hello!

This new semester will be a steep uphill climb all the way. Having chit-chat sessions with my friends make me realise that graduation is a little more than a year from now. I guess all this stress is surely not unusual, given the pressure-cooking and highly demanding nature of the legal profession.

Life has been good to me. Not the best, but neither the worst. But with each passing day, I grow with more gratitude in my heart for all the small blessings life has given to me. The people that step into my life, the little material things in life that make life a little bit easier, and all the opportunities I am offered with. I could ask for more, but for now, I am a satisfied person each night I go to sleep.

Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China (30 & 31 January 2013)

PART 5: HANGZHOU (ZHEJIANG)

A trip to Hangzhou must never be short of West Lake, no matter how packed your itinerary is. That was the case with us. I confess, I did not take Hangzhou seriously because I always assumed we will have time for it since we arrived and departed from Hangzhou's International Airport. But I was wrong. Our trip was always short of time simply because we had so many places we wanted to visit that when it came to Hangzhou, we were left with barely a day.

The journey from nanjing to Hangzhou took about 2 hours plus and by the time we arrived at Hangzhou, it was close to evening. Had a simple dinner in a small shop along Baochu Lu. Please do not go there for food unless you are looking for those typical 3 course meal. We werent looking for those so we finally found a small shop tucked a little further on along Baochu Lu and had a generous meal of noodles there. Only after dinner, (by that time, it was already dark) we made our way to West Lake for our evening stroll.

West Lake 西湖 is a vast lake with many old legendary romance stories involving the features around the lake. It is also one of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites.

Because most of the views were clouded by darkness and mist in t he night, we decided to come back to West Lake in the morning, before we depart back to Malaysia. 

Some interesting sights for the day around the lake. 

Water calligraphy on the pavement by the lake

Take 2

Greedy ducks 

Man doing the Tibetan dance. This was his cooling down excercise me thinks, coz he just finished dancing. 

And finally, the first and last picture of the four of us in Hangzhou. 

And then it was goodbye China, and welcome home Malaysia.

That's me with my winter clothing all stuff in a recyclable bag and wrapped with plastic to be checked in as luggage! 

Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China (28 - 30 January 2013)

PART 4: NANJING (JIANGSU)

Honestly, honestly, this was my favourite place throughout the entire visit to China. Nanjing excited all my senses from the first time I stepped foot in the area, despite it being a little less classy as compared to Shanghai and Suzhou. But the charm of Nanjing which makes up for all this is difficult to explain unless you visit the place for yourself. It is one of the earliest established cities in China and was one of the main capitals even before Shanghai. Perhaps that explains why the facilities here are pretty satisfactory albeit a little worn. 

Some places of interest here would include the Confucius Temple, Zhonghuamen, Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, and the Purple Mountain area (the Ming Tombs, Dr Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum, Linggu Temple.) 

I managed to visit all the places I wanted to go except for Zhonghuamen because of time restraint. But I did get a fleeting glance of Zhonghuamen on the train leaving from Nanjing and it is an impressive castle-like wall structure. 

Anyways, our first visit was to the Confucius Temple. There is plenty to see around this area, including Jiangnan Gongyuan (Imperial Examination Hall), Qinhuai River and pedestrian streets. 

Before we visited the Confucius Temple, we had dinner around the area as it was already quite late when we arrived in Nanjing. If you walk around the streets, you will notice that many shops sell ducks or duck-related products. Yanshuiya 盐水鸭 (salted duck) is supposed to be one of Nanjing's popular dishes. We had that for dinner, but for me, I felt that it was nothing too great. It reminded me a lot of salted steamed chicken (pak zham kai).

Clockwise from right: CL, YK and PL

Duck products ie. duck balls (minced duck meat) hahahaha.. 

Confucius Temple

Inside the Confucius Temple. There were even guides to take us around the place when we entered. 

Jiangnan Gongyuan is also another place worth visiting around the area because it gives us an idea of how the imperial examinations were conducted in the past. For those who are not aware, during the dynasties' rulings, emperors will conduct imperial examinations in hiring palace officials and citizens will try their luck in these examinations with the hope of being selected and becoming officers to the Emperors. But not everyone succeeds and very often, many suffer hardship in their attempts.

Next day's breakfast of McD Pork burger with egg and cheese, with soy bean milk to go with it. 

After breakfast, we went to Zijin Shan (Purple Mountain area). Basically Zhijin Shan has many attractions including the Ming Tombs, Linggu Temple, Dr Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum, and cabbies are provided for tourists to travel from one place to another. We took the Metro to the closest station to Zhijin Shan (cant remember which one) and hiked our way up.

This is just one of the many beautiful pictures I snappeed along the way to Ming Tombs. 

Dont forget to walk along the Path of the Stone Elephants and if you are here in Spring, visit the Plum blossom garden next to it! 

The trees behind the signboard will bloom with plum blossoms in spring. 

The Ming Tombs involved a lot of walking and climbing up stairs. Walking towards the tomb, the pathways smelled of a strong fragrance of jasmine. But what was the highlight of my day in Zhijin Shan was visiting Purple Glow Lake (Zixia Hu). We were initially quite undecided about looking for it as it was relatively unknown and the hike in search for the lake was a question mark, with none of us knowing the directions nor knowing how long it would take before we would reach our destination. We stopped a handful of times halfway to have a break before we finally reached the lake. But the hike up was definitely worth it because the first time I lay eyes on the lake, I fell in love with it. The lake really suited its name, with a green-purplish tint of colour in the water. The mountains too had a surreal pink-purple colour to it. The lake was calm and peaceful and from afar, we could see locals on the other side of the lake swimming in it and singing their lungs out. There was no rubbish nor pollutants around and everything felt so much like a dream. I doubt I would ever come here again (mostly because I come from another country), but the beauty and tranquility of this place is something I hope I will never forget.

Dr Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum was our next stop. It was another long hike up, with 400+ steps to be conkered. But we made it! At the top, is a statue of Dr Sun Yat Sen. This mausoleum has relatively fewer people as compared to Chairman Mao's in Beijing which have people queuing each and every day just to enter and have a brief glance of the respected Chairman. But if you are within the Zhijin Shan area, this might be a fair place to visit. 

Another good place to visit is Linggu Temple and Linggu Pagoda. My brother calls it "the Pagoda of Shattered Dreams" because we decided not to continue to it midway as most of us were exhausted and suffering from feet-pain. It was also close to evening by that time and we didnt want to be struggling to walk home in the dark considering it gets dark quickly during winter =.='

Our last stop in Nanjing (the next day) was the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. This was another of my favourite places to visit besides Purple Glow Lake. It was built in memory of the people killed in the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese army in and around the capital of china, Nanjing after it fell to the Japanese Army in 1937. Just like how the Japanese came to Malaya and tortured the civilians during the early years of Malaysia, the japanese did pretty much the same to the people in Nanjing in the year 1937. According to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, 300000 people were sacrificed during the Massacre. And if you walk through their exhibitions, you will learn of all the hardship and cruelties the people had to endure during the Massacre. My brother and I both agreed that the exhibits were so heart-wrenching that we almost cried.  

Didnt take that many pictures once we entered, simply as a sign of respect towards the poor souls who died in Nanjing 1937. But if you are ever in Nanjing, this is a place you should drop by. There were two exhibition halls which contained the excavation sites of all those skeletons and in the first, the skeletons were systematically labelled (e.g. exhibit 6 is a six year-old with a nail in its skull). The second excavation site consisted of a mass of skeletons, all disjointed and mixed up. The atmosphere is a solemn one and the entire place consists of only black, white and grey. No entrance fee is imposed. 

And then, it was another race to Hangzhou. 

Also view my trip to:
1. Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province
2. Shanghai
3. Suzhou, Jiangsu Province
4. Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province

Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China (27 & 28 January 2013)

PART 3: SUZHOU (JIANGSU)

There are two things people come to Suzhou for - the silk and their gardens. As for me, I came here for a little of everything. Greedily taking in every little detail Suzhou offered to me. We went to Tiger Hill, Shantang Street, The Humble Administrator's Garden, and Guanqian Street. 

CL told me that the bridal gowns in Suzhou are one of the most popular. I did notice however, that their designs were a tad different to those in Malaysia and found them to be more princessy and poofy. I still prefer Malaysian bridal gowns for their generally more elegant appearance. But then again, bridal gowns are just another form of fashion and differs with each place. Outside these bridal stores, they would put out gowns which are out of season and they can go up to RMB100!!! (so cheap!). But the colour and design can be quite flamboyant, so pick wisely. 

Walking a little further from the street that sold nothing but wedding gowns, we arrived at Tiger Hill. 

Tiger Hill is so named for its hill that is shaped like a crouching tiger. The place is famous for both its natural beauty as well as historical value. At Tiger Hill, there were several stones, all with its own stories and you can slowly walk through the garden-like hill while understanding the respective stories behind each feature of the garden. Some interesting features would be the Sword-Testing Rock (a rock in two pieces that was supposedly cleaved cleanly by a legendary sword of extraordinary sharpness), Spring of simplicity and Honesty (a well that first appeared as a spring to an exhausted monk carrying water up the hill), Yunyang Pagoda (the leaning tower), Bonsai Garden, and Sword Pond. 

Yunyang Pagoda *note the tilt

After walking through Tiger Hill, we made our way to Shantang Street, which is actually walking distance from Tiger Hill. However, you must be ready to walk quite a distance before finally reaching or else you might as well catch a cab. But the walk to Shantang Street was worth it as we so many locals and their residences while we were at it.

This picture was taken during our stroll to Shantang Street

Locals drying out their clothes 

You will know when you have arrived at Shantang Street. The alley suddenly becomes much busier and more chaotic and there is so much to see and buy. It is like a typical market by the road, but it is special because it lends insight on what is sold in market frequented by locals, and not tourists like myself. We could see locals busying themselves with buying groceries for the week, dinner, or the occasional snack.

Then we saw this incredible queue, and the booth wasnt even selling anything yet! CL went to ask one of the people queueing what they were queueing for and when we found out they were selling mantaos (steamed buns), we joined the queue too. Mantaos are plain steamed buns but these were selling like hot cakes probably because they were fairly priced and probably were homemade. It tasted more tough than the typical microwaved mantaos you get from the convenient store. 

Finally the selling begins. Each mantao costs RMB0.70, and locals were seen buying 16 or more at one go. @.@

The following day, we visited the Humble Administrator's Garden, one of UNESCO Cultural Heritage Sites. This place consists of three parts, east, central and west, and on the map, it looks huge. But it can easily be covered in two hours. Nope how much water the garden has. Practically more water than land in the west and central region!!!

Lunch was a light snack at a restaurant along Guanqian Street, CL's pick.

Cant really recall the name of the place but this is the menu so if you can read Chinese, you will know. This restuarant has been around there for some time and is a time-honoured brand. It even received an award for that. The place is a few shops away from Daily Queen and it is on the second floor. 

Lotus stuffed with glutinour rice drizzled with some sweet sauce.. Very exquisite. 

Some type of local delicacy. Sweet. 

Fried pork cooked in sweet and sour sauce aka Gao lou rou

Then we finally relented to having Daily Queen ice cream for dessert. It's an ice cream franchise that we saw multiple times here and never once in Malaysia. I picked cheesecake with red berries, YK and PL choose raisins and cookie crumbs, and CL picked something with yoghurt. I liked mine enough but I think the cookie crumb in YK and PL's was nice! Not soggy, it was bordering on crispy despite being mixed with ice-cream.

And.. and they serve their Blizzard upside down. So cool!

Also view my trip to:
1. Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province
2. Nanjing, Jiangsu Province
3. Shanghai
4. Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province

Shanghai, China (25 - 27 January 2013)

 PART 2: SHANGHAI

Arrived Shanghai around 5pm, took a break at our hotel for a while before heading to Xintiandi and Huaihai Road. The two places are pretty close together and anyone can easily get to these places through Metro. (Their public transportation, especially their Metro is highly extensive and efficient.)

Xintiandi is an affluent car free shopping, eating and entertainment area. It is advisable to go here during the night because it is famous for it's night life entertainment and the lights give the place such a romantic feel. However, just like most things in Shanghai, this area offers services and goods to the upper class of society, with many foreign and imported brands, which probably explains why there are so many international visitors and foreigners. To get to this place, you can either get off at Xintiandi Station (Exit 6) on Subway Line 10 and walk north OR get off at South Huangpi Road Station (Exit 3) on subway line 1 and walk south to Xintiandi. 

Huaihai Road, being somewhat similar, we just snapped countless of pictures in the area and did zero shopping. Later, we headed to Nanjing Road (another shopping heaven in the form of a pedestrian street) for dinner. CL pointed out this shop where the shop was crowded and people were queuing just to get the food. We tried their 'dumplings' and xiaolongbaos there. Pretty alright but not out of the world. If you want better dumplings, check out Wujiang Road's Xiaoyang shengjian which i will talk about later. 

It taste pretty good if you have never tasted the ultra good ones. Otherwise this will be average. Sufficient amount of filling inside, the entire dumpling reminds me very much of mini fried paos. 

 After dinner, we headed to the Bund for a night view of all those famed buildings. Shanghai has been a major administrative, shipping and trading town for many centuries but it was in the 19th century due to the European recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential that it became increasingly prominent. It was opened to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War and the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The many buildings along Puxi marks the city's importance in commerce and foreign trade. Some buildings which are worth taking an interest in would be Bank of China building, Customs House (with the Big Ben inspired clock tower), and the HSBC Building. At night, yellow lights will shine on the buildings, proudly showcasing the economic and architectural beauty of the city.

 Walk a little further to the North and you will reach Huangpu Park, which has the Monument to the People's Heroes, a memorial for those who died in the first opium war. It is a vast area and is extremely cold at night during winter but the panaromic view of the Bund at night is really a clever combination of elegance, romance, and classical charm, that is difficult to resist.

The following day, we had breakfast at a nearby small shop and had noodles and dumplings for breakfast, again. hehe. China has many small (and big) fast-food franchises that sell rice, noodles and dumplings instead of our typical burger and fries. It is a concept I still find a little hard to grasp considering how I have always linked fast food to processed burgers.

Fujian Shaxian Snacks 

Steamed dumplings (RMB4 per basket)

Pork chop noodles 大排面 (RMB10)

Chicken strips with noodles 

Pork ribs with noodles (RMB11)

 After breakfast, we headed to Yu Yuan Garden. This is a place you cannot miss when you come to shanghai, not because of the beauty of the garden alone but because of the other attractions located around the area which are just as interesting, if not more. Yu Yuan Garden goes way back to the Ming Dynasty but it has been damaged numerous times since then.

Personally for me, I found the area outside Yu Yuan Garden more fascinating than the garden itself, because the Temple of City Gods is so nearby. The place is crowded with shops and people, and there is a Mid-lake Pavilion Teahouse nearby. Many people can be seen trying the Nanxiang Steamed Paos, but I think it is a little overrated for its price. It is, nevertheless, worth a try if you are a tourist. Try their baos with soup in it. You can suck all the soup out with a straw and eat up the pao after that. hehe.

Later in the day, we went to Pudong, the other side of Puxi. You can get off at Lujiazi station and walk around. All the tall buildings can be visited and most easily offer a breathtaking view of Shanghai from the top. CL suggested the Shanghai World Financial Centre which has a glass floor at the top of the tower. But he later told me that it is not as worth it as other towers in had went up. Ticket prices are quite high and it would have been more worth it had there been not so much mist/smog blocking the view of the city. 

And THIS is THE ULTIMATE DUMPLING. It is run by a franchise called Xiaoyang Shengjian and was formerly at 60 Wujiang Road. They have now shifted to 269 Wujiang Road. We went on a wild goose chase looking for this place simply because we did not know they have shifted. Thankfully, this place is so popular that the locals knew of it even when it shifted business venue.

After trying these, I realised that all the previous dumplings I have eaten were only mediocre. This was on a class of its own. The first bite surprises you with the porky soup flavours in the dumpling and the following bites bring you to dumpling heaven. haha.

As the place was crowded, we had take-away and had our dinner at a Japanese restaurant, Yoshinoya, instead. Yoshinoya is opposite 269 Wujiang Road. Japanese curry.

Actually it is very easy to get to Xiaoyang Shengjian if you are familiar with the place.

Last stop in Shanghai before leaving to Suzhou - People's Square Park. I once came across this park's reputation a few years back when I read about it in a blog. It is famous for its 'matchmaking facility' where people would put up their biodata, with the hope that other people who come across their info would be interested and call them out for a date. I heard that it is usually done by the parents and not the individuals themselves. But it is neverthless an interesting concept. It also highlights the problem our present society is dealing in terms of marriage and relationships - the difficulty of finding the right one.

And with that, we made a quick rush out of Shanghai. Making our way to Suzhou.

Also view my trip to:

1. Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province

2. Nanjing, Jiangsu Province

3. Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

4. Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province