20/12/2012 Winter soltice. The winter soltice is yet another important festive day in the Chinese culture. The day is celebrate by having the Tang Yuan, as a child, we are told that we are officially another year older when this day comes. Anyway, the interesting thing about this year's Winter Soltice is that it falls on the same day which the Mayans seems to have believed to be the last day for the world.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
30/09/2012
30/9/12
Last day of the vacation, and the only day in Guangzhou, China.
There is not much agenda for today, as we are required to depart for the airport earlier as traffic congestion is expect.
Today's breakfast is buffet on the hotel's 39th floor restaurant, although things are less tastier than those we had before.
After breakfast they take us shopping at 北京路, where the whole streets have shops for fashion. This is what our tour guide told us, the last day of our vacation is meant for shopping.
The whole street is full of people slightly after 10am. And we all go separate ways looking for what we want.
And here is how I found out the reason why sales person are multi lingua and common, and the reason is that their books are so cheap!
No wonder the nation is developing fast. People can gain knowledge will so little price.
It makes me some what disappointed that here in my country books are costing 6 folds making purchasing books quite painful for some.
Anyways, we were at the shopping street till 12pm and proceed to lunch. And after that straight to the airport where we shall have tea break and dinner onboard.
That concludes our 9 days vacation in China.
Last day of the vacation, and the only day in Guangzhou, China.
There is not much agenda for today, as we are required to depart for the airport earlier as traffic congestion is expect.
Today's breakfast is buffet on the hotel's 39th floor restaurant, although things are less tastier than those we had before.
After breakfast they take us shopping at 北京路, where the whole streets have shops for fashion. This is what our tour guide told us, the last day of our vacation is meant for shopping.
The whole street is full of people slightly after 10am. And we all go separate ways looking for what we want.
And here is how I found out the reason why sales person are multi lingua and common, and the reason is that their books are so cheap!
No wonder the nation is developing fast. People can gain knowledge will so little price.
It makes me some what disappointed that here in my country books are costing 6 folds making purchasing books quite painful for some.
Anyways, we were at the shopping street till 12pm and proceed to lunch. And after that straight to the airport where we shall have tea break and dinner onboard.
That concludes our 9 days vacation in China.
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| Beijing Street, Guangzhou. (Downloaded photo cuz we didn't take any pictures.) |
Monday, December 10, 2012
29/09/2012
29/9/12
After breakfast, we set course for our flight to Guangzhou.
Guangzhou is one of the three largest cities of China. Also known as “羊城”，the City of Goat.
Probably because the city is one that is surrounding by the sea which shares a same syllable in Mandarin.
After touchdown we are to head for lunch place immediately, as is a large city, traffic jams are expected, it took us more than an hour to reach our destination. However the sights seen as we drive around the city definitely is one that is interesting enough. China, yet the culture is so much different compare to the Northern China states. Here, the GuangDong dialect, or Cantonese is more spoken as in Hong Kong.
We had a wonderful Zhao ”潮“ style lunch in a restaurant built right next to a park, their meal are prone to be much saltier and also prefers porridge over rice, and their preferred appetizer are soups in contrast of elsewhere in Northern China wherein soup are meant to be served later in a meal.
As in all developed cities which shares advance public transportation systems, the public transport here even utilize electric buses...utilizing the cables above the road, the buses have large wires connected to them as they drive around the city, a sight to be seen.
After that we went to “陈家书院”, Chen Family Library. A building that survived the dynasty era of China meant for taking exams in the past for scholars. Today the building is used for the exhibitions for all sort of art creations by locals, porcelain sculptures, Ivory sculptured, etc.
After the exhibition building, we process to “六榕园”，another building, a temple that has survived and been rebuilt throughout the history of China's politic struggles for many decades.
The resting place for our one night in Guangzhou is our last location.
After breakfast, we set course for our flight to Guangzhou.
Guangzhou is one of the three largest cities of China. Also known as “羊城”，the City of Goat.
Probably because the city is one that is surrounding by the sea which shares a same syllable in Mandarin.
After touchdown we are to head for lunch place immediately, as is a large city, traffic jams are expected, it took us more than an hour to reach our destination. However the sights seen as we drive around the city definitely is one that is interesting enough. China, yet the culture is so much different compare to the Northern China states. Here, the GuangDong dialect, or Cantonese is more spoken as in Hong Kong.
We had a wonderful Zhao ”潮“ style lunch in a restaurant built right next to a park, their meal are prone to be much saltier and also prefers porridge over rice, and their preferred appetizer are soups in contrast of elsewhere in Northern China wherein soup are meant to be served later in a meal.
As in all developed cities which shares advance public transportation systems, the public transport here even utilize electric buses...utilizing the cables above the road, the buses have large wires connected to them as they drive around the city, a sight to be seen.
After that we went to “陈家书院”, Chen Family Library. A building that survived the dynasty era of China meant for taking exams in the past for scholars. Today the building is used for the exhibitions for all sort of art creations by locals, porcelain sculptures, Ivory sculptured, etc.
After the exhibition building, we process to “六榕园”，another building, a temple that has survived and been rebuilt throughout the history of China's politic struggles for many decades.
The resting place for our one night in Guangzhou is our last location.
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| Chen's Library. |
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| Part of Chinese culture, elaborated roof decors. |
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| Most of these sculptures depicts studying situation in the old days. |
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| At the Entrance. |
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| Liu Rong Temple. 6 tiers Pagoda. |
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| The modern Guangzhou Library. |
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| Museum, intricate designs on the exterior. |
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| An overview of the buildings around the park, Stadium that held the Commonwealth sport to the right. |
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| Killing time at the park waiting for our bus, the previous driver is familiar with the road around town. |
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| PiQiu, mythical creature of Chinese folklore, this one looks cute. |
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
28/09/21012
28/9/12
Our agenda today, is to visit a unique art gallery dedicated to a local artist of local minority ethnic.
Our agenda today, is to visit a unique art gallery dedicated to a local artist of local minority ethnic.
The "李军声沙石画园" is an art gallery that is first of its kind, by producing art utilizing nature materials such as the stones, sands, rocks, and numerous faunas found within the vicinity of ZhangJiaJie's nature.
The art gallery while attending to tourists also is a place for people to study the art of constructing drawings with the said materials.
We stayed till lunch and after that its a long drive to the outskirt of town to the cable car station which we shall take a 30mins long cable car ride into the mountain range where the TianMenShan is located.
Then there shall be another 30mins long bus ride on the road with 99 180 degree turns all the way up to the foot of TianMenShan.
Upon taking a short photo taking break, we ascend up the 999steps of stairs that leads up to where the TianMenShan is.
The TianMenShan is a naturally formed short, hollowed cave that is large enough for a combat jet to fly through, which is also been done before and proved.
The 999 steps leading up does not have exactly 999 steps but is used as the Chinese believe the number 9 to be auspicious. The road the bus take us up also have less than 99 turns but was named so for it auspicious beliefs.
After heading down the same way we came up and had our dinner, the our bus took us to the valley where we shall watch a show in an open-air theater, the story is about a human who had fell in love with a Vixen spirit and how they end up together after many perils. The sound effects of the show are all lively sung by the local ethnics and boy do they have an amazing voice. The show also use a magic trick invented by David Copperfield where they had paid for the copyright of this trick.
Also amazing is the mountain range that is light up by spotlights in cue with the music at the end of the show, breathtaking and a must see if anyone venture down to ZhangJiaJie for a vacation.
That concludes our journey for ZhangJiaJie and we shall be leaving for Guangzhou the following day.
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| Entrance of the art gallery. |
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| A view from the 2nd floor of the building. |
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| A model of the mountain area of the TianMenShan. |
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| Going up by cable cars, from the outskirt of the town all the way up to the middle of the mountain range. |
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| You know him. |
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| A glass corridor, not for the faint-hearted. |
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| 2nd part of travel is by bus, more than 80 turns up hill. |
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| The foot of TianMenShan. |
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| A better photography skill would be nice. |
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| Steep flight of stairs down. nearly 1000 steps. |
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| Evening event, open air theater in the valley. |
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| Show's end, mountain range light up in cue, breathtaking. |
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
27/09/2012
ZhangJiaJie Day 1.
The hotel we are staying in during the time at ZhangJiaJie is the Sunshine holiday hotel, which is said to claim to be one of the top rating hotel of the area. Although, there really isn't many people in this small town of a province.
Today's breakfast buffet, again, simply marvelous, choices are extensive just as our previous hotel. and the ambiance of the hotel, along with its staffs, really goes extra miles to emphasize their belief and the performance worthy of a 5 stars.
Our first destination today is the first national park officiated by the China Republic, which is currently nearing its 30th anniversary and we are warned about larger tourist flow.
It's a 50mins bus ride up and into the inner part of the state where the park lies.
We can clearly notice that the locals are definitely driving much more aggressively than the previous city, lack of enforcers per se, our driver and all the other road users just keeps hitting their honk all the time.
So, the first area of the park is where the name ZhangJiaJie came from, story goes that the province was first visited by a General with the first name "Zhang", and upon reaching this serene, mountainous haven decided to claim the land for himself and was thus named ZhangJiaJie, which literally means the Region of Zhang by the man himself, and he claimed a huge amount of the land circling a tree of that time. However the story also goes that the General's arrogance roused another General's anger and was beheaded in a duel, and the tree was chopped down, though the name remained unchanged.
In this side of the park is a gallery exhibiting naturally formed mountain peaks that resembles certain characteristics, an electric train was constructed along the gallery to take tourist for a spin showing these characters, along with a timed, pre-recorded guide played all the while.
The one easiest to spot and imagine is "The old man picking Herb" among one of the peaks, where in we can clearly sees an old man with his clear chin feature carrying the herbs he picked on his back.
The other side of the park, which we shall proceed over to on another long bus ride after lunch is YuanJiaJie, which is where its breathtaking scenery are featured in the Avatar movie.
We proceed up to the mountain roads which is 3km in height on a cable car, whereas the rest of the journey within the 396km square park will requires much work on our feet.
The hotel we are staying in during the time at ZhangJiaJie is the Sunshine holiday hotel, which is said to claim to be one of the top rating hotel of the area. Although, there really isn't many people in this small town of a province.
Today's breakfast buffet, again, simply marvelous, choices are extensive just as our previous hotel. and the ambiance of the hotel, along with its staffs, really goes extra miles to emphasize their belief and the performance worthy of a 5 stars.
Our first destination today is the first national park officiated by the China Republic, which is currently nearing its 30th anniversary and we are warned about larger tourist flow.
It's a 50mins bus ride up and into the inner part of the state where the park lies.
We can clearly notice that the locals are definitely driving much more aggressively than the previous city, lack of enforcers per se, our driver and all the other road users just keeps hitting their honk all the time.
So, the first area of the park is where the name ZhangJiaJie came from, story goes that the province was first visited by a General with the first name "Zhang", and upon reaching this serene, mountainous haven decided to claim the land for himself and was thus named ZhangJiaJie, which literally means the Region of Zhang by the man himself, and he claimed a huge amount of the land circling a tree of that time. However the story also goes that the General's arrogance roused another General's anger and was beheaded in a duel, and the tree was chopped down, though the name remained unchanged.
In this side of the park is a gallery exhibiting naturally formed mountain peaks that resembles certain characteristics, an electric train was constructed along the gallery to take tourist for a spin showing these characters, along with a timed, pre-recorded guide played all the while.
The one easiest to spot and imagine is "The old man picking Herb" among one of the peaks, where in we can clearly sees an old man with his clear chin feature carrying the herbs he picked on his back.
The other side of the park, which we shall proceed over to on another long bus ride after lunch is YuanJiaJie, which is where its breathtaking scenery are featured in the Avatar movie.
We proceed up to the mountain roads which is 3km in height on a cable car, whereas the rest of the journey within the 396km square park will requires much work on our feet.
We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking along the beautifully made park which preserves many of the original nature and look on to the numerous amazing feats done by mother nature herself.
We took many pictures but this place really requires you to see for yourself to be awed by its many seemingly impossible beauty.
At the end of the day, we descend from the mountain on a lift which is one of its kind, built to one of the mountain peak, it is the tallest lift as well as the fastest.
Photos:
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| A stone with ZhangJiaJie written on it by the previous Premier. |
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| 10 "Li" gallery, where the art is nature itself. |
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| Look at the Top right corner, can you see the "Herb picking old man"? |
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| River flowing down the mountain, they're green... |
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| Entrance to where they take the Avatar movie's scene. |
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| A naturally formed door in the mountain, an auspicious sign in Chinese culture. |
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| A.K.A Mt. Hallelujah as in Avatar. |
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| Layout of the park. |
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| A bridge was formed between the mountain peaks. named "World's No.1 bridge". |
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| As in the Avatar movie, familiar? |
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| It's so cold, we took the lift down the mountain, last scene is this uniformly aligned peaks that looks like soldiers. |
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| Claimed world's tallest lift. |
Monday, November 19, 2012
26/09/2012
26/9/12
This is our fourth day in Beijing, China.
Our morning agenda is to visit the altar that Dynast Kings used to praise the heavens once every year, the "Sky Altar" (天坛).
Today, the garden surrounding the altar is converted into a park used for all sorts of activities by the locals. Retired citizens came here to practice calligraphy on the garden's mosaic floor with a big brush and water, old and young couples enjoy dancing together with their partners,
Some are kicking shuttlecock, line dancing, sewing, weaving and there's many more activities happening at the park. As the retired citizens made up most of the people using the park, the place is also known as the Senior citizen recreational park.
The altar itself as mentioned before is surrounded by two layers of wall, the outer is a square wall, where as the inner, a circling wall. The altar itself made of some kinda white stone block sculpted with dragon weaving and can be seen all over itself, the floor tiles are in multiplications of 9 all the way to 81. The center, a single "echo stone" is the place where former kings stood to converse with the heaven above.
There are also several other building surrounding the altar for keeping records of all the kings whom made their prayers in the past or serve as a resting building for the kings when they visit, all are quite well kept until this day.
These buildings are made up of one circular one in the center and two rectangular buildings at the both side, these are also surrounded but only one circled wall known as the "echo wall".
Scribblings and graffiti however can be seen on these echo wall, as in the past China's disinterest in these heritages pay little attention to them. Today the republic invest many in preserving what's left of the Dynasty era as they had certainly learned a lesson to protect as many of these heritage as possible, since they serve great value in tourism.
After lunch - which we were also served the pungent smelling delicacy “臭豆腐” - we set out to “秀水街”，a mall famous for its counterfeit products, shirts, jackets, dresses, shoes, accessories, electronics, souvenirs.
We stopped here for more than one hour where we shop the Beijing way. Much of the progress, I have already mentioned in the previous post.
Apart from the obscenely announced price tags on all the products, all items on sale can be reduced to a meager 1/5,1/4, or even 1/3 of the original price as quoted depending on your negotiation skill.
The amazing things is, all these counterfeits are none the second to their genuine product, though the lack in quality can definitely be seen when using these cheap products.
The locals and Foreigners can be seen arguing with the sales person about how they bought a inferior items, and I doubt they are able to get any reimbursement.
It is here that we are able to learn very important lessons in how communications are in China.
We left the mall by 3.15pm, heading to the airport next to embark on our next destination, Dayong airport, ZhangJiaJie, Hunan, China. We will be having evening tea in the airport lounges and dinner will be on our flight, had we not received a 2 hours long delay, penned up inside the crammed airplane seats. By the time we reached Dayong airport, it is already past midnight where only a few airport personnel waited for our flight to arrive, the airport were really simple, ZhangJiaJie is a very small place in China's scale.
This is our fourth day in Beijing, China.
Our morning agenda is to visit the altar that Dynast Kings used to praise the heavens once every year, the "Sky Altar" (天坛).
Today, the garden surrounding the altar is converted into a park used for all sorts of activities by the locals. Retired citizens came here to practice calligraphy on the garden's mosaic floor with a big brush and water, old and young couples enjoy dancing together with their partners,
Some are kicking shuttlecock, line dancing, sewing, weaving and there's many more activities happening at the park. As the retired citizens made up most of the people using the park, the place is also known as the Senior citizen recreational park.
The altar itself as mentioned before is surrounded by two layers of wall, the outer is a square wall, where as the inner, a circling wall. The altar itself made of some kinda white stone block sculpted with dragon weaving and can be seen all over itself, the floor tiles are in multiplications of 9 all the way to 81. The center, a single "echo stone" is the place where former kings stood to converse with the heaven above.
There are also several other building surrounding the altar for keeping records of all the kings whom made their prayers in the past or serve as a resting building for the kings when they visit, all are quite well kept until this day.
These buildings are made up of one circular one in the center and two rectangular buildings at the both side, these are also surrounded but only one circled wall known as the "echo wall".
Scribblings and graffiti however can be seen on these echo wall, as in the past China's disinterest in these heritages pay little attention to them. Today the republic invest many in preserving what's left of the Dynasty era as they had certainly learned a lesson to protect as many of these heritage as possible, since they serve great value in tourism.
After lunch - which we were also served the pungent smelling delicacy “臭豆腐” - we set out to “秀水街”，a mall famous for its counterfeit products, shirts, jackets, dresses, shoes, accessories, electronics, souvenirs.
We stopped here for more than one hour where we shop the Beijing way. Much of the progress, I have already mentioned in the previous post.
Apart from the obscenely announced price tags on all the products, all items on sale can be reduced to a meager 1/5,1/4, or even 1/3 of the original price as quoted depending on your negotiation skill.
The amazing things is, all these counterfeits are none the second to their genuine product, though the lack in quality can definitely be seen when using these cheap products.
The locals and Foreigners can be seen arguing with the sales person about how they bought a inferior items, and I doubt they are able to get any reimbursement.
It is here that we are able to learn very important lessons in how communications are in China.
We left the mall by 3.15pm, heading to the airport next to embark on our next destination, Dayong airport, ZhangJiaJie, Hunan, China. We will be having evening tea in the airport lounges and dinner will be on our flight, had we not received a 2 hours long delay, penned up inside the crammed airplane seats. By the time we reached Dayong airport, it is already past midnight where only a few airport personnel waited for our flight to arrive, the airport were really simple, ZhangJiaJie is a very small place in China's scale.
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| Couple dance~ |
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| Sky Altar |
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| "Echo Stone"-acoustic property: amplify your own voice. |
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| Old and young, Line dancing. |
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| Sky Altar Garden |
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| Calligraphy practice. |
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| Silk street, shopping battle. |
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| Go green they say, very interesting this is. |
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| The sculptures are in a very good state even after so long. |
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