2014 X'Mas Holiday in China (Sneak Peek)

Although my family and I don't celebrate Christmas, but I do love the Christmas feelings and celebrate it abroad always part of my wishlist. In 2010, I celebrated Christmas in Taiwan, 2011 in Indonesia and 2012 in Singapore. As for this year, I tagged my mom along to China for the joyful Christmas holiday cum my year end trip as well. This is the fourth trip I sponsored my mom, after Indonesia, Japan and South Korea (from airfare, accommodation, transportation, foods, shopping & etc). Wondering, how many of you sponsored your parents a trip abroad actually?

We started our trip by flying in into Hangzhou first (we burnt our Shanghai tickets actually) and one of ultimate place to go in Hangzhou is none other than mesmerising and awe-inspiring freshwater lake, West Lake itself.

#1: Three Pools Mirroring The Moon, the largest island of the West Lake of Hangzhou.

#3: Ended our night by strolling in Hefang Ancient Street of Hangzhou before leaving to Suzhou

From Hangzhou, we proceeded to Suzhou where we booked 1 day Suzhou ground tour and out from the 24 tourists of this tour, only two of us are Malaysians whereas the rest are the Mainland Chinese.  

#4: Besides few pagodas and temples and not forgetting, we also visited The Lion Forest Garden, one of the four great gardens of Suzhou.

In one of the temples, we were requested to see the fortune teller. Normally I don't believe these but the first thing fortune teller said to me was, "You are the type that don't sit still at home one. Always travel around here & there." How's true is that?

#6: The ancient architectures along the canal in Tongli Water Town. 

Before we move to Shanghai, we managed to go Tongli Water Town, a thousand year ancient town with a long history and the typical style of water town located an hour away from Suzhou. 

#8: Meanwhile in Shanghai, the first place we went was Yu Garden, an extensive Chinese garden located in the heart of bustling Shanghai

#9: We tried the Nanxiang Steamed Bun but turned out to be so so only. Kinda disappointed

#10: Kill our time in Nanjing Road for window shopping. Seriously, just window shopping cause everything was so expensive there.


#11: Last but not least, a view of Pudong from The Bund is a must when visit Shanghai. Oh boy! Shanghai is so amazing and breathtaking especially at night. 

Frankly speaking, my trip to China with my mom is like roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs. We started off with a pretty good start not until the day I woke up on the Christmas day itself, we were told by Malaysia Airlines of an unpleasant news when I unable to do web check-in. Kinda piss off with the T&C promotion fare. And the next day again, received another bad news stated our flight back to Kota Kinabalu from Shanghai will be delayed. From the original ETD of 1.30 am to 4am. Although we were compensated with food vouchers, but all I want is hotel vouchers instead. 

#12: First time in my life I have such an early flight

4 Days of Shenzhen, China Trip With Family (2011)

This post served as a compilation for all the post relating to my trip to Shenzhen with my dearest family, like what I always did for most of my previous trip. This is also because I don't blog consecutively, so here is to ease myself when I want refer back in future.

Day 1 (28th May 2011)
The Arrival, Sushi & Shopping

Day 2 (29th May 2011)
McD & Continue Shopping

Day 3 (30th May 2011)
City Day Tour Around Shenzhen

• Splendid China Part I: Shenzhen China Folk Culture Village
• Splendid China Part II: Miniature China

Day 4 (31st May 2011)
Last Day & Cheap McD Breakfast

Extra Features:
1. Sofitel Dongguan Human Oriental
2. My Shopping & Food Haul

Although it was a kinda short trip, but I really have a precious and wonderful moments with all my family members. You know its kinda hard to gather all my family together especially my sister who is currently working in Singapore and also my brother is studying in Kuching now. I'm not sure when will my family and I will travel together but I really hope we will have another trip to Singapore this year end where is not just a vacation, holiday for us but also to visit my sister who was being promoted recently.

My Shopping & Food Haul From Shenzhen, China

Oops, I did it again!Let's check out my shopping haul from the so called little shopping paradise place. I did shared some of them before in few of my previous post but I prefer to compile all of them in here.

My Shopping Haul on Day 1

All mine except for the white collar T-shirt that I bought for my boyfie.
Total damage: Less than RM100

My Shopping Haul on Day 2

This time around grabbed more on accessories including bags, porch, belt and necklace

My Shopping Haul on Day 3

All are not mine except for the shoe and belt. The rest are for my besties and boyfie too.

If you happen to read of my previous post on my haul from Japan and Taiwan, you will notice I prefer to buy those foods and snack that can't find in Malaysia. And I was so lucky that I found China's local supermarket with the help of my two brothers and you know what, I almost grabbed everything which I think is cute and unique whether it is delicious or not back to KK.

A whole big bag just for me to fill in the foods and snacks I bought from Shenzhen, China.

The reason I love to buy foods when travelling was because it is easy to share among all my friends including my colleagues especially the guys. For me, it is easy to buy souvenirs for the gals but when comes to guy, it makes me headache. Therefore, I prefer to grab as much as I can and let them choose what they want to eat. Easy job!

Crackers and potato chips even featuring the famous Taiwan singer, Jay Chao

Even Lay's (the famous potato chip's brand) also featured Wang LeeHom and Angela Chang

NOTE: For those who went Taiwan before, can you find these two in Taiwan? I guess you can't.

Last but least, Glico!!!

Glico is kinda my favourite snack currently and I quite addicted to it after my trip to Japan. So wherever I saw 7-11 or other 24 hours convenient store anywhere on earth except for Malaysia, immediately I will search for Glico including my recent trip to Phuket. You can't imagine how crazy am I towards this Glico biscuit snack!

Shenzhen, China - Day 4 Last Day & Cheap McD Breakfast

Note: So, how's is Valentine's Day celebration? I plan to blog yesterday but I worry that no one gonna read my blog because everyone is busy with lovey dovey. By the way, do you aware that I am doing give-away contest? If not, hurry up and join the fun before it ends this Friday (click here). Good luck guys!

Date of Visited: 31st May 2011

Ok! So this is the final travelogue of my Shenzhen trip with my family. Took me almost 2 months to finish it because I am damn so lazy sometimes. Prefer to blog other things instead.

Back to the story. So, it's the final day and it's time to check-out from the 2nd hotel we stayed in Shenzhen. But before checking out, I saw this notice which stick at the back of the door that kinda attracted me. You might think what special of this notice but please do read the below:

Can you see the "Alien" words? Who on earth does the alien refer to? Sounds weird but yet kinda funny too at same time.

But before check-out, once again my mommy was planning to do her last minute shopping. I mentioned before that the hotel that we're staying was so near to subway station and underneath there, there is even a shopping centre. Hence, my mom would like to venture around before seriously saying goodbye to Shenzhen.

So this is the subway that connecting us to everywhere we wanna go

That's our hotel and can you name the artist on the billboard?

However, it was too earlier for Shenzhen people to start operating their business at 9.00 am. Mommy kinda dissapointed and therefore, decided going back to the hotel. Somehow, I saw this 24 hours McD restaurant and I was told before that if wanna try their pork burger, it is only available for breakfast. Hence, I tried my luck to buy the pork burger. Bingo! Yes, the pork burger is only available in the morning and you won't believe it how much it cost. China's McD breakfast is so freaking cheap.

1 pork burger with the choice either coffee or tea (their tea is cold peach tea, taste much more better which Malaysia don't have) cost RM3 per set. Yes, it cost RM3 only and mommy bought 8 sets of them. I even "tapao" the burger back to KK for my boyfie.

Shenzhen International Airport - It's kinda small and not much things to buy.

Did I mentioned before that even you have free wireless connection but it is kinda sucks cause China totally banned facebook, twitter, youtube and blogspot. Damn! Damn! Damn! I tried to log in facebook, twitter and my own blog for half hour but keep fail to upload for almost thousand times. Not until I went and google search "China Banned Social Network", only then I realised I was so stupid for wasting my time to keep log in.

So, that's all of my Day 4 trip in Shenzhen. And if you're asking me whether will I going back for a second trip, might not at this moment. Better plan and heading to other place of China instead like Shanghai which is currently in my travel list. *cross fingers* I'm looking for a travelmate for trip to Shanghai at this moment.

Photo credit to Wikitravel

Shenzhen, China - Day 3 City Day Tour Around Shenzhen

Only on day 3 I realised that the place that I stayed for the last 2 days was not the real city center of Shenzhen. The name of the city that I stayed is called Dongguan, and it is 1 hour away from Shenzhen city. And because I had expressed my interest to visit Shenzhen on the day before we make a trip there, hence my dad had made an arrangement so all of us got the chance to visit Shenzhen city.

Two drivers arrived at the hotel that we stayed at 10 am and here we go our journey of 1 hour plus to the bustling city of Shenzhen. China's drivers are really damn scary and horrible. They drove like mad, keep "honging" their cars and our hearts are almost pumping out from our body. Thank goodness we reached safely and immediately bid goodbye to the mad and insane drivers. Maybe this is the real behaviour of the way they are driving, I guess!

We checked in to our second hotel and although this hotel is not that luxury and grand like the previous one we stayed before (click here), we are satisfied especially with the strategic location. It is just few steps away from the subway station, hence it is convenient for us to go wherever we want.

Guess what this?

I thought this "extra and special" service is only available in Thailand. Few years back when I went Hatyai, Thailand with family, I saw this inside the drawer of the hotel I stayed. Few years later, I met them again but this time around, it was displayed in the bathroom. But wait! It is not free, you must pay for what you use.

After done with everything, we decided to make a short visit to their shopping center by taking subway. Somehow we faced a lil difficulties when comes to reading their signboard. For your information, all of my family members are banana (This term means Chinese people but don't know how to read Chinese words). Only my mom is the one who know how to read Chinese and I really can't imagine how I could travel if my mom is not joining us. The second reason I said so was because China people are ain't that friendly at all and some are not willing to help. I guess most of you who visited China or ever encounter any China people, maybe you might facing the similar situation as mine too.

Anyhow, China's subway are much way better than Malaysia one and saw the token on the bottom right? Malaysia are sometimes a copycat (if you get what I means)! :P


By the time we were about to shopping, it was lunch time! So, we dine-in in somekind a Taiwanese shop which located under the subway and it is quite tiny which can accommodated up to 10 people at a time only. Their main dishes are so-so but their dessert are superb!

Mango and honeydew ice-cream with assorted kind of fruits

Most of my friends who went Shenzhen before telling me that Shenzhen is one shopping paradise, which I could partly agreed with them if the main purpose of visiting Shenzhen is solely for shopping. But since I had shopping non-stop for the past 2 days, I tends not to shop more on the third day because I start to feel a lil bit sick seeing of those surrounding garments.

After 2 hours plus of shopping, we went to one of Shenzhen's top attractions, Splendid China. I did blog about this previously in two separate post. So if you haven't read them, do check them out! Splendid China is a theme park divided into 2 distinctive park but with only a single ticket.

China Folk Culture Village

Miniature China

The time we spent in Shenzhen was so short and there are many places that we were unable to visit. But I do believe, maybe someday, I will be back again.

Ok! I lied. I did some shopping on the third day but it was last minute shopping. Trust me, really a last minute shopping before going back on the next day.

The handbags and purse on the left side are for my besties and cousin and the socks on the left are for boyfie. Only the shoe and the belt are belong to me.



I always dream to own this shoe but in Malaysia, it is quite pricey.
I managed to bought this for RM40++ in Shenzhen.

Splendid China Part II: Miniature China

Date of Visited: 30th May 2011

Continue from the previous post of Part 1, the other part of Splendid China is Miniature Park. This theme park is one of the world's largest scenery parks where it showcase the replicas of China's historical and ancient buildings, marvellous scenes and exciting culture.

Not only surrounded by the replicas, but the exhibits are also surrounded by pleasant and beautiful gardens with many flowers and trees.

At here, you can see replicas of all the China famous landmark and buildings in one day where it was perfectly being constructed in a ratio of 1:15. The exhibits are even positioned to replicate their geographical locations. Consequently, you will feel like you are visiting the entire China without have to travel so far away.

The long and masterpiece of the replica of Dazu Buddhist Stone Sculpture.

One of the must seen replicas is The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses, where it was being replicated exactly the same like the original one which located at Xian City, Shaanxi Province.

The famous landmarks and building in China. Can you name them all?

There are even some replicas being built on the water, which really impress me.

For your information, this is the second miniature theme park I visited whereas my maiden visit was the one in Taiwan - Window on China Theme Park. Both have their own unique and distinctive features and showcases different kind of replicas but somehow, I think the best miniature theme park will be the one in Taiwan. One of the reason I said so it because Splendid China did a low maintenance for their replicas as I did saw some of them are damaged.

Anyhow, it is worth to make a visit to this theme park with your family and friends as it is comes with two different kind of parks, including China Folk Culture Village with one single ticket. The recommended time to visit this second part of the theme park might roughly be 2-3 hours. It is more spacious than the first one.

There even a park where those trees were planted by the most famous people in the world. Wander around and seeing all the name, sorry to say I can't recognise any of them.

Opening hours: 09:00 to 18:00
Admission fee: 120 RMB including China Folk Culture Village
How to go there: Shenzhen Subway Line 1 and stop at "Huaqiaocheng" (Overseas Chinese Town) station. Upon reaching there, find Exit D and Splendid China is situated on the right-hand side.

[Credit to: Wikipedia, Travel China Guide, Startinchina.com, Passportchop.com]