I called it 探親記 a.k.a. visiting relatives! LOL. Well, it had been the best reason for us to re-visit China, after several years of break. Honestly, the country and its people had improved tremendously, over the last 8 years. Evolution, and of course, further improvement still acquire for the best of all, particularly on air pollution, and street cleanliness. Public transport and public manner had further improved, though we couldn't get away from the ever crowded population in the city or metropolitan.
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| Nice greenery view from Pudong |
I had never stay opposite the Bund, namely Pudong. The district is much cleaner and neat, it was new township perhaps for the last 10+ years.
Here are some street roaming pictures, as we touched down on day one.
Day 1 - street roaming, i.e. buy local SIM (apparently its cheaper getting outside from airport)
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| Native broom, environment friendly |
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| Full of textile... I was shopping for CheongSum. LOL |
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| Gotcha! Couple posing at Bund area |
Joy City - MI Flagship Store
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| Visited the only MI flagship store |
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| Ever curious on how Durian pizza taste |
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| Fried dumpling.. nice |
- Very nice steamboat, accompanied by many types of sauces (self fill from buffet counter) - personally like those with sesame based
- Starter was served with pop corns and nuts, all the way from the waiting corner outside the restaurant
- Pampered with their serving, as well as variety of sliced meat served (thank to my hosts!)
- Lastly, one will come demonstrate "pulling" fresh noodle (拉麵) at your table before serve
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| Tasty sauces |
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| Just when it started... |
Day 2 - Main station heading to SuZhou 蘇州
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| Train to SuZhou |
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| Packed breakfast in the train |
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| It's high speed at affordable price |
- Traveling free & easy, with public transport has always been our type of holiday
- Of course, lots of "homework" require prior to the trip.. (thanks to my partner)
- Plus... walking from A to Z, nothing special
- We took the bus from train station to the historical/tourist main locations
- We hopped on local busses, could really figure out the right direction especially when it was raining cum traffic jam around the tourist area
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| Local bus |
- It was free - refurbished or new architechture
- Need entrance fees, pricey but worth the penny
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| Touriust spot |
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| Rain... oh... I had to buy a pair of shoe rain coat |
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| Scenic |
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| 蘇州過後唔艇搭 |
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| Scenic |
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| 桂花樹 |
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| Local fruits - 烏梅 |
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| 清真 Halal beef noodle |
- We could grab a taxi, since it was having heavy traffic jam
- Thought of using Uber, but account didn't set up properly
- We walked and walked... discovered direction wasn't right, as we are heading to our hotel which is quite a distance away
- Apple Map came into play (apparently the Chinese are heavy Apple users)
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| Apple map guided us using the correct bus and correct lane |
- As we walked along the river, some familiar shop caught our attention
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| Rotiboy? |
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| Finally in the bus heading to the hotel |
- Checked into the hotel, as we were partially wet
- Nice room, view and hotel, I wouldn't regret staying away from the crowded town
- This is a new township, built by Taiwanese, 新光天地
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| Evening view |
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| Room - Looking through the bath room |
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| Room - simple architecture |
- We roam the surrounding area after shower, hunting for food.. but we didn't had our proper dinner, instead settled with Burger King for supper
- The surrounding night view was spectacular, made it nice especially with the not so cold weather ~21C
- Too bad, it was still drizzling
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| Scenic night view |
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| At the pier |
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| Cultural center |
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| Hotel Check out view |
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| 蘇州國際博覽中心 |
- I shopped quite a lot at 新光, up till we were entitled for a free espresso and macaron!
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| SuZhou train station - Do you notice the locals are queing up? |
- Reconnect with our host and headed straight for dinner
- We thought of having XinJiang food for dinner, but the restaurant was fully occupied
- In the end, we settled in a Hong Kong restaurant.. not bad
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| TsuiWah for dinner |
Day 4 - Holiday (it was Mid-Autumn holiday) with our hosts\
- Did a semi-tourist wandering...
- Visited a nearby local wet market, looked around their vegetables, it's about the same as our market
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| Nice souvenir, but I didn't get one |
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| Wet day again |
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| Market |
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| Bought local tea |
- Lunch in Korean - yummy meaty meal
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| Yummy |
- Nursery - Shop for plant??
- Partner was looking for a tree!
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| Indoor nursery.. multi storey, interesting |
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| Found a MoBike outside (Mobile Apps enabled city bicycle) |
- Shopping day continued
- Found affordable florescent Tee which i like most... more choices than Malaysia's branch
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| Sports shop |
- Finally! We managed to settle down with the XinJiang food and its performance show
- Very nice skewed lamb stick though, it's halal and very nice
- Interesting and special food I had never tried before
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| Great performance during dinner |
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| Special dish |
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| Bought some Lays |
Day... (lost count) - Our second last day
- Set nearby Pudong airport
- Visited the new Premier Outlet, next to Shanghai Disneyland
- Spent quite a sum here too :)
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| Pudong airport |
- The place is very nice and clean, nice weather for pretty shots too
- Typical outlet mall, with lots of branded like in US
- Unfortunately, food court or restaurants are just too minimal.. couldn't settle down for a meal, as the crowd has drawn the place
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| Cutie mascot - the rabbit |
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| China's toilet a nay? Absolutely wrong! |
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| Nice art marble even on the floor |
- Sort of China town of Shanghai
- I was starving since that noon, had to get dumpling there to cure my stomach
- Soup Dumpling, a.k.a. pao was nice, they even supply a straw for one to sip the soup in the dumpling
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| Soup Dumpling |
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| Other snacks |
- From Yu Garden walked towards the Bund
- Local tourist on MoBike, heard its onl RMB1 or so per hour? One could just stop the bike anyway upon arriving at destination, or it will locked after the timing ends - pretty interesting
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| Tourist on MoBike |
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| Nice weather for nice shot |
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| Old building |
Last Day - Pudong street roaming
- We walked and walked and walked the whole day long, until our flight out around dinner time
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| 3 giants |
- Missed the lamb sticks, had some again!
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| Lamb sticks |
- Soft launched cafe, featuring LINE store and friends
- Sat outside the cafe and enjoy the last chance for chill weather
- Drinks were just alright... service (at that time) seriously need improvement
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| LINE feature store |
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| Our drinks - based on star sign |
- Cantonese styled claypot rice as we walked back home
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| Nice simple dinner |
End of trip report. Bye Shanghai.
