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

 We have reached the last destination of our trip and we were in metropolitan Shanghai. Well, somehow I felt more at home here, probably due to the sky-rise buildings and city centre here, which sounds more like Singapore.  However, the jam was dreadful here as we were stuck most of the times at the highways. This is really one crowded and busy place and no wonder we were told to wake up earlier to start our excursion at 8am, to avoid the jam.

Perhaps one of the popular places to visit in big Shanghai is the Oriental Pearl Tower, standing at 468 metres and gave us a bird eyes view of at least a large part of Shanghai including the HuangPu River. It was a great time there amid it rains for the first time during our excursion which we felt we were quite lucky. Thus, we gotta carried our umbrella as well as zip up our jackets and hoods down.

A rainy morning in Shanghai with the beautiful tower in the background

It was indeed a wet day!

Inside the tower, it was quiet and we were queuing to take the lift up to its two high deck of  the observatory tower

Views of cosmopolitan Shanghai from the observatory tower

A view of the HuangPu river on a rainy morning

Another view from the 360 degree tower. Look at the highways from top!

More panoramic landscape of the massive city

Check out the pedestrian walkway below

Another view of the HuangPu river

After we were done at the highest observatory deck, we took a lift to go down to another observatory deck and there was fresh air coming in from the side windows. Thus, we got to buckle up our zips to keep ourselves warm as well as enjoying walking on a glass panel.... almost around 263 m.

Yours truly standing on top of the wiorld

The family unites on top of the world

A comparison of all the tallest towers in the world. KL tower was one of them,

After we are done with the breathtaking views, we were brought back 'down to earth' to an exhibition section which tells the history of Shanghai. It was a good eye-opener for me as I read from one exhibits to another, and I am almost running out of time to finish the entire two floors as my tour guide started calling us...LOL. According to wikipedia, Oriental Pearl Tower exhibition room is divided into five section titled: "Trace back to Huating", "Style and Features in the Town", "Sketch of the Port-opening", "Foreign Settlement", "Old footsteps in Shanghai"

I am amazed by how lively the dummies look like. They really look very real!

My kids entered a CGI kinda room or virtual reality where there's a green background. When we look at them from the screen, they were projected onto an old Shanghai street. They have so much fun there!

There are a lot to see here and these models are just some of them, showing Shanghai during the old days.

And, here's a family portrait ...

It was a great visit to the tower, and the tour guide always proudly said, if we don't visit the Oriental Pearl Tower , then we haven't visited Shanghai yet...LOL.

I mentioned in my previous post that I love Wuxi. Well, this is probably the place has natural beauty in a lake which is large enough to fill four Singapore as well as well-maintained and refurbished ancient houses that became a fabulous night spot for drinks and coffees. And, the amazing thing is there are canals everywhere by the side of the houses where it was used as a mode of transports during the ancient times. The authorities really maintained these canals so well that it's clean and looks so beautiful at night.

There are still coffee joints around including Starbucks but it's much more expensive than what we had here. Check out the buildings here!

A pedestrian bridge over a canal and overlooking the street

Another ancient house being used as a restaurant

Family portrait taken by my son...

The colourful underneath of an arch walking bridge.

One of the canals in between the shophouses

This is an ancient stage

It was kinda quiet and empty near the stage and somehow I got that eerie feeling here. In fact, I don't felt good here and walk away...LOL

The huge Taihu Lake which looks like a sea to me

It seems like a water catchment area here

A view of a highway bridge crossing by the lake

A pleasant garden around the lake

 Opposite the lake, we patronised a tea pot house for 'shopping' where I got myself  two clay mugs and a flask. I actually got the other clay mug for my dad, who was a tea lover. As for me, the mug ended up as a multi-purpose cup, where I used it mostly for my 3-1 kopi ...muahahaha... Anyway, I try to make it a point not to blog about these shopping trips but somehow I find the surroundings there very calming and beautiful. It actually looks Japanese to me! According to the tour guide, those city folks who were stressful came here to stay at these houses for a while to calm their nerves.

The tea house in Wuxi

A serene residence for those who seek calmness and peace

I can't read this but it was located at the entrance

Captivating plants around  there

Another shot to show how serene and peaceful that place is ...

A nice looking berry plant growing there

This wraps up our Wuxi trip and we moved on to the last city in our itinerary, that is Shanghai.

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.