Shenzhen and Guangzhou Trip (6 - 12 November 2012)

您好! I am back from my trip to China! There are many photos and as I am too lazy to upload all of them here, please do check out my album in Facebook. However, here are some pictures to appease you readers, if there are any left who have been faithfully refreshing this page for new updates!

The start of the journey began with this remarkable view.


Look! There was a rainbow in the distant clouds! Something that I noticed when I uploaded this picture just now. What a great form of welcome to start our adventure in a foreign land.


In-flight meal. The last Malaysian meal before we had Chinese food every meal for the next seven days.

4 HOURS LATER... 


At Bao An International Airport, Shenzhen!

Then it was another an hour or so journey to the hotel via the Metro.

This greeted me when I opened the room door.


It was so tempting to immediately slip myself under the duvet and sleep till morning!

The following day, we went to Window of the World (世界之窗). It was a fascinating place with all the popular landmarks of the world replicated to the tiniest detail.

A part of Malaysia or rather Penang was also there!


Do you Penangites recognise this famous landmark?


A pat on the shoulder for you who guessed correctly. I am proud to be a Malaysian! Our pagoda is as famous as the Eiffel Tower and the London Bridge!

Let's fast forward to the next day when we went shopping at Dong Men Pedestrian Street located two stations away from Luo Hu (罗湖)), Lao Jie (老街).

That place was crazily packed with people! One tip for shopping is to haggle the price as low as 70% from the original price quoted. Indeed, it worked!

The famous milk tea brand there is not Chatime but Da Ka Si (大卡司).


What I like about the milk tea here is the pearls are smaller and that makes the chewing more fun!

Soon it was time to say goodbye to Shenzhen and we had dim sum for our last breakfast there.


I don't know why but I still prefer Ipoh dim sum. My palate is too used to Malaysian food.

The next destination: Guangzhou

We took the train from Shenzhen to Guangzhou. The fare cost RMB 80.



After an hour's ride, we finally reached our destination.

Time for a good rest before torturing our legs again.


A quaint little place. The bed was not as comfy as the one in Shenzhen but I slept soundly for the next three nights nevertheless.


The busy street of Jie Fang Nan Lu (解放南路). This was the view from our room on the 9th floor of The Bauhinia Hotel.

We did more shopping at Chang Shou Lu (长寿路) where we bought most of the items.


The stretch of the road that seemed endless. We walked and walked for almost six hours!

Some bronze statues along the way were spotted. Here are a couple.


An old man selling herbal tea


Two naughty boys climbing the gate

They were fascinating! Even the expressions were given the attention to detail.

The following day, we went to Yue Xiu Park (越秀公园) to see the famous statue of the Five Rams also known as Wu Yang (五羊).



Here is the legend of how the five rams came about.



Isn't it a fascinating story? No wonder the rams have been held in high regard by the citizens of Guangzhou and now the main attraction for tourists. It was that significant.

We headed to the Canton Tower (广州塔) where we were lifted up to the 107th floor for a magnificent view of the whole of Guangzhou. The entrance fee is RMB 150 per person.


A replica of the tower within the tower.


It's mesmerising to be looking down at all the tall buildings and they now looked so toy-like.

Another picture of the view from another part of the tower.


With more water this time. Still breathtaking!

The next day, we went to Beijing Road for more shopping. This time however, we did not buy a lot of things. We spent more on snacks.



Now here is a photo of an interesting snack.


A sausage wrapped in the waffle! Only RMB 10 for 2 pieces.

Time flies and soon it was time to say goodbye to Guangzhou.


The receptionists at The Bauhinia Hotel, Kitty and Candy.


We finally reached the Bai Yun International Airport.


Goodbye China! Till we meet again.

So that was just roughly what I had in mind for this blog post as I was too lazy. Hope you enjoy reading this short entry (it was a six nights' trip, so it is considered short).

Although I don't speak much Chinese, I think we did okay and managed to bring our messages across to the people there using mostly Cantonese.