Just returned from a three month trip to Asia. Visited family, did plenty of sightseeing, and tried a lot of interesting dishes.
CHINA
ShangHai
My home town really has not changed as much as the rest of the world believes. For starters, the mentality of the people remains the same: competitive, eager to become rich and eager to come out on top. This mentality can be seen everywhere, from getting onto a bus to walking on the road, everywhere there is opportunity to compete when it comes to the Chinese. Picture an empty bus coming into the bus stop with six people queuing to get on. You will find that as soon as the bus gets within 5 metres of the queue, the middle age men and women will start shuffling towards the bus ready to get on while the bus is still moving. It seems almost as if these people were on the run, on the run from the horrible possibility of having to get on the bus last, on the run from the awful thought of not getting the best bus seat on an almost empty bus. I just did not get it. No matter how long I think about it I cannot bring myself to understand why they just HAVE to push and shove to get on an empty bus. It was only after a discussion with a local friend that I found out it was because all Chinese people are possessed by the subconscious or even conscious desire to stay at the front of the crowd for fear of being trampled upon by the rest of the 1.3 billion. I guess when you're in a stampede you just have to run with it.
When you take the people out of Shanghai, you're left with a beautiful city. It truly is beautiful. For once the stars are amongst us, you no longer have to raise your head and look into the universe, you just have to go to the top of the DongFangMingZhu Television Tower and look down from 300m. I only have one thing to say: You have to be in Shanghai to truly appreciate its beauty.
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| VIEW FROM ABOVE - LOOKING DOWN ON CHENGHUANG TEMPLE |
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VIEW FROM ABOVE - LOOKING ACROSS THE BUND TOWARDS PUDONG
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XiTang
Once you have seen the beautiful city landscape in ShangHai, you get curious about what China was like before all the sky scrapers popped up. Mum and I wanted to see another side of China. We then went to XiTang, a small town about 2-3hours from ShangHai. Unlike other small towns neighbouring ShangHai, this town is still populated by locals not just shop owners. Therefore if you stay overnight in the town, you will still be able to see how locals get around their daily activities, e.g. washing clothes in the waterways. I stayed one night there in a local's home, and the night view was quite magical. However the most memorable thing about that town was the food. The dishes took me back to my childhood when I was in ShangHai, the taste was definitely authentic South East Chinese cuisine, and I cannot wait to go back again one day.
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| THE HEART OF XITANG |
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| CHILI ESCARGOT (You're not a true local unless you can finish a plate of this... I finished two) |
In recent years Chinese people are more health conscious and environmentally aware. With this comes an increasing desire to visit rural parts of China that have maintained its natural beauty and healthy simple living. My brother, mum and I decided that we also wanted a piece of this. We set off with a tour group to South West China. YunNan is a province with over hundreds of different cultural minority groups, each with very distinct traditions. Anyone interested in traditional Chinese culture cannot miss YunNan. Our itinerary included KunMing, DaLi, LiJiang, Shangri-La, respectively. There is very little one can say to describe those places, and as they say: A picture is worth a thousand words.
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| ROCK FOREST |
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| BLUE MOON VALLEY AT THE FOOT OF JADE DRAGON SNOW MOUNTAIN |
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| SCULPTURE OF MOTHER NATURE IN LIJIANG |
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| LIJIANG TOWN |
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| VIEWS OF FIELDS ON THE WAY TO SHANGRI-LA |
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| SHUDU LAKE AT 3705M ABOVE SEA LEVEL |
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| THE EDGE OF SHUDU LAKE, SHANGRI-LA'S FAMOUS SCENERY |
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| A TYPICAL TIBETAN HOUSE | | | | |
FuJian
After returned from YunNan, my boyfriend arrived in ShangHai. We decided to head to FuJian to visit his hometown FuZhou. To be even more specific, we actually went to MaWei, a small seaside city just outside FuZhou. The city's history is intertwined with the war against British invasion as many ships were built here. I also got the feeling that the people in FuZhou placed very heavy emphasis on education and hard work, more so than some of the other cities I have been to. Sculptures of those of historical importance due to their contribution to the war or their contribution to the development of China were scattered around tourist hot spots in FuZhou and MaWei.
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| MAWEI HARBOUR |
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| A MAWEI MUSEUM |
BeiJing
After FuJian it was BeiJing. I visited BeiJing in 2008 already but since my boyfriend had never been, I went to keep him company. The city looked nicer than 3 years ago as this year is the Communist Party's 90th year anniversary since its establishment in China. I ate some interesting foods, but the best was the authentic old BeiJing hot pot.
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| TRADITIONAL BEIJING HOT POT |
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| "FRONT DOOR" OF TIANANMEN SQUARE |
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| CELEBRATING 90 YEARS SINCE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN CHINA |
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Japan
Tokyo
A peek into the future is what a trip to Tokyo feels like. One of the most technologically advanced and efficiently run cities in the world, Tokyo reintroduced me to the concept of "good things come in small packages". No matter how authentic you think the sushi those Japanese restaurants in your country makes, you have not tasted real sushi and nigiri until you have come to Japan. I was informed that Japanese restaurants literally pay millions in JPY for high quality yellow fin tuna belly, and after I tried it myself, I understood why. Tokyo Disneyland was amazing too and brought out the child in all its visitors, although some of the rides looked way too intense for the child in me.
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| CONFECTIONARY SHOP |
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| TOKYO TOWER |
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| TOKYO DISNEYLAND |
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| GOOFY'S HOUSE |
Overall this holiday has been the busiest and most entertaining holiday ever! I hope the next holiday I have will be even better, especially if I end up going to Europe!!!
