That's Life

Day 4 ~ This is the final part on my China trip. From Wuxi we traveled to Shanghai for the final leg of our tour before going back to Hangzhou where we will be flying home.

Our 1st place to visit in Shanghai is Nanjing Road ~ Pedestrian Street for some shopping. Nanjing Road is the main shopping street in Shanghai, one of China's busiest shopping street. Nanjing Road in the city center starts from The Bund to the junction of Jing'an Temple and West Yan'an Road.

The pedestrian street was set up in 1999. The walkway starts from Middle Henan Road right up to Middle Xizang Road. These roads are specially paved roads with trackless sightseeing trains plying this road.

From our drop-off area, our guide took us through an underground walkway to Nanjing Road

Trackless sightseeing trains along the pedestrian street

A mini police patrol car

Old colonial buildings converted into shopping stores

Dried foodstuff, buns & mooncakes sold at one of the malls

The Big Bus Sightseeing Tour enabled us to see more of the area around Nanjing Road. Boarding the red double-decker bus, we were provided with our personal earphones which provides commentary in 8 languages explaining the history & culture of Shanghai as the bus moves along. The tour covered the major landmarks around the city, from ancient temples, colonial-style buildings, passing the well known waterfront The Bund with a view of the famed Oriental Pearl Tower on the opposite side of the Huangpu River and finally back again to our boarding point.

The Big Bus

Colonial-style buildings

The Bund

View of the Oriental Pearl Tower across the Huangpu River

Shanghai's City God Temple a.k.a. Cheng Huang Temple is really a shoppers heaven for people like me who love shopping for all kinds of souvenirs & mementos for our trip. One might be puzzled just like me on why this shopping heaven is called as such. There is actually a temple called Cheng Huang Temple located within the vicinity of this shopping paradise which was built around the temple. There are hundreds of stores here and most of these store buildings are nearly a century old.

You can find shops selling items ranging from clothes, pottery, local handicraft & not forgetting plenty of food outlets. I hear that you can get one of the best "Xiao Long Bao" here..but the queue was just too long a wait and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to see more of the place.

Sights while walking on the way to City God Temple

City of God Temple

Some of the many shops

City God Temple beautifully lights up after sunset

Shop selling 'Xiao Long Bao'

After dinner, all of us embarked on a most exciting & breathtaking journey....an evening cruise along the Huangpu River.

At night the boat took us on slow cruise along the river to view the spectacular light extravaganza display that lined the shores of both sides of the Huangpu River.

The cruise began with a slow ride along Pu Xi which is the west bank of the Huangpu river, passing stately colonial buildings along The Bund before sailing towards Pudong on the east bank of the river, passing glittering skyscrapers on the eastern shore. The Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai Tower, Shanghai International Convention Center & the majestic Oriental Pearl Tower are a must-see & will definitely take your breath away.

And as you view the lights and spectacle from the deck of the evening cruise boat, you will understand why I say that you have not seen the whole of Shanghai if you have not seen the beauty of what the Huangpu River Cruise has to offer.
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At the pier waiting for our cruise boat to dock

Our Cruise Boat

Our 1st photo on deck

Pu Xi (West Bank)

Inside our cruise boat

Pudong (East Bank)

Other Cruise Boats plying the river

Our hotel for the night in Shanghai is the Four Points by Sheraton the best in our tour.

Day 5 ~ Good Morning from Shanghai

For our 1st stop for our last day in Shanghai, we were taken to Tong Ren Tang - according to our guide it is a research center & hospital that practice Chinese traditional herbal medicinal treatments. I heard that they have various branches all over China.

We were brought to a lecture room where we were introduced to a Chinese Herbalist Dr. who briefly explained about herbal supplements & medicines. Those who are interested were given free 'Bamboo Cupping Therapy' for pain relief. We were later offered to have our pulses checked. Regardless of the somewhat accurate findings we were written prescriptions for medicines...which were definitely not cheap. Even though we weren't forced into purchasing, I feel overall it wasn't a very pleasant experience. I feel that tour guides should inform tourists what to expect before taking them there. The visit became rather stressful than enlightening...Imagine going for a holiday & to end up finding out that we just may have some serious ailments!?

Tong Ren Tang consultation building & hospital

From there we went to Pudong for our either eat-in or take-away lunch at Super Brand Mall located just within a short walking distance to The Oriental Pearl Tower. All of us opted to take-away our lunches as is was still too early for lunch & we were still full from our heavy breakfast at our hotel.

Our coach dropped us of near to the base of the Oriental Pearl tower

View while walking to the Mall

The Super Brand Mall

Some of the many choices of great food at the Mall

We had another last destination ~Tianmai Jewel in Shanghai before our long bus ride back to Hangzhou

Shanghai has such a bad reputation for scamming tourists. Seems like it was compulsory for tour agents to take tourists to such places where jade pieces & jewelry are offered at very discounted prices..with a sob story of course. When our guide dropped us of at Tianmai Jewel, she did ask us just to spend about 15 mins & purchases are not compulsory. We were at first shown how to differentiate real jade from the fake ones & later each of us were given a small piece of jade as gifts - which is supposedly very expensive. We were also offered 'genuine' jade & jewelry pieces at very shockingly cheap prices & even accepted Malaysian currency!! Ok...we got scammed but lucky we did not spend more than RM200...so took it as a lesson learnt! (Came back home to discover from the local jeweler here that the jade was just a very low grade quartz)

No photography was allowed inside (obviously)

Sadly Tianmai Jewel left us with at very bad impression of China when it comes to their Jade industry

With our Group Tour Leader Ms Crystal & coach driver taken at Tianmai Jewel

Our 'private' coach throughout our trip ~ what I loved about it is that it came with WiFi & we were able to stay connected with our friends & family back home!

Scenes around Shanghai

I do not know what this monument is called but it caught my eye when we were walking to Nanjing Pedestrian Street

Passing Huangpu River

One of the many houses in Shanghai & Huangzhou

Shanghai Dishes

One must never miss trying the 'Xiao Long Bao' while in Shanghai

Leaving Shanghai, we started our long bus ride back to Hangzhou where we spent another night at Hangzhou Pujing Garden Hotel before our morning flight back to home sweet home ~ Malaysia

What we love about Pujing Garden Hotel is that it's smack right in the middle of the most happening place at night. Just opposite the hotel along Tongren Road is the 300 meter long Sandun Night Market which is equivalent to our Malaysian 'Pasar Malam'

View of the Night Market from our hotel room

Even the restaurants along the Night Market enjoy brisk business

All sorts of street food

Clay Pot noodles

Enjoying our Claypot Noodles seated on mini tables & stools set out by the stalls

A group photo on our very last night at Sandun Night Market

Early morning view of Tongren Road where the Sandun Night Market was last night

Sunrise comes very early in Hangzhou. I took this at around 4.15am Can see the streets are being washed & cleaned before traffic starts using the road.

Left : Back view of Pujing Garden Hotel & the river that passes behind it

We woke up very early to walk to some fruit shops to get fresh peaches to take back home as they were in season ~ really huge, sweet, fresh & CHEAP!! (^^)