This was my third visit to China, and I was pretty contented to see how the government had made tremendous effort in refurbishing the basic amenities such as washrooms, or WC (water closets) which the people uses this term widely because it simply means "Welcome China". The number of public toilets has increased a lot, and surprisingly they are clean and free-of-charge. Anyway, I guessed this was mainly due to the Beijing Olympic held last year, and all the facilities provided seem to improve by leaps and bounds. But some of the China citizens still hold a bad habit – spitting on the road, which is a practice I abhor the most. And if you think that Penang drivers are crazy, well, take a look at China drivers; they do not obey traffic rules. The zebra crossing is simply meant for "zebras" because they never give priority to pedestrians and to some of them, red and green light does not differ from each other. There was even one time when I saw a law enforcer beating the traffic lights, squeezing through us when we were on the zebra crossing!!! Another thing is that they simply love to sound their vehicles horn and you can hear honking everywhere, at anytime......@_@
My trip this time covers the Jiangnan (江南) area, which encompasses Shanghai Municipality (上海), Jiangsu province (江苏) and Zhejiang province (浙江). The cities involve were Shanghai, Suzhou (苏州), Nanjing (南京), Wuxi (无锡), Hangzhou (杭州) and a small town - Wuzhen (乌镇). The tour group consists of 18 people.
Shanghai - The Night is Alive
Shanghai is best viewed at night, because the city with its skyscrapers will be brightly lit-up. Its famous landmark includes the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (东方明珠塔) overlooking the Bund (上海外滩) which is a famous financial centre that holds numerous banks and historical British buildings. Looking down to the city from the tower was even more spectacular. The construction of the tower itself was pretty amazing and it's the third tallest tower in the world. One of the observatory levels has a transparent sightseeing base, which means you will be experiencing "walking-in-the-air". It was pretty scary on the first thought, but when you were there, it's just too awesome to be embrace with fright. There is also a wax museum at the bottom of the tower and it's totally different from Madame Tussauds. While the latter flashes superstars and political figures, the former tells the story of Shanghai, the old Shanghai. The first day in Shanghai was really unforgettable. Never in my life would I have the chance to experience so many different modes of transportation in one day. A car ride to PIA (Penang International Airport), embark on the plane to Pudong (浦东) Airport, transit at HKIA (Hong Kong International Airport), then took a ride on the Maglev train (train that uses magnetic levitation), followed by a cruise on a ferry and finally to a hotel on a bus. Land, air and sea; what more do I have to say......I don't think I will encounter another opportunity on this one for the rest of my life!!
Of course there were other places visited in Shanghai, which include the Cheng Huang temple (城隍庙), took a walk on Nanjing Street and Xin Tian Di (新天地), travelled to Soong Qing-ling Mausoleum and enjoyed a sensational and superb acrobatic performance known as ERA (ERA 时空杂技表演). This show was the best I've seen so far, an indescribable stunning piece of work and remarkable efforts put in by the performers.
Suzhou - The Land of Silk
The third day kicked off to Suzhou, which is the hub for silk-making in China and we have the opportunity to visit one silk factory there. We started off with a visit to Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre (SSCAC). This is the second bird nest-like building in China after the Beijing Stadium. We then proceed to the Suzhou Museum followed by Hanshan Temple (寒山寺), a Buddhist temple famous for its bells and a visit to the Lion Grove Garden (狮子林), a garden made famous by its rocks said to resemble lions which I don't see anyhow it is related @_@....... The day ends with a view on a Taoist temple known as Xuanmiao Temple (玄妙观) and some shopping done at Guanqian Street (观前街).
Nanjing - The Original Capital of China
Nanjing was the official capital of the Republic of China before the Chinese Civil War and now is the capital of China's Jiangsu Province. The history of how Beijing took over to become the capital city of China was really complicated and I have no interest to get my mind wandering about the matter. Our next stop was the Soong Mei-ling Palace (美齡宫), a villa for Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling. There lies a backyard which has its pillars with phoenix carvings made from precious stones. It was said that luckily the stones were not recognizable as precious because of its rough surface and dirty looks; otherwise the Japanese would have taken them away during the invasion. After that, we visited the Presidential Palace (总统府), which was the office of the President of the Republic of China back then that housed prominent leaders like Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, but now is a museum open for public. The day ends up with another shopping at Fuji Temple (夫子庙) Street, where the Confucius temple is located. It was quite a busy street, lots of people strolling after dinner, and it attracts many local tourists as well. The next day, we were brought to the Nanjing Changjiang Bridge (南京长江大桥). It is a double-decker bridge consists of road and railroad, built over Changjiang River and the Chinese took pride of this bridge because it was designed and constructed entirely by their own, without foreign aid and technologies.
Wuxi - The Home of Lake Tai
Lake Tai (太湖) is a freshwater lake popular for breeding freshwater fish, prawns and oysters (to produce pearls). Needless to say, the locals have fishing industry as their main livelihood. The pearls produced were naturally formed, not induced. It takes more than 10 years to produce large and high quality pearls, while those below 10 years are considered slightly lower grades. Those pearls that are deformed are usually crushed to produce pearl powders that can be taken orally and to make cosmetic products. Wuxi also home the largest, tallest (88 m) and heaviest (700 tons) open-air bronze statue in the world, known as Ling Shan Buddha (灵山大佛). There was supposed to be a dragon fountain display of the Buddha's birth (九龙灌浴) but unfortunately the event was cancelled due to heavy downpour on that day. In fact, according to the local tour guide, there was actually hailstorm before we got there. We checked into a hotel, and later took a 3-minute walk to a nearby Parkson Shopping Mall to get some local products at the supermarket. The next day began with visits to a Pearl Factory and a Tea-pot Making Factory, followed by a stopover at the Three Kingdoms City (三国城). CCTV (China Central Television) built this place for the filming of the Romance of Three Kingdoms (三国演义) - a historical TV drama, and has since became a television base for other film productions and a tourist attraction as well. We got to enjoy a performance that narrate part of this drama, so there were soldiers and heroes on horses battling against the rivals. I haven't got the faintest idea who is against who, roughly like the heroes (关羽, 刘备, 张飞) against 吕布......whoever they were........And there's a cruise on Lake Tai to view the scenery. The whole place is so huge that it'll take at least one whole day to visit every nook and corner of it. Of course, time was limited. So, we took a tram, dropped by at a few more favorable locations, snapped some pictures and continued our journey heading towards Hangzhou.
Hangzhou - Where Women Rules
Hangzhou is known as a Historical City, City of Love, City of Leisure, Land of Tea and Buddhism Practice. No wonder it became one of the most renowned and beautiful cities in China. Interestingly, Hangzhou is a place where women have priority and power more than men. Married couples usually must have their money kept by the wife!! Ladies should love this city quite a lot, I guess......
Our first destination began at the Lei Feng Pagoda (雷峰塔), where we could get a nice view of the beautiful West Lake (西湖). It is a five-storey tower (the rebuilt one) constructed over the ruins of the old one and this pagoda is strongly related to the Legend of the White Snake (白蛇传). There are ten scenic spots on the West Lake, but we only visited three of them, which includes Hua Gang Guan Yu Park (花港觀魚), Liu Lang Wen Ying Park (柳浪聞鶯), and Nan Ping Bell (南屏晚鐘) at the Jingci Temple (净慈寺). Also, another show was provided for us, known as the Hangzhou Xi Hu Show (西湖之夜表演). This show actually describes the whole of Hangzhou, not only famous for historical and cultural heritage, but also a place with natural beauty for relaxation. The props and backdrop settings were nice and magnificent, but I will still prefer the ERA performance over the latter.
Wuzhen - A Peasant Town
Wuzhen is a small ancient town, also known as "Little Venice", where the people there have agricultural as their occupation. Only the old folks lived there, most of the youngsters have moved out to the city. There, we boarded a Chinese-style gondola to cruise the canals and view the traditional houses along the way.
The whole trip of 9 days and 8 nights finally came to an end when we went back to Shanghai and visited the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, which was the last pit-stop in this journey. Actually most of the time was spent travelling from one city to another on the bumpy and potholed roads, and getting trapped in massive jams. Seriously some of the time I felt like as if it was a roller-coaster ride!! But, overall, it was still an enjoyable trip.........:P
Oh ya, I forgot to mention one thing. Interestingly, when we arrived at Pudong International Airport, we were not allowed to disembark from the plane......ahh, that was not a quarantine. Officers wearing in those space-like suits boarded the plane to check for every passengers body temperature. Just a precaution taken against Infuenza A (H1N1). Luckily no one was affected. Phew!
