholesterol, high blood pressure. Not to worry, if you consume this tea during the night time, you still able to sleep soundly and nicely. I bought some tea and tea sweet which taste AMAZING especially the jasmine flavour candies.....
In the evening, we went to the shooting location where most of the ancient movies/drama took place.
It is called ' Qin Huang Gong' aka The Palace of Qin and watched a very short impromptu act.
After our dinner, we went to watch show again. Well, this time is about a story and act of ' Bao yu shan hong' aka 暴雨山洪. The place was so crowded, people all around China were there. Once you watch it, you can feel how great and how real they translate the story to the audience. It has been almost 3 weeks now since I watched the show but everything seems to be vivid and crystal-clear imprinted in my mind.
On the 3rd day, we went to YiWu International trade city. I didn't buy anything there because I don't feel to buy anything at there. But we saw a lot of Made in China product price are so cheap, you can say it from A-Z. We even went to see the famous woodcraft. I bought 2 Rosewood comb, it has a nice scent on it. The comb cost me RMB 20.
Now, move to the excited part of 3rd day trip. Our bus driver recommend us to see the Yiwu night market. It was probably the longest night market I've had in my life/ I've visited to. Things are uncountable. You can find foods, fruits, luggage, clothes, decoration, pets... almost everything. There you can find some very cheap yet good quality products. Iphone case sold there were very pretty and cheap too. Hubby and I didn't bought much but we enjoyed the street food, especially the meat sandwich '肉夹馍' it tasted so, so perfect. It was hot, juicy,spicy. Imagine holding it in such a cold weather, how nice it was.
Day 4, some people especially old folks or mid 30-40 uncle and aunties started to home sick, missing their kids and grandchildren. Like most of the morning, we had porridge, steamed pumpkin or sweet potato, hard-boiled egg, soy milk for breakfast... we had our breakfast in hotel everyday in buffet style. I'm very picky when it comes to food especially to place I'm not familiar with. I will choose what the local people eat because I believe it will be the best food. I love how they add vinegar with food, tasted very pleasant and appetizing.
All the way we visit to some local stall, see their culture, tell you we saw people owning lots of long, big car like LIMO. To make a long story short, we had our next stop at Tongxiang. It was the place selling Chrysanthemum tea. We always heard about rose bud tea, this time I saw Chrysanthemum bud tea. It has a fine, soothing scent. Only few buds will able to make the drink taste wonderful. Since it was well process, the tea looks clean in golden yellow color. I bought 2 big jar. Quality was better than I can get in Malaysia so I bought some backup.
Then followed by another long, long journey, we reached Wuzhen -乌镇. For many tour, visitors will only get to stay around the town instead of the guest house. But thankfully, our tour leader was sweet enough to include the guest house for us. Wuzhen also known as the waterside village in Jiangnan region. It located at the northern part of Zhejiang. Long time ago, it was one of the important water transportation. Wuzhen is easily accessed through a number of expressways and national highways. The ancient Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal flows through the town, which is divided by waterways into four areas, Dongzha, Xizha, Nanzha, and Beizha. Since its foundation in 872 A.D., Wuzhen has never changed its name, location, waterways, or way of life. Its traditional buildings have survived hundreds of years of weathering but remain intact today. In 2001, Wuzhen was named as a candidate for UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage List. At the end of 2006, it was included in the revised List of China’s Candidates for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage.
I can't stop sharing and telling people how nice is this place. If you visit to Wuzhen, you must stay in the Guest house. No worries, although all room rented here are in antique dwellings, they are fully furnished just like a modern house. By staying in these rooms, you can at least experience the ancient times, the scenery and the culture. I've read through the website mentioned that in Wuzhen they celebrate 12 seasons. Do browse the internet if you were interested.
Hubby and I stayed in Guest house No. 2579. Each guest house has different owner. We were given a menu list, and we got to choose what we wish to eat for breakfast. Of course, to experience the culture we try to choose as much local food as possible but not to forgot the food the we were used to in daily routine.
We ended decided to choose sweet soy milk (glass) and salty soy milk (bowl), special!
Then, we ordered the cake " Ding Sheng Gao " the white flower like cake. Inside it contained sweet red bean paste, very unusual too.
Before check-out, we bought some souvenir and took our small boat the bye bye to this scenic Wuzhen. In the town, we bought some hand warmers which looks like pillow.... and hubby bought me a leopard printed shawl. We were then transferred to Suzhou.
When we arrived at Suzhou, we were again welcomed by another tour guide. She was the local guide there and one that will share, tell great things about Suzhou. First, we when to Suzhou Museum then walked to The Lion Forest Garden (狮子林), The Humble Administrator Garden (拙政园)and Ligong di(李公堤). The day we reached day it was a rainy day, not heavy but the rains came on and off. Most of the place still remained the ancient architecture. We spent the day for sightseeing and walking around. Later on, we went to the street for some shopping. Again, everyone went crazy when it came to shopping. I bought 1 winter jacket and some local sweets.
By the end of the day, we had our sumptuous dinner. The rice was very tasty. Suzhou is not a busy and hectic city like Shanghai. I found it is quite peaceful too. Suzhou is famous for silk and their soft spoken language. We joined the local tour guide again on the 5th day.
On the 5th day, we went to the Silk trade place. There we were firstly being introduced on the life cycle of silkworm. Silkworms are actually quite big in size than what I used to think. They fed on mulberry leaves which were huge as an adult palm. Then, they will wrap themselves in the cocoon - single but lovers silkworms will wrap themselves together - X cocoon. Suzhou silk is the best in China, best in terms of quality. It is thin but comfortable enough to keep you warm. Hubby bought a Silk blanket for me too. You even can find a complete bed sheet set but it will cost RMB 4000+++. Before we moved to our next destination, the tour guide gave us a silk handkerchief as a gift/souvenir. We bought 4 pairs of silk bamboo stockings and silk Zara scarf. Talking the scarf, I love it so much, it is a graduation blue scarf.
Then for another ride, 2 hours later we reached Nanjing 南京. It is the second largest commercial center after Shanghai. We arrived there but it was so jam and the road was very hard to recognize, both Ms Miao and the bus driver had to keep on calling the local guide. We were late because of the traffic. So rush we finally arrived The Nanjing Mascacre Memorial Hall - 侵華日軍南京大屠殺遇難同胞紀念館. It is a place that we are not allow to take picture as a respect act to the death people during world war. There, we had a deeper understanding on our history. Till now the older generation (survivors during the world war) still very dislike and hate the invaders for being such cold-blooded and merciless. We saw weapons used during the war time, pictures and more, more skeleton, short video clips, kidnap,rape etc, you will feel how grateful and how safe you are now as compare to the war period. During the war time, invaders found that it was hard for them to invade into Nanjing because it was well protected by its city wall. Now the city wall is still remain in good condition and well preserved. I had a very nice memory about Nanjing except for the scary traffic. Lunch and dinner time, we were then moved to hotel.
Before that, we went to see the LED big screen. Hard to explain, but it is just same like the one you seen in Beijing stadium, the big screen.
The hotel was quite far from the city but it was well designed. Gosh, we barely able to bath. Such a funny story, the bathroom was only cover with glass, yes transparent glass but of course there was curtain to pull and cover so that people in the room will not see our naked body. It takes long time for everyone to find the curtain and bath 'bravely'. hahaha.....
Day 6, we visited to our last point in Nanjing Bridge 南京长江大桥, I just can say it was really breathtaking and unimaginable how they build it last time. The 4.5 kilometer long, double-decker, Nanjing Chang Jiang Bridge was only the second bridge that crossed the Chang Jiang (长江) after its completion. Changjiang is also known as the Yangzi River or Yangtze River. Completed in 1968 during the cultural revolution, it is also the first bridge that crosses Chang Jiang to be built entirely by the Chinese. The influence of the era is evident in the socialist-inspired statues on either side of the bridge. The bridge deck provides a good view of the river. It is possible to walk from one side of the bridge to the other.
Then we went to the jade shop. Chinese love jade since ancient time. Long story, I just want to share about the jade shop. Things were marked with very high price of course the quality take part of it too. I dare not buy a single jade out there because no point I buy something that is fake with high price/ cheap price. I bought a piece of jade as necklace. I believe jade is good and protect its owner, it may sound superstitious, but you wouldn't believe unless you had seen it.
Just make sure if you ever buy at the shop, please bargain, mine was tagged RMB10k+++ but then I paid RMB2k. That's all for Nanjing. To our last 2 destination now....
Later on, we reached Wuxi. Wuxi was named because it was lacking of tin. At here we our local tour guide was a very young lady.She is very pretty too and she decorated herself mainly with pearls. Talking about pearls, please behold, I shared about it later on. We went to FanGong to see the huge Buddha temple well, it looks more like a palace. We even got the chance to watch a short on sport show on the scene when Buddha was born, great!
We were told that in Wuxi the TaiHu lake is the 3rd largest fresh water lake in China with depth only 2m. There you can find lots of fishes, prawns and pearls!!!! We had the famous TaiHu white fish for your dinner. It tasted fresh and surprisingly it didn't had that soil scent. The next morning aka the 6th day, we went to pearl shop. We got to see pearl from all sort of colors, white, pink, lavender,black and gold. The price of pearls are all based on how round and flaw it is and the color, size. Not only that, there's also pearl cosmetics and powder from consumable to application. We decided to have group purchased for cheaper price, buy 20 free 20, cool! I got the tiny tube pearl powder, this is for me to consume to achieve fairer complexion. Then I bought some pearl accessories too, some for my mom, in laws, granny and these are all mine....
simple black pearl necklace, pink pearl earings, white pearl bracelet and lavender pearl bracelet. Talking about quality I'm pretty happy with the price I paid and the quality I got. I bought
a full 2 cm in diameter round white pearl necklace for my mom. Moma is super happy till today that she got to peek it every single night before she went to bed. Funny!
Last location in Wuxi was visit to pottery shop, well more like arts. The clay from Dingshan will be used to make Zisha hu or known as purple clay. Here we enjoyed looking at all those art works, some were very well inspired, some clay pot even floats on water. Each of the teapot set not only dainty but posses a value. Bought some key chains and a set of teapot for my dad.
While munching some tidbit, peanuts candy we back to Shanghai.
The night in Shanghai we took a ferry and enjoyed the night of Shanghai, the air blew to our face, so cold and freezing. It was very scenic. I started the felt time passed too fast, it was the 7th day already and on day 8 we headed back to Malaysia.
Day 8 we visited to the PuEr tea shop, China BaoShuTang herb shop, had our Taizhu lunched and waived hands to this pretty city.
p/s: sorry for such a long post, but 8days trip... so much to be shared. English grammar error, I'm sorry for that too.
I've spent 3days writing this blog post, I hope you will find it helpful and enjoy reading it.
Thank you
