Day 1(20th Dec 07, Friday)
Today we woke up early, we met up with Lincoln and xy for breakfast at the restaurant just a few blocks away from our hostel. The weather was not as cold as we expected, so I only brought 2 jackets. 
ok .. thin one not those thick thick one..
The breakfast cost about RMB$20 each so is about SG$4 which consists of cereal, tea and bread. . Felt cheated though, coz we thought is the one shown on the menu. But guess what, hahaa … as it has been quite a long time since I read Chinese characters. (minus off the occasional flipping of Chinese newspaper back home). I mis-interpret them… opps … so we didnt haven a full breakfast. Luckily for xy and Linc, they ordered porridge and some egg instead. So not so bad for them.
Here’s some photos taken at the restaurant.
After breakfast, we decided to head off to our 1st destination “Splendid China”. From our hostel, it is a walking distance to the train station. So being the 1st day in Shen Zheng (SZ), we decided to explore it ourselves. The day view of the street along our hostel was not as bad as we thought it will be. There’s 24 hours convenient stores, massage house, salon and plenty of seafood restaurants. It doesnt look like those ulu places as we thought it is. As the tap water at SZ is not safe to drink, we went to the convenient store to purchase mineral bottles instead. It cost about RMB$8 per 1.5L of water. It is kind of overprice for a bottle of water at SZ. As we realised later the day, the average price is about RMB$4 for a 1.5L of water.
Photo taken on the way, as you can see SZ is quite modernized with high rise buildings. It is no longer those dark alley filled with lots of illegal abortion clinics which we often see in shows.
Finally after, searching for like half an hour, we reached the train station MTR. Later did we realize we took a longer route, in fact the MTR is nearer to our hostel than we expected.
The MTR operates like the MRT back in Singapore. Except that they used green coin instead of our ezlink card.
We took the MTR from Da Ju Yuan to Hua Qiao Cheng stop. And wala!! The “Spendid China” is just nearby the MTR.
However, it took quite some time to look for the entrance. There are lots of people holding on to the entrance ticket and offer to sell us at a cheaper price. As they dont look like decent guys hahaa … we walked passed them pretending we dont understand them. Finally, we found the que to the entrance and bought our entrance tix which cost RMB$120 which allows you to enter both the “Splendid China” and “Chinese Folks Village”. Essentially, they are both located side by side to each other. So is like one whole big theme park for the price of one.
“Splendid China” essentially consists of all those famous Chinese stones/ buildings but at a much much smaller version. How small ?? This small …
(** warning… do this pose only when there’s no security guards around, as you are not allow to do so … shhhh!)
We took quite alot of photos..
Well, those mini architectures are pretty impressive except for a small flaw….high-rise buildings that spoil our photo!!
Well, this is something I dont understand. China is so big, why build a HDB which is so near the tourist attraction places??!! Is so so … ehh “out of place”!!! So I guess, if you want fantastic photos.. either (a) you have good photoshop skills or (b) choose a perfect angle to have your photo taken.
One of the few nicer photos I like best:
Couple Photo
Group Photo
The Terracotta Soldiers
For lunch, we head to the only so called ” Food Court” inside the “Splendid China”. Instead of purchasing the meal directly, you have to purchase a coupon form the cashier an pass that coupon in exchange for your food in the respective counter.
Well… the food .. SUX!!! Ok at least for the cold noodles… hahha it taste like vegetables. Poor xy and linc, they hate vegetables. So they didnt had much. I ordered fried noodles… not so bad. One meal cost about RMB$30 – 40.
After lunch, we continue walking around the “Splendid China”. We came across this photo shop that took photos of tourist with ancient clothings. It cost about RMB$60 for 3 laminated printer photos. As none of us have such a photo taken, we decided to take it.
On top of that, the shop owner was quite nice. He allowed us to take more photos using our own camera. So .. hahha we took alot as usual ….
This is how we initially look like..
Changing….
Xy and Linc took one as well… so which one look more like a royal kind and queen???
Me and ZQ.
Xy and Linc
We think is really worth the money!! Ok.. call us “sua ku”… but is really fun !!!
The shop where we had our photos taken.
After this we head to the “Chinese Folk Culture Village” which is just a walking distance from the “Spendid China”. Essentially, “Chinese Folk Culture Village” is a consolidation of all the various culture villages in China in one area. At a much smaller scale of course.
After like so many trips with linc, finally!! His photography skill improved!! This is one good shot he took!! Good Job UNCLE!!
After that was like quite late already. At around 3pm we headed to our next stop “Windows of the World”. We deliberately planed it in such a way that “Windows of the World” to be visit at the later part of the afternoon. The reason is because we have read several blogs saying that the night view of the theme park is nicer. We took the MTR again to reach our next designation.
Upon exiting the MTR station, the theme park seems to have already begun. What I meant was that even the MTR exit was decorated as if we were in the theme park.
This is the exit/entrance of the MTR.
Lots of photos were taken here as well. In fact, “Windows of the World” has better architectures than “Splendid China”. The entrance fee is the same which cost RMB$120 per person. “Windows of the World” features all famous architectures/ icons around the world but in a much smaller version.
Group photo. Well, only Linc and my head can be seen.. WHY??? HAhah due to communication break down. I told them to put their head on top of mine. But it appeared only Linc understands me. =P
HAhaa due to time and $$ constraints, we can only take photos with the famous icons/architectures here… instead of the real one.. Well.. I hope one day I am able to visit all these in real!!!
At winter, the sun set very early. At around 5 – 6pm the sky is quite dark liao. Indeed, night view of “Windows of the World” is very nice. But, photos taken at night was not as nice as those taken in the day. You would say is our lousy camera… but mine is new de!! Lumix FX33(with image stabilizer) and plus ZQ’s Canon powershot camera with x12 zoom muhahhaha and together with our excellent photographic skills the photos also CMI!!! Hahha ..opps .. ok enough of bragging . Yup, so that’s the reason why so few night shots.
For dinner, we settled at the “Windows of the World” which cost abt RMB$35 per meal. It’s not bad for a decent meal. At night the weather become cooler lucky for me, I brought 2 jackets!! Heehee…As the night is still young, we decided to go shopping!!! We took the MTR to the shopping district of SZ –> it is located within SZ. The shops closes at around 10pm. So we headed back to our hostel.
Since morning after we saw the ads at the salon next to our hostel, Xy have been very tempted to have her hair dyed. I was quite tempted to have some hair treatment as well… since I have never done it before. From what I heard, hair treatment at SG can cost up to around few hundreds, but guess what.. it cost only about SG$20 to have your hair treatment!! OMG!! SO cheap lah!! I was teling xy, if the salon is still open then let’s do it!! Hahaa … and guess what!! It still open which was around 11pm !!! YUP … so xy had her hair dyed while I do my hair treatment.. The guys???!! Hahah Linc sit and peh us, while ZQ went up to bath 1st.
I was quite afraid initially. Coz the salon was filled with ALL males hairdresser!! But after seeing a few female customers, we decided to give it a try. One of the male hair dresser brought me upstairs to have my hair washed. Yesh.. only me alone!! When I reached upstairs, I was quite shocked. There are MORE GUYS upstairs!! Ehh All having their hair washed as well lah.. what were you thinking?? Part of me wanted to run away, but I guess it will be quite stupid to run away when xy and Linc was like just downstairs. So I followed the hair dresser. Time seemed to have stop then. As throughout the washing I was very tensed up hahaha.. After the washed, he suddenly message my shoulder. Then I was like HUH?? But it seemed normal, as the male customer beside me had his shoulder message as well. Then I just keep quiet. All I can hear is that male hairdresser asking me to relax. HOW TO RELAX?!! A stranger GUY is messaging me!!!! Well, its quite relaxing actually hahaha ..,but still WEIRD!! To a point, I said enough. Then we both returned downstairs.
When I sat down again next to XY, I was quite shocked. She was like surrounded with like about 3 to 4 male hairdresser all talking happily with her.. HAHHA Hmm Linc??? Siting at one side hahaha hmmm jealous or not??!1 I dont know, you have to ask him yourself.
Xy sd they were quite worried for me as well coz I was gone like 45 mins.!! YESH .. they washed my hair for 45 mins!! It’s just the beginning .. later they had another hair dresser to trim my hair and then do hair treatment. The whole process took about 2 hours for like SG$20. !! Shiock right??!! Hahaa … The hair dressers there were very friendly as well, they seemed to be more interested in Singapore than we were about SZ. They keep asking questions about SG, like izzit stressful there. How ’s the standard of living etc. From our conversation, SZ people are not as terrible as we thought they were. In fact, they are a bunch of very very nice and friendly people. Well, one advice from them is don’t shop at Luohu (i.e. the border between HK and SZ). They said there are more crimes there. But in SZ itself, it is relatively very safe. Actually is quite true, we felt quite safe here in SZ. Even more safe as we talked to them and made friends with them.
By then it is like 1am already. I went back to my room 1st, did some packing and dozed off quite fast..
