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| Merry Christmas to all my readers |
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| The spectacular Jiangnan scenery |
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| CNY30 for a Hop On red bus in Shanghai |
" Travelling is not just the physical movement. It's pushing the borders of your tolerance & imagination "
" If you formulate your own travel plans, chances are you will be able to fulfil your dreams to see more of this world "
" Short as LIFE is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time "
" My 13 days free & easy, down the memory lane visit with my wife to Eastern China (Hangzhou, Nanjing, Qingdao, Shanghai & Zhujiajio) during the early winter season from 2-14 Dec 2015 "
Travel Itinerary : Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) > Hangzhou > Nanjing > Qingdao > Shanghai / Zhujiajio > Hangzhou > Kuala Lumpur
Total expenses incurred (13 days) : CNY2,933 + Rm941 = Rm2,953 (US$680)
Airport Taxi: Rm83
Airport shuttle bus: CNY40
Air Ticket (Air Asia) : Rm742
Travel Insurance: Rm116
Hotels (12 nights - Double) : CNY2,032=CNY1,016 per pax
- Hanting Hotel, Hangzhou (4 nights) - CNY580
- Nanjing (2 nights) - CNY356
- Qingdao (2 nights) - CNY200
- Jinjiang Inn, Shanghai (4 nights) - CNY896
High Speed Trains (total): CNY1,080
- Hangzhou>Nanjing - CNY117
- Nanjing>Qiandao - CNY398
- Qingdao>Shanghai - CNY518
- Shanghai>Hangzhou - CNY47
Entrance fee (Qingdao Beer Museum): CNY25 (Seniors)
Taxi: CNY8
Tour bus (Shanghai>Zhujiajio & return) : CNY24
Boat (Grand Canal) : CNY6
Metro/Bus: CNY90
Food: CNY609
Sundries: CNY35
Exchange Rates: CNY1=Rm(Ringgit Malaysia)$0.686; Rm$1=CNY1.46; US$1=Rm4.34
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| Map of Eastern China |
In Nov 2002 (at age 52), my family of 4 together with 5 others of my in-law's family visited North East China on a package tour. The cities we visited were Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing & Beijing. Our group spent 1 night each in these cities except Beijing where we spent an additional night ! So it was a very tight travel itinerary indeed ! The major tourist attractions in each city our group visited were:
1) Shanghai - The Bund, Nanjing Road, Madam Soong Ching-Ling's Residence
2) Hangzhou - West Lake, Hangzhou Tea Garden
3) Suzhou - Hangshan Si (Temple), Tiger Hill, Leaning Tower
4) Wuxi - Lingshan Buddha, Three Kingdoms
5) Nanjing - Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum, Yangzi River Bridge, Qinhuai River Scenic Area
6) Beijing - Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City, Great Wall of China (Badaling) & Summer Palace.
In Sept 2010 during the Shanghai World Expo, I and my brother made another visit to Shanghai, Hangzhou & Suzhou and re-visited popular places like The Bund, Nanjing Road, Shanghai Old Street (Lao Jie), Yuyuan, West Lake, Hangshan Si etc.
For this winter free & easy visit to Eastern China (except Qingdao & Zhujiajio), my wife had the opportunity to re-visit Shanghai, Hangzhou & Nanjing so it was a trip down memory lane for both of us ! In August 2015, on my return trip from Heilongjiang, I took a ferry from Dalian to Yantai and visited Qingdao.
The 2 UNESCO World Heritage sites I visited in this trip are both located in Hangzhou :
- West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou
- The Grand Canal
For comfort & time saving, I used high speed trains (average speed 200 - 300km per hr) for our travels from Hangzhou to Nanjing, Qingdao & Shanghai. However, there were tight security checks in major train & metro stations including airport check-in as well.
Zhujiajio Water Town was an hour bus ride from Shanghai so this made life easier for us to pay a visit to this tourist place. Due to a wet weather in Shanghai and a heavy smog, we decided not to visit Zhouzhuang & Xitang , both of these famous water towns are 1-1.5 hr bus ride from Shanghai.
The weather in Qingdao was cold at around 4c and the day temperature was around 10-12c for other cities. Shanghai was drizzling most of the time and hazy !
As we were visiting China during the winter season, the room rates offered by major hotel chains were a real bargain. Upon arrival at the Qingdao train station, we were offered CNY100 for a double room in a nearby 3 star hotel so we took advantage of this offer after a quick review of the room & facilities !
In Hangzhou, we stayed in Hanting Hotel (via on-line booking) and in Shanghai, we picked Jinjiang Inn, a 15 mins walk from the Shanghai Train & Metro Station. In our past hotel booking experiences, local franchised hotel chains such as Home Inn, Hanting & Jinjiang Inn currently have no problems accepting bookings from foreign guests. So in your future visits to major cities / towns in inland China, just pick any of these 3 hotel chains for accommodations.
Although we had made an on line reservation in Nanjing to stay in 7 Days Inn but this hotel could not accept foreign guests so we had to check into a nearby hotel instead. A lesson learned from this visit !
We moved around quite easily in all these cities using public transport such as Metro & buses. Metro costs around CNY2-5 for a city ride and for buses CNY1-2, pretty cheap.
1) Shanghai - The Bund, Nanjing Road, Madam Soong Ching-Ling's Residence
2) Hangzhou - West Lake, Hangzhou Tea Garden
3) Suzhou - Hangshan Si (Temple), Tiger Hill, Leaning Tower
4) Wuxi - Lingshan Buddha, Three Kingdoms
5) Nanjing - Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum, Yangzi River Bridge, Qinhuai River Scenic Area
6) Beijing - Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City, Great Wall of China (Badaling) & Summer Palace.
In Sept 2010 during the Shanghai World Expo, I and my brother made another visit to Shanghai, Hangzhou & Suzhou and re-visited popular places like The Bund, Nanjing Road, Shanghai Old Street (Lao Jie), Yuyuan, West Lake, Hangshan Si etc.
For this winter free & easy visit to Eastern China (except Qingdao & Zhujiajio), my wife had the opportunity to re-visit Shanghai, Hangzhou & Nanjing so it was a trip down memory lane for both of us ! In August 2015, on my return trip from Heilongjiang, I took a ferry from Dalian to Yantai and visited Qingdao.
The 2 UNESCO World Heritage sites I visited in this trip are both located in Hangzhou :
- West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou
- The Grand Canal
For comfort & time saving, I used high speed trains (average speed 200 - 300km per hr) for our travels from Hangzhou to Nanjing, Qingdao & Shanghai. However, there were tight security checks in major train & metro stations including airport check-in as well.
Zhujiajio Water Town was an hour bus ride from Shanghai so this made life easier for us to pay a visit to this tourist place. Due to a wet weather in Shanghai and a heavy smog, we decided not to visit Zhouzhuang & Xitang , both of these famous water towns are 1-1.5 hr bus ride from Shanghai.
The weather in Qingdao was cold at around 4c and the day temperature was around 10-12c for other cities. Shanghai was drizzling most of the time and hazy !
As we were visiting China during the winter season, the room rates offered by major hotel chains were a real bargain. Upon arrival at the Qingdao train station, we were offered CNY100 for a double room in a nearby 3 star hotel so we took advantage of this offer after a quick review of the room & facilities !
In Hangzhou, we stayed in Hanting Hotel (via on-line booking) and in Shanghai, we picked Jinjiang Inn, a 15 mins walk from the Shanghai Train & Metro Station. In our past hotel booking experiences, local franchised hotel chains such as Home Inn, Hanting & Jinjiang Inn currently have no problems accepting bookings from foreign guests. So in your future visits to major cities / towns in inland China, just pick any of these 3 hotel chains for accommodations.
Although we had made an on line reservation in Nanjing to stay in 7 Days Inn but this hotel could not accept foreign guests so we had to check into a nearby hotel instead. A lesson learned from this visit !
We moved around quite easily in all these cities using public transport such as Metro & buses. Metro costs around CNY2-5 for a city ride and for buses CNY1-2, pretty cheap.
As Jiangnan & Jiangsu regions are famous for their beautiful lakes, gardens and natural landscapes and Air Asia's low airfare from Kuala Lumpur to Hangzhou or Shanghai ( average 5-6 hrs flight time), I probably could like to make another visit to this region and the cities I am targeting to visit are Yangzhou, Ningbo, Zhengjiang, Thousand Islands & the Water Towns of Zhonzhuang, Xitang & Wuzhen. I hope I could make this dream comes true in the near future !
As we will be kissing goodbye to 2015 soon, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2016 ! May 2016 be a great travelling year for you ! Happy travelling !!!
As we will be kissing goodbye to 2015 soon, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2016 ! May 2016 be a great travelling year for you ! Happy travelling !!!
" Remember that happiness is a way of travelling - not a destination "
Hangzhou, Zhejiang
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| West Lake, Hangzhoiu |
Nanjing, Jiangsu
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| Qinhuai River, Nanjing |
Qingdao, Shandong
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| Qingdao Beer Museum |
Shanghai City
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| Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Pudong |
Zhujiajiao Water Town, Shanghai
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| Fangseng Bridge (1571) |
Dreams, wonderful dreams, it's all about dreams & never let go your dreams .... have dream, will travel ....
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| Follow the Tsingtao's motto you will be on the right path ! |
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| Pursue your dream path |
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