My 1st and 2nd day of Chinese New Year 2008

Hi friends,

I know my post is long overdue. My apologies!

I've been very-very-very busy since Chinese New Year 2008.

Well, this year Chinese New Year was spent on my own, my parents were in Malaysia, my brother was spending the holiday with his girlfriend in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau, so I was alone in Singapore :(

In order to ensure that I was not bored, I manage to arrange an outing on the 1st day of the CNY to the annual River Hongbao'08 at Marina Prominade with my friend. http://www.visitsingapore.com/cny/stbcny_event.html

I met up with my friend at City Hall, we had dinner at Kopi Tiam, Swissotel Singapore and proceed to check out the River Hongbao since as usual all the shops were closed during the holiday. Check out the pictures!

As you can see from the pictures, it was super crowded, due to the fact that 90% of the retail shops are closed in the shopping malls on the 1st and 2nd day of CNY, most of the people have nowhere to go except to visit the River Hongbao. The locals as well as the tourists flocked to the stalls, game booth and there were concerts and cultural performances as well. The children and young adults loves the amusement rides.

Well, it has been so many years since I last visited this fair, my friend and I enjoyed our walk throughout. After that, we took a rest at Starbucks, City Hall, had a chat, and then went home.

We met up again the next day, and this time we cooked dinner together at her flat :) Her sister wanted to eat abalone, since my friend does not know how to cook it, I offered my services :p

As that was the 1st time, I'm cooking abalone, it actually turned out quite nice, ha ha! Not bad for a 1st timer! Her sister loved it!

So there goes my 1st and 2nd day of CNY spent! Totally not boring at all, ha ha! And for those of you who do not recognise the top picture, it is the giant God of Fortune at the fair. I hope that the God of Fortune will bring health, wealth and happiness to everyone in 2008!

Cheers!

Freezing in Shenzhen!

Hello everybody,

I just came back from Shenzhen 2 days ago, and it was very cold over there, 10degree Celcius! I think everyone should know by now, China is having one of the worst winter this year. Normally, Shenzhen is not this cold but temperature was dropping everyday.

As usual, I wore the wrong clothes again! When I was in Shenzhen last month, I wore clothes that are too thick, and I felt hot coz the temperature was 22degree Celcius! Now, I wore a thin cotton jacket, and I was freezing the moment I stepped out of the plane!!

Luckily, I did not really have to go out in the open, as I mostly stayed indoors except the short while when I stepped out of the airport, into the car, and stepped out to walk to the factory.


My host in Shenzhen brought me to a restaurant in Hai Shang Tian Yuan for dinner. Hai Shang Tian Yuan is a tourist attraction situated in Bao'an district, west of Shajing, 20mins drive to Bao'an International Airport. This resort is seldom mentioned in the travel itineraries as it is not very popular. I only found some information about the resort in the below Chinese websites. The resort in Chinese:
深圳海上田园风光旅游区

http://www.17u.com/

http://www.9tour.cn/

The above 2 pictures were taken from the above websites, coz I didn't have the chance to take pictures. When I reached the restaurant, it was 6.30pm, and was dark already. The restaurant has a big dining hall which can seat 300 people, an open outdoor area for steamboat and individual VIP rooms shaped like small wooden huts like the ones in the pictures.

We had our dinner in one of those wooden huts, overlooking the lake, very beautiful scenery. Outside, I saw many customers enjoying their outdoor steamboat dinner. They are wearing winter coats eating their steamboat, ha ha! At night, the temperature dropped to 6degree Celcius! I am very lucky not to catch a cold!

Well, after this trip, I resolved to always bring an extra jacket everytime I travel, be it hot or cold weather as reported in the weather forecast.

Be back soon!