Current mood:	awake
Current music:	Will Pan - Bu De Bu Ai

China Holiday 2005
First thing I have to say is that everything in China was SO cheap. From food, to earrings to haircuts. Everything, once converted mentally to AUD is very very cheap. In the end my luggage was 15kgs over the weight limit coming back home to Sydney @.@

Jenni and I lived in such luxury we did not wash our own hair for a month, as we would just go downstairs to the hairdresser to get a blow dry every two days at $20RMB. On average we probably spent around $800RMB a day just splurging. International brands however, are still expensive, although a lot of the big fashion houses had a 30% off sale at the time we were there. Häagen-Dazs was also a highlight of my trip. Their icecreams are so delicious that we went about 3 times a week. However it was like $25RMB per scoop of icecream, expensive, but so worth it! (I don't understand why Sydney is the only large city which doesn't have it -_-;;)

Häagen-Dazs Fondue... yum.

Second of all, I usually travel to China once every year, however this was the first time I went with my friends. I guess having to live in hotels and survive in a foreign country on your own means was somewhat different to what I had previously experienced. Suddenly, this trip made me realise how huge the class demarcation is. I remember thinking, as Jo, Winnie, Fei, Jenni and I were having a $216RMB/person dinner in the revolving restaurant in Beijing International Hotel, that all the food we didn’t eat would just be thrown out, while there were beggers downstairs who would would never even see what a tarte auvergnate au fromage looks like, let a lone taste it (it acutally doesn't taste that nice, but the fruit tarts there were amazing).



These mansions in Suzhou was only 800m away from this building.

This waitress I spoke to at a Korean barbeque restaurant, (which I became a regular customer at, gotta love meat), was my age. She made $500RMB a month in that restaurant. After I heard that I felt a pang of guilt as I had just spent $6000RMB on a handbag (in which I had to fight over, more about that later) the previous day. There goes a year of her wage.

However, when you walk into Beijing’s World Tower (Guo Mao), in which the LV shop is three levels or if you go into Beijing's $3000RMB/night Peninsula Palace (Wang Fu) Hotel you tend to forget about everything that goes around in "the real" world. I think these places have special powers to make you feel that way. Jenni and I sat down in the Peninsula Palace Hotel lobby (we were shopping there, could not afford to spend the night LoL) and was happy to pay $50/person (with 10% service fee -_-;;) for normal Jasmine tea because there was a quartet playing music for us and the ambience was beautiful. Although this was all fun and relaxing, I'm also glad I got to experience squashing against everyone in a busy market trying to haggle a $10RMB ring down to $8RMB XD.


Winnie, me, Fei, Jo, Jenni and Jane, with Yan taking the photo in Summer Palace Beijing (Yiheyuan).




L: Winnie and I in Starbucks (Suzhou)
R: Jenni and I in front of Paris Bar (Suzhou). We both drank too much that night ~.~ I'm never drinking again.


After a foot massage, the guy began to put raw ginger on my legs then wraps hot towels around them. Supposedly it's good for circulation but it was so painful. It felt like the top layer of your skin was getting peeled off after the ginger was wrapped around you for more than 2 minutes.


The country town we went to for a day called Jian Yin. It's in the south of China.


L: The hotel lobby we stayed at in Jian Yin.
R: My aunt and I in my hotel room. She kindly let me use her laptop so Jenni and I could connect to the rest of the world as we had free broadband internet access in our room.


Suzhou Amusment Park.


L: Jenni and Winnie on a ride.
R: Jenni, Winnie and I strapped in on the crazy ride where the string just drops and you start flying. Mad fun though^^


L: Shanghai night view of Nanjinlu (am I right? @.@).
R: Night view of Puxi.


The Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai. It's 468 meters high (1,536 feet) and is the world's third tallest TV and radio tower.


L: Jo with the Australian flag inside the tower.
R: Me taking the photo of everyone having lunch in the revolving restaurant in the tower.


Our train ride from Shanghai to Beijing. It was like a moving slumber party XD


L: All of us at Tiananmen Square. We're dressed like that (ie. ugly) because it was freezing.
R: My friends being extremely embarrassing. They bought commie hats and struck poses in the middle of Beijing city.


Jo and I being stupid in The Summer Palace (Yiheyuan).


L: Me and Winnie getting ready to go clubbing in Mix (Beijing).
R: My cousin and her boyfriend took Jenni and I out to a bar in Hou Hai (Beijing) on Christmas Eve.