China - Part 11: Flights and Hotel

Flights within China:
Beijing to Shanghai
11/12/2008 12:25PM -> 2:40PM

Shanghai to FuZhou (Simon)
11/15/2008 10:30AM -> 11:35AM

Shanghai to ShenZhen (Me)
11/15/2008 3:15PM -> 5:25PM


Hotels:
Beijing: 北京市西西友谊酒店, 北京市西单北大街109号

View Larger Map

Shanghai: 上海市威伦酒店九江路外滩店, 上海市黄浦区九江路45号

View Larger Map

China - Part 10: Email from Wayne

Wayne is an expert when it comes to China. He spent a good amount of time there a couple of years back to study and went on vacation back in May.

Beijing:

Essential Websites:

http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/ (use this to look up the spots below)

Food:

Ding Tai Fung - incredible soup dumplings

Horizon in Kerry Center - dimsum

South Beauty - sichuan (in basement of Kerry Center)

Li Qun Kao Ya ($) or Made in China ($$$$$) - peking duck. Both are great, one's a awesome hole in the wall in a hutong the other is in the Hyatt

Best sichuan hotpot (handmade noodle): http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/listings/dining/hotpot/has/hai-di-lao/

some hotspots

Bed, Bar Blu, Suzie Wong, Mix/Vics are going strong and still great places for a night out. Alfa not so much.

Nan Jie - to get completely trashed or to start the night. Mixed drinks start at RMB10, and you can get 12 shooters for RMB100. ridiculous right?

Block 8 - the hottest new club/complex in town

Centro - great jazz lounge in the Kerry Center, one of my fav chill spots in the city.

Q Bar also makes up some of the best cocktails in teh city (rooftop bar too)



Shanghai

Websites:

http://www.smartshanghai.com
http://www.shanghai-eats.com

Food:

Yuxin Sichuan Dish http://yuxin1997.com/
location 1 - 021-52980438
location 2 - 021-63611777

How Way Sichuan's # 64282777 (I think they have 3 locations)

Goto Jiajia Tung Bao by Park Hotel.. across da street is Fry's Dumpling..
eat @ both places. 1 shot. and the chicken is up to you..that's next door to jiajia tung bao on the same street.

Jiajia Tangbao (Near Park Hotel)
Address: 90 Huanghe Lu (by Fengyang Lu)
Phone: 6327 6878

http://www.shanghai-eats.com/portal/1548_0/Jiajia_Tangbao.aspx

Yang's Fry Dumpling
Address: 54 & 60 Wujiang Lu (near Shimen Yi Lu)

Another Locatio is across the street from Jiajia Tangbao @ 90 Huanghe Lu (by Fengyang Lu)

http://www.shanghai-eats.com/portal/1527_0/Yangs_Fry_Dumpling.aspx

Places:

1. Xin Tian Di -- lots of places to drink and stuff, lots of touristy ish too...Ding Tai Fung is there as well.

2. There's a "new" type of xin tian di area that's much cooler...intersection of Taikang Rd and Si Nan Rd. (gotta walk into an alley way and you'll see a bunch of shops begin to appear).

3. Clubs galore!

Re: Voting

I'm proud to say I made a real effort to vote this year. Being that I never changed my address, I had to vote in Brooklyn, for the district where my mom used to live. I stayed overnight at my mom's new place in Brooklyn and woke up extra early to get my vote in before my one day field trip to Maryland (9 hours of driving total for a 1 hour meeting - worth it? we'll see).

The voting system isn't the greatest. They didn't check my ID. I could have just grabbed the mailing from someone's mailbox and came in with it. The machines are archaic: very non user friendly buttons/levers. They were also rushing me where there were NO ONE behind me: "Are you ok? Do you need help?" - NO, I'm looking at all the goddamn names on these tickets!!!

All in all, I voted. Did you?

// update
BTW, I didn't get a "I voted" sticker. I'm glad the nice ladies at the various rest stop Starbucks along the NJ Turnpike took my word for it.

China - Part 9: The Itinerary

Mine:
11/7 - New York to Beijing
11/8 - 11/12 - Beijing
11/12 - 11/15 - Shanghai
11/15 - 11/19 - Hong Kong
11/19 - 11/22 - Shunde
11/23 - Hong Kong to New York

Simon's:
11/7 - New York to Beijing
11/8 - 11/12 - Beijing
11/12 - 11/15 - Shanghai
11/15 - 11/18 - Fu Zhou
11/19 - 11/23 - Hong Kong
11/23 - Hong Kong to New York

China - Part 8: Phone Calls

With the power (minutes) of a phone card Kingman gave me, I made a couple of calls last night:

1. Dad - I wanted to check if he had booked our hotels and airplane tickets yet. He hasn't, but was planning on doing it later that day. Prices for hotel and airfare goes down another 20-30% within a week. I also asked him about traveling and stuff. He's going to have his friend pick us up at the airport and help us plan out the trip, etc. Regarding ShenZhen, he's going to meet up with me there. I always thought it was pretty far from Shunde but it's only about an hour to an hour and a half. I told him sure, why not, if he has time.

2. Jenkins - He's one of my best friends growing up. He moved back to Hong Kong around the end of high school. He came back once for the summer a year after that. I met him in Hong Kong the last time I was there. I think he's just chilling / working at his dad's restaurant - bored out of his mind. I got his cell number and will give him a call when I'm around. I had the whole conversation with him in Cantonese.

China - Part 7: Email from Robin

Robin is Ray's little brother:

"Beijing:

Places that u must go: Great Wall of China(长城）, The Imperial Palace/The Forbidden City(故宫），The Summer Palace(颐和园），The Ming Tombs(明十三陵),Tian'anmen (the Gate of Heavenly Peace)-->the place that u watch the "flag-raising ceremony", and the Olympics sport fields.
These sceneries should all have tour guide in English, but u'd better study the history of them first before you go.

Shopping and entertainment places: Wangfujing Street(王府井大街), International Trade Centre(国贸), Sohu(建外SOHU), eat roasted duck at 全聚德. You should go to local restaurant instead of eating fast food like KFC as well.
I went to 2 clubs in Beijing but i only rmb one of them is called "8号公馆唐会". Both of them r good, nice music and HOT GIRLS..no kidding lolz..yea i think clubbing in Beijing and Shanghai and Hongkong are all good, only depends on whether u like northern girl or southern girl =P...

ShangHai:
Im not so familiar with Shanghai but here r the places that i recommand:The Bund(外滩)(go there at night time); The other side of The Bund is called PuDong District(浦东区)(people usually come to see the New Shanghai Area), there you can go The Oriental Pearl Tower(东方明珠) and The international trade centre(国贸).
Small towns outside ShangHai are good places to go 2, you can see the "water villages" (Venice of the East).
Go try the Magnetically Levitated Train--It goes to the PuDong Airport.

Shopping: Nanjing Road(南京路), Xujiahui District(徐家汇), eat local food at Temple of ShangHai(城隍庙).
There r lots of clubs and bars in Shanghai as well. Theres a place just like Lan Kwai Fong in Hongkong but i forgot cuz i went there with my frds. Just ask the locals or taxi drivers.

HongKong:
Take the cable car to The Victoria Peak(太平山頂), you may wanna go there in the afternoon so that u can go to the Madame Tussauds and take pics at the peak at night.
Go to the Victoria Harbour(維多利亞港) at Kowloon during night time, Avenue of Stars（星光大道) is beside there
Hong Kong Space Museum(香港太空舘)
Entertainment Parks: Disney's World, Hongkong Ocean Park
Shopping: HongKong is one of the best places for shopping in the world, just like NY.
Names as the subway stations: Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui, area around the Harbour City, Causeway Bay.
Club: there r many clubs but most famous ones are on the bar street Lan Kwai Fong(蘭桂坊)"

My 9:23 minutes commute in 1:30 minutes

mounted the canon sd750 with the gorilla pod on the bike to the office today...