WorldToChina

      The New Yuan Ming Palace in Zhu Hai, is a park of impressive space, including a vast lake. From its name only you can judge that it is a partial reconstruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, which was unfortunately destroyed by foreign troops during the second Opium War, and would never be rebuilt on its original site.

      The Palace is located at foot of Big Shilin Mountain of Jiuzhou Road. Surrounded by mountains on three sides and south side left open, it occupies an area of 1.39 square kilometers, which is intended to be in the same size of the unburned Yuanming Palace in Beijing. It reproduced numerous scenic spots in their old constructing style. Some are combined with the features of modern tourist scenery.

      It provides important base for Chinese patriotism education as well as a scenery of enchanting beauty to Zhu Hai.

      An attractive and clean enviroment plus the advanced deepport condition provide Zhu Hai with admirable advantages. It owns a long coastal line and is the only city on the western Pearl River Delta with natural deepwater ports. These endowed Zhu Hai with rapid ecnomic development.

      Besides highrise blocks, Zhu Hai has splendid natural landscapes that makes it as a garden city and model city of best living enviroment.

      The Sculpture of Zhu Hai Fisher Girl is one of this city’s symbolic sceneries. It is 8.7 meters in hight and 10 tons in weight. Designed and built according to a beautiful local folklore, the Sculpture  is entitled the “Top Ten Tourist Attractions of Zhu Hai”.

      The folklore is told like this: A beautiful fairy maiden fell in love with a young fisherman. He believed some fabricated rumors and asked the girl for the bracelet she wore as proof of her love. Although she knew she would die if the bracelet were removed from her body, she still took it off and presented it to show her deep love for him. The girl died shortly after and the fisherman was bitterly remorseful, crying all day and all night. An immotal named Jiuzhou Elder was moved by their love and helped the young man resusitate the girl. They offered this huge precious pearl which is held in the girl’s hands to their benefactor during their marriage ceremony as a token of their appreciation for his kindness.

      I took the inter-town coach yesterday to get to Zhu Hai city. This is an amazingly attractive and comfortable city. I love it very much AND is planning to come here to work and live in the near future.

      The topography is generally composed of plat grounds, mixed with scattering small hills. People in Zhu Hai are so clever that they make full use of this city’s terrain by building detached villas on those small hills so as to achieve a good view of the sea or nearby city sceneries. In this case, they turn the short comings of those hills which are supposed to be road blocks into advantages in the exploiration of real estate.

       Compared with Guangzhou, ZhuHai is much more favorable to me. It is no less developed than its provincial capital city. What more important is that the living condition in Zhu Hai defeat that in Guangzhou by a large margin: the air is fresher, roads cleaner and circulation of  traffic freer. All of thses elements are allowing citizens in Zhu Hai to live in an unhurried manner, which is the most appreciatable point of this city.

See the night view of Zhu Hai? It’s gorgeous!

      I’ve stayed in Guangzhou for around one week. Snacks here are rather impressive and unique. Here are some recommendations resulting from my personal experience.

      Seafood would come first when we are discussing Cantonese delicacies. Oysters, shrimps and inkfish are widely welcomed by local people. They would consume a lot of those kinds of seafood everyday. If you are a seafood lover too, you should never miss Guangdong.

      Second comes its herb tea. Guiling Jelly is the most famous one. Beside there are some others like White Gourd Tea and Fructus Momordicae Tea and so on.

       Milk Custard is also very delicious.

      This is the first local snack I had tasted after arrival. It’s call mock turtle soup. Both local and visitors seemed like it very much. This chewy bowl of beaf offel smells and tastes well.

      Following is Guangdong Won Ton stuffed with shrimp meat. It is very light and delicate in taste and is good to health.

      Lastly, you should never miss the gruels in Cantonese snacks. This is one of the must-taste-it. It is called Tingzai Gruel. Refreshing and special.

      It is known as a famous commercial city in ancient Guangzhou for its developed economy and commercial tradition of long standing. In Shangxiajiu Street the atmosphere is full of  traditional business charm of fascinating folk customs of Xiguan.

      It would never be any exaggeration to say that Xiguan Shangxiajiu Street and Dishifu Road is a shopping heaven in Guanzhou, because the goods selling there are comparitively cheaper than other places and are no less fashionable and  ecnomical. In this case, I spent a whole day there with my best friend shopping and tasting delicious snacks. Right! Aside from the clothing shops there is a street of delicacy which sells snacks from many different regions in China. Of course the most attractive ones are those selling seafood. We tried the oyster, shrimp, fish ball and moch turtle soup, ect. I like the herb tea very much. They are not only taste great but also good to health.

     Another strong feeling of yesterday’s shopping is that it is always best to have a friend with you when you are doing shopping. Therefore, no matter how long the pedestrian street is, you won’t feel worn out, because the Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street is rather long and contentful.

(bronze in the street   There are plenty of them)

(old buildings in Xiguan Shangxiajiu Street)

      Today witnessed a bright sunny day and a sudden shower in the afternoon. The weather is not only changeable but also frustrating. But my visit to the Sun Yat-sen University is quite exciting.

      I arrived the university by metro right at noon. It should be schorching walking outdoor at that time. However, walking on  the campus of Sun Yat-sen university is not at all terrible. Once enter the school, you are exposed to prosperously growing grass and flowers in lawn and tall trees on the both sides of the roads. Buildings there are constructed tens of years ago, with red bricks and black rooves. Lakes on the campus are as green as a perfect jade, it seems as if there are abundant plants growing underneath the lake surface.

      People walking, sitting or resting there are talking and  moving softly. Maybe it is because they are influenced by the entire enviroment of this school, or it is the peace and comfort of this campus made them keep the tranquil atmosphere automatically.

      It is a shopping center, a gathering district of malls and a prosperous pedestrian street. In this business center you would see heavy traffic flows and relaxing shoppers paching both sides of the road. In the evening array of neon lights would dazzle your eyes.

      Beijing Road is one of the major commercial streets in Guangzhou. There are two super shopping malls in the street. One is Guangzhou Department Store located on the south side of the street. The other is the Xin Da Xin Department Store on the north.

      All along the street, there crouches chain stores side by side. Most of them are fashion shops. They are selling the most up-to-date clothing and would offer their clients with surprising discounts. In the street, you could also find leather products, snack bars and jewery shops. Differently priced products make it easy to find a bargain. I bought to clothes yesterday with I accidently ran into a special sale.

      There are also some flea markets nearby, whick attracks numerous visitors with their small trinkets. Here you could find plenty of shirts, toys and some useful tools that are uniquely sold only in that place. More importantly, those small trinkets are very cheap. Visitors like me are enjoying shopping there and would feel free to wander around because buses are available even in the midnight.

      Generally speaking my journey to Guangzhou is a nice one. My neighbors were good to me. Especially the girl that coming to Guangzhou for work, she shared with me her experience of her Senior year, making resume and sitting interviews. She was a easy-going person with sweet smile. Apart from sleeping time, we talked all the way here.

      The southern part of China is obviously different from the north. Plants here are shockingly vigorous. Houses are under tiled rooves as they are always exposed to heavy and long-lasting rainfalls. The weather here is rather changeable. Therefore, it is necessary to take an unbrella whenever you want to go outdoors. This is always helpful, because you would use it to shade the strong sunshine, or sometimes you may use it as a protection against sudden shower.

      The railway station of Guangzhou is no less crowded than that in Xi’an. However, the design of this station is more reasonable, making the visitor flows gather and dismiss more orderly. It devides the passengers who want to change to other long-distant routes from those who want to stay in this City. Distant passengers would turn right to buy ticket for their following travel and the stay-in-city traveller can go directly left to take buses in its nearby bus station center.

     This is a prosperous, populous and perfectly-ordered city. I think it deserves people’s yearning.

      As you know, I failed to book the in-time ticket for Guangzhou. Therefore, have no choice but to stay in Xi’an for another one week. During this period of time, there’s barely any people on campus to company me. So I decided to go around this city. First, it would be the terracotta warriors and horses, because of my unexpected injury in my freshman year,I missed the chance to go there with my father and threw it out of my mind for more than three years. .

      The Mausoleum  is located at the northern Shaanxi Province, at the foot of Lishan Hill in Lintong. It is the largest mausoleum ever discovered in the world. The First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty successfully defeated all rival ducal states and unified China by establishing the first centralized feudal dynasty. And this mausoleum is built as a national sacrifice for him.

      It covers a total of 2.18 million square meters. The tomb itself covers 220,000 square meters, originally 166 meters in hight, but reduced to 76 meters by weathering and damage. The bottom of the tomb measures 485 meters by 515 meters. Magnificent grandeur！

      Ailsa, you started out this morning for Chengdu. Remember we exchanged our student certificates for possible discounts? Here, as a local Chengduness, I would like to  recommand to you some fancy, pricey hotels for you to stay in. This should have been done before you set out. However, it’s better late than never.

Sichuan Hotel would hit the top of my list:

      I’ve stayed in Sichuan hotel for several times when our relatives came from afar. It’s rather comfortable and homelike. You know, apart from its delicate furnish, I exclusively enjoy its bathroom, because it’s embeded in the bedroom, partitioned by frosted glass. It brings the entire atmosphere a hovering relaxing flavor.

      More importantly, it locates right in the center of the city. You can go directly to the pedestrian shopping area –Chun Xi Road without any transportation vehicle. It only take you a five-minute walk. It is about 1.6 km away from the Renmin Parkand only 30 to get to the Panda City of China.

     You can rest assured that you are safe staying in this five-star hotel. Though it ranks high, it’s far cheaper than you would expect it to be, taking you only around RMB 100 per night. Even costs  only a little bit more than those ordinary inns. I guess it may be the cheapest one among the five-stars. You can surf on its web: http://www.scsti.ac.cn/tour/html/agent/chuanbin.html

Yun Long Hotel is also a good choice

      It stands at the crossroad of Xinhua Road, in the center of the city. As a solo girl traveler, I would strongly recommand you to stay in a more safer place like the city center rather than the outskirts. Yun Long is equiped with central air conditioner, security system, hi-fi equipment, cable TV, mini bar, IDD, ect.

     As a three-star hotel, it is apparently excessively fancy to have many restaurant on its eighth floor providing many dilicious food for you. Night clubs, tea house, beauty saloon, gym and KTV rooms are also available right inside its building.

    I have already said a lot. It’s high time for you to explore the city. Hope you will have a good journey in Chengdu. Never mind if you need to give a counter offer of recommandations for me. Though your homecity Shenzhen is also a entirely unkown city to me, I have already found good rates through a website addressed: http://www.hotelscombined.com It offers information about hotels in every corner of the world. If you need more information about hotels in Chengdu, you can click this link: http://www.hotelscombined.com/BrowseByCountry.aspx

      Oh, one last thing. Don’t bother with your diet any more. Enjoy the delicious food~! I guess you will love them. Keep in contact!