Finally here to post about my shanghai & jiangnan trip.
DAY 1 13/12/09 Sun
Reached Changi Airport at 1 plus. Was so stupidly waiting for the tour guide,ended up she was there long ago.. n she even said we shld go n identify her! WTH.. shldnt it be the other way round?? .. bad impression from the start.. tsk tsk.. While we were q ing to check in our lugguages, u noe wat!! i saw the Lionel from peoplesearch.. ended up with the same tour grp as him ehh.. so coincidental.
Took a 4 hr plane to Fuzhou, on Xiamen Airline (stewardess de attitude sucks ).. den Transited and continued on a one hour flight to Hangzhou. While on board the plane, encountered quite a lot of interesting things.
There was a "do not step" sign, but they wrote "no step" instead. And not i wat, but their inflight announcements in english are (N) (N).. But wat i like is that they used cartoons to show what to do to fight against H1N1. There is oso a clip showing exercises to do on flight. One of the actions is the circling of the wrists n opening of fingers.. reminds me of the genie dance, hand action.. HAHAH .
Met with the tour guide at Hangzhou airport. Her name is Lily, 小潘. She has the habit of saying "ha" But her english is good plus she went to one of China's top 5 uni s. WOW O.O.. She told us Hangzhou alone has a population of 6.6m ,while Singapore oni has the pathetic 4m. How small SG is.. :S
Stayed at Edinburg Hotel tonight.. Going back there on the last night.
DAY 2 14/12/09 Mon
After having the not very nice breakfast, we went to 西湖(west lake) , and took a boat, on a tour ard the lake.. there was a small bunch of korean tourists behind us in the boat too ^^ ..Stayed in Edinburg Hotel tonight :)
Next, we went to 万松书院, the place where Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai studied..
Last destination of the day was to some place to get to know about hangzhou's most famous product, Green Tea. Longjing tea. We were introduced to it by a hilarious man called Mr Plum.. HAHA.. 梅先生. He also let us try the tea. He described the good tea leaves as "double A", which costs RMB 1200 for a catty, equivalent to 200 sin dlrs. O.O..
Its time for us to move. Tonight to Yiwu 义乌. After a 2 hour coach ride, we checked into Days Inn Hotel. 义乌戴斯酒店.Btw, yiwu is famous for 批发货.
DAY 3 15/12/09 Tues
Today was more of an eating day. Had lunch shortly aft we had breakfast. Next, we headed to Suzhou. Took a 4 hrs plus ride there.. Due to the cold weather, I would always need to go to the toilet.. And there was once i ren ed for 2 hrs :S.. torture.. I love it when we breathe out thru our mouth, and there's smoke :) .. One uncle imitated to be smoking.. so funny! .. Met Mr Tan, our Suzhou guide, aft dinner. He is another hilarious guy. He talked to us abt his SG trip. For his honeymoon, his wife wanted to go to SG. She wanted to buy Chanel lipstick in Suzhou's metro before coming to Singapore. Mr Tan said his eyes turned to Chanel when he saw the price. One for RMB 500. HE said he didnt want to buy it, but his wife said she will go on honeymoon with other guys.. HAHAHA.. In the end, he bought her 2.. but the heartaching thing is that he saw in singapore, for the same thing, its oni for 20 sin dlrs. Its like 5 times cheaper den he bought. Ended up cos he said its cheap, he had to pay for 20 of the lipsticks cos his wife wanted to give it to her colleagues. :S..
But for new year, he got RMB 8000 hongbao from them leh.. $.$ ..
He also talked about Sg oni aloowing 50,000 China ppl in Singapore each year. So its a rong yao thing to come here. He bought a polo shirt for his dad in singapore for RMB1280 , in his hometown, they sold it for RMB 9000 O.O.. MADNESS! He gave it to his dad and bluffed its oni RMB280, but his dad stil tinks its ex. He said he doesnt want it and threw it to the chair. Mr Tan was very upset and he didnt visit his dad for a month aft this incident. When he went back aft a mth, he saw his dad wearing the shirt. He asked his dad, didnt u say u wont wear it de meh? I tink the "meh" is he purposely added in cos he was talking to us, singlish ppl.. HAHA.. His dad claimed that he oni wear it to cook,but those 3姑6婆s told him his dad wore it for a month. He also went ard telling ppl his son bought it in Singapore.
I dunno the tour guide was jus trying to crap or wat, but i would get a bit offended by wat he said, thoough they are really funny. His dad would "boast" to the neighbours, "你知道新加坡是什么地方吗 ? .. 拿脸察地板， 你的脸都是干净的".
Mr Tan also talked about their criterias, in order to be able to take Singapore tourists. They mus havce master's degree.
China's tour guides seems to earn a lot and have a very good future. Honestly, i doubt singapore's tour guide industry is as good.
Super love Mr Tan's talking skills. I laughed from the moment he talked till we reached the hotel. I was oredi laughing out tears when we reached our hotel of the night, Suyuan Hotel 蘇苑酒店.
Tomorrow will be shopping..WHEE XD.. FINALLY!
Looking forward to Shanghai..:)
DAY 4 16/12/09 Wednesday
Continued Suzhou tour and went to suyuan garden. Alighted the coach after the tour guide finished his endless jokes.. went to the toilet and i felt like i became ice after washing my hands.. MADNESS!!!The tour guide kept saying "跟猪走", he did it on purpose cos he wanted us to "跟着走". Later went on a short short boat ride. It was rowed by ah mas and they would even sing songs like xiao chen gu shi n etc..
Went to the silk factory next, looked at how silk was made from cocoon, the aunties' hands were all very smooth cos they got to touch silk everyday. Too bad photos are not allowed for the silk making.
After lunch, it was a 3 hour bus ride to nanjing. Went to c some statue, cos i jus got up from slp in the bus and the weather was freaking cold, -2, i did not pay attention to wat it was.
Passed by the 城墙 and its cool that it is still intact after so many years. It was built before the great wall somemore.
At night, we went to fu zi miao.. its not a temple, i oso tot it was a temple.. HAHA.. its a shopping district that is filled with 古味. Most fulfilling day, since the last 3 days.. cos i bought dvd, magazines and a pair of boots to keep my legs warm during my trip. :)
The dvds are freaking cheap btw.. aadbsk 2 for oni RMB 50.. though its not official de..but still ^^ (Y)(Y)..
Too bad can oni buy a few..
Hotel tonight is 泽天酒店.. big room and also nice tv programs :)
Watched Xman.. haha.. hwanhee :)
DAY 5 17/12/09 Thursday
First destination of the day : Yangtze Bridge 长江桥. It is a double layer bridge, Train track below and road track on top. After viewing the bridge on the top, we proceeded to the shop in the buidling. We were lucky to see Mr gong liang, (not gong li's relative.. HAHA)..but the famous artist who rebuilt and redesigned the yangtze bridge. A pity he cant draw anymore as it willl cause him to be blind. He is famous for being able to draw upside down and also in a small bottle space.
cute dog :) super fluffy
Next, we took a 2 hours ride to wuxi. We went to 三城国, where a lot of movies, ancient dramas are filmed. One of them was 赤壁.. imagine u going there for a tour and u c jin chen wu filming there.. WOW!!! O.O.. how i wished so!HAHA
Watched the 战国风云秀. awesome :)
Learnt a few wu xi 话, 老太太is said as "la ta ta" and 老公公 is "la la de" .. HAHAHA.. interesting~~
If i m not wrong, we went shopping at night.. n saw the drink tat big bang dai yan :)
DAY 6 18/12/09 Friday
Todays breakfast is finally better.. better toilets too :)
Went to a park and also other local selling place. After lunch, off to shanghai. But den when we reached, major traffic jam.. but i still love shanghai for their modernised city. Ate the famous xiao long bao tats oways shownon tv :)).. long q but its worth waiting.. eating the piping hot xiao long bao in the veyr cold winter.. Because of the traffic jam, we made a trip to a nearby restaurant to settle our dinner, before we catch the 730 acrobatics show, by a circus troupe. The show is called ERA. It is in preparation for the shanghai expo 2010.. 惊叹不已。。 Checked in to Ramada hotel after taking a tour of xin tian di. Alot of idols went there b4. Their trees are so nicely decorated for christmas too.. Finally found internet connection at the hotel :))
DAY 7 19/12/09 Saturday
Went to the shanghai world financial center . which stands at 101 floors.. went to the medical center,dunno called wat.. den hotpot for lunch and seafood buffet for dinner :)))) .. Went to somewhere for some shopping aft tat :) .. Hotel tonight was charms hotel :)
DAY 8 20/12/09 Sunday
Went to see crystal, met the young son/ prince of the crystal company. Super generous .. For real?? or jus showing off?? :S.. watever, i jus noe tat the employees' face are super black when we left while the tour mates are all very happy.. bought super ex things at super cheap prices. Finally shopping! Went to the nearby shopping mall instead of outdoor de, cos its very cold~~ .. bought a checkered shirt from uniqlo :))).. Went to this shop called vero moda.. they have got nice clothes :) ..but they are ex and i doubt singapore have.. Went to watch some perf .. interesting.. :)
DAY 9 21/12/09 Monday
Time to end the fun .. :(.. flight in the morning at 8plus.. after transitions and watsoever, homed ..
Did some unpacking and when i opened my luggage, there's mist.. cold untillll~~. my bag oso got mist ..
FINALLY FINISHED THIS POST! :)))
