Cool roller coaster made using toy construction.
21 December 2007
14 November 2007
Holiday Travel Memory: 9 Days Guizhou & Henan Natural Wonder Tour
I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan. 27 October to 5 November 2007.
The tour is organised by ASA Holidays, Singapore.
This is mostly a tour featuring natural wonders, so be prepared to walk. Long walk.
There are plenty of waterfalls and hills in Guizhou. More cliffs and hills in Henan.
More pictures and stories about this holiday travel covered in daily accounts.
Here are the highlights:
A sleeping dog in old town TianXing
A view behind the waterfall curtain in Huangguoshu. I knocked my head on one of the rock around this place.
A bird? A bee? It should be insect as birds don't have antenna.
Tour guide ladies at hill temple in Guizhou
A beautiful dancer in forgotten where
The bridge at Beipan River
And the cliffs of Beipan River
A young boy carrying his baby brother near Beipan River Bridge
The crowd outside shopping center (SunPlaza) in Shenzhen
The landscape, yes, ... some watefalls, hills and some cliffs
Not to mention this one that looks like, well, yeah you are thinking what I am thinking: how much cotton is required to make a bra for these pair.
For those who are eager to see the photo, which I will upload periodically, without having to wait for the holiday blog to be updated, you can see them (without meaningful caption) at my picasaweb public gallery
The tour is organised by ASA Holidays, Singapore.
This is mostly a tour featuring natural wonders, so be prepared to walk. Long walk.
There are plenty of waterfalls and hills in Guizhou. More cliffs and hills in Henan.
More pictures and stories about this holiday travel covered in daily accounts.
Here are the highlights:
A sleeping dog in old town TianXing
A view behind the waterfall curtain in Huangguoshu. I knocked my head on one of the rock around this place.
A bird? A bee? It should be insect as birds don't have antenna.
Tour guide ladies at hill temple in Guizhou
A beautiful dancer in forgotten where
The bridge at Beipan River
And the cliffs of Beipan River
A young boy carrying his baby brother near Beipan River Bridge
The crowd outside shopping center (SunPlaza) in Shenzhen
The landscape, yes, ... some watefalls, hills and some cliffs
Not to mention this one that looks like, well, yeah you are thinking what I am thinking: how much cotton is required to make a bra for these pair.
For those who are eager to see the photo, which I will upload periodically, without having to wait for the holiday blog to be updated, you can see them (without meaningful caption) at my picasaweb public gallery
05 November 2007
China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 10 of 9
Uh.. what do I mean by day 10 of 9?
Oh well, you see, it seems like late is the in thing. Not the fault of Silkair this time. It seems like what is written in the brochure differ slightly from reality.
After flying from Shuzhou, w finally landed at Changi Airport, Singapore at 2 AM. That is officially counted as day 10 as it crossed midnight.
No photo of course. Crashed to bed almost immediately.
Oh well, you see, it seems like late is the in thing. Not the fault of Silkair this time. It seems like what is written in the brochure differ slightly from reality.
After flying from Shuzhou, w finally landed at Changi Airport, Singapore at 2 AM. That is officially counted as day 10 as it crossed midnight.
No photo of course. Crashed to bed almost immediately.
04 November 2007
China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 9 of 9
TODO: insert more photo
I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.
Here are the highlights of day 9: Shenzhen
We left the hotel. It was a nice hotel, very nice by China's standard, and possibly nicest room of the entire trip. Well, Shenzhen is a bigger city anyway, so if it is not nice it would be embarassing.
After breakfast, I went down and took some street shots.
There is a bank around the corner near our hotel, and this is the guard. Wow. Is that a shotgun? And body armour?
A beggar near traffic light.
Bicyclist are probably a dying breed in China, not that they are involved in a lot of deadly traffic accident but more due to lifestyle changes. More people want to appear wealthy, and owning a car is a status symbol. So here are some pictures of the cyclist.
Um... what!?! No bicycle!?!
That sign is near the miniature world park in ShenZhen, the place where you can find the all of these in one place:
The Golden Bridge (we went pass it, so this has to be taken from inside a moving bus, good thing it was sunny)
A mixed style building
I am terribly sorry, the lamp post decided that it needs to be in the picture.
On the left side of the park, there is something that looks like the pillars of the The Phanteon build by the Romans or The Parthenon build by the Greeks with Eiffel Tower behind it. You can go up the stairs and reached a ticketing booth to go inside. We did not go up.
And here is the view of the right side of the park, where you find the jumble of different style buildings.
And this is the Pyramid of Subway Station, in front of the park.
And at the center of the foyer, there are nice water fountain, and if you notice in the background, there is a KFC outlet.
Along the fence you can also marvel at the copy of the famous statues from left to right, possibly statue from the Ancient Greek (I am not sure the name, it is a female statue, so may be Venus), followed by David (by Michael Angelo, from Italy), two Asian looking bronze statue (may be Indian and Tibetan), a statue of Pharaoh from Egypt, and faintly on the rightmost looks like a Persian or Babylonian style statue. Going downhill next to the man-made waterfall (or water staircase) are two tribal looking statue which is either South East Asian origin or Pacific Islander origin.
This is the bigger photo of the statue which I have no clear idea from where (may be ancient greek origin). Behind as you can see, the mini Eiffel Tower has been decked with some Christmas looking ornament, and possibly at night it doubles up as a Christmas tree lookalike.
From there we were taken to shop for silk produce, and again some more tea. Then we are taken to another exhibition center where we can roam around freely, and I did.
I took more street shots, at nearby the wet market. And here some example of good environmental practice done in China.
Recycle your plastic mineral water bottle. Carry them, lots of them, with bicycle.
Use LNG or LPG. They have less pollution. Deliver them by bicycle. If you want one, call that number:
Amazing skill. He carried 4 tubes at one go, and look at the road condition.
And climbing uphill.
And I saw a pink bicycle! Apology for the excitement, it is just that pink bicycles are quite rare, if you notice.
At noon, we were taken to this shopping center to spend the rest of the time, eat lunch at own expense, till it was close to dinner time.
Look at the crowd.
It is prohibited to take picture in the shopping mall and in the supermarket, but I have a swivel LCD on my Olympus E-330 so I can still take candid shots without alarming the people around me. Hehe.
Yeah, wrong white balance. I will fix it later.
This is taken from inside a lift in another shopping mall.
This old man is dead, but he still watches over the people.
We went some more time around the city and was shown the sky scraper of Shenzhen.
This is Shun Hing Square (the one in the middle, greenish colour) tallest completed building in Shenzhen.
After going around by bus in the city, it is time for dinner. The arranged dinner (with additional payment) is at a restaurant serving goose meal. I opted out and eat food sold at the stalls near supermarket and my mum scour the supermarket for bargains to bring back home.
We then transported to the airport, and that is the almost the end of our journey.
Oh by the way, in the plane, the same incident happened again. Want food fast? Order special food. That is the tips for flying with Silkair.
I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.
Here are the highlights of day 9: Shenzhen
We left the hotel. It was a nice hotel, very nice by China's standard, and possibly nicest room of the entire trip. Well, Shenzhen is a bigger city anyway, so if it is not nice it would be embarassing.
After breakfast, I went down and took some street shots.
There is a bank around the corner near our hotel, and this is the guard. Wow. Is that a shotgun? And body armour?
A beggar near traffic light.
Bicyclist are probably a dying breed in China, not that they are involved in a lot of deadly traffic accident but more due to lifestyle changes. More people want to appear wealthy, and owning a car is a status symbol. So here are some pictures of the cyclist.
Um... what!?! No bicycle!?!
That sign is near the miniature world park in ShenZhen, the place where you can find the all of these in one place:
The Golden Bridge (we went pass it, so this has to be taken from inside a moving bus, good thing it was sunny)
A mixed style building
I am terribly sorry, the lamp post decided that it needs to be in the picture.
On the left side of the park, there is something that looks like the pillars of the The Phanteon build by the Romans or The Parthenon build by the Greeks with Eiffel Tower behind it. You can go up the stairs and reached a ticketing booth to go inside. We did not go up.
And here is the view of the right side of the park, where you find the jumble of different style buildings.
And this is the Pyramid of Subway Station, in front of the park.
And at the center of the foyer, there are nice water fountain, and if you notice in the background, there is a KFC outlet.
Along the fence you can also marvel at the copy of the famous statues from left to right, possibly statue from the Ancient Greek (I am not sure the name, it is a female statue, so may be Venus), followed by David (by Michael Angelo, from Italy), two Asian looking bronze statue (may be Indian and Tibetan), a statue of Pharaoh from Egypt, and faintly on the rightmost looks like a Persian or Babylonian style statue. Going downhill next to the man-made waterfall (or water staircase) are two tribal looking statue which is either South East Asian origin or Pacific Islander origin.
This is the bigger photo of the statue which I have no clear idea from where (may be ancient greek origin). Behind as you can see, the mini Eiffel Tower has been decked with some Christmas looking ornament, and possibly at night it doubles up as a Christmas tree lookalike.
From there we were taken to shop for silk produce, and again some more tea. Then we are taken to another exhibition center where we can roam around freely, and I did.
I took more street shots, at nearby the wet market. And here some example of good environmental practice done in China.
Recycle your plastic mineral water bottle. Carry them, lots of them, with bicycle.
Use LNG or LPG. They have less pollution. Deliver them by bicycle. If you want one, call that number:
Amazing skill. He carried 4 tubes at one go, and look at the road condition.
And climbing uphill.
And I saw a pink bicycle! Apology for the excitement, it is just that pink bicycles are quite rare, if you notice.
At noon, we were taken to this shopping center to spend the rest of the time, eat lunch at own expense, till it was close to dinner time.
Look at the crowd.
It is prohibited to take picture in the shopping mall and in the supermarket, but I have a swivel LCD on my Olympus E-330 so I can still take candid shots without alarming the people around me. Hehe.
Yeah, wrong white balance. I will fix it later.
This is taken from inside a lift in another shopping mall.
This old man is dead, but he still watches over the people.
We went some more time around the city and was shown the sky scraper of Shenzhen.
This is Shun Hing Square (the one in the middle, greenish colour) tallest completed building in Shenzhen.
After going around by bus in the city, it is time for dinner. The arranged dinner (with additional payment) is at a restaurant serving goose meal. I opted out and eat food sold at the stalls near supermarket and my mum scour the supermarket for bargains to bring back home.
We then transported to the airport, and that is the almost the end of our journey.
Oh by the way, in the plane, the same incident happened again. Want food fast? Order special food. That is the tips for flying with Silkair.
03 November 2007
China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 8 of 9
TODO: insert more photo
I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.
Here are the highlights of day 7: Hunan province attractions: ThienMengShan (part of JiangJiaJie), travel to Shenzhen.
That day for a free and easy day, so the local tour guides have some chance to make some money by charging us RMB 400 (SG$80) per person to go to ThienMengShan. For your information, if you go to JiangJiaJie and you do not visit ThienMengShan, it is like missing the Forbidden City when you go to Beijing. This itinerary is supposed to be in the main tour package but the local tour operator obviously has made some clever arrangement. A big disappointed with the Singapore tour operator side for missing out on this detail.
We left the hotel and passed thru. Instead of travelling to the same gate again, that day we were going to another direction.
Another big disappointment for me in the morning. Remember above I mentioned that we paid extra? After rushing, we found out that we have to stop and visit a knife shop. What a #@#$@ important about German technology brought by a Taiwanese, and making an investment in JiangJiaJie. I paid for extra and they are wasting the golden-hour sunshine sitting and listen to a sales presentation about ... gasp... knife. Kitchen knife.
I protested violently. The local guide told my mum to tell me that they are not going to get any money if not all the people from the bus went in. Well tough luck. I was not going to pity them and let them earn that money after I spent extra. I can be understanding and patient if it was an arranged itinerary, but not this time.
I refused to go inside, and I stayed out and took some street shots.
After that stupid knife shopping stop, we rushed to the actual destination.
First we need to take a cable car. This is the miniature they have inside the cable car building. The black hole in the mountain is called the ThienMengDong.
Here is a shot of the peak (backlit) from the cablecar.
Can you see the hole now? And that thing that looks like some castle wall, is not. It is a road, an extremely winding road to go up tho the hole.
Here is what I mean.
I have no idea if it is a freak of nature or it has been arranged. That particular peak we passed is the only one that was covered with red coloured leaves vegetation in autumn. The rest is simply dull green or yellow, unlike the cliffs at HwangShan.
We have to stop half way, and take a bus. A special bus with dare-devil driver, whose skill is so special they have a special license. You don't want a suicidal driver driving you on this road.
After the 99-turns (not recommended by people suffering from motion-sickness), we finally reached the "foot" of ThienMengDong. We then have to climb 999 steps to reach the hole on the wall of the mountain.
Well, if you want to see how wide is the wall of the mountain, nothing beats a shot from below. It is probably just about 100 meters wide.
I huffed and puffed with a DSLR camera and a videocam climbing the 999 stairs. And found out that some local drama serial was shot up there. The girl in pink jacket is the lead actress. I have no idea how famous she is.
And you can spend RMB10 for these two nice young ladies to model for you. Not much, but there are so many people going up there taking photo they are making quite a bit of money within 1 day I guess, by local Chinese earning standard, just by looking pretty and climb up/down the 999 steps once a day (A good exercise to keep you slim).
Going down was more scary, because it was very steep.
Finally when we almost reached the bottom, where vertigo was over, I met these two cute children having their snack on the staircase.
Isn't she cute. Not camera shy at all.
From there we then make our way to Shenzhen, stopping at ... to have dinner.
It was at some fancy restaurant built to look like a mini castle, complete with fake city wall and castle garden. In the main hall, you can eat and see some dance entertainment. Guess where we ate? Not there. Fortunately, I managed to sneak into the main hall and took some pictures. Here they are:
I like this one best. Isn't she very sweet?
Same girl different costume.
Different girl, more mature looking or may be it is just her facial expression.
That is all for day 8. We stayed overnight at Shenzhen. We arrived really late and it was raining so no chance for night shopping.
I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.
Here are the highlights of day 7: Hunan province attractions: ThienMengShan (part of JiangJiaJie), travel to Shenzhen.
That day for a free and easy day, so the local tour guides have some chance to make some money by charging us RMB 400 (SG$80) per person to go to ThienMengShan. For your information, if you go to JiangJiaJie and you do not visit ThienMengShan, it is like missing the Forbidden City when you go to Beijing. This itinerary is supposed to be in the main tour package but the local tour operator obviously has made some clever arrangement. A big disappointed with the Singapore tour operator side for missing out on this detail.
We left the hotel and passed thru. Instead of travelling to the same gate again, that day we were going to another direction.
Another big disappointment for me in the morning. Remember above I mentioned that we paid extra? After rushing, we found out that we have to stop and visit a knife shop. What a #@#$@ important about German technology brought by a Taiwanese, and making an investment in JiangJiaJie. I paid for extra and they are wasting the golden-hour sunshine sitting and listen to a sales presentation about ... gasp... knife. Kitchen knife.
I protested violently. The local guide told my mum to tell me that they are not going to get any money if not all the people from the bus went in. Well tough luck. I was not going to pity them and let them earn that money after I spent extra. I can be understanding and patient if it was an arranged itinerary, but not this time.
I refused to go inside, and I stayed out and took some street shots.
After that stupid knife shopping stop, we rushed to the actual destination.
First we need to take a cable car. This is the miniature they have inside the cable car building. The black hole in the mountain is called the ThienMengDong.
Here is a shot of the peak (backlit) from the cablecar.
Can you see the hole now? And that thing that looks like some castle wall, is not. It is a road, an extremely winding road to go up tho the hole.
Here is what I mean.
I have no idea if it is a freak of nature or it has been arranged. That particular peak we passed is the only one that was covered with red coloured leaves vegetation in autumn. The rest is simply dull green or yellow, unlike the cliffs at HwangShan.
We have to stop half way, and take a bus. A special bus with dare-devil driver, whose skill is so special they have a special license. You don't want a suicidal driver driving you on this road.
After the 99-turns (not recommended by people suffering from motion-sickness), we finally reached the "foot" of ThienMengDong. We then have to climb 999 steps to reach the hole on the wall of the mountain.
Well, if you want to see how wide is the wall of the mountain, nothing beats a shot from below. It is probably just about 100 meters wide.
I huffed and puffed with a DSLR camera and a videocam climbing the 999 stairs. And found out that some local drama serial was shot up there. The girl in pink jacket is the lead actress. I have no idea how famous she is.
And you can spend RMB10 for these two nice young ladies to model for you. Not much, but there are so many people going up there taking photo they are making quite a bit of money within 1 day I guess, by local Chinese earning standard, just by looking pretty and climb up/down the 999 steps once a day (A good exercise to keep you slim).
Going down was more scary, because it was very steep.
Finally when we almost reached the bottom, where vertigo was over, I met these two cute children having their snack on the staircase.
Isn't she cute. Not camera shy at all.
From there we then make our way to Shenzhen, stopping at ... to have dinner.
It was at some fancy restaurant built to look like a mini castle, complete with fake city wall and castle garden. In the main hall, you can eat and see some dance entertainment. Guess where we ate? Not there. Fortunately, I managed to sneak into the main hall and took some pictures. Here they are:
I like this one best. Isn't she very sweet?
Same girl different costume.
Different girl, more mature looking or may be it is just her facial expression.
That is all for day 8. We stayed overnight at Shenzhen. We arrived really late and it was raining so no chance for night shopping.
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