My sincere apologies for taking my time in my blog updates. I was away on another holiday.
I will try my best to finish wrapping up my Shantou trip ASAP. In this update, I will talk about this place I visited. It was the residence of a very rich Shantou family in the past and now,it is a protected tourist's destination. This family got the same surname as me..
It has a very super big courtyard and you can see it the moment you step thru' the entrance..
There are so many buildings annexes on this property that one can easily get lost in it.
I was quite surprised to find a well in an alley in the compound as I always had the idea that wells should be located in some 'ulu'(distant,quiet corner) backyard where some ill-treated maid would jump in to commit suicide in some of the old Chinese movies I saw when I was young..
I think I am too fat to even squeeze thru the well's opening..let alone be a rickshaw man..
Let me show you a few more photos I took of this place..
Oh yes..they got this very big water feature in a section of this property. I think it is equals to at least the size of 3 Olympic-sized swimming pool..
Altough the buildings are more than 100 years old and may not appeal very much to 'youngster' like me..but I can imagine the glorious past this family must have had..
For Travel to Shantou series, see also: Part 4 , Part 3 , Part 2 , Part 1 .
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Travel to "Teochew Land", Shantou(汕头), China Part 4
One of the most famous foods from my Teochew motherland: Fried Oyster Omelette!
It is also one of my favourite food.
According to our tour guide, this is one of the most famous restaurant over there...
Despite the fact that we just had a full lunch, we simply cannot give this a miss..
For approximately the price 6 SGD, there were more oysters than eggs! I hope to have the chance to go back to eat it again because I am missing it already as I am writing this blog post.
The next 'famous' thingy around here I am going to mention is this fruit named Fo Shou(佛手)..
I got to see the real life plant with fruits on it!
What people here do is they will keep the fruit till it turns black in colour, and many more years after. It is supposed to get better at curing certain ailments the longer u keep it. Of course, the older it gets, the more expensive it is.
The next 'famous' thing over here that I am going to touch on..the Lionhead Goose(狮头鹅) and its liver. This is one of the biggest species of goose known and it originates right here in Shantou. I did not managed to get one on photo,but u can take a look at the size of its eggs..
It is also one of my favourite food.
According to our tour guide, this is one of the most famous restaurant over there...
Despite the fact that we just had a full lunch, we simply cannot give this a miss..
For approximately the price 6 SGD, there were more oysters than eggs! I hope to have the chance to go back to eat it again because I am missing it already as I am writing this blog post.
The next 'famous' thingy around here I am going to mention is this fruit named Fo Shou(佛手)..
I got to see the real life plant with fruits on it!
What people here do is they will keep the fruit till it turns black in colour, and many more years after. It is supposed to get better at curing certain ailments the longer u keep it. Of course, the older it gets, the more expensive it is.
The next 'famous' thing over here that I am going to touch on..the Lionhead Goose(狮头鹅) and its liver. This is one of the biggest species of goose known and it originates right here in Shantou. I did not managed to get one on photo,but u can take a look at the size of its eggs..
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Travel to "Teochew Land", Shantou(汕头), China Part 3
While travelling in China, sometimes it is inevitable that your tour guide will bring you to tea appreciation sessions and usually,at these places,the prices are about 5 times that of what a local would pay. Even at 5 times more, it is not that expensive at all..if you do not have much time to shop around comparing prices of tea,you can buy a bit here and there to try at these tea sessions.
The difference I notice here in Shantou as compared to the Northern parts of China lays in that they don't really use teapots here, but just a larger tea cup to hold the tea leaves and distributing the tea into smaller cups. I have since mastered the art of using the big tea cup from this trip.
They have such big containers for tea leaves..I call the big ones tea drum..
During our journey, our tour bus suffered a burst tyre on the expressway, but with a bit of good luck, our driver was able to very quickly find a tyre shop at the next exit to change the tyre.
Well..I did try to use the opportunity to act as if i was part of the action..
As we carried on the journey shortly after,I was really surprised to see many wind turbines( a form of renewable energy generators) along ranges of mountains that stretches as far as my eyes could see..Impressive! The impact hit me like how the grand opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics did!
I cannot help but feel like China had already overtaken Singapore in terms of new technology and its implementation. To think that here in Singapore,we still have not move on from talks of getting a nuclear reactor generator..feels more like taking a step backwards.
The difference I notice here in Shantou as compared to the Northern parts of China lays in that they don't really use teapots here, but just a larger tea cup to hold the tea leaves and distributing the tea into smaller cups. I have since mastered the art of using the big tea cup from this trip.
They have such big containers for tea leaves..I call the big ones tea drum..
During our journey, our tour bus suffered a burst tyre on the expressway, but with a bit of good luck, our driver was able to very quickly find a tyre shop at the next exit to change the tyre.
Well..I did try to use the opportunity to act as if i was part of the action..
As we carried on the journey shortly after,I was really surprised to see many wind turbines( a form of renewable energy generators) along ranges of mountains that stretches as far as my eyes could see..Impressive! The impact hit me like how the grand opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics did!
I cannot help but feel like China had already overtaken Singapore in terms of new technology and its implementation. To think that here in Singapore,we still have not move on from talks of getting a nuclear reactor generator..feels more like taking a step backwards.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Travel to "Teochew Land", Shantou(汕头), China Part 2
Time really flies..today is the last day of this month and I almost missed to keep to my target of putting minimum one blog a month.
Let me try to catch up from where I left off.
In Shantou, there are many temples. In fact, about 70-80% of our places of interests are temples.
The below pic is an example...
You have to read the name of the temple yourself as I cannot read the 3rd word..(it's like Dragon' Spring..something).
The special' thing about this temple is right at the entrance.Many people treat it as a wishing well..me too, I threw in some RMB. However, according to our tour guide, there is a belief for folks around there..If you wana have baby..especially baby boy..you must go and touch the boys' backsides...!!
I was a bit skeptical..but thanks to my niece Shiya, I managed to join in the fun! We shall find out if the belief here is really true in time to come ;)
The other temple that we went too..its special too. They do not just use incense sticks and candles, they also use firecrackers here! I have never seen so much firecrackers altogether at the same time!
In fact, they do have a proper designated firing point for you to set off the firecrackers. Safe!
Thats all for temple for now. I will try to finish up the whole of my Shantou trip over the next few days..please bear with me..
Let me try to catch up from where I left off.
In Shantou, there are many temples. In fact, about 70-80% of our places of interests are temples.
The below pic is an example...
You have to read the name of the temple yourself as I cannot read the 3rd word..(it's like Dragon' Spring..something).
The special' thing about this temple is right at the entrance.Many people treat it as a wishing well..me too, I threw in some RMB. However, according to our tour guide, there is a belief for folks around there..If you wana have baby..especially baby boy..you must go and touch the boys' backsides...!!
I was a bit skeptical..but thanks to my niece Shiya, I managed to join in the fun! We shall find out if the belief here is really true in time to come ;)
The other temple that we went too..its special too. They do not just use incense sticks and candles, they also use firecrackers here! I have never seen so much firecrackers altogether at the same time!
In fact, they do have a proper designated firing point for you to set off the firecrackers. Safe!
Thats all for temple for now. I will try to finish up the whole of my Shantou trip over the next few days..please bear with me..
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Travel to "Teochew Land", Shantou(汕头), China
I am a Teochew just like my parents and grandparents, but all my life, I did not manage to visit my grandpa's homeland until early this month. It is made more easy with Jetstar Asia opening up a new direct flight from Singapore to Shantou Airport.
In fact, it was so easy that even my little toddler niece, Shiya, managed to tag along with her grandparents on this trip!
Our travel agent was very mindful that after the flight,we should be very hungry. Therefore, its very nice of them to get us straight to a traditional Teochew Restaurant(yes,that is the name of the restaurant after translation) for lunch 1st thing we got out of the airport.
It was a very simple meal of porridge with braised goose meat, preserved vegetables, salted eggs and oyster omelette. I was very hungry and rushing to devour my food, so not much pictures on food in this travel to share here.
The destination after lunch was to go walk about in a garden..I will call it the 'Rock Garden' for easy reference..
Of course, my main purpose of this trip is not really to walk in parks nor go to temples..but some how, there seemed to be a lot of such places of interest on our iternary. I will very roughly go through these places if possible.
All these gardens look more or less the same to me..
Anyway, we did take a stroll along the riverside..the weather is pretty cool..
The following few pictures are from some of the scenes I saw during the trip..see if there are any that may be of interest to you.
I shall take a break here while I upload the rest of the photos. Do look out for part 2 and 3 of this series.
In fact, it was so easy that even my little toddler niece, Shiya, managed to tag along with her grandparents on this trip!
Our travel agent was very mindful that after the flight,we should be very hungry. Therefore, its very nice of them to get us straight to a traditional Teochew Restaurant(yes,that is the name of the restaurant after translation) for lunch 1st thing we got out of the airport.
It was a very simple meal of porridge with braised goose meat, preserved vegetables, salted eggs and oyster omelette. I was very hungry and rushing to devour my food, so not much pictures on food in this travel to share here.
The destination after lunch was to go walk about in a garden..I will call it the 'Rock Garden' for easy reference..
Of course, my main purpose of this trip is not really to walk in parks nor go to temples..but some how, there seemed to be a lot of such places of interest on our iternary. I will very roughly go through these places if possible.
All these gardens look more or less the same to me..
Anyway, we did take a stroll along the riverside..the weather is pretty cool..
The following few pictures are from some of the scenes I saw during the trip..see if there are any that may be of interest to you.
I shall take a break here while I upload the rest of the photos. Do look out for part 2 and 3 of this series.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Of Blue Label & Free Ang Pow packets.
Chinese New Year is just round the corner..its just 2 more days to reach the Year of the Tiger!
Every year around this period before Chinese New Year, its always a very exciting period for me. The only differences this year boils down to 2 things:
- This year, I am giving Ang Pow(red packets) instead of receiving it.
- This year, I am on a training course till the eve of CNY with exams immediately after!
This means that this normally busy period is extremely busy for me as I am not left with much time for my own.
Being the 1st year that I will have to give out Ang Pow, I pay particular attention to Ang Pow packets this year. Every year around this time, banks and many retailers hand out free Ang Pow packets to their customers. I used to pass most of the Ang Pow packets to my friends and relatives as I don't really use much of it. This year,I retained most of them.
There is this very supportive UOB bank staff that gave me 18(180 pieces) stacks of Ang Pow packets. Hong Leong Finance gave me 4 stacks. Cold Storage gave me 2 stacks. I have yet to find time to collect from other banks and retailers,but hope to do so if possible. With so many Ang Pow packets..maybe I should be financially savvy to just put a $2 note in each of the Ang Pow :P~
At this same period, I managed to acquire 3 bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label for consumption during the CNY season. My main concern is whether I have time to enjoy it because of the upcoming exam..
Time, has become a very important component of my life..I wish I can have more of it.
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