I thought I would finally get to writing a conclusion to our China trip, only half a year later.

In total we spent a little under $10,000 Australian, for two people, 21 nights. Most of this consisted of airfares, $3000 return to Macau from Perth, and all domestic fares between China’s cities totalling about $2000. The hotels averaged about $100 a night due to being 4 to 5 star.

If we do plan to do it again (and we do), we would prefer to stay at inexpensive accommodation, as we both think expensive hotels are a waste. Time permitting; savings can be made on trains between cities.

The holiday served to give us a broad view of China most famous tourist sites, next time we will skip the big cities and immerse ourselves in more of China’s unfamiliar history and culture.

We have finally finished updating posts with our travel adventures.

Restaurante Platão

Restaurante Platão was a cozy restaurant located off a side street from Largo do Senado.

We started with an entrée of traditional sardinhas assadas (grilled sardines), and a large bottle of Mateus wine. For the mains, again, two traditional foods were ordered; Potato and Bacalhau (codfish) pie and bife com um ovo a cavalo (literally meaning steak with an egg on horseback). The food was nice and a good change from noodles and rice. The bill ended up costing 500HKD, which we thought was quite acceptable.

Historic Centre of Macau

As previously mentioned, Macau has immense Portuguese influenced heritage. The Historic Centre of Macau consists of a number of historic Portuguese buildings and landmarks; with the most famous being Ruins of St. Paul’s and Largo do Senado (Senado Square). It was a bit of a shame that we had to view these at night, the bright building colours were not as evident as hoped and any photography was quite difficult. The lighting did make the Ruins of St. Paul’s look even spookier and Fortaleza do Monte (on a hill next to the ruines) which had minimal lighting was even scarier walking around at night.

The Venetian

Finally, how can you not venture into a casino when in Macau? With the name Eastern Las Vegas and actually having a higher gambling revenue than Las Vegas itself, you really can’t. From stepping out of the airport and being presented with the luxurious casino hotel’s courtesy buses, to not being able to turn anywhere without seeing in your face flashing lights and over the top buildings, the casinos in Macau are very evident. Sonya convinced me to check out the Venetian stating it as a must see. She was right, and it was quite enjoyable walking through the lavish interiors and manmade canals.

The following morning we flew back to Singapore and then finally Perth, all sad that our great China trip was all over.

Muslim Quarters (Beiyuan men Islamic Street)

Xi’an has a large number of Muslim Hui people, so we thought it was a good idea to sample the Islamic influenced cuisine. After watching Chuanr of lamb and beef cooking on the street, we stepped inside, took a seat, and waited for the sticks of meat to be served. We tried numerous, various dishes, mostly trying to pick the more traditional food as recommended by the Lonely Planet.

Bell Tower

Situated within walking distance from the Muslim Quarters is the Bell Tower. We took a few quick photos before calling it a night.

Terracotta Warriors

The number one reason for visiting Xi’an was to see the Terracotta Warriors. The Terracotta Warriors is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, described as the most ‘significant archaeological excavation of the 20th century’, and over 2000 years old.
Unfortunately, due to our flight being delayed from Hangzhou we had only 4 hours to see the Terracotta Warriors and Qin Tomb. We arrived early in the morning to the museum and were one of the first there. Upon entrance of the first pit, we were left awestruck by the expanse of warriors all gazing at us. As we further read the history, walked between pits and then finally the museum of weapons well preserved warriors, the privilege of being able to see it all set in.

Emperor Qin’s Tomb Mound

With a little time to spare before needing to catch our flight back to Hong Kong, we quickly visited Emperor Qin’s Tomb Mound. At this time it was snowing which made it all the more enjoyable and a nice way to end our trip.

By the time we had left Shanghai, half of our group had completed their leg of the trip so it was just five of us remaining. I will never forget our taxi ride to the train station. We had underestimated the length of time it would take to get to the Shanghai Railway Station from our hotel and were blessed to have found a helpful, quick but sane taxi driver. We arrived at the station just in time, and gratefully tipped the stressed driver, who had given us all a lecture about allowing enough time to travel during Shanghai’s peak traffic.

The train ride from Shanghai to Hangzhou was fast, smooth and prompt. We arrived tired but were pleasantly surprised to find our hotel was comfortable and had internet access.

West Lake

Our first full day in Hangzhou was slightly disappointing. Our hotel was located very close to the famous West Lake so we planned to walk there and spend a day exploring the area. Much to our dismay, the city was suffering from extremely foggy weather and the lake was barely visible. Unwilling to declare defeat, we continued walking around the lake taking photos, hoping that the fog would subside, but it did not.

Travis and I walked around the city centre, as there was not much else we could do.

That night we had noodles and wandered around the city once again. We had an interesting time trying to communicate with a pharmacist whilst searching for panadol. She had a tiny English-to-Chinese cheat sheet which had the symptoms written in English (e.g. sore head, tummy ache) and the corresponding Chinese medication next to it. Slightly concerned about the potential communication breakdown, we opted to continue looking.

My favourite part of the day was by far our visit to the night markets behind our hotel. I had curiously observed the hustle and bustle of the markets the night before from our room window. Turned out to be the best markets we had been to in China! There were a lot of brilliantly handcrafted goods, the standard designer bag, purse and keyring copies, and lots of kooky knick knacks. Plenty of locals around the place indicated that prices could be bargained to reasonable amounts.

Liuhe Pagoda (Six Harmonies Pagoda)

Travis and I decided that we would organise a driver to take us to a number of key sites during our second day. We organised it with our hotel, and agreed with the driver that he would take us to 3-4 places in 4 hours and then drop us off at the Hangzhou airport, all for RM300. Turned out to be a great deal.

Our first stop was the marvellous Liuhe Pagoda. We were literally the first tourists to arrive, and had the place to explore for ourselves. The pagoda faces the Qiantang River (which we could hardly see due to the persistent fog), and was constructed during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD) for navigational aid purposes for ships.

Tea Plantations and Longjing Tea (Dragon Well Tea)

We drove a good 20 minutes further to arrive at the famous tea plantations of Longjing. This region is said to produce some of the most famous, finest green tea in China and thus we decided we would sample some of this tea. Our driver brought us to what we hoped was the famous Dragon Well Teahouse.

I had brought along plenty tourist guides/brochures and my invaluable Lonely Planet which recommended tea tasting at the Dragon Well Teahouse, but the driver insisted that the Teahouse had long closed and the residential house which he had brought us to was now the infamous tea producing location of all of Hangzhou.

With much reluctance to try the tea, Travis and I sampled the Longjing tea provided to us by a lady. She pushed us to purchase RM500 worth of tea to bring back for our families. We resisted, stating the tea was not to our taste. We were unsure we were even drinking Longjing tea. After we expressed our frustration at being not brought to our desired Teahouse, and after she expressed her frustration of not being able to sell anything to us, we left the house. What an experience!

On the way out of the region we stopped at what appeared to be an old Teahouse village in renovation. We spent an hour exploring the village, taking photos and satisfying our tea desires.

Lingyin Temple

Next was the Lingyin Temple, a Buddhist temple famous for its religious rock carvings. This place was quite amazing, and we spent quite some time exploring the numerous caves filled with rock carvings dating back from the Song Dynasty. We also visited the Hall of the Heavenly Kings, the entrance of the Lingyin temple itself. The temple is one of the largest and wealthiest in China.

Leifeng Pagoda

With a bit of time up our sleeves, we decided to make a trip back to West Lake to visit the Leifeng Pagoda. Leifeng Pagoda is one of the ten sights of the West Lake and is famous for the Legend of the White Snake, a story of a scholar who falls in love with a beautiful woman, unaware she is a white snake. The white snake is cast into the Pagoda by a Taoist monk.

A popular tourist attraction, the Pagoda has been renovated to allow for escalators up to the Pagoda, and lifts inside it.

Despite the unfortunate weather, Hangzhou turned out to be an interesting experience and a fascinating place to visit. It would be lovely to visit again during the Spring.

Chen Yifei and the Twin Bridge

The Twin Bridge. Consisting of Yong’an Bridge and Shide Bridge, is one of the historical monuments and cultural relics listed under the protection of Jiangsu Province.

Shen House

One of the attractions was Shen House; Shen House was the private property of the descendant of Shen Wansan, the first millionaire of Jiangnan. The interiors had various items which you could not touch; around the exterior were very beautiful gardens.

Boat ride along Zhouzhuang canals

The highlight of Zhouzhuang was the boat ride through the old town. We tipped the oarsman ¥20 to sing three songs during the ride.

Upon arrival, unsure of what to do and constantly being annoyed by tour operators, we decided to agree and go on a tour for ¥120 per person. The tour visited the following places:

Suzhou Calm Garden

Out of 9 Classical Gardens of Suzhou that make the World Heritage listing, the Suzhou Calm Garden is unfortunately not one. The garden was a slight disappointment; maybe due to visit during winter, the garden didn’t feel ‘lush’ enough. The entry to the garden included a tea tasting and boat ride down the river.

Boat ride on the Grand Canal

One nickname for Suzhou is Venice of the East, due to its similar buildings on the edge of the canals. However, pollution and rubbish make it look nowhere as appealing.

Fengqiao (Maple Bridge) and Hanshan Temple (Cold Mountain Temple)

Hanshan Temple is famous because of the poem A Night Mooring by Maple Bridge by poet Zhang Ji.

Silk and Pearls

With small tours it is quite common at the end to take the tourists to shops disguised as attractions in the hope they will buy something and hence the tour guides get a commission. And this tour was no different. The first stop was a silk factory; Suzhou is famous for its silk in China. The silk factory was quite interesting, I didn’t realise that each silkworm cocoon was unwound to produce raw silk thread; it is a very mechanical process. The second unknown destination took us to a pearl factory, which wasn’t at all interesting.

Suzhou city

At the end of the tour we had some free time to wonder around the city centre and view Suzhou at night. At night, the canals water reflected the buildings and light and the whole city didn’t look as dingy.

Old Shanghai

Our first afternoon in Shanghai was spent in the old city of Shanghai. The main attraction here is the City God Temple, which was unfortunately closed for restoration. However the area had plenty of entertainment, including markets, shops, restaurants and tea houses. We lined up for half an hour to sample the famous xiaolongbao or soup dumplings at the Nanxiang Bun Shop, which were very tasty.

Science and Technology Museum and Maglev Train

The next morning Travis and I visited the Science and Technology Museum. It was huge, with 12 elaborate exhibits on a number of different levels. We spent the most time in the Robotics and Information Technology area, playing games with robots and sending encoded messages to each other.

Later, we decided we would take a ride on the Maglev train, the world’s first high speed commercial Maglev train in the world. After deciding 80RMB was a little dear for a one way train to the airport, we opted to visit the Maglev Museum.

Nanjing Road and The Bund

By now, we had all become acquainted with the very handy MRT train system. It was a very economical way to travel in a city which has extremely heavy traffic. Travis and I took the MRT to the People’s Square with the aim of visiting Nanjing Road. This is the main shopping district of Shanghai, and its atmosphere was very much the Shanghai I had pictured. Plenty of big, coloured bright lights, hundreds of people and lots of traffic. We walked around the Nanjing district, completely stricken by how much of a huge city Shanghai is.

By some amazing miracle we also managed to unexpectedly bump into some of our friends who had visited the zoo that day. We literally walked into them.

We all then walked to The Bund, a strip of historial buildings lining the Huangpu River which once housed the major financial institutions in China (before Communist China). The buildings were influenced by the British and French settlements in Shanghai.

That night the boys went out on a “Boy’s Night” and so us girls thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a “Girl’s Night Out” ourselves. We took a taxi to a road famous for its bars, Xintiandi. After exploring a few of the small bars, we ended up having a boogie at a dance club located in a shopping mall, Club G+. It was a lot of fun!

Orient Pearl Tower and Pudong

The following morning, Travis and I decided to explore The Bund and Huanpu river by day and then catch a ferry over to the new Shanghai, Pudong area. It appeared there was some kind of “tourist tunnel” which allowed you to get to the other side so we thought we’d check that out. After parting with RMB40 per person, we were inside a small glass train (which fit no more than ten people) travelling through what looked to be some sort of underground rave tunnel. It was far from worthy of being one of Shanghai’s top ten must-sees, but it was good for a laugh.

We reached Pudong and decided to climb the Orient Pearl Tower to view of Shanghai from above. It is the highest buidling in Asia. Whilst we paid for tickets to ascend to the the highest level, it was rather pointless as the city is so smoggy that the extra few metres made little difference. From above however, the view clarified how large a city Shanghai is.

Wangfujing

December 29th – Arrived in Beijing after an hour flight delay in Harbin due to weather conditions. We explored the Wangfujing area that evening, and excitedly decided on steamboat for dinner. Much to our disappointment, the fancy restaurant we chose cooked the steamboat in the kitchen and presented us with tiny servings of meat and vegetables. Still hungry, we paid our thousand Yuan (for 10 of us) and continued further down the road. Soon after, the group spotted a familiar looking yellow sign and we filled the remaining gaps in our tummy with American fast food.

We finished the night with a walk around the Wangfujing shopping and exotic food strip areas.

The Great Wall of China

December 30th was the planned day for our trip to the Great Wall. The forecast for the day was cool, but sunny. We hired a bus and driver who had recommended the Mutianyu site, which is 1.5 hours away and less crowded than the popular Badaling section of the wall. The bus ride there was pleasant, with much of the group playing Big 2 at the back of the bus. We had lunch at the originally named Great Wall Restaurant, which was quite good and much better value than the previous night’s dinner.

After lunch, we slowly ascended the wall. Each step rewarded better views of the walls and by the time we reached the wall, I had forgotten about any previous aches and pains. We spent a few hours walking along the wall, taking photos and admiring the beautiful scenery and the general greatness of the wall. That night, we ate Pekking Duck at the famous Quanjude restaurant (after waiting for at least 40 minutes). Between 10 of us, we had 3 ducks.

Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City

December 31st – The last day of the year, was spent visiting the heart of Beijing, Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. It was a cold day, but the skies were clear and blue. We spent the morning wandering through the Tiananmen Square Gate and walking through the ancient city, which was once only allowed entrance to Emperors and the like.

That afternoon, we went to the Silk Markets, a shopping complex filled with tourists from around the world. After finding a grocery store which sold jelly cups, we were happy and content and met with the others to have noodles for dinner. By 9:30pm we were off to Sanlitun Road to celebrate the entrance of the New Year. We found a cosy little bar and counted down to the New Year, Beijing style.

The Wangfujing Food Experience and Peking Opera

On the first day of 2008, Travis and I walked around the Wangfujing area whilst the majority of the group returned to the Silk Markets to exercise their bargaining skills. We found a local shopping centre and bought some sticky rice in banana leaves. Along the way, we found a man selling sweet potatoes and bought one to warm us up.

We walked back to the main Wangfujing square and discovered another exotic foods alley. There we ate the tiny bird kebab (the man told us it was frog), lamb and beef on skewers, three unidentifiable balls, and the multiple mini toffee apples on skewers.

Later that night, Travis and I went to watch Peking Opera at the HuGuang Guild Hall. We hired audio translators and watched tales of mythical creatures and their battles atop mountain peaks.

Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven

Our last day in Beijing was spent visiting the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven. The Summer Palace was surprisingly busy, despite it being in the middle of winter. The cold had frozen all the lakes, and the trees were without their leaves. We walked around the Palace for a few hours. Some of our group took photos dressed up as ancient royalty, we walked around the leafy parks, ate more sweet potatoes and we then continued on to the Temple of Heaven for the afternoon.

To make things worse when we arrived at the Friendship Palace hotel, the hotel did not have details of our booking made through hotel.com.au even though hotel.com.au had charged our credit card. We did manage to get rooms but only after repaying.

The next day, still shaken from our taxi experience we all decided to arrange a 2 day tour for ¥938 (approximately $152AUD) per person. The tour included a tour bus, all entry tickets and a tour guide.

Included in the tour was:

Harbin Tiger Preserve

We came face to face with many big cats, including tigers, lions and even a liger. We started in a minivan driving inside the large open enclosures; the tigers were quite interested in us, coming right up to the van’s windows. Following the drive, we went by foot on the internal walkways and experienced tiger feeding time.

Harbin Polarland

Opened in 2006, Harbin Polarland was featured seals sea lions, penguins, Arctic Wolves, dolphins and even a polar bear, plus many aquariums with exotic marine life. The extrance also featured many snow and ice sculpture and as this was our first experience around them we had a lot of fun taking lots of photos.

(Ninth) Harbin Ice and Snow World

Harbin Ice and Snow World featured some of the world’s largest ice sculptures. On entering the size and complexity of the brightly coloured sculptures was quite outstanding. The ice sculptures were replicas of the Great Wall, Pantheon, Five-Pagoda Temple, Gate of Heavenly Peace, Stonehenge, plus many more I don’t know the name of.

Harbin Jihua Ski Resort

The second day started with a 1 hour drive to Jihua Ski Resort to attempt skiing. The tour included 2 hours of equipment hire and admission. Even though the ski slopes were artificial, they still looked very beautiful covered in snow.

Sun Island Snow Sculptures

After skiing we ended the day with a visit to Sun Island which features snow sculptures as part of Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. The snow sculptures are lit up with coloured lights, giving them an eerie feel due to the shadows. The festival also featured the world’s largest snow sculpture.

Harbin Russian Street and Songhua River

To end our Harbin tour and visit, we walked down the Russian Street (Zhong Yang Street). This all happened while it was snowing and lead to much shenanigans while playing with the snow. For dinner we ate traditional Russian cuisine and drank vodka and kvass. After we walked to Songhua River and walked on the river as being frozen made it quite safe.

Hong Kong skyline and the Peak

Unfortunately we arrived a time with a lot of fog (or maybe that was all the smog), and the skyline was a dull grey. We still took many photos though. From the skyline we walked to the Peak, which is Hong Kong’s highest mountain. A tram ride takes you to the top and gives you access to the Sky Terrace all for $48HK.

JW Marriott Cafe and Lan Kwai Fong

A few of our friends decided on having a Christmas eve dinner at the JW Marriott Cafe. It was extremely expensive (around $850HK, double the normal price due to Christmas) and not worth it, it was fun trying the seafood and deserts, but we would definitely not do it again. After dinner we ventured to Lan Kwai Fong, which was supposed to be the best bar and club strip. It was really just a whole lot of people crammed into a small street with everybody having no idea of what was happening.

Disneyland

We decided to visit Disneyland on Christmas. Disneyland was the highlight of Hong Kong, was better than expected and very fun. I even got a photo with Mickey Mouse.

My’ experiences:

• Mong Kok at night with the hundreds of thousands of people crowding the streets, whilst billboards illuminated the streets as if it was day time.
• The Hong Kong coins are quite interesting. The $5 coin looks like 3 coins stuck together and the $10 coin is silver with a brass inner core.
• Disneyland, definitely ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’ and made even nicer spending it with Sonya on Christmas day.

Sonya’s favourite memorable moments:

• Eating fairy floss whilst lining up to take photos with Mickey Mouse.
• The Disney safari boat ride provided much entertainment for the ten of us, particularly the funny accented tour guide ‘Rick’. “Welcome to Disneyland, the land of magic, the land of wonder…the land of work.”
• Other memorable moments include running around the Disneyland complex after our friends who were trying to find that perfect spot to watch the fireworks and discovering the hallucinosis-like effects of the snowman glasses.