| Thursday, January 18, 2007 |
| 88 Suzhou |
 
I won't go into how much I miss the friends I met while I was in China. I hope to see everyone again, one day, somewhere.
Left: Victor. He was my first Chinese friend. Very friendly and quiet. He was my first impression of Chinese and I'm so glad I was lucky enough to meet him.
Right: Amy, Nana, Vivian. Three close girls who I always joked around with. They helped me a lot with my Chinese. We went to Xi'an together and had a blast. Amy made a huge difference as I hung out with her a lot and we talked a lot of shit. Nana was a joker, funny and never a dull moment with her. Vivian is very caring, someone who's real and with a very kind soul.
 
Left: Jacky. He is very outgoing and talkative. He was a great friend who taught me Chinese culture and politics. We always had a constructive exchange on world issues, cars and what not. I will definitely meet him again because he will be in San Francisco later this year.
Right: Jin Du Kun. He was the guy I hung out with the most....wish he was here in TO. What a guy...
 
Left (bottom): Song JungAi - Korean girl I met outside my dormitory. A little jumpy at times but a sweet sweet and funny girl. Funny.
Alicia - From Indonesia, she was sometimes hyper but always funny and fun to be with. She'll turn your cloudy day to a sunny day.
Inge - Also from Indonesia, she was the more serious type but always there to enjoy the good times with us.
Right: Miyuki, Me, Sophia.
Miyuki - Always wondering and complaining about her boyfriend. We always make time to bond on life issues and such.
Sophia - Korean housewife/interior decorator. We always meet at Starbucks for coffee and just talk...talk. I would try to teach her English.
 
Left: Piao Zhi Ying, Li Zheng Tai.
Piao Xiaojie - Basically my little sister. Funny kid and always picking on her boyfriend, Li Zheng Tai. Always funny but poor Li.
Li Zheng Tai - My class rep. He was like the hyper active kid on the block. Love bikes. Drinking. Watched DVDs. We did so much together.
Right: Ralph. German from South Africa. Cool guy. Cool stories. Funny guy. Always wandering around my dormitory for some reason;)
 From left to right:
Carlos - From the Philippines. A friend that will be there for you, period.
Sayaka - From Fukuoka, Japan. COoooool person. She helped me pick my girlfriend's present.
Ken - Something against a certain Taiwan president. Funny strange. Always something witty to say.
I may have missed a few so sorry to those I missed.
Everybody I met in China has taught me something about life. These are the life experiences that I wanted to learn but at a cost: I am now departed and I miss them very much. The times we had together were amazing. No words can describe my joy.
However, we will meet again. That is for certain!Labels: China |
| posted by Y> @ 12:41 AM |
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| Sunday, January 07, 2007 |
| Pan Gate (盘门景区), Suzhou |
 
One cold January day, some of my classmates and I went over to Pan Gate for some sightseeing. From left to right: Li ZhengTai, Piao ZhiYing, Song Jung Ai...
Great crew.
Pan Gate is an ancient water-land defense system south of the city. The large park offers many gates, Pagodas, waterways, and park land. However, temperatures below zero which hardly occurs in Suzhou put a damper on things.
 
 
We had a crack at the bow and arrow. As a wannabe archer, I did horrible with these shoddy bows--these bows were not meant to defend Suzhou, I'll tell you that!
 
Group pictures...ho.
 
You haven't been to China if you didn't take their public buses. These things feel like they'll fall apart anytime, rattling to the next stop. Full manual, the drivers turn off the engine as they approach a red light to save fuel. There are no lights inside the bus and most do not have A/C (we talking about 40C in the summers!) During the day, the bus is packed. Having been delayed due to long distance buses breaking down, I have yet to enjoy a similar scenario with their local buses. However, buses in the large cities are newer with more amenities and as the rest of the country gets wealthier, newer and newer buses will be introduced. Until then, hold on tight!Labels: China |
| posted by Y> @ 8:52 AM |
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| Sunday, December 31, 2006 |
| Hangzhou - 杭州 |
 
December 30.
Almost done the updates but only five months late...haha.
Ok...short and sweet (because I want to finish this off and I forgot a lot of stuff.)
Hangzhou (杭州). "上有天堂，下有苏杭" --> Above there is heaven, below there are Suzhou and Hangzhou. A beautiful city, personally I think more pretty than Suzhou. Only one hour away from Shanghai, this city is a must visit for those who are in the area. This is one city that I would not mind visiting again.
Above: West Lake (西湖), the main tourist area.
 
More pictures of West Lake.
 
 
Yeah, as you can see we spent most of our time around West Lake. Such beautiful scenery calls for great companions--Song Ai and Jin Du made the trip all the better. Thank guys...I really miss you guys and the times we were bumming around Suzhou.
 
The hostel we stayed in was very accommodating and friendly--they let us stay without presenting our travel permits while the our original hostel refused us. In China, you must present your ID and visa to stay at hotels and such--well, I had mine which should be enough but sometimes they don't like bending the rules. Anyhoo, lucky the original place kicked us out because this hostel was so much nicer and it came with a cute kitty cat.
 
Nice to see some Yunnan trinkets so far East...
 
The area around Hefang Jie (河坊街.) Lot of stores and food. The food here was quite interesting and good. Oh, Hangzhou is very famous for their food--we did not have stomachs big enough for the variety of foods that this area had to offer.Labels: China |
| posted by Y> @ 11:00 PM |
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| MTB race@Suzhou， Qionglong mtn (穹隆山) |
 December 17. First race in over a year but it really wasn't much of a mountain bike race. It was a 4.5km climb up one of the few "mountains" in Suzhou on paved roads. Boy am I out of shape! I came in 23 out of 30 something which is a total disappointment for me considering I've done much better in the past.
The race was separated between road bike and MTB with a total of about 100 riders. One thing that surprised me was the number of female riders present--I never would have imagined that this kind of sport would be popular among Asian females--rarely do I see Asian females in MTB races back home. The weather couldn't have been more perfect (Suzhou tend to rain a lot in the winter)--clear skies but just a little on the nippy side at -4C.
Although there are a billion bikes in China, the actual biking scene is still fairly young. Road and MTB bikers are rare but the numbers are increasing rapidly. As well, those who are real bikers, are quite hardcore and actually ride their bikes (unlike back home where many purchase fancy bikes for show.)  Brand names like Trek, Cervelo, Specialized, and Giant (very popular in China) are quite expensive compared to Canada so this sport will be depressed until the country gets wealthier.
Big thanks goes to my class rep, Li Zheng Tai, who loves bicycles more than I do and who got me into this race. He also convinced the Trek store by Ganjiang lu to lend me a Giant bicycle for the race.  Thank you Trek dian! If you ever need bicycle equipment, they have a good selection of Trek stuff. As well, Silverbikes on Shizi jie has a very good selection of many brands of bikes and parts. They are both very helpful and very friendly.
谢谢大家！Labels: China |
| posted by Y> @ 9:45 AM |
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| Xian: More of |
 
Unlike many cities who decided to tear down their walls for progress, Xi'an decided to restore their wall to its past glory. The 14km long wall complete with a moat circles around the city. A leisure stroll will take approximately 3 hours to complete or it will take one hour to bike around it (bike rentals are available on the wall.) The view from the wall ain't the best due to the constant construction and the perpetual fog/smog/dust/* in the air.
Top Left: North Gate.
Top Right: Southeast tower.
 
Left: Train station by the North wall
Right: The foggy wall.
 
View of Chang'an Lu (长安路) by the South Gate.
Right: A big ass drum at the Drum Tower (鼓楼). Every hour there is a smallish performance on the drums.
 
Huaqing Hot Springs (华清池). Huaqing has been enjoyed by a large succession of emperors and other important figures. It was made famous when Yang Guifei, one of the four legendary beauties of China and Emperor Xuanzong's concubine, was allowed to bathe here.
 
Left: Lotus Flower Pool, aka Imperial Nine-dragon Bathing Palace built for Emperor Xuanzong.
Right: For 5mao (7cents), you too can wash your hands or drink from the same water Yang Guifei bathe in.
 
Left: In 1936, Chiang Kaishek as well, bathe here and in the process set up his headquaters at huaqing against the CCP; however, he was captured in a coup known as the renown Xi'an Incident (Yang xiaojie wasn't overly fond of him.)
Right: The royal (public) bathroom. One of the prettiest washrooms I ever saw, not to mention one of the cleanest in China.
 
Mt Lishan (骊山). Nothing much of a climb (1-2 hours) and nothing much of a scenery due to the thick blanket of fog/smog; however, since there were nobody, it was a peaceful climb.
Xi'an was a wonderful trip, made better with some good company. Too bad we didn't have time for Huashan (华山). Next time I will organize a Chinese Mountain tour and visit the great Huashan.
Thank you Amy, Vivian and Nana. 多谢.Labels: China |
| posted by Y> @ 9:09 AM |
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| Xian - 西安 |
 
December 1.
Once the capital city during a long procession of dynasties up to the Tang Dynasty, the city was one of the world's wealthiest, largest and most sophisticated until it was sacked by Tibetans in 783. The East terminus of the Silk Road is here. Under the grime that has plagued many Chinese cities, one will find much history and artifacts that this once glorious city has to offer.
 
Left: Lamb and mutton (羊肉泡膜) at Old Sun and Family Restaurant (老孙家饭庄), a Xi'an speciality. First you have to spend a good 10 minutes breaking down the bun into small tiny pieces. Afterwards, you add the soup/meat of your choice. Not bad but there are many other foods in Xi'an which are much better, like the 西安肉夹馍 bun.
Right: Xi'an is home to a thriving Muslim culture. The little tents is located in the Muslim Quarter. Good and cheap food located in there. For the first two days all we ate was lamb. Eventually we had to find some pork and beef.
 
Big Goose Pagoda (大雁塔). Contains a huge collection of Buddhist scriptures brought to China from India by Xuanzang whom travelled great distances along the Silk Road.
 
No rain but these ladies decided to dance in the morning with umbrellas. Occurs frequently.
Right: View from the Bell Tower (钟楼) located in the center of a major intersection.
 
Left: The Drum Tower (鼓楼) illuminated at night.
Right: City Wall, a fully restored 14km wall that runs around the city.
The 17 hour train ride on a hard seat. Rough night, felt like lopping my legs off after 5 hours. However, those who don't have seats have to stand for the 17 hours, sit on their luggage or do as one guy did, laid a bunch of newspapers in a corner and slept on the floor.Labels: China |
| posted by Y> @ 8:34 AM |
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| Macau - 澳门 |
 
October 31.
The Las Vegas of Asia. There are more casinos in Macau than there are 7-11's--every corner, ever street you will find some sort of machine to donate to the local triad (governments included.) The city has turned into an entertainment resort sporting everything and anything, including F1 races, go cart races, extreme adventures, gambling (of course)--basically anything you want to do whether it be relaxing or it involving adrenaline. Macau has definitely done a excellent job at attracting tourists.
Above: The Ruins of St Paul's. Burnt down in 1595, 1601 and again in 1835, only the front facade stands today. (Anything to do with the city's offerings?)
 
Portuguese-style egg tarts. I must have ate six or more of these babies in one sitting--I could have ate more easily...easily.
The Macau Tower at night. Some of the things one can do: can climb the mast, bungy jump, sky walk around its outer perimeter, and of course gamble.
 
Casinos...money...casinos. I came out ahead in the end but I'm not a big gambler.
 
The old city or the shopping district. Awarded the third most beautiful city districts of China by the Chinese National Geographic.
Chinese without firecrackers? We decided to buy a strip for good luck.Labels: China |
| posted by Y> @ 1:15 AM |
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| Saturday, December 30, 2006 |
| Hong Kong, again. |
 October 29th. Back to Hong Kong to attend my cousin's wedding and to act as tourguide/translator for (another) cousin's American husband. If you never experienced Chinese wedding rituals before, you will find it a treat--although I have seen it many times on TV, it was my first time participating in one.  To make a long story short (cuz I'm lazy)...In the morning the groom and co picks up the bride; however, it isn't as easy as knocking on the door. The bridesmaid and co try their hardest to prevent you from picking her up.  Usually it involves large sums of money and services--kind of like bargaining for that fake LV bag in Shanghai:P I don't know how much my cousin had to shell out but I do know we had to wear a bra (haha, no pictures there:P) and parade around the block; drink their special cocktail which made me feel sick for a couple of hours; and eat their specially prepared buns. After what felt like hours of bargaining, we finally got in to see the bride and shortly afterwards, the tea ceremony. The reception is of a typical banquet; however, there were less games than I was accustomed to with other receptions.
 
Tian Tan Buddha (天壇大佛). The world's tallest seated bronze Buddha in the world sits on top of the hill in Lantau Island. 
The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. Everytime I visit Hong Kong, I come here to visit the cranes and the flowers. It is also a nice place to relax and to get away from the HK ruckus.
 
Fresh seafood just fished in. Choose what you like and they'll pack it for you. No need to explain how tasty it was.
 
Monkeys in Kam Shan Country Park . Beware, these hissing little critters will gang up and attack you for your food, no kidding. Right: Temple of 10000 Buddha's--continuously being watched by Buddha as you climb the 431 steps to the peak for a glass of soya milk.Labels: China |
| posted by Y> @ 10:27 PM |
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