Shenzhen Metro or Subway

Hi everyone,

I'm back to blog on Shenzhen this time. Shenzhen is very similar to Guangzhou or Hong Kong, highrise commercial buildings and apartments all over the city. Shenzhen is booming now with constructions ongoing at many places and the price of real estate has risen as well.

My friend who is living in Shenzhen told me that her friend made a good profit from selling one of her apartments over there. Well, if you have bought an apartment a few years ago, you will definitely make a nice profit if you sell it now.

Back to my topic on the city metro system, well, it is very advance and comparable to the Hong Kong metro. For those like myself who does not read or write Chinese, there are Hanyu Pinyin luckily. Every station name is labelled in Chinese and Hanyu Pinyin so you will know which station you want to go to. The trains are air-conditioned, clean and comfortable. If you do not want to be stuck in the traffic, the metro is a very good way of transportation within the city and it is very cheap as well. Cost of travelling to one station is only RMB 2.00!

One thing I must point out is the exit signage, they are all in Chinese! No English or Hanyu Pinyin! Same goes for the map signage in the station as well. So, you either ask around for which exit to use or in my case, I use my half-passed Chinese vocabulary figuring out the place which I want to go at the map signage! Ha! Ha! Lucky for me, I manage to find my way around! Very impressed with myself, actually!

Well, one thing for sure, I must really work on my Chinese or increase my Chinese vocabulary since I will be travelling to Shenzhen and Guangzhou frequently. Otherwise, I will definitely be 'LOST in TRANSLATION'!

Signing off now! Be back soon!

Churches and Cathedral in Macau

Greetings, everyone!

Well, still on the topic of historical buildings in Macau, I'll blog about the many churches and cathedrals over there. The most famous will be the St Paul's Ruins. All that remains of the greatest of Macau's churches is its magnificent stone facade and grand staircase. The church was built in 1602 adjoining the Jesuit College of St. Paul's, the first Western college in the Far East where missionaries such as Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall studied Chinese before serving at the Ming Court in Beijing as astronomers and mathematicians.

After the expulsion of the Jesuits, the college was used as an army barracks and in 1835 a fire started in the kitchens and destroyed the college and the body of the church. After restoration work, lasting from 1990 to 1995, the back side of the St. Paul's Ruins was turned into a museum. The ruins are regarded as the symbol of Macau and now offer visitors a new site where they can view the remains of the former Church of the Mother of God, visit a Crypt where the relics of the Martyrs of Japan and Vietnam rest, and a museum of Sacred Art where there are exhibits of paintings, sculptures and liturgical objects from churches and monasteries in the City.

Another famous church is the 'Cathedral', the present building stands on the site of several previous cathedrals. The original cathedral was the church of Our Lady of Hope of St. Lazarus, declared the mother church of the Macau territory which included the religious provinces of China, Japan, Korea and other islands adjacent to China. The first stone Cathedral, consecrated in 1850, was almost destroyed in a typhoon 24 years later and had to be extensively repaired.The Cathedral was completely rebuilt in 1937. It has two solid towers and massive doors. Inside, its chief beauty lies in its fine stained-glass windows.








Nearby the Cathedral, is the St. Dominic's Church dated back to the early 17th century. It has an imposing facade of cream-coloured stone with white stucco mouldings and green windows. I did not have the chance to take a look inside, due to time constraint. I understand that St. Dominic's Church was renovated in 1997 and opened to the public with a museum, on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor. The museum shows paintings, sculptures and liturgical ornaments that illustrate the history of the Roman Catholic church in Asia.

Well, due to the passed Portugese settlements in Macau, churches and chapels are aplenty in Macau and still well preserved till today. Christianity is well embraced by the locals over there.

Signing off now! Will be back soon!

Acknowledgements:

Excepts from http://www.macautourism.gov.mo/

Lou Kau Mansion in Macau

Hi there,

I'm back again! This time, I'm going to blog about one of the many historical buildings in Macau. I must say, Macau has an interesting mix of the old and new. You can see the latest new buildings like the Wynn Macau, Venetian Macau as well as the historical churches and mansions still preserved in place.

The Lou Kau Mansion, located in Travessa de Se No. 7, near the Cathedral, is the former residence of the family of Lou Wa Sio (Lou Kau), a prominent merchant in Macau. According to the date written on a poem on the eaves of the courtyard to the left of the entrance, it was built in the 15th year of the reign of Qing Dynasty Emperor Guang Xu(1889).

Constructed in grey brick, the two-storey xiguan-style building is one of the best-preserved traditional Chinese house in Macau. Like many other xiguan houses, Lou Kau Mansion has detailed decorations such as brick relief, plaster ornamentation, decorative lattice carvings and mother-of-pearl windows, perforated ceilings to facilitate ventilation, iron railings, reflecting a combination of Chinese and Western architecture.

There is a narrow winding wooden staircase connecting the two-storey building. You must be very careful because the steps are really small, very 'olden times' instead!

When I was there visiting, they are having an umbrella making session with some students around. The umbrellas are very exquisite and traditional. There were two groups of students under the guidance of two teachers.

The Lou Kau Mansion is open only on Sat, Sun and Public Holidays and the admission is free. Opening hours is from 9am to 6pm. I am lucky to be able to visit it because that day was a Sunday, yeah! So, if you are into historical sites, this is one mansion that you must visit if you are in Macau.

That's all for now, please check back soon!

Acknowledgements:

Excepts from www.macautourism.gov.mo

Salted Fish, Anyone?

Hi everyone out there,

I'm back to blog on one of my favourite food, that is 'salted fish'! How do you cook it? Well, there are many ways, one of my favourites is minced pork steamed with salted fish which my mother cooks it the best! Yummy! My saliva drops when I think of it! Actually, in order to taste the best, the secret lies with the salted fish, it has to be 'mui hiong ham yu' according to my mother.

Salted fish is one of Macau's specialities, especially to the Hong Kong visitors as they claimed that the salted fish available for sale is the best in Asia. I've seen salted fish on sale at the shops on the narrow streets leading to St Paul's Ruins but the best shops selling those are located somewhere else instead!

I walked along the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, the main shopping street which the local Chinese called it 'San Ma Lou' all the way to the Inner Harbour to take the ferry to Shekou. I side-tracked a bit here, in case anyone wants to know about the ferry information to Shekou (Shenzhen). The Yuet Tung Shipping Co. Ltd offers a ferry service departing from Macau (at the end of Avenida Almeida Ribeiro, Rua das Lorchas, near the Master Hotel, Pier 14) at 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m and 8:15 p.m. Tickets cost MOP$129 for adults and MOP$78 for children. Passengers departing from Shekou (Shenzhen) can travel at 8:15 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 3:45 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The trip takes about one hour and twenty minutes. Tel: (853) 2857 4478 You do not have to make any booking, you can actually purchase the ticket over the counter.

Just before reaching the ferry terminal at the Inner Harbour, you will see a few shops selling Chinese delicacies for example, Chinese herbs and medicine, dried seafood like shark's fins, abalone, beef and pork jerky, Chinese and Macanese pastries and last of all, salted fish! Check out the photos! I even saw one shop just across the ticket office of the ferry terminal hanging all the salted fish at the ceiling in front of the shops! Amazing but I hope that those salted fish are not for sale and just for advertising purpose only.

This is the first time, I've seen salted fish being display this way! Unbelievable! This is one of the many reasons I have always enjoy travelling and sightseeing. You'll never know what you are going to see. The experience is irreplaceable! Well, I'm going to sleep now, more to blog soon!