took tiger airways and landed in a stormy shenzhen bao'an international airport around midnight. what a flight timing! the typhoon storm unleashed itself right after landing.the airport is clean and immigration clearance efficient, but the bloody taxi stand is located too far away (design problem?), and we had to tow our luggages there with the rain beating down on us along the way.
conveniently forgot that queueing is a singaporean concept. pretty surprised there's no queue at the taxi stand, but in fact all we had to do was to just board any available taxis anywhere along the taxi queue. as a sidenote, taxi drivers in china rarely help you to load your luggage into their car boot.
we checked into the grand mercure ginza hotel located in futian (福田) district around 0130. the ride amounted to around 100 yuan. we had to provide a deposit of four nights' stay -.-"
the hotel provides almost everything required - shaver, shower stuff, towel, dental kits, free bottled water, hair-dryer, water boiler etc. finally slept at around 0330. dead tired...
our humble hotel room
view from our humble room at 16th floorthe next morning we took a ride on the shenzhen metro to "chegongmiao" station (车公庙站) for a hearty dim-sum breakfast at celebrity club (名人俱乐部). gotta know about this restaurant from some online forums. our hotel is located right beside one of the exits of "zhuzhilin station" (竹子林站) .
shenzhen metro single journey fare token
top: metro platform; bottom: chegongmiao metro sign
the metro is clean and efficient, and the longest waiting we encountered was 4 minutes at line 1, but the fare-dispensing machine is a headache. it stubbornly accepts only 5-yuan bills or 1-yuan coins. gosh, we had to keep hunting for loose change. signages are displayed prominently in either chinese or hanyu pinyin, which imo is not helpful if one doesn't know chinese at all.
arriving at "chegongmiao" station, we had to walk a fair bit to our destination towards the direction of dong hai (东海). the roads are very clean, and intersect each other in a perpendicular manner, which somehow reminded me of the roads in japan.
top: road leading to celebrity club; bottom: destination spotted!
century egg congee with big century eggs (皮蛋瘦肉粥)
top: xiao long bao (小笼包); bottom: slurpy wanton soup
top: some veggie bao (菜包) ; bottom: siew mai
top: tasty char-siew bao; bottom: big har-gow
salty chee cheong fun
yummy crystal bun (水晶包)
dim-sum was good. prompt service and i absolutely love the congee. it's a change to the horrible congee found in singapore, which tastes like rice dumped into plain water. i will be trying the congee of all the different cities for the whole trip lol.
breakfast done and sight-seeing at window of the world (世界之窗) begins. the entrance/exit to the w.o.w. metro is the louvre pyramid shown on the left.the w.o.w houses replicas of famous sites or landmarks from all over the world, except China. a notice at the entrance gateway boldly declares "see the world's landmarks in one day"! the most prominent landmark is the Eiffel tower. it can be located from almost anywhere in the park.
admission is 120 yuan per person. those age 65 and above can enter for half the price. we spent half a day walking around the huge park, visiting the niagara falls of usa, abu simei of egypt, the giza pyramids, sydney opera house, acropolis of athens, angkor wat in cambodia and many more.
in addition, there were plenty of interesting performances at different sites. there were also some rides but we did not take any.
before admission
entrance to the park
reaching for the eiffel tower
top: angkor wat, cambodia; bottom: some pagoda i can't remember
left: big japanese okame; right: itsukushima shrine, japan
top: me taking rest in a japanese hut; bottom: sydney opera house
top: the mazes, britain (i got lost trying to navigate the maze);
bottom: little mermaid, denmark
top: description tablet; bottom: abu simei, egypt
top: huge lizard from safari park, kenya;
bottom: a Maori cultural performance
top: giza pyramids, egypt; bottom: egyptian princess riding a real camel
in the underground tomb chamber of the pyramid
niagara falls, usa (breathtaking)
top: statues of easter island, chile;
bottom: mayan pyramid (for human sacrifice), mexico
top: colosseum of rome, italy; bottom: acropolis of athens, greece
the city of new york (manhattan island), notice the twin towers are still intact here.
left: L'arc de triomphe, france;
right: fountains at jardin du luxembourg, france
top: houses of parliament, britain; bottom: london bridge
top: saint basil's cathedral, russia; bottom: palace of versailles, france (great view)
top: idyllic sights of windmills and tulips, the netherlands;
bottom: alcazar castle, spain
cologne cathedral, germany
left: eiffel tower, paris, france;
right: performance at base of eiffel tower
view of eiffel tower as dusk falls
we concluded our world tour with a show at the entrance in the night. it was an artistic show *yawnz that culminated in a spectacular fireworks display.
went to overseas chinese town (华侨城) for dinner. we managed to locate a food street (that has more shops and waiters than the total patrons along the whole street). the food did not seem palatable and my sister decided to order room service later instead. it proved that this was to be our worst meal throughout our china trip.
it pretty much amazed me that shenzhen does not seem to be bustling with people despite boasting a population of 12 million. is it because i was in futian, whereas the city proper is at luohu? it's a pity that i won't get to visit luohu at all.
my sis and i will be heading to hong kong tomorrow morning for shopping. my parents won't be joining us but instead they will visit dongmen pedestrian street (东门步行街) at luohu.
