China Trip Autumn 2011 (Oct 22nd - Nov 13th 2011) Part IV-Natural UNESCO Town and the Original Reform/Opening-Up City

Lijiang 9th-10th Nov 2011:

I arrived by plane from Chongqing to Lijiang, the UNESCO world heritage ancient ethnic minority town situated in the mountains of Yunnan province. I met my dad there and we spent 2 days together. It was a very touristy place and although the view of the Snow Jade Dragon Mountain was beautiful..overall the ancient town was very touristy and commercialised for my liking with nightclubs and bargirls pumping out loud music deep into the night serving alcohols and half-naked dancers inside the clubs as well as girls asking you to go into the clubs..there were alot of artistic shops and nice cosy looking cafes and restaurants too, but they tended to be further away from the central ancient town centre.

I visited another village in Lijiang which was less well known and liked it way better...some of the architecture there was reminiscient of some 1930s set movie..haha..

I ate with my dad some of the hotpot and bbq food there and it was nice...also got a chance to see the ancient town from atop a small hill area...overall, i personally wouldn't go back to Lijiang again as it was just too touristy for my liking..;)

Shenzhen 10th-11th Nov 2011:

I flew into Shenzhen from Lijiang, after a delay of the flight, and took the airport bus shuttle into the area where my hotel was located then took a taxi.

I had a good rest and think i was upgraded once again (throughout my China trip 2011, i was upgraded into a way better room on many occasions, for reasons i do not know, but i'm not complaining!!) and had one of the largest hotel room experiences of my life with the powder room being so large, and a nice bathroom with stand-alone bathtub, separate shower area, and even a separate toilet area with floor to ceiling windows out on the city views!!

The next morning i woke up later than expected and behind my schedule but hurriedly took a quick soak in the bathtub again with the city views outside and rushed out to Dongmen main pedestrian shopping street of Shenzhen. I took a quick tour and headed by metro MRT again to visit the Shenzhen Library/Concert Hall area. This area looked very new and clean. The Shenzhen Library was designed by a famous Japanese architect apparently and was one of the nicest and most modern public libraries i've been to. China is changing, and it was very impressive. There were many study areas and desks and even sections with South East Asian newspapers as well as overseas study abroad reference books!


I rushed back by MRT to the JW Marriot Shenzhen (where i was staying) and checked out and took a taxi to the Futian Port Immigration checkpoint, being the closest to my hotel, and crossed over to Hong Kong.

This officially ended my Cross-China Trip 2011.;) I felt surreal and nourished with the memories, experiences, as well as photos i got from this trip:-)