.....times of refreshing.....

I like Wuxi ! I don't know a thing about this city till this trip and never really heard about it. Perhaps the attraction about Wuxi to me is the Li Lake or Lake Taihu, which can fills four Singapore! The lake was a haven to the pearl industry (where we were brought to a Pearl factory for 'shopping'!) and fresh water produces. Anyway, the surprising fact is the lake is not deep, and what I heard was it is around 2 m deep only.  It's not as picturesque as West Lake in Hangzhou but it's still a great place for picture taking and enjoying the scenery there.

A highway bridge crossing the Li Lake in Wuxi

We were brought to a filming location of the Three Kingdoms in Wuxi where they seems to invest a lot in building this filming location. Everything looks so ancient there and so real! I understand after the filming, they kept the place as a tourism spot.

Statues of the characters from the three kingdoms near the entrance. I can recognized Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu.

Another row of statues there , like terracotta armies to me!

It's indeed beautiful over there with these ancient decors and trees around

There was a live show where they reenacted famous battles from the Three Kingdoms and we were presented with an exciting display of horse riding skills and martial arts. This is especially when the artists 'fight' while riding their horses. They are really skillful and some of them performing stunts while riding. And, I kept cuddling myself with gloves on, in the open cold weather!! Though I love the show, I was glad when it finished too as we wanted to get some 'warm' inside some buildings...LOL

Warming up for battle

In action ...

Then, before we left the location, we were brought to Li Lake for a cruise. It was a beautiful sight at the lake with the sunset as well as nice man-made ancient harbour for the filming. Though the ships are 'fictional' and meant for filming only, it actually can move and we were given a treat to cruise around and nearby the lake.

The 'harbor' to dock battleships.

The entrance to the harbour

It's sunset at 5pm+ then... The lake seems looks like sea.

I had a great time watching sunset from the cruise , as the sun slowly descend below the mountain.

And yours truly ...  in front of one of the ancient buildings.

I had a great time shopping around Nanjing's Gongyuan Street,  after having their famous Nanjing vermicilli and duck blood-cubes soup , which is located around there. It was not too late, around 6pm+ but due to the winter season, it was all dark there. It's basically more of a window shopping there as the place was too big and we are also busy taking pictures around. However, we got something for our kids by getting them some extra clothing since we didn't really brought a lot of winter clothing. My kid was delighted when he saw a Li Ning sports shop there, and so was I, since both of us are avid badminton fans. However, to our dismayed, they don't seems to sell badminton stuffs but rather, operates like Nike or Adidas by selling clothes, shoes and other sporting fashion stuffs. We only saw one Li Ning racket and it's not cheap either , better get it in JB...Lol. Anyway, this is really a comfortable shopping haven, where the night scenery was nice, cool weather, not as crowded as Shanghai and clean with beautiful ancient-typed buildings.

A light-up dragon display on the banks of the river

One of the buildings around which contains lots of shops

Folks hanging around the bridge along the river banks. You can buy tickets at the kiosks for a cruise along the river, but we do not have the time for it.

Another view of the Gongyuan steet

One of the gates

It's so nice walking around the spacious area there and it's not really that crowded.

I was hungry and saw these freshly baked biscuits there. It looks appetizing on a cold night!

I decided to get a few pieces. It contains no fillings inside but kinda crunchy when I took a bite on it. And, it's best to eat it hot as I find it not so delicious when cold, and it gets cold very fast due to the cold weather. When the biscuits turned cold, its kinda harder.

Some decors along the road

Above and below,  views of the older shops when we walked out from Gongyuan St.

It's quite pleasant to walk around there though the traffic can be terrifying and we gotta be careful when crossing the roads. And, we were dead-tired after that and looking forward to a hot shower when back to the hotel!

Riding the bus on the way to the mausoleum. It was a beautiful and cool view. I saw folks hiking up too!

Reached the entrance and we gotta walk now.

Beautiful nature and trees along the pathway

Reached the first gate to the mausoleum. It will be a flight of stairs now, all the way up.

Lots of folks and tourists taking pictures

Flight of stairs leading up to the mausoleum. It can be tiring, even for me ..hahaha.. probably due to lack of rest too.

Another nearer view to the gate ... lots of folks around!

I look back at the previous gate.

Almost there ... few more stairs to climb in the cold weather, though the Sun is shining brightly.

One of the decor at the top

The full view of the gate to the mausoluem

Beautiful bonsai lookalike trees decorating the outside of the mausoleum

A pillar standing majestically at the top

Some of trees are almost 100 years old!!

A side view shot of the mausoleum

 We are not allowed to take pictures inside the mausoleum and we have to walk around the statue of Dr.Sun-Yat-Sen, where his body was buried beneath. It was a quick visit inside there. When we are out, my wifey decided to buy some hot sausages for the kids to warm them up while I also get a purple-colour steamed sweetcorn, which to me is tasteless. LOL

A view from above ... we can see Nanjing city at the top

Walking back along the pathway. It was a beautiful sight!

It was another clean place and polices are around to guard the area

We had their famous duck noodles, with duck-blood cubes and vermicelli. Not my type of food anyway...LOL .. but it was a specialty there.

Xiao Long Pau

Cold duck meat

And, we proceed to shop around town after that.

While we were around Suzhou, both the lead tour guide and the native Suzhou tour guide keep on boasting how pretty and beautiful the ladies here , and in fact, Suzhou is famous for pretty girls. Well, they mentioned in the ancient times, the Kings usually summon Suzhou maidens to the palace as well as the Empress Qi Shi, one of the four beautiful ladies in ancient times, was from Suzhou. So, I get ready my camera to click .... and in the end, I took more pictures of the city instead, which was so mesmerizing. Nicknamed, the Venice of The East, Suzhou really have a lot of canals and it's a beautiful city. Of course, not just the ladies, even the guys here seems to have beautiful complexion. Well, maybe I should take a sabbatical four months leave and stay here... hahaha...

Shopping around in Suzhou's Guanqian Street, which is the heart of the city's commerce centre

The street was very clean and it was crowded on a week-day evening at 4pm

Love the shops and stores here

Some beautiful statues depicting  the older days

Another view of Suzhou Guanqian street. It was so clean there!! And, its cold walking under 3 celsius to 8 celsius.

I can't stop taking pictures around ...

Probably I don't think we can finished covering the entire shopping belt in an evening

An intrinsic and beautiful temple in the midst of the shopping belt

Street food along the way ...

Another side of the huge shopping square

A mixed of modern and ancient buildings there

 We went for dinner nearby and I love the beautiful night scenes along the canals!



Around here, we had their famous Suzhou Ramen along one of the restaurants near the river banks.

It was a crowded restaurant

They first served all the ingredients and it's cold.

Then, comes the hot ramen and pour all the ingredients onto the ramen to make it hot.

And, it's ready to serve!

 After that, we left for the famous and beautiful LED light display at their 'bird-nest', a replica of the Beijing 'bird nest' Olympic Stadium. It was nice seeing the colourful LED lights turn to various colours on a cold and dark night. Yes, it was very cold that night, I think it could have reached 0 celsius.


I like Suzhou! Hope to visit their other attractions next time!