Sunday 31 May 2015

3 nights in Shanghai



Shanghai has been my favourite city that I have visited in China!
I met up with 4 of the girls I met at the start of my internship, Sammy, Hannah, Laura and Kasey, it was so nice to see new old faces! Especially as I have been traveling on my own and hadn't met any westerns yet. 

The first night we headed to the French concessions. It was a really lovely area, filled with restaurants, however it was pricy and we decided not to eat hear. And instead we walked down towards the bund to take night photos of it all light up. On the way we found an Italian restaurant that's a big chain in China. So we all ate hearand got a bottle of wine all for less than £3 each. I did not expect to find places this cheep in Shanghai. 

The next day we all got up early to go visit one of shanghais water towns. We got the bus to Zhujiajiao and it took around 1 hour. We wondered about the town and took a boat ride around the area. It's such a beautiful place and it's hard to believe it's only a hours bus ride from the centre of Shanghai. 

The bus ride back did take a lot longer, I think it was over 2 hours but I fell asleep so not entirely sure. When we got back we went for dumplings at Yangs Dumplings. They were very good, but very oily. I am told your meant to suck the oil out and then eat the dumplings, but with that much oil I think I would have made myself ill. Then we headed towards the pearl tower, as we wanted to time it just right so that we could see the view in the day and the view when it got dark. It was a great surprise to find out the entry fee was half price! We don't know why but it made us all happy! (I have now found out there was lots of attractions half price accross the city, something to do with a tourism day?) The views from the top were great, there were two levels you could access with our tickets. One of them had a glass floor that was pretty cool! 

The next day Sammy and Hannah left early as they were teaching later on in the day. So Laura, Kasey and I spent the day together. We walked to Yu gardens, visited Shanghai museum and the jade Buddha temple. Later in the day when they left for there overnight train I visited m&m world and treat myself to some chocolate! 

I feel like I have done so much during my time in Shanghai and i have had such a great time. It definitely is my favourite city in China so far. And I didn't spend half as much money as I expected to! 





Speak soon,
HanHan xx
SHARE:

Friday 15 May 2015

Chengdu's Pandas


The reason I decided to visit Chengdu was to see the pandas. It is thought that there is less than 1000 pandas left in the world so it was on my bucket list to go and visit them during my time in China. 

I visited the Chengdu research base of giant panda breeding. It cost 58y entry so that's around £5.80. I thought it was very reasonable I was prepared and expected to pay a lot more! The research base opened in 1987 with 6 pandas that were rescued from the wild. Now it it home to more than 100 pandas. 

The park was huge and had lots of different areas wherry you could go watch the pandas. They had so much space and looked to happy. Pandas spend a lot of there time eating so I found a few pandas eating bamboo and others where sleeping. I found baby pandas, they were the cutest and I seen one to a forward roll!

The red pandas I thought looked like a fox. At first that's what I thought it was, but then I realised!

Inside the park there was also a museum and a 20min video on pandas. It was good to gain some more knowledge about pandas while I was there. 

I would highly recommend if your visiting China to head to Chengdu and see the pandas!  

Do you know years ago, China gave pandas to other country's as gifts! Then they realised they were running out of them and stopped handing them out!




Speak soon,
HanHan xxx
SHARE:

Visiting the Terrocota warriors in Xi'an


Today I visited the terrocota warriors. I decided against going with a tour as I was told it was fairly simple to get there via public transport.

I took the tourist bus 5 (306) bus from Xi'an train station. The bus cost 8y and took a hour. You stay on the bus until the very last stop. When you get of the bus you follow the crowds of people all also heading to the museum. The entry to costs 150y. After paying its a 5/10 min walk to the 3 pits. However there is the option of a taxi golf cart thing, that cods 5y. However it's easy enough to walk, and by the time you wait for one you probably could have got yourself there. 

I heard the pit 1 was the most impressive so I decided to check out pit 2 & 3 first. I thought it was amazing. How much work had went into making there's figures. They apparently all have different faces, and they hold different weapons. It really is a whole army. I can't believe it has only been discovered in the past 50 years. It's such a huge part of history. 

Pit 1 was definitely the most impressive however was also the busiest, full of people taking selfies and pushing to the front to try get a better photo. It is the largest pit and the most warriors have been found and restored hear. 

Pit 1 




Pit 2 


Pit 3 


Speak soon,
HanHan xxx

SHARE:

Tuesday 5 May 2015

Dapeng for the long weekend


We set of to dapeng at 7am Friday morning & arrived after 6pm in the evening! Mainly due to the traffic been so bad, getting wrong bus and our taxi driver taking us the complete wrong direction. 

We chose to come to the beach for a relaxing weekend however when we arrived at our hostel we soon realised there was an all night rave happening. As I didn't arrive till after 6, and the free drinks ended at 9 so some of us decided not go. We headed down to the beach to grab some food instead. The beach was so busy still even at 8pm at night! 

The next day we visited dapeng fortress. It reminded me of the houghtons in Beijing. We wondered around the area then walked to the temple. I have seen so many temples on my travels but this was the most beautiful. There was so much colour, it truly was amazing. 

Later in the afternoon we walked down to the beach. An area was closed of as couples were getting there wedding photos taken. In China couples get there wedding photos taken 6 months before the wedding. So it's all so fake, there was loads of props along the beach and hair and makeup stations along the back. We got speaking to the manager and over the whole day more than 100 couples come for there photos. I wouldn't like to have my wedding photos taken right next to so many other couples, but I guess this is china. As the photographers were finishing, the manager let us on to his part of the beach. It was so nice to have space. As the public beach was so so busy! You couldn't even see the beach due to that many people! 

It was nice to experience a Chinese beach, but I wouldn't visit again as it is nothing like a beach we know. It's over crowded and dirty.




Speak soon,
HanHan xx
SHARE:
© Super HanHan's World. All rights reserved.
MINIMALIST BLOGGER TEMPLATES BY pipdig