This October, I’ll be visiting Beijing (北京), the capital city of China, Tianjin (天津), the Direct Administered Municipal of China (直辖市), and Chengde (成都), the prefecture-level city in Hebei Province (河北省) of China. Last Winter, I visited Shanghai (上海), another directly administered municipal (直辖市), Hangzhou (杭州), historical state in Zhejiang Province (浙江省), Suzhou (苏州), historical state in Jiangsu Province (江苏省), and Nanjing (南京), the capital city in Jiangsu Province. Wow, what am I talking about? States (州)? Province (省)? Direct Administered Municipal (直辖市)? City (市)? States within Province? City not under Province? Municapals directly administered by who?
China, or officially called as The People’s Republic of China (PRC) (中国), is the most populous country in the world with more than 1.3 Billion people. Covering an area of 9.6 Million Km², China is also the 3rd largest country in the world. It is then broken down into 22 Provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 directly administered municipalities, and 2 Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Sounds confusing, isn’t it?
Here are 5 political sub-divisions of China where travelers should be well aware of:
- Provinces (省) – The largest and first level sub-division of China politically administered area. For example, Zhejiang province, GuangDong province and Sichuan province.
- Autonomous Regions (自治区) – similar to provinces but with self-elected governors and are mainly resided by the minority ethnic groups, ie. the Tibet and Inner Mongolia.
- Directly administered Municipals (直辖市) – Large cities directly controlled by the central government, or the Communist Party of China. Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing are the 4 Directly Administered Municipals.
- Special Administrative Regions (特別行政區) – Hong Kong and Macau are the only 2 SARs with self administered government and total financial policy control. These regions were used to be the British colony.
- What I used to mix up with Provinces is its historical political sub-division of Zhou (州), or States, where Provinces are larger than Zhou. For example, HuZhou, QuZhou, WenZhou and HangZhou were used to be political sub-divisions in ancient China, are now only big cities of the Zhejiang Province.
Clear? This are basic geographic details a traveler needs to know.
Traveling to China is as adventurous as its sub-divisions implied to, if you don’t understand the Chinese culture and their history. There are too many travel destinations and attractions in this country will full of cultural and historical diversity that inherited from its 6000 years of civilisation. It is impossible to cover all its travel sites within 6 months.
The list of attractions in China include the ancient political administration centre of Forbidden city, Great Wall, the endangered species of Panda, the civilised region of Yangtze River, Huang River, the miracle scenes of Huang Shan, Mount Emei with Buddhist heritage, the before century buried terracotta warriors of Xian, the Buddhist region of Tibet, the beautiful lake of Xihu, The tallest Lingshan giant Buddha, the fastest Maglev train in Shanghai, the cultural capital of Suzhou, and the list goes on, and on, and on, and on….. To briefly understand and experience its attractions, travelers need to spend at least one month on each one of its city.
For Western travelers who wish to visit China for the first time, it could be adventurous if you don’t know the Chinese language and some of its popular travel scams especially in stations and travel sites. It would be the best to subscribe to one of those Adventure holidays package with experienced tour guide who can explain on the attractions as you travel along. It is advisable to first visit a few of its major cities such as Beijing , Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou then explore further into its inner cities of Xian, Chengdu, JiuZhaiGou, Mount Emei, and etc.
For seasoned travelers who knows Chinese language and familiar with those travel scams especially, they could stay more days in any city to explore and understand the local culture and its wonderful foods and people.
Family adventures are another great option of travel to some of China’s historical cities and mountain hiking. There are also educational tour for families with children especially during the school break.
No matter how you plan for your China tour, understanding it before your travel sure will make your tour to China a valuable and memorable experience for a lifetime. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog.
p/s: If you think this travel blog is worth for your reading, please support me by one of these ways: Subscribe to Travel Feeder’s feeds for free upcoming stories via RSS or email; Search and purchase my favourite photos from istockphoto; Get your camera stuffs through my link to Amazon where you won’t lose anything and I could earn some commission, or, buy me a cup of coffee as you like. Thank you. – Travel Feeder
Subscribe to Travel Feeder's RSS Feed For FREE Updated Stories!
I’ve been taking it for granted as a Buddhist and Taoist all the while where I didn’t realise that many of the travelers out there are not. Since most of the Asian countries are Buddhist countries (Thailand, Vietnam,Cambodia, Laos or China), it would be great if travelers of different religion could understand a thing or two about Buddhism, when visiting Asian countries, could really appreciate the beauties of these countries. Most importantly, as a world traveler, could also respect the existence of other religion.
Buddhism is the 4th largest religion in terms of followers and is also one of the oldest religion and philosophy started being taught and introduced in Northern India since 6BC. There are 2 main branches of the religion, namely Theravada (“The School of the Elders”) and Mahayana (“The Great Vehicle”). While the oldest surviving branch of Theravada dominates countries in Southeast Asia especially Indo-China and Thailand, Mahayana Buddhism is widely followed throughout East Asia of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. To recognize between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, travelers could easily spot the differences of these 2 branches through their monasteries and statues. Wat are widely seen in Indo-China and Thailand while temples and big Buddha could be found everywhere in mainland China. Nevertheless, the 3rd branches of Buddhism, Vajrayana, which was evolved from Mahayana school of thoughts, could be seen in Tibet, Mongol and Nepal.
There are many religious practices in Buddhism where followers or Buddhists treat them as part of their lives. It would be great if people from other religion could also know and respect these practices. Here are the Top 5 Things travelers could do to fully appreciate and respect the Buddhism countries.
- Do wear appropriate clothing and not to be naked. Especially when you enjoy your holidays in one of those Indo-china tours or Thailand, the local people would be very much appreciate if travelers could respect their religion by not disclosing their bodies in public. Hot pants and sleeveless tops are not recommended in this sense. If you are visiting their temples in short pants and sleeveless shirts, there is always a counter to borrow a cloth to cover up your body, at least.
- Do ‘Wai’ at buddha and in front of temple. You can even ‘Wai’ at monks. ‘Wai’ is a greeting sign among Buddhists by pressing both palms and fingers together as in prayer and bow head and body slightly. By doing this to elderly and monk, you are paying great respect to them. Also not to forget to Wai at temples or wat and also when you see Buddha statues. You won’t miss them if you’re traveling to Indo-China or Thailand.
- Donate for incense and pray for good luck. One of the common religious practice of Buddhists is to do regular devotion to the Buddha. You can do the same in any Chinese temple or Thai wat. Try the devotion practice by donating a small amount of money into the donation boxes (normally 1 or 2USD will do) in the temple, pick up 3 sticks of jossstick or incense, start praying to the Buddha for good luck and then insert them into the dedicated incense bowl.
- Do not photograph with buddha statue. You can always photograph any Buddha statues or temples. I took too many shots at Buddha in Wuxi China also. However, in order to respect the important icon of the religion, don’t photograph with the Buddha (which means pose next to the statue or even hold your hands around him). Always photograph when the Buddha is facing you only, not beside you. This is the basic respect you can pay to the Buddhist.
- Do try the Buddhist cuisine. If you haven’t done so. Buddhist cuisine is known as Zhai Cai (齋菜) among Chinese which is mainly vegetarian. However, some places might allow milk and eggs while some Buddhists don’t treat onion, garlic or leek as vegetarian. There are many Buddhist vegetarian restaurants in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Holidays in China must include a vegetarian meal in one of these restaurant. They are not only tasty but also healthy. The main ingredients of Buddhist cuisine include bean curbs, gluten and agar among other vegetables. Vegetarian chefs nowadays could also imitate meat and seafood using these ingredients so perfectly and taste as good.
You would not feel any pain or lose anything by doing the above. Instead, you will feel the serenity in your mind. As a traveler, it would be fun also to do what the local people are doing and to appreciate other religions in this world. However, there is one exception: (Travel Tips) If there are monks approach you in your way and ask for donations in money, ignore them and walk away. They are fake monks. Genuine monks only ask for food, if they ever need donations. If you wish to donate, buy genuine travel blogger(that’s me) a cup of coffee instead… 
– Travel Feeder, the ultimate travel photo blog
Subscribe to Travel Feeder's RSS Feed For FREE Updated Stories!
It’s time now to conclude the whole stories of my packaged travel to Shanghai and other 4 cities in South Yangtze region of China. We spent 8 days in the tour to cover many tourist attractions in Shanghai, Hangzhou, SuZhou, Nanjing, Wuxi and also the water village, Wuzhen. For the first 4 days, we explored the financial capital of China, Shanghai, and also the 2 cities of heaven on the earth which were Hangzhou and Suzhou. I’ve posted a half way summary for these first 4 days of tour earlier. Click this link below if you haven’t got a clue where we are coming from:
South Yangtze China Packaged Travel Halfway Update – Where Have I Been On The First 4 Days?
On the fifth day, we traveled to another significant city in South Yangtze region of China, Nanjing and followed by Wuxi, before traveling back to Shanghai. Here are the stories for the final 4 days of travel in China:
- In Nanjing, we visited the SongMeiLing villa;
- Later in the evening, we came to Nanjing Bridge and visited the crystal inner art gallery;
- At night, we went shopping at the largest pedestrian precinct in Nanjing, the FuZhiMiao;
- On the next morning, we explored the Nanjing Wall at QinHuai Scenic Area;
- Being the biggest hoax of our tour, we bought a jade pendent from a jade factory;
- After having lunch in Nanjing, we progressed to another scenic city of Wuxi;
- On our way there, I realised we would not have such fun if we didn’t pack these 5 items into our luggage before traveling to China;
- In Wuxi, the first attraction to visit would definitely the Lingshan giant buddha;
- I recorded a video also on the scene of “Buddha being bathed by nine dragons”;
- That’s nothing much on Wuxi nightlife where we only went to a shopping mall;
- Early in the next morning, we took a fresh air at Lihu Lake scenic area;
- What else could we do in Wuxi? Check out the film shooting base of “Three Kingdom City”;
- What could we drink in Wuxi? I had a Taihu Lake Water beer!
- Taihu Lake is also famous for its freshwater cultured pearls;
- Enough looking at pearls ladies? Let’s move to go back to Shanghai!
- We were close. We shopped and drank for the last evening at Nanjing Street, the biggest shopping street in China!
- Still exploring Shanghai on the final day? Yes. We dropped by the TongRenTang chinese pharmaceutical centre before taking the Shanghai Meglev Train to the airport.
Long stories isn’t it? Sorry if it took you so long to follow me on my travel experience in China last last Autumn. However, you may find it interesting and informative to guide you through the packaged tour or at least you would have a preliminary idea on what you should expect from this type of all-inclusive packaged tour to South Yangtze China.
Good news for me! I’ve finally concluded my weblog on China tour, for this round. Next. So I could concentrate my next travel stories on Phuket…
p/s: If you think this travel blog is worth for your reading, please support me by one of these ways: Subscribe to Travel Feeder’s feeds for free upcoming stories via RSS or email; Search and purchase my favourite photos from istockphoto; Get your camera stuffs through my link to Amazon where you won’t lose anything and I could earn some commission, or, buy me a cup of coffee as you like. Thank you. – Travel Feeder.
Subscribe to Travel Feeder's RSS Feed For FREE Updated Stories!
Finally, I’m going to wrap up the story of my South Yangtze China in this post. We woke up in the morning and it was already our 8th and final day in China. After having our breakfast in our hotel, KuaiJie by Holiday Inn, we checked out the hotel and headed to our final destination [...]
Sorry I know these supposed to be released at least a month ago. Sometimes things just don’t fall into place actually where and when you want it to be. In fact I had this idea of making some wallpaper calendar for my readers more than 1 month ago but things really caught up and only [...]
Nanjing Road was our last tourist spot in Shanghai also the last evening of our 8-days packaged travel to South Yangtze China. To refresh your memory (I know I have dragged the stories of the tour a bit too long… ), this was part of the night excursion add-on package we paid 200 bucks extra [...]
Well, for those travellers from tropical countries who wish to experience snowing in London and Beijing, this is the best time to visit them!I’m not joking. They are snowing right now and still expecting to continue snowing until the end of the month! Both the world most popular travel destination, London and Beijing, one in [...]
In the film camera era, unless we know darkroom technique to process photo films and photo papers ourselves, we always rely on photoshops and their printing machine to deliver what we have shot. I still remembered how I insisted the shop to process and print it with zero adjustment (you know those 4 +-numbers shown [...]
Just like what people love to do nowadays, ‘crossover’ is what I’m going to do here. While starting my travelogue of my travel to Phuket, I’m also finalising here my previous travel experience to China… After visiting the Three Kingdom City of Wuxi in the 7th morning of my packaged tour to South Yangtze China, we [...]
Che-Cheh (2)
eunice (2)
ALY SHAIKH (1)
shasha (1)
Recent Comments