It was raining in Shanghai when we arrived. We return to Jiang’an temple station since the bus to the airport could be found here. It took us a while to find a place where we could leave our luggage. Anton suggested trying it to one of the hotels. Fortunately, a Swissotel staff was helpful enough and checked our bags in without any payment. I didn’t see that because I was checking the bus station if there were left-luggage services around. Hoorrayy! We finally tasted an authentic Chines
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Our Beijing tour was finally over. We didn’t plan any more tours but concentrated on shopping and buying souvenirs. It’s a good thing that the Happy Dragon Hostel allowed us to take a shower in their common bathroom even though we’ve checked out already that afternoon. Katie even handed us towels, and offered a hair dryer. Too bad, we’re unable to say goodbye to her. They’re hosting a free dumpling party that night so she’s probably busy. At 930pm, we finally got a taste of t
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We were scheduled to visit the Tian’anmen square, Forbidden City, and all centrally located tourist spots. We head off to Tian’an’men East station. Tiananmen Square It was cloudless and very humid that day. We took some pictures of the square, its surrounding buildings, before finally proceeding to the Forbidden City. The National Museum could also be found here. Fact: Tiananmen was also known for its 1989 Tiananmen massacre wherein protesters, mostly students were killed in
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One of my biggest dreams is to climb the Great Wall of China. It’s included of one my to-do list before I die.hehe. Months ago, Xty and I searched for the best possible great wall tour, and found a USD20 or RMB140/pax tour. We’ve booked it since commuting to the Great Wall is a big hassle. Besides, Changling, the tomb of Ming dynasty’s powerful emperor Yongle is included in this package. Our tour bus picked us up at Wahaha Hotel. We were 11 on the coaster. 2 Britons, a family of
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We were a bit disappointed with Beijing’s metro. Beijing railway station was situated in probably 2 of the oldest line of Beijing’s subway so there were moments that we carry our luggage up/down the stairs. After a gruelling morning, we finally arrived at Dongsi station. While going to our hotel, we were surprised by the bustling market that we need to cross. The crowd was so boisterous. We actually thought that our hotel would be worse. Thank God we’re wrong. When we got to Happy Dragon H
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We should have arrived in Xi’an right now if we were able to book a train to Xian. Anyway, it’s a great thing that we were able to find tickets going to Beijing. Unfortunately, the only tickets available were soft seats leaving at 1pm and arriving to Beijing at 7am. That’s a 16-hour train ride. L. We have nothing to do but tour our area, Jing’an temple (jing an suh). There’s not much to do so we watched those performing tai chi. Afterwards, and because of boredom, we do some fashion-
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Since we needed to adjust our itinerary, we decided to visit Hangzhou this day. Le tour’s staff found that there were only 100 tickets for the earliest train for Shanghai-Hangzhou which was at 630am, so we decided to take a bus instead. We didn’t want to experience another frustrating day at the railway station again. We took the metro to Shanghai South Railway station. We had another long walk in the subway before we finally found the bus station. One unusual thing worth noting was tha
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We arrived early that morning, but our call time was still 7am. I volunteered to wake up first. Our room doesn’t have any towels, and since I’m the first one to get up, I went down to ask. Before doing so I checked my itouch translator application and learned that jin ma was the mandarin for towel. With that, I was able to survive my first mandarin communication-gap.hehe. As planned, we went to Shanghai Railway Station to look for tickets. Anton and I queued up in line, while Xty looked
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Xty finalized our trip, checking the maps and taking notes while we were on board our MNL-PVG flight. The real adventure starts when we landed on Pudong International Airport in Shanghai at 1130 PM. Since our arrival was late, we are unable to take the metro, the Maglev train or the airport buses going to the city proper. It’s great that Xty can speak Chinese, she was able to ask where the buses were, and so, in the nick of time, we’re able to board the last bus, also called the midnight
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Last November 2009, we were able to book a MNL-PVG flight for 4 for only P905/pax. Since then, I was so excited since climbing the Great Wall is one of my biggest dreams. Months passed, Xty and I organized the best itinerary possible. We came up with this: Day 1: Night flight to Shanghai Day 2: Buy train tickets to Xi’an, tour Shanghai Day 3: Half-day tour in Shanghai, travel to Xi’an at night Day 4: Buy train tickets to Beijing, tour Xi’an, particularly the terracotta warriors. Trav
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