December trip

We've been planning to go on a trip ever since we realized it's more than 2 months since our last trip. For 2009 we have been travelling almost every two months. It took us awhile to decide on where to go and we made last minute reservation for a plane ticket from Beijing to Hangzhou then from Shanghai to Beijing.

The plane out of Beijing was located in the outskirts of Beijing. Only China United Airlines doesn't use the Beijing Int'l Airport. Kinda like Tiger Airways in Subic. We got to Hangzhou early in the morning but took a couple of hours getting lost walking around looking for our hotel. Their website boasted that its near the infamous West Lake but of course you can't take everything they say - that we've learned the hard way.

Our first impression of Hangzhou is pretty negative. It's pretty scary place for pedestrians. The cars don't stick to their lanes and hogs the bike lane. The bikes have no choice but to take over the pedestrian lane.

Cabs in Hangzhou are like those in Manila. Don't bother riding first then telling the cabbie where you'e goin..instead, tell them where you're goin then wait for them to agree that they can take you. It's no fun especially during winter time.

West Lake, Hangzhou CH

West Lake is huge and packed with restaurants around it. We just managed to spend our late afternoon to early evening going around West Lake before we booked a tour to Wuzhen water town the next day.

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Wuzhen water townWuzhen Water Town Scenic Area, Wuzhen CH

The group's okay if you can tolerate being herded to deserted shopping malls and silk factories as part of the tour. The water town was nice. It kinda reminded me of Manila when it's flooded. It's like Ilog Pasig minus the basura. There are people still living in this town and they have resorted to selling souvenirs and displaying their laundry outside their anciient windows for all the world to see.
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ShanghaiOriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai CH

It's true what other people were saying that you can go around Shanghai in a day. The best one would be the glass observation deck in the Oriental Pearl TV tower. We'd recommend going through the Bund Sight Seeing Tunnel but please just purchase the one way ticket.Bund Sight Seeing Tunnel

Nanjing road - famous shopping street

I didn't really have fear of heights but I actually hesitated when I saw the glass floor which lets you see the city below. It took me a couple of tries and managed to get to the edge by not looking down.

Oriental Pearl TV Tower observation deck

We went to almost all the tourist spots on our first day that we had a hard time finding other places to go. We just went to the Old Shanghai street to buy some souvenirs. I didn't really get to shop save for a cheap leather bag I got in Wuzhen and 3 new scarves to add to my collection. Lol..

Old Shanghai Street

We were so beat once we got out of the Old Shanghai street so we just decided to have a late lunch at a restaurant in Xintiandi. We didn't want to walk some more so we decided to get our stuff from the hotel, take the subway to the Maglev train station. You get a 10kuai discount when riding the Maglev train if you show them your plane ticket. The ride took around 8mins so we were at the airport at around 4.30pm...WAAAY too early for our 8pm flight back to Beijing.