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… 
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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 continued our schedule to visit another factory in Wuxi before our lunch (Good or bad lunch would depend on our spending in the factory 
). This time round was a pearl factory in Wuxi. Frankly, I haven’t heard of any famous piece of gem that came from Wuxi…
(Above display shows “The legend of Pearl”). One of the most coveted gems or ornament for ladies, pearls are round shaped gems of various sizes without blemish and with high sheen or luster. They are normally made into a necklace with string of pearls or pearls in combination with other gemstones like rubies or diamonds. Pearls are categorised into 2 types by its origin, natural and cultured pearl. Pearls are an organic gem produced by mollusks, oyster, mussels, conch and abalone. They are normally in whitish colour with some tint of pink, cream or silver except fresh water cultured pearl which would have more colour choices.
Natural pearls are created in mollusks. They create pearls to protect themselves from sand, parasites and other minute foreign objects. These natural pearls are mostly found in the Persian Gulf and are referred to as oriental pearls. Natural salt-water pearls are among the most coveted in the world but have virtually ceased to exist due to pollution and lack of natural supply. On the other hand, cultured pearl growing began with a patented process invented by Kokichi Mikimoto, the founder of Mikimoto and Company, one of the world’s finest pearl growers and sellers. A bead is surgically planted in Akoya oysters to create the irritant that causes oysters to create a pearl. The oysters are then put back in the sea enclosed in baskets. They stay in the baskets from one to three years to produce sizable pearls with sufficient sheen.
Cultured pearls cultivated in Taihu Lake of Wuxi are of freshwater type produced by mollusks. They can be grown in a variety of colors including pink, orange, mauve and golden colors and are usually smaller in size. Their shapes vary from round, baroque, button shaped, drop shapes and irregular shapes.
As usual, when we arrived at the pearl factory in Wuxi, we were brought to a counter where the manager showed us how pearls are getting out from an oyster in seconds. The below photos showed the sequence…
Opening up an oyster with ordinary knife…
… scoop out plenty of pearls from only one oyster…
… then start scooping in money, left with a dying oyster.
After that, it’s our free time to shop around and sales persons approched us from all angles! Strings of pearls were laid and displayed in front of us. As usual again, like the rest of the other factories visit which I considered them as travel hoaxes, we had to wait for others if we were not interested in pearls… I mean interested in buying pearls! The tour guide would tell you this: “Take your time, our VIP, your lunch later would be at the grand restaurant.. upstair only!” No where to run!
All kinds of pearl ornamentations are displayed on the counters to attract you. They will tell you how good quality are their pearls but never told you they are cultivated fresh water pearls which are normally cheaper…
Other than jewelries made from pearls, they sell cosmetics produced with pearl powder as well. We bought some pearl powders as Chinese medication believe that it could heal fever or at least reduce heat of children. My wife and sister bought some pearl day and night facial cream as well! In order to have a better lunch, my niece bought a pendent! Haha…
I’m no expert in pearls. I can’t even differentiate whether they are considered as high or low quality or value. So I posted some photos here for you ladies to judge whether Wuxi Taihu Lake Pearls are what you think good or bad pieces of feminine beloved ornamental gems….
Statisfied, ladies?
This was our last destination in Wuxi. We left Wuxi after our lunch (Thanks, our fellow tour members. Because you spent enough money on pearls, we had a good lunch there!) and travelled back to our first city of our packaged tour, Shanghai. If you love this story, subscribe to my RSS feeds for more free updated stories of my trip to China. – Travel Feeder.
All photos above were captured with Panasonic Lumix FZ28
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In China, there are countless breweries and too many different brands of beers selling in the market. On our vacation travel to China, beers are served as beverage in all and every meal we had in the restaurant. To my surprise, beers provided for each meal are all different makes! We had like 13 lunches and dinners in our China trip and we were served with 13 different brands of beers. Ha! We had the option to either drink beer or mineral water as their local beers are as cheap as their water! Haha!
For me, there isn’t any problem to try all these different beers for each meal. I think it was some kind of drinking experience to be able to taste some of the local beers in 5 different cities in China! In fact, on top of that, I spotted 3 more different beers in HangZhou when my wife and I went out for our dumpling supper at one of the local shop. There were 3 brands of local beer selling at RMB3, RMB5 and RMB8 for one Big bottle! To be safe (viewing at the price), we tried the 5 bucks option which was actually not too bad!
The above local beer was served in our lunch at Wuxi, China. From the label it read as HuaLun Brand iced beer brewed with Taihu Lake water nearby! Only found in Wuxi! We also tried beers made with Xihu Lake water during our stay in Hangzhou as well! TsingTao Beer is considered as upper-class international brewery in China and we also managed to tried their iced beer in Shanghai (which I can’t find any here…). – Travel Feeder.
The above photo was captured with Panasonic Lumix FZ28
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Another great sunny day with blue sky and bright sun in WuXi, China, on our 7th day in China South Yangtze region. We left our first destination of Wuxi Lihu Scenic area in the morning and headed straight to another scenic park. This is the difference between Self-travelling and packaged travelling. We tend to wake [...]
What do you see in a children playground? A tyre swing? Monkey bar? Sliding tube? Teeter Totter? Climbing ladder? Or you have never been once? I’ve seen all the above very often because every time I go to a park with my children, there are sure a dedicated compound with rubber chipping floor and children [...]
On the 7th day of our vacation travel to South Yangtze China, we woke up and found ourselves still in Wuxi, China. It was early in the morning at 6:45am. Looking out of our hotel room window, the sun was rising and I managed to capture the perfect dawn scene (though some reflection from window [...]
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After reading my last story on the Lingshan Grand Buddha scenic area in WuXi China, you must be wondering what and how was the “Bathing By Nine Dragons” show that we watched at the travel spot. During our short stay at the area, we managed to catch one of the 4 shows that scheduled on [...]
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