Day 5 - Shell China Trip

Day 5
The hotel we were staying was a little better than the rest. The layout and design and quality of the room was better (see previous post).

The breakfast was better too.. They even had Ta-Huey (Soya Bean Curd - Not the drink), albeit with no syrup. There was fresh fruit and wanton soup and "the egg service" being provided by chefs. There was better quality milk with breakfast cereals. Then there was the good ole bread and butter which the other hotels didn't seem to have.


Our hotel also had a outdoor carpark, an underground carpark....

.... and a "multi-storey" carpark.

Just outside our hotel

Our first stop today was yet another water garden. I managed to get a snapshot to show you how the pedestrian-vehicle relationship in China is. The vehicles in this photo that you see in the junction box are moving. As are the people.


Anyway, when we reached the place, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised that the "garden" wasn't at all like the one we'd been to a few days back. It really was a garden and not just some pond in a dude's mansion in a moat.

He did have a lake out back though. lol.

As the place is considered a public area, many people regularly go there to "talk cock and sing song" (sic). The public cleaners also clean up the area. Above we see one just outside the gates. We also discovered that the directions to the toilets required us to go back to the main entrance and take another path to reach it. That's when we found out that both the roads curved back in so we could've just walked a few metres from where we were to reach it.


Anywayz... We left that place and headed off for our next stop, the Jade Factory cum Antiques Museum. Our guide explained how it was important that no gold surround any bit of jade jewelry lest it negate its "power". There were many "sub-museums" on the whole building. Museum of Jade lah, Museum of Silk lah, etc...

There was full body armor made of jade, pieces of jade buried in the sand like a skeleton, and other small trinkets and big items. Some of the funny ones were the pure gold replica of a bug and the display where they arranged some pieces of jade that they found, into a smiley face.


There was this tour guide who had hair like the powderpuff girls. Also, the fact that this museum had it's own store selling jade was funny in itself too.

Anywayz, it was pretty boring except for the fact that my mom bought this Jade Cross(encased in Gold. *gasp*) that originally costed 1800RMB which she bargained down to 500RMB. It was for my nanny(grandmother). Something about how my nan had pawned all her jewelry away when the family was broke oh so long ago.

One of the tour buses outside the "museum"

For lunch we went to this huge restaurant that supposedly could seat 1500 people. From what I saw though, it was more of a huge building with some restaurants in it. It was like Singapore's China Square Food Centre, except instead of having stalls, they had restaurants.

Limo outside the restaurant

The best part about the building was the toilets I believe....
LCD Screens while peeing!! I ask them. "What on earth can you show that lasts a minute?" It's not like people are gonna stay there very long rite? Now if they put these in the cubicles... ah.. that would be a totally different story now wouldn't it? heehee

Personally, I would prefer not to have a man's face right in front of me while peeing. It's majorly creepy. But then again, if it were a beautiful lady's face, I might not be able to pee at all. heh heh.


A tiny pond in the building itself at the base of the building's elevators held some Koi. There were some other gigantic fish tanks too but the glass was so dirty that it was already nearly impossible to see those giant fishes with just the naked eye.


After that we went for a little shopping at yet another mall street. Most of us didn't buy much cuz it was all those original branded goods. No point going to China to get what you can get back home I guess.

Cat tied to a tree	A river runs through it
Trishaw	Poodle

I saw another baby with an open butt. If you click on the picture to get a bigger view, look for the word "Here" in orange.

Before leaving this place, we all stocked up on the essential items like food and snacks and drinks because were goign back to Shanghai which would take another 3-4 hours.

We encountered yet another toilet that had this communal urinal but this time, it had that mini wall as a separator there. Presumably to prevent backsplash.


By the time we reached Shanghai it was already very dark so we headed off for dinner instead of going straight to the hotel.
The restaurant was huge and they had cabaret dancers dancing and singing on a stage up front. They had waiters on skates rolling around. And they also had this ballet on skates performed in the center of the whole restaurant but unfortunately, no one clapped cuz everyone was busy with their food.

The chicken there was good too. It was very tasty and full juice. They also served us Mantis Shrimp which supposedly is a delicacy. I didn't try it though. lol

Outisde the restaurant there was this fountain that looked nice but was placed in the parking lot so no one could admire it properly.

A picture of the roads that are deserted late at night in Shanghai. It's really amazing how deserted the streets can be at night in China.

Above you see a picture of their interconnecting four directional bridges. I had an idea like this for Singapore when I was a little kid. I was like, "Why doesn't Singapore have overhead bridges that connect to each other instead of paths across the street? It'll solve all the traffic problems that happen while vehicles wait for pedestrians to cross the road."

Yet another picture of the deserted streets in Shanghai. In fact, save for the centre of Shanghai, everywhere else was deserted.

Right next to our Shanghai hotel was this KTF Loungue. And this big neon signed was plastered to it's entrance. KTV FOOT BATH! lol

The night transport services still operate, just like in Singapore till past 11. While taking this photo, a beggar came to pester me for money. The trick to losing them is to talk fast. They walk very slow you see. It may sound a bit cruel but the fact of the matter is, if you help them, sooner or later(by later I mean in months to come) more will come because they may think that the "tourists here are more generous". Or so my tour guide said.

The view of the city from my window.


So day 5 ended.

Part 5 of 7