mommybie's passion: Shanghai 2013 ~ Day 3 & Day 4

Day 3 (22.03.13) Suzhou ~ Wuxi

Today, we will be visiting the Suzhou Museum. This museum was designed by renowned Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei . It was a beautiful museum, very modern yet it preserved the traditional beauty of Chinese architecture.

Little Jay at the entrance of the Suzhou Museum

A beautiful pond inside the museum

Some snapshots of a garden in the museum. Very pretty.

Little Jay walking through a stone pathway

A display of how the Church looks like in the olden days

A living room

Beautifully carved doors

The Dragon Claw tree

The street outside the Suzhou Museum

Next on the list is Suzhou Silk Factory . Suzhou is famous for it's Silk production. Here, we were shown how the cocoon is being harvest to produced silk. It is a long & painstaking process thus, the genuine handmade silk is so highly priced.

We had our lunch at a restaurant nearby and here comes our specials deliveries - Hairy Crabs !!
Since Suzhou is famous for this delicacy, we must try it. We get our tour guide to ordered for us 3 pairs - yup, these crabs comes in pairs (male & female). Yum Yum...

Yummy-licious Hairy Crabs

After lunch, we left Suzhou and continue our journey to Wuxi. We said bye bye to our Suzhou tour guide too, but don't worry Big Ray is in the house. She quickly get the microphone and pretended to be the tour guide hehehe..

Miss Ray the little tour guide giving a briefing

Hello! Hello!

Once we reach Wuxi, we were taken for a boat ride and i manage to get a few snapshots too :)

The boat that we rode (not the red one, the wooden brown one)

We stopped by a museum of sort where they display cultural stuffs of the local people . The most interesting thing is the glass panel floors (picture below). Yup, those are FLOORS. Below the glass panel is the models of the local town.

Glass panel floors

Big Ray with a statue of a little boy

Lets play together!

Err.. who are you?

My sister had been waiting anxiously for the next stop which is Three Kingdom City owned by China Central Television Station (CCTV). It was a super huge studio set built for filming the drama Romance of the Three Kingdom. You can practically spend the whole day there but we only have a couple of hours so we opt to take the bus ride around the city.

The entrance to Three Kingdom City

Luckily, we manage to catch the show about the 3 heroes - Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. The show last for about 20 minutes and is quite entertaining. You'll enjoy it better if you know the history but if you don't you still can enjoy watching the different horse-riding skills by the performers.

Do visit the Cao Cao military camp base and ride the war boat . The boat has 3 levels and if possible go to the uppermost deck as the scenery is most beautiful - overlooking Tai Hu Lake.

Big Ray captivated by the beautiful scenery

Mom, i'm on a war boat!

Other snapshots from the studio.

Little Jay playing around

Both sisters looking for carp fish

Hi, i'm your driver Big Ray

Day 4 (23.03.13) Wuxi ~ Shanghai

Good Morning everyone! We shall start the day with some light exercises. Welcome to Lihu Park !
This park is great for a stroll while enjoying the beautiful garden landscape. The view is just breathtaking - if I live here, i could come here every morning for a walk. Lihu Park is popular because legend has it that Fan Li (a chinese advisor in ancient China) and Xi Shi (one of the Four Great Beauties of ancient China) has boated there.

Little Jay is Ms Driver this time

Let's go kai-kai !

Walk walk with Mommy & Grandma :)

Big Ray at one of the stone bridge and cherry blossoms as the backdrop

What a beautiful sight :)

Big Ray with a cheeky smile

Oh yeah, there's a very big Ferris Wheel in the park. You can see it even before you enter the park. However, we did not see anyone going for a ride so we thought it was closed. But our tour guide told us that the ferris wheel is like a freezer during cold days and a BBQ stove during hotter days so practically you have to get the right weather to enjoy the ride hehehe... They also have boat rides and a mini theme park.

The Big Ferris Wheel

Boat rides at the park

The mini theme park

Big Ray and the Yummy Popcorn

The girls having a rest while munching the popcorn

After our morning strolls at the Lihu Park, we were taken to the Pearl Centre. We were told that Wuxi produced some of the best pearls around the world - pearls from Taihu Lake. Well, i'm not sure of the qualities of the pearls, i can't differentiate them anyway. I'm not a fan of jewelleries - be it pearls, crystal, jade, or other precious stones. So i just linger around to past time away as the restaurant for our lunch is just next door. I must said that all the salesperson there are highly trained. They never let go any chance to introduce to you their products - necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, facial creams, powders etc.
Whew! it was a relieved when we finally can leave for our lunch. Right after our lunch, it's time to go to SHANGHAI ! Yay... :)

The most obvious difference that you can see between Shanghai and the other places that we had visited earlier are the buildings and the peoples. The buildings here are so different - more shapes and designs, modern and contemporary, lots of combination of style everywhere. And it is a very crowded place too.

Below are some snapshots but due to the weather, some might not be so clear. It is a cloudy day with some rain.

Our first stop at Shanghai is Cheng Huang Miao Market (City God Temple) This would be a nice place to visit if not for the overly crowded people there. The pavilions are beautiful and mostly people sells souvenirs, trinkets, collectibles, handicrafts and local foods especially xiao long bao (Shanghai Dumplings). My cousin sister queued for nearly an hour to buy some but it's worth it - they are tasty!
After visiting the City God Temple, we went to Nanjing Street, another shopping place but this one is much more modern - focusing on famous brands.

Cheng Huang Miao Market

Nanjing Street

After doing some window shopping, it's time to go to Shanghai Bund, but unfortunately it started to rain. Hence, my gals and i only did a quick view and get back to the bus. Below are some snapshots from my sister. She managed to get some photos while we waited in the bus.