13th July 2013

As a Chinese myself, I have never taken China as a travel destination. Last month I had this chance to travel in China as a typical traveler, a real one in a tour group.

My 8-day China trip starts with Beijing, well, as most of the people do I guess.  As typical Beijing guidebook would write: Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City, Hutong and the Great Wall are must-do visits...blah blah blah, so was it that we started off with a free walk on the square. The square itself was nothing to wow but the crowd was! You never know when you step on somebody's toes! We got into the Forbidden City. My friend, you definitely need a tour guide if you want to understand its historic and cultural meaning and don't want to get lost while taking photos! The highlight for me in Beijing was the Peking Duck dinner at Hua’s Restaurant, recommended by Trip Advisor also our tour guide Nancy.

Next stop is Xi’an. Xi’an never strokes me as an attractive city until I was in front of the 8,000-some clay warriors at the Terracotta Army. I once saw on the TV that the Chinese created an all-artificial color called China Purple when craftsmen dyed the clay figures in different colors, and the major ingredient in China Purple can now be used to increase performance of electronic products. The Muslim Quarter was full of yummy surprises! Ok I am a Chinese so I don’t mind eating something scary!

The restaurant in Shanghai, Home’s Restaurant was the best during the whole trip, both for food and atmosphere. I love the fish! Shanghai itself is an easy city to tour around. However, a guided visit at the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Shanghai History Museum inside the tower was worthwhile! We also took a walk at the Former French Concession, which I took a comeback during my free time coz I just love the romantic feelings here!

I was planning to visit the three cities on my own but I gave up the half way for the booking, flight checking, hotel choosing and attraction listing was soooooo overwhelming. I don’t want an expensive private tour, either. Well, group tour is the way to go I guess and it turned out just simply great. Looks like it is the heart for traveling that matters than anything else!

The tour details can be seen here for anyone interested: http://chturl.com/3ENVbe