`XIAOYU's world ;)

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Exploring the whole eastern part of China from 25 May ~ 1 June!

The weather was terrific on our 5 hours flight to Shanghai International Airport though we did experienced quite a few small turbulence. It's my first time taking a plane-rather embarrassing to admit this, and so I clicked non-stop on my camera while on the plane. How can i miss the beautiful cloud formations when it is just beside me. I even grasped a glimpse of a small rainbow above the one of the cloud. I finally experienced how it feels to be flying above a bed of clouds. After my fascination of the clouds is over, the flight generally became quite boring but the landing was cool-fast and bumpy, just like a thrill ride.

Once we arrived at Shanghai, we took the tour bus to Huangpu River. The ride was super bumpy and thrilling- our butts jerked off our seats at every bump!

Then we cruised along the river to view the Shanghai scenery. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is indeed as seen from TV and so there nothing special about it.

This set of dishes are our lunch and dinner for eight days! Though there are sometimes small surprises with some special dishes but repetition dulls my taste buds. However, in the end, I still filled myself to the brim at every lunch and dinner simply because not eating is a waste of food..lol

On another day-which I had forgotten the chronology of the trip, we visited the Hengdian World studio a.k.a Oriental Hollywood. Hengdian World studios is one of the largest artificial studios built for movie and film production in China including 'The Forbidden Kingdom' and 'Hero'. The place is indeed majestic and it feels just like straight out of the movie.
We only realised that we have to pay for drumming the drum @ 5 RMB per hit! This is simply ridiculous with a sumo size 大婶 ranting non-stop at our tour group for payment!

Anyone recognizes this bridge in the movie? We brought 2 cameras to China but came back with only one because I lost it at Yiwu on the fourth day! This is heart wrenching at first because this camera contains all the photos taken by me painstaking-almost a thousand pictures gone! So I can only illustrate some of the events in words only.

We also visited WuZhen- a scenic town built above a river. The life is very leisurely here, but each of us declared that we can only tolerate a maximum of two day stay due to its lack of bust and shopping centers.

This is my idea-doesn't the photos looks artistic?

Just look at the background and close your eyes to imagine you are there with gentle breeze blowing into your face-simply heavenly.

We also visited the China Dinosaur park. The place is spacious and you have to walk along a certain distance-with colorful flowers literally 'infested' with yellow butterflies, in between different rides even though the tour guide says that the park is considered relatively small in China! This is what I call a real theme park. This is in stark contrast to Singapore, with theme park so small you can see all the rides at a glance while at a low level.

We rent this cart to tour the park in order to save us some energy, but in the end we lost our way and exerted lots of energy being frustrated and shouting for each other to stay together.

While passing by on the cart, I waved to this orderly row of kids and they smiled sweetly and waved back in unison. How sweet! This is again in stake contrast to the rowdy kids in Singapore which makes me hates to have children at all.

We also went 寒山寺。The two person standing in the middle of the photo and obstructing the view is just like how life works-there's always people in your life to obstruct your goal, and since it's no mean feat to kick them away or expect them to excuse themselves, just incorporate and accept them and treat them as necessary evil to sharpen our endurance.

The river beside 寒山寺。

We are again touring the river on a boat:) Don't I look a bit 没脸色？This is due to the hectic schedule which causes me less than 6 hours of sleep a day.

We had buffet for breakfast every morning and this is the amount of food I ate every morning for the past seven days. So how can I not grow fat...lol:)

We also visited the silk factory and saw how silk is pulled out from the cocoon. Firstly, the silk are really smooth, soft and thin but the factory stinks! Only now do I realise that silk worm's soil can be eaten or put under the pillow for sniffing at night to treat insomnia and rheumatism. So people, go to a Chinese medical hall now for the prescription...lol:)

There are really lots of other beautiful places and plays that we visited and watched but the evidence-photos are lost! What a pity! Inside the now stolen camera, there are photos of the luxurious hotels that we stayed and posh restaurants that we dined as well and the 四川 ambulances and nurse squad. However, the trip is still meaningful, unforgettable and precious as there are simple life lessons learned and I also met some interesting people in the tour group. I have learned that 有失必有得，I had lost my camera but I have gained reconciliation with my sister, finally free from insomnia-at least till today, widen my horizon, and learned to that life is too precious to dwell on unhappy things and to blame yourself for bad things which are not within our control at all in the first place, a simple tried-and-tested natural facial mask and lastly we should wish each other ‘生日快乐’which means ‘有生子日，一定要活得快快乐乐 everyday-just like the Wuxi people:) So, here wishing everyone ‘生日快乐’。

Labels: china trip

★ xiaoyu; posted at 10:30 AM ★