Morning call was 0600 but I slept until 0645. Quickly washed up and went downstairs for breakfast. Nothing special for breakfast, just ordinary buns, noodles and stuffs. The food which tasted best was eggs. Yea, I said eggs. Much tastier than other food served but I don’t know if those eggs were injected with melamine. O.o Settled with breakfast, we boarded onto the bus and headed to our first destination. First on schedule was Oriental Pearl TV Tower, which is located at Pudong Park, Shanghai. We went up to the top by an elevator which moves at the speed of 7m/s. Inside the elevator, there was a lady attendant reciting the introduction of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. She sounded more like a robot than human being. Her timing was so perfect, she finished the introduction when we reached the top of the building. The view from the top is nice, where you can see the whole city but if only that day wasn’t hazy. Sigh.
The hazy sky.
The ever growing city of Shanghai.
Since the view wasn’t nice, we went down after 10 minutes being up there. At the base of the tower, there’s a wax museum which shows Shanghai’s culture during back then until now. Here are some shots of the wax figures inside the wax museum.
Lady on trishaw.
Photographer in the older days.
Craftsman.
A man reading newspaper while waiting at the barbershop.
We proceeded to a factory selling miracle cream (I don’t remember the name of the cream), where you can apply to any injuries including burns. However, they did not perform it to us. They just promoted it since most of the tourist have heard of the product they are selling. We were treated to a free foot massage by unprofessional foot massagers. -.-” Who cares, it’s free anyway. Next destination was Zhouzhuang or also known as the ‘Venice of China’ because it’s an ancient water city in the Jiangsu province. It was a 2 hour bus ride to Zhouzhuang, my butt was aching due to the long journey without stop. The ancient water city was beautiful, surrounded by water, plenty on pretty flowers and chilling temperature. The tour guide led us to the old houses, mostly belongs to Yuan, Qing and Ming dynasties. The water lanes and stone bridges attracted me most.
Boat ride.
A young artist drawing the scenic view.
Locals on their boats by the river.
The day was getting dark already even though it was only 1730, it was time for our dinner. We were brought to a restaurant nearby the streets we visited. Over at Zhouzhuang’s ancient water city, it is famous for its Wansan Pig’s leg. The upper pig’s leg is stewed in brown sauce over a slow fire, which makes the meat tender. (This is making me hungry and wanting to visit Zhouzhuang again. xD) The Wansan Pig’s leg can be easily purchased around the area because there are several shops which only sell pig’s leg. Several trays of pig’s leg placed in front of the shop to attract hungry customers. A must try if you happened to visit Zhouzhuang.
For night activity, we were brought to watch the Zhouzhuang’s water city cultural show. An hour of performance which shows the culture and daily life of people in Zhouzhuang. Let’s just move on to the pictures.
The main stage.
Dance of the umbrella.
Rice harvesting.
Matchmaker.
Matchmaker with servant girls.
"Teh girls. Not teh shemale!"
The 'Pang Zi' gets the girl. -.-"
The whole performance was pretty interesting, describing the villager’s daily activities throughout the year. Heh. Village girls ain’t bad too. xD Anyway, went back to hotel after the show. We couldn’t go out at night. Not that we were not allowed to but there was nothing near the hotel, not even convenient stores. Sigh. Took my bath and had a good night sleep till the next day.
Our Days Are Numbered 