Day 1: Downtown Shanghai + Suzhou

First I must apologize for delaying Genting Malaysia Berhad posting to make way for this as I find it more interesting & satisfying to talk about my trip, too bad. Let me introduce you the crew that will be flying you to Pudong International Airport, Shanghai in China.

KLIA was almost deserted when we reached there at 11.00pm and while waiting for connecting flight to Shanghai at 1.40am we played some chor de with scorecard in Burger King. Loser by Day 9 punishable by Xiaolongbao!

Our first destination upon arrival was Chenghuang Miao (Temple of the Town God). The temple and surrounding bazaar area is one large complex devoted to the god of commerce, hence the courtyard jammed pack with people. The smell of incense is overpowered only by the smell of money & smelly tofu yierr at nearby shops. We did eat them though perfectly nice just the smell tak tahan.

Xiaolongbao a.k.a soup dumpling (crab roe in the picture), in M'sia usually called mantou but no soup. Traditionally steamed in small bamboo baskets hence the name xiaolong (small steaming basket). Their skin is smooth & translucent much like a ladies...ops I better stop. We had that for bfast & some yumcha in Nanxiang Mantou Dian. Stinky tofu is a trademark street food and is commonly deep fried and served with a spicy or sweet sauce.

We then headed to Nanjing Road, the main shopping street of Shanghai & also one of the world's busiest shopping streets. Our KL Petaling Street lose la. The street is mainly pedestrianized & decorated with neo-classical buildings with a length of around 6 km long so ladies better without high heels yay.

It was a bus ride later to Suzhou which took about 2 hours. A city on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River on the shores of Lake Taihu & occasionally nicknamed the "Venice of the East". The city is renowned for its architectural beauty of stone bridges, pagodas & gardens. It is also a well known important centre for China's silk industry even until today. The tour guide (fei chai) took us on a marathon to Suzhou Lion Grove Garden built in 1342 CE during Yuan dynasty. The name of the garden was derived from the shape of the rocks which are said to resemble lions & is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

See the future lion king behind? I said future cuz still boi ma, roar not strong yet.

Our last pit-stop for the long day is the modern side of Suzhou. Suzhou is the second largest industrial city only next to Shanghai and is an approved national-level hi-tech zone with FDI (foreign direct investment) totally USD 13bil hosting more than 1,500 foreign companies. The Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) is a joint cooperation between China and Singapore, with city planning leveraging from the best of Singapore. This is why when Chinaman ask me, I say I'm Singaporean :D

There's a giant LED screen on the roof top spanning 500 metres from one end to another.

Not forgetting Penang kaki loves food so we did have our rating system for the day's lunch and dinner. Lunch Beh Chiak, Dinner Hao Chi.  The Chinese there has a habit of greasing their food with oil. Just imagine an oil spill like you see in the news. What to do? So hungry, just eat nia.