Guilin
Shangguan Joined: February 22nd 2008
Logged in: February 9th 2012
Logged in: February 9th 2012
Travel Blog Posts
Shanghai World Financial Center
Shanghai World Financial Center The SWFC opened in August 2008. It is the largest building in the world from ground to rooftop. The building houses offices, a hotel, and observation floors. The building has three observation floors: the 94th floor Sky Arena, the 97th floor Skywalk, and the 100th floor Skywalk. Visitors enter the area and go directly to the basement to get their tickets and enter the elevators. Visitors are allowed to enter a room with a spinning model of the building covered in flashing lights before heading to the elevators. The elevators rush them to the 94th floor viewing area. The viewing area is surrounded by huge windows allowing great views of Shanghai, the Huangpu River, and The Bund. There are shops on this floor. Visitors can then take an escalator to the 97th ... read more
Elephant Trunk Hill
Guilin's Elephant Trunk Hill Park This weekend, the weather was so nice, that my wife and I went to Guilin's Elephant Hill Park for a stroll. This park is not only the symbol of the city, but also a really beautiful place to get a way for a bit. Elephant Trunk Hill Park is located on the Li River. The entrance to the park is very beautiful, it features many small bamboo groves, and traditional buildings. There is a little stream there that can be crossed by a traditional Chinese bridge. The entire park is elephant themed. The little paths that meander through the park have not only designs of elephants in them, but also the Chinese character for "elephant" written in many different ways. There are also stone elephant statues located throughout the park. Some ... read more
Tongli's Nanyuan Teahouse
Tongli's Nanyuan Teahouse The Nanyuan Teahouse is an ancient teahouse built during the Qing Dynasty. It is located in a corner of Tongli and overlooks the shopping street. I always pick a window seat overlooking the shopping street so I can people watch. The teahouse is a two storey building. The first floor has the counters, a few chairs and an old Tiger Kiln. A Tiger Kiln is used to boil water to make it drinkable. It is heated with a wood fire. In the past it was cheaper to go to a Tiger Kiln to buy the day's drinking water than to burn wood to boil your own, so every morning everyone would head there to purchase water. They no longer use theirs, but they keep it clean and stocked so it looks like it ... read more
Tongli's Chongben Hall
Tongli's Chongben Hall The Chongben Hall in Tongli was not too terribly interesting I felt. It is a Qing Dynasty mansion. A couple rooms have a few pieces of furniture, but far from enough to give an idea of what an ancient mansion was like inside. The architecture is beautiful and has beautiful woodwork, but it is not enough on its own to make it really interesting. Ticket Price: Free Time Needed: 15-20 minutes Hours of Operation: 10:00-6:00 Location: Located in the north of Tongli Village near Suzhou I was sent on an inspection tour with Access China Travel I am the Marketing Manager of Access China Travel. No one is told that I work for the company, and since I am a foreigner I can experience a tour the way our customers do. That wa ... read more
Tongli's Garden of Seclusion and Meditation
Tongli's Garden of Seclusion and Meditation This is one of the many traditional Chinese gardens in Tongli. Although not built on the same scale as the ones in Suzhou, they are no less magnificent. They are free once you buy a ticket to the village. It is hard to imagine such beautiful gardens were once private property and part of someone's house. I like this garden very much. Visitors enter the garden at the living area of the house and can explore the ancient house. There are musicians there playing for visitors. Behind the living area is the garden which centers on a large lake. There are many pavilions and buildings around the lake and one pavilion is located on the top of a rockery. The garden is very peaceful and after 2:30 empty. There are ... read more
The Village of Tongli
Tongli Tongli is an amazing place. It is one of the Water Towns located near Suzhou. It has an many canals as it does streets and it is these canals that define the village. The village is thousands of years old and almost all of its buildings date from the Ming and Qing Dynasties and are in amazing condition. The area around Suzhou was famous for it's Hui Merchants. They were local people who traveled around China as businessmen and amassed huge fortunes. Some of them were actually richer than the emperor himself. They returned home and built magnificent gardens and mansions and utilized architectural designs from throughout China. Because of this, the tiny village of Tongli has some amazing surprises inside it. There are many mansions and private gardens. A ticket to Tongli costs 80rmb ... read more
Tongli's Pearl Pagoda Garden
Tongli's Pearl Pagoda Garden Tongli's Pearl Pagoda Garden is the largest of Tongli's gardens. It is an amazing place. I have been there twice and each time I find a new area I missed. This time I found the living area. I don't know how I missed it because it is large. The living area is gorgeous!It is a courtyard style home and each room is its own building and has a courtyard in between it and the next building. The living area is beautifully laid out. The garden is huge and the architecture is really beautiful! There are so many nooks and cranny's to explore and each area has a very different atmosphere than the next. The garden has a lake in it. It is the largest open area of the garden, but not the ... read more
Suzhou's Humble Administrator's Garden
Suzhou's Humble Administrator's Garden The Humble Administrator's Garden was one of the three gardens I visited in Suzhou during my trip. I really wish I had the time to visit one garden on one day. They are so beautiful and so large. Their designs are so well thought out that even though there may be a large number of visitors, you always feel fairly alone. I would love to have been able to just sit in a pavilion for an hour or so before exploring some more and visiting another pavilion for a while. Suzhou's gardens are meant to mimic nature, but in a way that enhances each element. It is amazing to think that such an amazing place as the Humble Administrator's Garden was designed for a single man. Wouldn't it be nice to be ... read more
Suzhou's Grand Canal
Suzhou's Grand Canal Suzhou's Grand Canal was a lovely excursion. I boarded my boat near one of Suzhou's two remaining ancient city walls. The area was nicely designed and had a nice atmosphere. The boat was fairly small and only held about fifteen people. The boat cruised down the canal at a leisurely pace and passed many ancient houses built along the banks. It was really nice. I loved looking at the building's architecture. Each house had stairs leading down to the water for washing their laundry and vegetables and the local people relaxing outside their house waved and smiled at us as we passed. Ticket Price: 35rmb Time Needed: 45 minutes Hours of Operation: 7:00-8:30 A cruise leaves every 30 minutes Location: Cruises leave from the Shuishanglvyou Wharf In September 2008 I was sent on ... read more
Shanghai Museum
Suzhou Museum The Suzhou Museum is a unique museum. The exhibitions and artifacts are not the only draw. The architectural design of the museum draws many visitors from around the world. Designed by world famous architect Leoh Ming Pei, one of the foremost architects in the world, the museum’s architecture is as much of a draw as the artifacts they hold. Born in Suzhou, the architect wanted to blend modern and ancient Suzhou garden architecture in the museum's design. Every hall, windows and room was built to incorporate nature, and natural light. Since the museum does not have a huge number of artifacts on display, each room is beautifully laid out and spacious. The huge courtyard in the center of the museum complex looks like a modern version of an ancient Suzhou garden water feature. The ... read more
