Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland March 17 – Day 7 Complete in Hong Kong Proper; 12/04

[PrincessInOz]

More great posts.
What a fabulous day you had - you squeezed so much in.
I'm going to have to go back and look at my photos of Suzhou as strangely none of your pics triggered any memories.
All I remember is being on a small boat travelling down small canals and there being a lot of lanterns and old buildings. Perhaps all we saw on our visit was an older part of town.
It seems there is plenty more to explore if I'm ever back in the area.

Sadly, I missed out on the old Hutong/town area in Suzhou. I expect that's where you went to and I was really hoping to get a canal ride down the old part of town. Oh well. Next time. I know I definitely need to spend more time in Suzhou.

You should definitely add Beijing to the bucket list. You have such a wonderful way of absorbing and retelling history and there is just so much there.

I'm hoping that @Aussie Wendy might be persuaded to add some of her Beijing pictures and experience to this TR at some stage. (No pressure!)

It is on my list. I came home and had one of those conversations with DH. I think we may prioritise Japan over China; but we think our next two vacays will be Japan and then China.

Plus if you ever get the opportunity, visit the Li River. It's a photographers paradise, and my favourite of all the places we visited in China.

I'll add it to the list. I want to do a Yangzte cruise. Maybe I can figure out the Li River in the itinerary.

ETA. I just checked. Yes, the Li River is on my list. We want to go to Guilin. It's very high on DH's list.

 

[PrincessInOz]

A Very Late Afternoon Snack



Anyone else notice that there is a lack of food porn on this day?


Well…..we were so busy trying to work out what to do and what not to do in Suzhou that we never really found a place to have lunch. There were a number of carts selling food when we got off the canal cruise but I wasn’t in the mood to buy something off those carts; especially without knowing the pedigree of cooking.


And then when we ditched the tour, we weren’t necessarily in a position to go seek out something to eat either.


So….it was only when we got back to the station that we finally found something to snack on. It was too late for lunch; so we ended up with just a snack.


The waiting area at Suzhou Train Station is just one big cavernous space.





The main waiting hall is just that. A waiting hall; and you may notice the ‘blocks’ in the picture. Those blocks were either restrooms (and they did have Western style facilities) and a few of them did have shops. But the shops weren’t food places that you might expect in a western train station. It took us a while to cotton on…..but look at the upper level. Within each ‘block’, there would be a flight of stairs heading up. That’s where you’ll find the food places.


So, in the end, we picked one of the blocks and found a zongzi, warm…..and filled with red bean.





Sorry for the low quality of the picture. But I was taking it with the smart phone and was in a rush to wolf the food down.

From memory, the Zongzi cost about 10 Yuan or so. It might have been a little less or a bit more. I don't exactly remember because my mother was paying for it whilst I got us some bottled water (which runs at about 3 or 4 Yuan for the standard size).



(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

Shanghai DisMeet Dinner - Two Becomes Four


As much as I would have liked more time in Suzhou, I was very keen to head back to Shanghai today. Afterall, today, the other Aussie Dis-sers that signed up to the Shanghai vacay were starting to arrive.


So….@Aussie Wendy lives in Queensland. She had started out the earliest of us all, with her DD, and had headed to Beijing first. They were arriving to Shanghai today. They had gotten to Shanghai in the afternoon, whilst we were still at Suzhou, and were catching in the sights on the Bund when we finally got back. Thank goodness for a working cellphone service! We certainly WhatApp’ed each other a little so that we could work out a suitably convenient time to meet up.


In the end, we caught up with them outside Daimaru on Nanjing Road.


Aussie Wendy and I have been Dis-Meeting, mostly in Melbourne, over the last 4 or 5 years now.

(Hmmm…..I think it might be my turn to head up to Queensland for our next catch-up! By my count, it’s 3-0 in her favour!)


I guess Shanghai is about as good a place as any for a DisMeet, right?


Wendy asked me to find a place for dinner. Well…..I’d only spent an afternoon in Shanghai and hadn’t really gotten too many ideas. We thought of heading back to the Hot Pot location simply because there were other restaurants on the other levels. But when we suggested it, Wendy and her DD told us that they had sampled a Hot Pot in Beijing.

Also, Wendy and her DD told us that they weren’t really hungry. They only wanted something light.
I think their lack of appetite had something to do with a multiple order of Shanghai Dumplings in Beijing, a miscommunication of sorts. So, that put dumplings out of the picture as well.


Something light? Well….I thought of heading back to Shi-tan Lu immediately. We walked down the street and showed them the snacks there. But it wasn't quite what Wendy had in mind.

You may recall that this street also had a few small eating establishments.





We checked out the menus and decided on this place.





Of all the places down the street, this one had a little Chinese interior décor cred.





Wendy’s DD captured the DisMeet moment.





We were too busy chatting and eating; that I completely forgot to take any pictures of the dinner! Afterall, I was a little hungry. This is as good as it gets tonight.





We ended up with an order of ½ Roast Duck, a serve of Chinese broccoli and an order of eggplant, with a little spice. We also got 2 bowls of rice to share and tea for all.



On reflection, I think I could have done with a bit more food on this night.


The bill for dinner came to 129 Yuan. That’s about $26 in my money.



(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

A Little Night Exploration – Follow the Leader to the Former French Concession


After dinner, my mother headed back to the hotel for an early night. She had gotten tired from her day in Suzhou. Aussie Wendy, her DD and I decided we needed to go-see a bit more of Shanghai.


This was the other side of Nanjing Road (East) towards the People’s Square train station.





We found some activity in one of the small cross-streets. I guess it’s a recreation of Shanghai in the 20’s and 30’s and the gangster opium scene.






We kept walking to the People's Square train station and boarded a train out.

Our excursion destination for this night was the Former French Concession of Shanghai.


The Former French Concessions (FFC) of Shanghai was one of those foreign tracks of land ceded by the Chinese. In this case, this track was ceded to the French from 1849 to 1943. From the time of inception and right up until today, the FFC is one of the premier areas to live and shop when in Shanghai. I gather property values there are even more expensive than New York!


For this excursion, I figured it was better to let Aussie Wendy and her DD work out where we were going to. I just played follow the leader!

The upshot is….I kinda know where we went but I’m not entirely sure of the details. Best I can work out, we started out at the Huangpi South Road Station (at least I think it was there) and walked our way towards the Shaanxi South Street Station (at least I think it was there). I also think our meandering for this night roughly followed the blue dotted line in this map below. Wendy can confirm when she gets back on the Dis again.






No matter. I’ll just share what I captured on the camera.

We headed towards Xintiandi, a fashionable district composed of an area of reconstituted traditional mid-19th century shikumen ("stone gate") houses on narrow alleys…..





…..cafes and restaurants. Any number of celebrity chefs have opened up dining establishments in Shanghai and Xintiandi.






Most of the cafes and restaurants feature both indoor and outdoor seating. It looked great to me and perhaps we should have headed here to find a place for dinner instead. Next time.






Xintiandi is also known as a shopping mecca. For the eagle-eyed amoung you, that's a Shanghai Tang store right there. Silk apparel in there will be about 5 - 10x what you will find in the silk stores elsewhere.





This one is for Aussie Wendy.






We found much to admire here and lots of ambience.






You can see why it’s popular with the expat community.





I liked the mix of the old and new in this part of Shanghai.





We did wander down some of the narrow longtangs. There was an old world charm to it all.






The FFC is renowned for it’s tree-lined streets. As it was early spring in Shanghai, I expect this would have been a prime example in a couple of months.





I do wish we had more time to spend in the FFC but we only had this night. Oh well. It’ll give me something to come back to Shanghai for.





We found a historic building here. It’s the Museum of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. The museum combines exhibits about the history of China, the history of the city of Shanghai, and the events surrounding the foundation of the Chinese Communist Party.





I think Wendy led us down Xingye Road and down Nanchang Road. We must has headed down Sinan Road because I remember we walked past the former residence of Sun Yat Sun. I contemplated taking a picture but I do remember watching Rick Stein in Shanghai and he did say that the security guards did not want them filming anywhere near the residence.


I don’t remember whether we saw this cute place in Sinan Road or Fuxing Middle Road (I think it was Sinan) but we had to stop to take a picture of it.





Super cute….and super tempting. So we headed on in.





We sat at this table.





I was duly amused by the sign. Western style facilities here!






There was a super eclectic collection inside.














We ordered drinks. 2 English Breakfast teas and 1 hot chocolate.






No prizes for guessing which one was mine.






And yes, I did check out the outside garden.





It was a very pleasant way to end the day.

After this, we walked to Shaanxi South Street Station. We caught the Metro back to our respective hotels, with plans on meeting up for the next day. I was really grateful to Wendy for taking the lead on this night’s excursion. It gave me time to just sit back and enjoy the sights without having to think about where to go next or look at a map. Thank you, Wendy.


Oh. For the record, the bill for the drinks came to 147 Yuan. Yes. It was more expensive than dinner!!! And for anyone interested. If you are planning on having coffee in Shanghai, be prepared to part with about 50 Yuan for a latte or cappuccino. That’s about $10 in my money.

The exception to this pricing is Starbucks. You’ll fork over about 30 Yuan (or about $6) there.

 

[zanzibar138]

Looks like you had a lovely evening! That hot chocolate looks well worth the money

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I'm pretty sure he collected a commission for bringing.....
I would guarantee that this happened

Also Viator is a company that resells tours - sort of like a broker
Most tours in China include a compulsory shopping tour at a government store (very annoying!)


Okie dokies....
my telco in Aus is Vodafone
One of the reasons I am with them is they charge only $5 a day to use your phone/data plan in certain countries overseas (AND you only pay for the days you actually use it)
China is one of the countries
I downloaded express VPN - this was an app on my phone and I managed to get a 7 day free trial
My connection was L.A. - I didn't know how to change my connection
I didn't have too much trouble with this and the hotel wifi
The free park wifi was fine - except for day 2 - SDL decided you needed a code sent to your phone via SMS to connect (I decided I didn't want to spend $5 to connect to 'free' wifi)
I needed to use Vodafone in Hong Kong - the free park wifi was so patchy that didn't realise it existed

My experience. We also have a "temporary" vodofone deal that we bought for I think 6 months just to use for a series of trips us and some rellies were taking to access the $5/day option and then we plan to cancel as our main phone is with Telstra (who DH works for so we get a staff discount). We planned on using the $5/day on days that we needed to connect to others (like fellow Disers) figuring we might not use it every day. We also downloaded a free one month trial of Express VPN before we left, installed it on the phone and made sure it worked. In China we "switched it on" each time we needed it before trying to connect to any internet sites. It worked fine using Hong Kong as our country (and it was easy to choose which country to connect through as it asked us each time we activated it) - sometimes we had to hit re-connect immediately twice in a row, occasionally it dropped out but re-connection took seconds. I would recommend it and use it again without hesitation. Free wifi in SDL was middling - sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. Like Fairy Floss one day it asked us for a code via SMS - again not wanting to "waste" $5 we didn't bother. The wifi worked fine in the hotels. By the by we also went to Beijing and stayed one night in a central hotel in Shanghai. Free wifi was included in both hotels and worked perfectly and we used it for some local info but we needed to have Express VPN switched on if we wanted to access Google and gmail. We used WhatsApp to message my DH back home. I can't remember (my DD would) if that only worked if Express VPN was switched on but I think so.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Finished reading about Suzhou-I have to go there. Funnily DD good friend and fellow student's dad is living and working in China - we thought outside Shanghai somewhere. After we got back she discovered he lives in Suzhou!!! (at least if 'Imo' got her pronunciation right!) Definitely added Suzhou to my return list with DH and on the Grand Canal, look what is in my Beijing collection by the Houhai lakes -

Totally failing to add flickr link - (switched from Photobucket to Flickr). Dis Tech support pages don't seem to help. Can't find reference to a BB code anywhere on Flickr image when I right click as their instructions say, just to FB, Tumblr et al. Help please someone in the know.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Well…..we were so busy trying to work out what to do and what not to do in Suzhou that we never really found a place to have lunch.

I know that feeling. This has happened to us on a few trips.

So, in the end, we picked one of the blocks and found a zongzi, warm…..and filled with red bean.

That looks nice.

We ended up with an order of ½ Roast Duck, a serve of Chinese broccoli and an order of eggplant, with a little spice. We also got 2 bowls of rice to share and tea for all.

I am glad you got some duck.

I gather property values there are even more expensive than New York!

Wow, that is impressive.

We headed towards Xintiandi, a fashionable district composed of an area of reconstituted traditional mid-19th century shikumen ("stone gate") houses on narrow alleys…..

This looks amazing.

The exception to this pricing is Starbucks. You’ll fork over about 30 Yuan (or about $6) there.

That is surprising that Starbucks is cheaper than other places.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Totally failing to add flickr link - (switched from Photobucket to Flickr). Dis Tech support pages don't seem to help. Can't find reference to a BB code anywhere on Flickr image when I right click as their instructions say, just to FB, Tumblr et al. Help please someone in the know.

I use Flickr. If I pull up a photo, I get 5 icons to the right of it. You want the middle one, which is the slightly curved arrow. When you click on this, a box with various tabs comes up. The last tab is BB code. Then you just have to select the size and copy the link.

Corinna

 

[Aussie Wendy]

You are making me sound obstreperous PIO with dinner! I guess we wanted more than snacks but less than a big 3 course meal-lol! You should have spoken up more forcefully. Sorry if you were still hungry that first night - we should have ordered two meat dishes in retrospect, especially given how bony that duck was! Readers wait til we get to the chicken with its head still on in Disneytown.......

It was fun wandering around the FC (and catching up on what's been going on in our lives). Being after dark we couldn't walk through Fuxing Park which the route I was following and then I got a bit disorientated going around it. When I figure out my flickr posting I will put up the map and where we deviated. I think a bit later in the year with the trees all in leaf would have been more evocative for a wander too. The antique + coffee shop was a great find. I was very envious of your hot chocolate and wish I'd had the same and blown my slightly dodgy lactose tolerances!

I will post pics and of course the accompanying story on Beijing for the info of those who plan to visit, just as soon as I learn how to operate with Flickr and I get time (I am thinking over Easter!) In the meantime I am really enjoying your take and of course your amazing pics, on Shanghai!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I use Flickr. If I pull up a photo, I get 5 icons to the right of it. You want the middle one, which is the slightly curved arrow. When you click on this, a box with various tabs comes up. The last tab is BB code. Then you just have to select the size and copy the link.

Corinna

The trouble is Corinna that I am not getting those icons to the right of it. What am I doing wrong? At the moment the photo is sitting under Camera Roll. I wanted to create an album (as this will form part of a China album) but it just has link to camera roll underneath. I feel like I am in the totally wrong spot to start with?

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Ok I see add to album and have done that but I still don't get any icons to the side if I click on it in album only underneath 4 icons for share (to FB et al), delete, make a book and download.

 

[zanzibar138]

Ok I'll see if I can explain it Aussie Wendy...

When I go into Flickr I go to my Photostream (not Camera Roll).
Then I click on the photo I want. There should be 5 icons to the right hand side underneath the photo.
Click on the arrow, choose your size, and copy the link!

Hope that helps.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Forget what I just posted. I think I finally have it.

See if this works.
DSC02465 (768x1024) by Wendy Brealey, on Flickr

 

[PrincessInOz]

Looks like you had a lovely evening! That hot chocolate looks well worth the money

It was a very good hot chocolate. I guess this was one of those "when in Shanghai/China" situations where the cost of the chocolate was a real sticker shock. It was the same with coffee. I FLAT-ly refused to pay $10 for coffee until we got to the Starbucks at Disneytown. $6....I could swallow.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

So how do I get rid of the name of the photo appearing also?

 

[PrincessInOz]

I am glad you got some duck.

Peking Duck was the only un-ticked item off my foodie list for this trip. The Peking Duck restaurant was just a little too far away for us. If there had been one nearer the end of Nanjing Road we were in, we would probably have been happy to stop and eat there.

That is surprising that Starbucks is cheaper than other places.

I know, right? That's the way the pricing was in Shanghai.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Finished reading about Suzhou-I have to go there. Funnily DD good friend and fellow student's dad is living and working in China - we thought outside Shanghai somewhere. After we got back she discovered he lives in Suzhou!!! (at least if 'Imo' got her pronunciation right!) Definitely added Suzhou to my return list with DH

So.....when are "we" planning on going back with the DH's???

 

[PrincessInOz]

Totally failing to add flickr link - (switched from Photobucket to Flickr). Dis Tech support pages don't seem to help. Can't find reference to a BB code anywhere on Flickr image when I right click as their instructions say, just to FB, Tumblr et al. Help please someone in the know.

I sure hope that either Corinna or Zanzibar help you out because I don't use Flickr anymore. I know they've updated their functionality a few times since I last went in there and I think I had the same issue....couldn't find the BB or URL codes at all!

Good luck with it and I hope to see some pics of Beijing. No pressure.

 

[PrincessInOz]

You are making me sound obstreperous PIO with dinner! I guess we wanted more than snacks but less than a big 3 course meal-lol! You should have spoken up more forcefully.

Sorry! I didn't mean to make you sound obstreperous. And you totally weren't at all!!! I think I completely misunderstood your definition of light meal. On hindsight, we should have headed up one of the shopping malls on Nanjing Road to see if they had a food court....or headed towards Xintiandi earlier. Next time!