Malaysia (Pre Covid 19 - Reminisce My Good Old Days - The 10 Best Places to Visit in China & I) - July 2021

" China, officially the People's Republic of China, is a country in East Asia & unitary one-party socialist republic led by the Communist Party of China. It is the world's most populous country with a population of over 1.4 billion. China has 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions & 4 municipalities " 

5000 year long Chinese civilisation, 13 successive dynasties (2070BC>1912), 1st dynasty - Xia (c2070>1600BC), 13th & last dynasty - Qing (1644>1912) & China's oldest city - Xian (also known as Chang'an meaning Eternal Peace), Great Wall of China (7th century BC), Peking Man, Beijing Duck, Beijing's former name is Beiping (Northern Peace), Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Terracotta Warriors, Xinjiang, Tibet, First Opium War (1839>1842), Dr Sun Yat Sen (1866>1922) - Father of Modern China, Puyi (1906>1967) - Last Emperor of China, Chairman Mao Zedong (1893>1976) - Founding Father of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Premier Zhou Enlai (1898>1976) - also served as Chinese Foreign Minister (1949>1958), Deng Xiaoping (1904>1997) - Architect of China Economic Reform, Teng's famous quote "it doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long it catches mice", Base of Jingganshan (1927), The Long March 10,000km (1934>1935), Formation of the People's Republic of China (1st Oct 1949), Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), President Nixon's visit to China (1972), President Ford's visit to China (1975), Handover of Hong Kong to China (1997), President Clinton's visit to Guilin / Li River Cruise (1998), Return of Macao to China (1999), 56 UNESCO World Heritage sties, Longest river - Yangtze River (6,300km) followed by Yellow River (5,464km), largest hydro-electric power station - Three Gorges Dam, highest mountain - Mt Everest (8,848m - shared with Nepal), Huangshan Mountain (1864m), Avatar Mountains (Zhangjiajie), Urbanisation, High speed rail network, Most populated & richest city - Shanghai (26.9 million) followed by Beijing (20.4m), Chongqing (15.8m) & Tianjin (13.6m), China has 14 cities with more than 5 million populace, 100 years anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (1st July 2021) ..... a country I enjoyed visiting since my 1st package tour to Beijing / Tianjin / Chengde in Sept 1997 - had so far made 20 visits (14 free & easy & 6 package tours) to China, the last was in Nov 2019 ! I had left my footprints in major historic, cultural & natural landscape & tourist places in all the provinces, autonomous regions & municipalities of China except Tibet .... looking forward for more visits to China in the years ahead ! 

The Best 10 Places to Visit in China as highlighted in touropia's travel videos are (except Lhasa, I had visited all the other 9 Best Places in China ! Apart from these 9 places, I had also visited 38 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in China from 1997>2019 - please see the next post highlighting my UNESCO China visits):

1. Beijing
2. Hong Kong
3. Great Wall of China
4. Shanghai
5. Xian
6. Lhasa (yet to visit) 
7. Yangshuo
8. Hangzhou
9. Jiuzhaigou 
10. Kunming 

Sometimes we look back & 10 years from now we think, those were great Old Days

High Speed Rail Network in China (2008>2017)

" The 5000-year-old Chinese Civilisation " - behind every travel, these were the pictures of my Good Old Days free & easy travelling & package tours to China (a total of 22 trips to China in between Sept 1997 to Nov 2019) 

1) Beijing, China (Sept 1997, Dec 2002, May & Oct 2009, Sept 2010, Sept 2011, Aug 2015)

2) Hong Kong, China (1984, Sept & Dec 2013)

3) Great Wall of China (Sept 1997, Dec 2002 & May 2010)

4) Shanghai, China (Dec 2002, Oct 2010, Dec 2015 & Nov 2017)

5) Xian, China (May 2006, Sept 2012, May 2017)

6) Yangshuo, China

7) Hangzhou, China (Dec 2015, Nov 2017) 

8) Jiuzhaigou, China (Sept 2009)

9) Kunming, China (Sept 1998, Feb & Nov 2019)

1) Lhasa, China (yet to visit)