Tour of Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing & Yiwu

Tour of Jiangnan (Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and Yiwu)

From 24th September to 1st October 2008 I joined a tour group organized by an exhibitor in the Matta Fair to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Yiwu. The itinerary was as follows:

On the 24th, we gathered at LCCT. The tourist guide, Mr. Cheong who waited for us and helped us to process the check-in procedure.. There were 19 participants, including 2 kids. We took the Air Asia flight DZ2602 which departed at 8.10 a.m. and arrived Hangzhou Xiaoshan (萧山)Airport at about 1.00 p.m. The flight took about 5 hours. A tourist bus was waiting for us outside the airport and our China guide was Ah Liang who was tall and eloquent. He had experience of more than 10 years for guiding Malaysians. On the way to Hangzhou we saw a wide river by the name of Qiantang Jiang(钱塘江). Every year at a particular month, thousands of tourists come to see the great tidal movement. There was also a double-decked bridge built by the Kuomintang government across the river. The upper deck was for automobiles while the lower deck was for train. The bus took us to West Lake (Xihu) and we had a boat ride. Although there was a shower, the scenery was still picturesque. Beside the lake there were 2 pagodas, viz Baoshu Pagoda (保叔塔) and Leifeng Pagoda(雷峰塔). After the boat ride, the shower had stopped and we went to Huagang Guangyu (花港观鱼) Garden where there were many fishes in a pond. Later we went for an excellent stage show, Songcheng Qiangu Qing （宋城千古情）, where soldiers rode real horses on the stage during a war scene. Other scenes included Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai(梁山伯与祝英台), Madam White Snake （白蛇传） etc. The population of Hangzhou is 2 million and there are 10 universities. The West Lake and a large vicinity area are protected as park by the government and development like building houses is forbidden. However, there is a small area where bungalows were built and the owners included film stars like Lin Qing Xia, Liang Chao Wei and other celebrities. We put up at Wan Hao Wan Jia Hotel, near a bus station in Hangzhou.

On the 25th, we went to another part of West Lake where Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai had their “18 Li Farewell” (18 里相送). Liang and Zhu walked for about 18 Li (equivalent to about 9 km) to bid farewell because Zhu had been ordered by his father to go back home to marry a rich government official. This demonstrated how reluctant they were to part each other after such a long walk. Liang-Zhu is the Oriental version of Romeo And Juliet. Tourists rode a mini tram around that area of West Lake and the tram kept blaring the music of Liang-Zhu. Another fable of the West Lake is Madam White Snake . While Liang-Zhu was real, Madam White Snake was fictional. West Lake is not only surrounded by excellent sceneries, It is also amidst interesting stories and fables.

After we bid farewell to West Lake, we departed for Suzhou. The ancient name of Suzhou was Gusu (姑苏). When Marco Polo initially set feet on Suzhou, he saw many canals, just like his hometown, Venice. So, he called Suzhou “Venice of the East” where people traveled by boats instead of horse carts. There are thousands of bridges in Suzhou because of the number of canals. Most of the houses in old Suzhou are painted white while the roofs have black tiles. It is picturesque and looks like a Chinese-ink brush painting. Suzhou with a population of 8 million, has more old and historic building than Hangzhou. The modern section of Suzhou is an industrial area built by the Singaporeans. The Singaporeans built factories and apartments in New Suzhou where they had a 51% share but now have only 20%. Three years ago, New Suzhou was giving profits but the Singaporean almost completely retreated before profits were made and they considered their effort in Suzhou Industrial Area a failure. Singaporean presently only hold about 20% of the ownership of New Suzhou.. On arrival of Suzhou, we visited Qing He Fang Fang Gu Jie （清河坊仿古街）, which was an ancient street with shops selling souvenirs, tea, silk, painting, artifacts etc. Entering the street, we felt that we had the clock switched back to 900 years ago, because the street was just like ancient China. Later we visited Yu Yuan (豫园) which was the mansion of a very rich official in ancient China. The mansion was just beside a canal, because it was easy for him to travel by boat. We saw the different part of the building including the guest room, master room etc. There was also a garden with rock decoration. Later we got into a boat and traveled along the canal and viewed the picturesque scenery on both sides of the river.

In the morning on the 26th, we visited a silk factory because Suzhou was famous for its silk products. On arrival, we saw a silk attire fashion show in which beautiful models demonstrated their best silk attires, with accompanying music. After the fashion show we went to the showroom where we could buy silk products. Most of the people of our group bought silk pillows and silk blankets, which were supposed to be good for people who had allergy, asthma or migraine.

After lunch we proceeded to Nanjing which had been the capital of China for 6 dynasties. There were 5 cities which had become China’s capital in various dynasties. These cities were Kaifeng, Luoyang, Xian, Beijing and Nanjing. On arrival of Nanjing, we went to Gugong (故宫)Museum which was the third largest museum of China. The first and second largest museums of China are Beijing Gugong Museum and Taipei Gugong Museum. There was not much to be seen in Nanjing Gugong Museum because many artifacts had been taken to Beijing and a large portion of the artifacts had been transported to Taipei when Kuomintang was defeated by the Communist in 1948. Beside the Nanjing Museum, there was a wall which surround the old part of Nanjing. The wall which was built by Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋)has 18 entrances and every brick of the wall has a carving of the name and home town of the maker. Capital punishment might befall the bricks’ makers if the bricks’ quality was not up to the standard. We went up the wall and below was the Zhongshan (中山)Entrance where automobiles traveled in and out. Our back was the Nanjing City and if we saw afar it was the Zi Jin Hill （紫金山） where the mausoleum of Sun Yat Sun and the Ming Xiao Ling （明孝陵）were located.

The most historic figure in Nanjing was Zhu Yuanzhang who overthrown the Mongolian-ruled Yuan Dynasty and founded the Chinese ruled Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang also had a dramatic life. He was a cowherd, but he butchered a cow for the poor and hungry peasants and was chased away by the owner. Without food, he became a monk but was chased away again because of his playful attitude. So, with nothing to eat he became a beggar. Later he joined the uprising forces against the Mongolian rulers and consequently he married the daughter of an uprising forces’general. His fate changed after the general died and he took over the leadership. Eventually he became the first king of the Ming Dynasty. A palace named Gu Gong (故宫) was built but it was later burnt down. The present Gu Gong in Beijing was a replica of the Nanjing Gu Gong. After Zhu Yuan Zhang passed away, one of his descendants move the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and many imperial cooks were brought to Beijing. Actually the famous Beijing Roasted Duck originated from Nanjing which still has a famous duck dish namely Nanjing Salty Duck (南京卤水鸭). Our tour group tried the later dish and it tasted like Malaysian Xian Ji (咸鸡). Nanjing is also known as Stone City or Shi Tou City (石头城), because General Zheng He (郑和) who made Nanjing as a base for his ships to travel to as far as Africa brought back many different types of stones, which was used to stabilized his ships when his ships became empty after he distributed all the goods in his ship to friendly countries. Surprisingly many stones from Burma contained jade. Nanjing today is still famous for its jade and jade carving.

Nanjing also had a river named Qin Huai River (秦淮河) which flowed through the city.. If we traveled further north it would be the famous Yangtze River.( 长江) On the morning of the fourth day, i.e. the 27th , the tourist bus took us to visit the Yangtze bridge, which is less majestic than the Penang Bridge. However, the bridge was designed in 1958 with the assistance of the defunct Soviet Union. Building started in 1960 and it was completed in 1968 and the cost of building the bridge was 2.8 billion Renminbi . We went around the southern starting point of the bridge. There was a shop selling souvenir with the bridge as a theme and a showroom showing the model of the bridge. When the Yangtze Bridge was completed, the Cultural Revolution was still going on and there was a sea of red colour because thousands of Red Guards were celebrating around the bridge area.

After that we proceed to Wuxi, where there was a beautiful Tai Hu Lake, the third largest lake in China after Dong Ting Lake and Bo Yang Lake. The original name of Wuxi (meaning no more tin ore) was Youxi (meaning there were tin ore).About 2000 years ago, in the era of Xihan (西汉) many people from other area came to Wuxi to mine and extract the tin and feud arose. Finally, there was no more tin ore and the Emperor declared that tin ore was exausted. A stone plaque with the writing “You Xi Bing,Tian Xia Zeng, Wu Xi Ning,Tian Xia Qing” (有锡兵,天下争,无锡宁,天下清)was erected. The meaning of the nine Chinese characters were "When there is tin ore, people fight for the ore. When tin ores are exausted, peace prevails." That was origin of the Wuxi City’s name. Tai Hu Lake looked like a sea and its area is 2 and a half times Hong Kong or 6 times Singapore Island. There is also a Li Lake but it was part of the Tai Hu Lake. Li Lake had connection with a historic figure Fan Li (范蠡) whose empire was usurped by his own distraction to a beauty called Xishi (西施). Later, Fan Li abandoned his kingdom and became a successful businessman. Prseently, 60% of the Tai Hu Lake was devoted to rearing fishes and pearl.

In the morning on the fifth day (28th), we visited Li Hu Garden, a garden beside the Li Hu Lake. The scenery was picturesque.Then we went to visit a pearl exhibition centre (清水园珍珠宫). The workers took a live clam and demonstrated how they extracted pearl from the clam. The female members of our tour group were more interested to the pearls than the male members. Before going to Shanghai, we visited a Zi Sha kettle exhibition hall (蠡湖紫砂壶馆). On arrival of Shanghai we immediately went to The Bund or Wai Tan (外滩) as called by the Shanghai citizenry. The Bund was made famous by a Hong Kong television series called Shang Hai Tan (上海滩) about 30 years ago. The Bund was the riverside of Huangpu (黄埔)River and there were throngs of tourists taking photographs or looking at the opposite side of the river where the Dong Fang Ming Zhu and many modern skyscrapers were located. Dong Fang Ming Zhu (东方明珠) is a communication tower of Shanghai. For dinner, we dined at Di Long Seafood Floating Restaurant (帝龙海鲜舫). The restaurant was on a large floating boat, anchored at the Huangpu River. You could see a large dragon head from the outside. Inside the restaurant, there was also a throne for tourists to take pictures.
After dinner we walked to a night market nearby and after that we went to Nanjing Road Bu Xing Jie (南京路步行街). There, we tasted the atmosphere of a densely populated city, by the large throngs of visitors. Before going back to the hotel, we visited Xin Tian Di (新天地) at the former French Settlement in Shanghai. Here we saw many Western tourist drinking beers and chatting.

In the morning of the 6th day (29.9.08) we visited Tong Ren Tang Herbal Medical Centre (同仁堂) where we had free foot massage. After that we departed for Yiwu (义乌). In Yiwu almost the whole town was doing wholesale business. We put up at Day’s Inn..

On the 7th day (30.9.09), our tour group was having a shopping spree in Yiwu, the centre of wholesale in Eastern China. Here, they also did retail business and we could buy many things from clothing to electrical goods. However, I found that things sold here were not as cheap as we thought. We visited Dong Yang Guo Ji Wu Liu Zhong Xin (东洋国际物流中心) where wooden carving and clothing were sold. We had our lunch at Yue Fu Restaurant (越府酒楼). After lunch, we proceed to Yi Wu International Trade Centre (义乌商贸城). There was a wide range of goods for you to choose. In the evening, we went back to Hangzhou. Before reaching the city centre of Hangzhou, we had our dinner at the hundred-year-old Shan Wai Shan Restaurant (山外山酒家). There were lots of greenery surrounding the restaurant because it was almost in a woods. Later, we proceed to Hangzhou city centre and we put up at Wan Hao Wan Jia Hotel (万好万家商务酒店)

On the 8th day (1.10.09), we had our breakfast at the hotel and made preparation to depart for Kuala Lumpur. Again, the tourist bus took us back to Xiaoshan Airport. The flight from Hangzhou to Kuala Lumpur took 5 hours. From KLIA, it was time for home sweet home.

Hotels which we had stayed

24/9 万好万家商务酒店(杭州)
25/9 嘉怡酒店
26/9 吉华花园酒店
27/9 金沙大酒店
28/9 金明大酒店(上海)
29/9 戴斯酒店(义乌)
30/9 万好万家商务酒店(杭州)