We took MAS B777 from KLIA to Shanghai’s Pu Dong International Airport. The wobbling journey took us 5 hours from 9:40am to 2:40pm to reach Shanghai. Since Malaysia and China are within the same time zone, we didn’t experience any time lag when we reached Shanghai. We had a complimentary refreshment of omelette set lunch on board (which is the advantage of MAS over Airasia in the same budget range) and a power nap then after, so we were all reasonably refreshed when stepping out of the Boeing’s and took the first breath of cool air in Shanghai. The temperature there was reported as 19°C which was cool.

Being the nature of vacation package in a group, we spent some extra time in baggage claim, group calling, meeting up the local tour guide, instead of exploring more of the airport, checking the bus service and people seeing. Once everything was in order, after knowing our local tour guide was a HangZhou lady called Ah Mei who was going to lead us for the rest of the trip, we were brought to our dedicated excursion bus and headed to the city centre of Shanghai.

Alright. There was a short story of our safe arrival in Shanghai. Before we reached the city centre in another one and a half hour, Ah Mei briefly explained to us what or where we were going to see and visit in the next 8 days and 7 nights at 5 important cities in the south east region of China and I jotted down these itineraries here:

1. Shanghai – Visit to ChengHuangMiao shopping district, the central feature of a large retail and entertainment district; Try the local  snacks there as ChengHuangMiao is really well called ‘the kingdom of snacks’; visit the Oriental Pearl TV tower, the tallest communication tower in Asia and third tallest in the world; Night cruise along HuangPuJiang river, admiring both the east and west side of the river; Visiting the Bund, the historical street of Shanghai; Also is the Nanjing Street, the shopping paradise, and Xing Tian Di, the Shanghai’s version of our Bangsar; Lastly is Tung Ren Tang, the chinese pharmacy;
   
2. HangZhou – Visit the Long Bridge garden and Orioles Singing in the Willow; To view ten scenes of the West Lake of Hangzhou, including the Broken Bridge, Su Causeway; In the evening, enjoy the show “Night of Hangzhou”; Joining the boat ride on West Lake, admiring the scenery of Leifeng Pagoda; Also to visit the West Lake museum and Xi Tian Di, another well known street for bars and cafes; For chinese tea lovers, Dragon Well tea farm must not be missed; Lastly, WanSong Academy is well known for its students, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, the folk legend of love story;
   
3. Suzhou – Visit Wuzhen, a 1300 year old waterside town, the eastern Venice of China, before arriving at Suzhou; Visit the Lion Forest Garden, or the kingdom of rockeries with labyrinthine man-made limestone mountains with winding pathways and caverns as well as pavilions, terraces and tower; Jinji lake photo taking session; Hanshan Temple, the famous local temple; Visit the world’s renown silk factory, experience the process of getting the silk from the silkworm; At night, GuanQian Street is the famous shopping streets with lots of local snacks and cheap shoes and boots;
   
4. Nanjing – The significant historical city of China; Visit the Yangzte river bridge, the first bridge built across the Yangtze river or ChangJiang of China; Shopping at FuZhi Temple street, buy more and more stuffs for your trip; Drop by the Song Mei Ling Residence, admiring how she and her husband, Mr. Jiang Jie Shi, the President of the Republic of china, enjoyed their life here; DongShuiGuan is an important heritage as the city wall of the ancient Ming dynasty; Lastly, visit the jade factory, and
   
5. Wuxi – the famous city of Yixing clay teapot origin; admiring the beautiful scenery of LingShan giatn buddha. With Lingshan mountain at its backdrop, the 88m high bronze statue is the highest standing buddha statue outdoor and is one of the largest buddha statue in China; Enjoy a special fountain show called JiuLongGuanYu, experiencing the birth of buddha; Transfer to Li Lake for photo taking session; Visit pearl factory and shopping at Parkson at night.
   

It’s hard to believe that all these itineraries could be covered within 8 days but we surely had. That was also why my Lumix worked really hard to snap over 2 thousands photos, trying to capture every single scene of the trip. I’m going to start blogging on all these tourist attractions that we have been to in coming posts. Subscribe to enjoy free updates on RSS feeds. – Travel Feeder.