ShenZhen & HK trip 2010

I reached ShenZhen on 22 May. I was there on a Sat even though I only need to be there for work on Monday. Since I had not been to ShenZhen before and I have a friend who will be there at the same time, I decided to fly in on Saturday. :P It is to be a short break for me also I guess...

I got in only on Sat evening. I checked into the hotel then walk down to the 东门步行街 to hunt for some dinner. ShenZhen's 东门步行街 reminds me a little of Shenyang... The following day, I met up with my friend and her husband for breakfast then went down to the wholesale center at 东门步行街. It was a whole new experience to me. Very interesting experience indeed...

深圳东门步行街

I started 'work' on Monday. There was really nothing much for me to do for work. :P I went down to the exhibition hall with the marketing girl to settle some stuff for the tradeshow. After that it was R&R liao. lol... We went shopping, followed by dinner then back to the hotel. I LOVE my hotel room. It was really nice. I can even watch the tv while inside the bathtub. :P It has a view of 世界之窗. It is just too bad that I couldn't find time to visit it. :(

The very nice hotel room!

The bathtub where I can watch tv in

世界之窗

I went over to HK on Friday. Almost got withdrawal symptoms from the change of hotel. lol... I stayed in a budget hotel when I was in HK. So imagine moving from Westin ShenZhen to a budget hotel in HK? It's like falling into hell from heaven. lol... Since I figured that I won't be staying in my hotel room much, I decided to save some money and stay in a budget hotel. The room was ok but it has a great location. The only downside of this budget hotel is that I have to lug my luggage up a flight of stairs before I have access to the escalator. I am glad I can still managed my slightly less than 20kg luggage. lol...

Super small hotel room in HK

This was the first time that I went to HK. HK is a very vibrant city. I we We did not do anything much other than shopping. Weather was bad too as it was raining when I wanted to go Avenue of Stars. :( I think I will be back to HK again one of the days... :)

Dessert from the famous Hui Lau Shan

World Cup Fever in HK

HK & ShenZhen

I'm currently heading back to HKIA after shopping at CityGate. There's a lot of shops there. Just that the things are over my budget. I saw some shirts fr Guess that I will love to have but after weighing how much it will cost vs how often I will wear them, I decided not to buy it. I didn't buy a lot of things. Just 1 spag top and a belt from Espirit.

It took me a couple of hours before I crossed the border and reached the hotel. I reached the hotel only at 7+. I was supposed to meet Tracy for dinner but I can hear how tired she sounded on the phone after a day of photo shoot so I told her to stay home and rest.

I walked from the hotel to DongMen Bu Xing Jie. It's not very far. Around 10 to 15 mins walk. I grabbed a simple dinner there. DongMen Bu Xing Jie reminded me of Shenyang's Bu Xing Jie. I saw this top that I like very much! However, it cost a crazy price of SGD70+ after conversion! I wonder jow many people in ShenZhen can afford that price... After walking around for a while, I went back to the hotel. I didn't want to stay out until too late as I heard it's not very safe here.

So tiring

HK!

I reached HK not long ago. The plane touched down at ard 12.20. By the time I collected my luggage & all, it was ard 1. I dropped off my luggage at their Left Baggage service. Then proceeded to makan at Hui Lau Shan, a famous dessert store in HK.

I was supposed to go straight to ShenZhen fr HK airport but I'm already ard the area, I decided to drop by CityGate first b4 I go ShenZhen. CityGate is a factory outlet mall in HK. I want to go there and walk walk see see. :P I will be heading back to the airport to collect my luggage after that then take a bus into Shenzhen. My initial plan was to take a bus to ShenZhen directly from CityGate. Sadly though, that bus stops only at Huanggang Port or ShenZhen Bay Port, after which I have to make my owb way to LuoHu. Forget it lah... Especially when I heard that it will be quite hard to get taxis from there.

The customer service guy who sells the Airport Express pass is very nice. I was enquiring how much will it cost if I go to Tung Chung. I think he got a shock. Lol... He told me if I'm going to Tung Chung, take the bus S1. There's no need for me to take the Airport Express if I'm going to Tung Chung. He saved me HKD 56.50. :P

Let's see how my trip will turn out... :D

Full!

Ha... My luggage is already full even before I even step into HK and China's shores... How am I going to shop like that? Where can I put my things? :P

WooHoo!

Ok... I am now packing my luggage... Counting down to my trip to ShenZhen & HK. The best thing about travelling alone? I can change my plan anytime. :P I actually planned to go ShenZhen directly from HK airport. I have just changed my mind. I will be dropping by CityGate in HK first and shop around before I move on to ShenZhen. Best thing is I just found out that they have a direct bus that will be able to bring me directly to ShenZhen. WooHoo~! :D

ShenZhen + HongKong

I will be going over to ShenZhen & HK for a short trip at the end of the month. There's a tradeshow in ShenZhen that one of my colleague wants me to attend to help out. I was thinking help out for what? I know nothing also... -_-'''

Anyway, I will be going there 2 days earlier to explore ShenZhen. Plus my classmate will be there to take her bridal studio photos then so I will be kpo-ing. :D Since I am flying back via HK, I am extending my trip over the weekend too. I guess this is the break that I need badly...

Live from 桃仙机场

I am now sitting in a cafe at 桃仙机场 of Shenyang waiting for the time to board my plane to go back to Shanghai. I did not manage to meet up with my friend but I was still quite ok alone. After all, I managed to travel alone in Beijing with no difficulty so why would Shenyang pose any problem right? I think my mum was kind of shocked when she heard that I travel to Beijing alone. I did not tell her I am going to Beijing at all because it was all a last minute decision. I better get prepared for a scolding from her when I reach home. :P

I will be going back to Singapore tomorrow. I am away from Singapore for almost 2 weeks. I think this is the first time I have been away from home for so long but the funny thing is that I don't miss home as much as I thought I will. But no matter what, I am still looking forward to being back home. :)

Freezing Cold in Shenyang...

I am currently in Shenyang and it is freaking cold here!!! It is like 20 Degrees outside and feels like 16 Degrees when the wind blows! Brrr... Damn cold lor...

Raining in Shenyang

I got into Shenyang at around 8+ the night before. I was hungry but had no mood to try out any local food so I bought a cup noodles, thinking of eating it in the hotel room. I got back to the hotel and wanted to fill the kettle with tap water but changed my mind after I saw that the water that was flowing out from the tap looks yellowish. Luckily I bought some biscuits as backup so those became my dinner instead. :(

My second day in Shenyang started off in a bad way. First, it was raining when I woke up. Then, the tour guide that I had arranged to bring me around for a one day tour in Shenyang sent me an sms saying that due to the rain, the one day tour will be cancelled. Damn it! I was looking forward to it lor... I went back to bed for a while then woke up at 8 plus and went down to have breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast the hotel provided taste very awful lor. I will rather stay in my room and eat biscuits for breakfast tomorrow morning than to go down and have their breakfast again. :P

Since it was raining, I decided to go to their 五爱市场 first as I want to stay indoors. I was hoping that the rain will stop soon so that I can go to 沈阳故宫 by myself. This place is even more 夸张 than Shanghai and Beijing's wholesale market lor. It has one WHOLE shopping center just selling shoes alone... Power! Too bad I had already bought 2 pairs of shoes in Shanghai liao or else I will don't mind getting some shoes. :P I did however buy 2 turtle neck tops from other wholesale shopping center. No choice lah... It is really cold and even though I was wearing a jacket over my tshirt, I can still feel how cold it is especially when the wind blows. I was so tempted to buy their jackets! Their winter jackets are so pretty! The only reason why I never get them is because I won't be needing them in Singapore. So sad... :(

I took a cab down to 沈阳故宫 after I visited the 五爱市场 even though it was still raining then. I have no idea what time the rain will stop so there's no point waiting any longer. The palace was not as big as what I had expected it to be. It took me 1 or 2 hours before I finished exploring that place. During my stay in 沈阳故宫, a drama happened! As it was raining, so I was carrying an umbrella with me while I explored the palace. I left my umbrella outside one of the halls showing some exhibits and by the time I left the hall, my umbrella was gone! I was very angry because the rain was not very small, I was already feeling very cold from the weather and as much as I don't mind getting wet from the rain, I will definitely mind if it was because someone stole my umbrella! I walked around the palace and soon spotted someone with my umbrella! I went up to the man and confronted him asking him to return me the umbrella that he had stolen. He tried to deny saying that it was a mistake, he took the umbrella by mistake and etc but I just ignored his explanation and took my umbrella and left. I can't believe someone actually stealing an umbrella!

After I left the palace, I went to a restaurant nearby to have lunch. I tried this dumpling from the restaurant called because I could vaguely remember the taxi driver telling me that the dumpling from that restaurant is a must try. The dumplings taste not bad lah... Something different but I wasn't very impressed by it too. :P It was later when I realised that I went to the wrong shop! Haha... I went back to the hotel after that to get a change of clothes to something thicker. No choice lah... It was really too cold for me... Brrr...

I went roaming around their shopping area called 中街 after I went back to the hotel and changed. 中街 is a bit different from the usual shopping scene in Singapore. Very few high end retail shops and etc. The food there interest me more instead. I bought this 鸡蛋饼 from this store along the road, a stick of 麻辣鱿鱼 and also this famous 肉饼. The food are actually quite nice, just that I find the 肉饼 a tad too salty.

The 鱿鱼s waiting to be cooked

The famous 肉饼

Inside the 肉饼

Shenyang was not as bad as I thought after all...

One Night in Beijing...

I reached Beijing at around 9plus in the morning and took a taxi to the hotel. Since I will be here for only a night, I decided to stay in a room that is rather small and cost like less than S$30. After all, I only need a bed to sleep in for the night. :P

The first impression that Beijing gave me was that it is not as congested when compared to Shanghai. The roads are wider, the air is definitely very bad because it is hazy no matter where I look. Traffic in Beijing don't seem quite as bad as it is in Shanghai but from what I heard, they are still having the alternate days driving ruling in order to reduce pollution.

I made a trip up to 八达岭 which is part of the Great Wall of China. It was really very wow! It is really amazing how did they build this up so many many years ago. As I was too lazy to climb up there from the bottom, I took the cable car up to the top and went downwards! Haha...　I know that's cheating. :P I spent 3+ hours up there before I decided to leave the place.

I went to this wholesale center called 秀水市场　after that and I realised that Beijinese can speak English very well! You can hear them speaking fluently English to those Ang Mo tourists there. This is something that I did not notice in Shanghai when I was at their wholesale center. I saw a fan there that I thought is quite funny... Oh the proud Chinese... Lol...

I actually wanted to try the Peking Duck from this restaurant called 全聚德 which was recommended to me by a taxi driver. I went all the way to 前门 for it but left without eating... Partly because there are lots of people there and another part is because the minimum order for the Peking Duck is half a duck! There's no way I can finish half a duck by myself so bo bian I left Beijing without eating my Peking Duck! :( But I did buy some Peking Duck to bring back to Singapore. Must 安慰 myself a bit mah. :P

As I was still pretty early, I took Beijing's MRT to 王府井 which is sort of equivalent to Singapore's Orchard Road. Wah liao... The whole street is full of Li Ning's boutique lor. I find that his shop is a copy of both Nike and Adidas. The logo is a modified version of Nike's and the slogan, Adidas!

I explored the nearby streets and came across this street called 东华门美食坊. I was hoping that I can find something interesting for dinner since I did not get to eat my Peking Duck. One thing I realised after being to Shanghai and Beijing is that people in China loves to eat things on sticks. You can find all sorts of perculiar things that they put on sticks and eat either fried or just cooked. Fruits which are put on sticks and eaten just that way or made into 冰糖葫芦, or weird stuff such as silk worms, seahorses, starfish and etc.

I lost my appetite when I saw these... Yucks!

I went back to the hotel without my dinner. Lost all my appetite. I have no idea how did some people eat these. Yucks!

Shopping and Beautifying in Shanghai...

I met up with my cousin who opened a hair salon in Shanghai over the weekend. Other than eat, I think the thing that I did the most while I am in Shanghai is probably to shop and also to beautify myself.

She brought me shopping at this wholesale center where they sell a lot of shoes and I got off with 2 pairs of boots which I may not even get a chance to wear in Singapore. :P Shopping in Shanghai or maybe in China is a totally difference experience when compared to Singapore. In Shanghai, you have to bargin hard in order to get the best price of the things that you wantto buy. For example, initially I was quoted 178RMB for one of the pair of boots that I bought. My cousin managed to help me bargin with the shop owner and we walked off with the boots for only 80 RMB! That's more than half the original price quoted. According to my cousin, that's because business there is so competitive that the shop owner will rather earn less from you than lose the business to the other shops. I won't wonder why she say that business is very competitive there because the wholeplace are selling shoes and shoes and shoes! Later in the day, I bought another 2 bags in a shopping center where we had our dinner. I might have bought clothes too if they are not selling autumn wear in Shanghai now. So sad... :(

For the beautifying part, I permed my eyelashes, rebond-ed my hair again and did a pedicure too. All at no cost, thanks to my cousin. :P She helped me permed my eyelashes while the hairstylists in her salon helped me rebond my hair and refused to charge me at all. She said I look like Betty Boop now because of how curly my eyelashes are now. In the end, all I can do is to buy her dinner and buy snacks for her hairstylists as a sign of gratitude. She even paid for my pedicure. It has been quite sometime since I last did a pedicure because it is so expensive to do it in Singapore. It costs like only S$14 for a pedicure in Shanghai while it will cost at least double the price for the same thing in Singapore. Ok lah... The place to do the pedicure is not as nice as what we are used to in Singapore but the same things still get done. I am pretty ok with that. :P

I will be travelling to Beijing alone tomorrow morning. It is sort of a last minute decision to go up to Beijing. After all I had not planned to go at all. If not for the fact that I had more or less done all that I can do already in Shanghai over the last few days, I may not even travel out of Shanghai. This time it is really a trip on my own. I will not be meeting anyone there and I will be all alone there. I have not plan to do anything yet but I hope I will have the time to go up to the Great Wall of China. What's being in Beijing without going up to Great Wall of China right? 不到长城非好汉! Haha...

I will be making a trip up to Shenyang after Beijing. A short trip also because I have a friend who is staying there. But I may not be meeting my friend also. No plans yet. It all depends on whether my friend is available to meet me or not. If not, I am sure I will be fine alone too.

I am sort of looking forward to making a trip alone. It will definitely be a different experience as I cannot depend on anyone. Like the past few days I have been depending on my cousin to bring me around, help me bargin and etc. This time round, I have to find my way around myself. I have to be independent and carry out things myself with no help from anyone else. I will survive! But first thing first, I think it is time for me to get a watch. I forgot to bring mine alone and I keep losing track of time because I don't check on my hp often as nobody will call. Time to get a watch! :P

Overdose on Coke...

I am someone who is very particular about the plain / mineral water that I drink. I refuse to drink any plain / mineral water that I feel that has a taste to it. I don't drink Evian (yucks!), I can still make myself drink Ice Mountain. Other than that there isn't any much mineral water that I drink.

When I reach Shanghai, the first thing my colleague and I did after we had our dinner in a nearby eatery, was to go to a convenience store to grab some drinks and stuff. I grab a huge bottle of coke and a small bottle of mineral water. I didn't dare to get the big one because I wanted to try and see if there's any weird taste in it. Coke is supposed to taste the same no matter which country it is from so I guessed that's pretty safe. At least it is a drink that I am familiar with.

So now whenever I need to get a drink, Coke is my choice most of the time. The lucky thing is that Coke is really dirt cheap here... 1 600mL bottle of Coke costs only 2.50 RMB which will be slight more than S$0.50. Really dirt cheap. My Japan colleague and I were so surprised at how cheap it is and the place we bought the Coke at is most probably already ripping us.

So right now I am having an overdose of Coke in China... Hee... Think I will stay away from Coke for sometime after I go back to Singapore. :P

Raining in Shanghai...

My tradeshow ended this afternoon and now I am back in the hotel... How I wish I can go out and play now but it's raining lor... So sian...

Thoughts of Shanghai after so many days here? The traffic here is very scary... They drive anyway they want lor... They machiam like ignore all rules like that... Their no smoking sign is non-existent one. You can see no smoking sign in the exhibition hall, restaurant but you can still see people puffing away... It's totally unlike Singapore... Other than that I think it is pretty ok...

I will be making a trip down to Beijing and Shenyang next week. I hope these 2 places will be nice... At least I think Beijing will be. :)

Live from Shanghai...

Heh... I am now in Shanghai loh... The flight from Singapore to Shanghai took around 5+ hours. I took the 10+ flight in the morning so I reached Shanghai at around 3+ in the afternoon yesterday. The flight was ok... I watched Sex and the City on board the plane... I had wanted to catch that movie when it was screening a few months ago but had no chance to do that. So it's a good thing that they are showing it on SQ for the month of September. :D

I like my hotel room! Very nice and big... I almost can't bear to think of leaving it a few more days later liao... Haha... I will upload a few pictures of the room once I can... I can't seem to be able to upload it on Blogger now...

Food was ok lah... I only had a meal here so far so I can't comment too much... :P But I do hope the food is as good as what one of my friend said... :P I am looking forward to my Free and Easy time... :D

Update: I had just update the post with the photos of the hotel room. Nice right? :D

Humping Dog close up...

This is a USB toy called Humping Dog. I took this video when I was in Akihabara of Tokyo, Japan.

Some pictures from Japan

Rainbow Bridge

Tokyo Disneyland
I wonder why is it called Tokyo Disneyland when it is not located in Tokyo.

Fujiyama in Fuji-Q Highlands
It was once the world's tallest roller coaster. The ride up there is scary even though I don't mind going up there again.

Yokohama Bay Bridge

We took this picture on top of Landmark Tower which is the tallest building in Japan.

We bought this Takoyaki in Ikebukuro of Tokyo, Japan. Its diameter is almost as long as Japan's Suica which is something like Singapore's ezlink card.

I'm back from Japan!

Ohaiyo~! I came back to Singapore this evening... Even though I am sad to leave Japan and need to go back to work again on Monday, I am still happy to be back in Singapore because of the weather! If you think Singapore is hot, try visiting Japan now... I think the weather in Japan is really terrible... It's so super duper hot over there now that a fan and a towel became my best companion alongside with my bf. These two things practically save me throughout my trip in Japan.

I got the fan free from the streets and bought the face towel from Disneyland. It's so hot in Japan that I perspire once I step out into the streets in Japan. I can finally understand why is it that most Japanese will have a towel or handkerchief with them whenever they go out. It's because tissue paper are just not enough to wipe off all the perspiration that keep coming...!

I know why most Japanese are skinny liao... I was in Japan for 8D7N and the thing I noticed is that most of the are skinny.... Both men and women.... I think I know why liao... It must be because there are so few escalators available everywhere compared to Singapore. I can't remember when was the last time that I need to climb the stairs up and down to change train or go from one place to another. Japan really makes me climb the stairs. Some of their escalators actually starts "working" only after 7am. Imagine my horror when I need to carry my 20kg luggage up the stairs... I managed to lug it up a few steps but my bf had to "save" me in the end. With that amount of exercise they do, it's no wonder that they are so skinny...

I shall update on my trip after I sort out all my photos...

Packing my luggage...

Hee... I have been looking forward to travel again after my last trip to Thailand two years ago... Now I am going to do that! I'm happily packing my luggage now because I am on leave today... I will be leaving tomorrow morning for... Tokyo! :D I will be bringing my laptop along with me so I will update about my trip when I am in Japan if I get the chance... :D