We went to meet a friend's friend who is working in Beijing. He took us to Xiao Fei Yang - Little Fat Lamb restaurant to try Shua Shua Guo (steamboat with sliced mutton and beef) 刷刷锅. It is located at a street named Ghost Street 鬼街, not sure if I've spelled wrongly...haha...but there are a lot of restaurant at there.

After the dinner we took subway go to 西单 for walk. We bought some candies and tit bits at a shopping center. When finished buying, we go back to our hotel and rest.

Another new day! We went to Qian Men Jian Lou 前门箭楼 for taking bus to Ba Da Ling Great Wall. It cost RMB 12 per person for single trip.

When we reached there, the bus will only stop at walking distance from the cable car station and the other entrance to the great wall. We chose to save energy by taking cable car on the way up to a mountain. The cable car ride cost RMB 40 and the entrance of the great wall cost RMB 40. So total is RMB 80. We spent about 4 hours here to enjoy the view, climbing and taking photos. It's very windy, dry and cold. I'm very impress how did the soldiers use this great wall, as it is very steep and some steps are very high.

After the walk at the Great Wall, we had lunch at a restaurant nearby. It's noodle again! Beijing city likes noodles a lot. The lunch cost RMB 55 for four person.

For dinner, we went to have Peking Duck at Quan Ju De 全聚德 restaurant. We saw Gou Bu Li 狗不理 dumpling restaurant is just located at its opposite.

The food are nice and waitress will use a long nose tea pot to add hot water into our tea pot. It's interesting! Dinner for four cost RMB 300.

Rushing for 9am flight from Beijing to Shanghai. After checked out from San Yuan Jin An hotel, we went to take Airport Bus Shuttle which is near Beijing Railway station. The single trip to airport cost RMB 16.

When we reached the Beijing airport, there were lots of people, and long queue too! We only able to checked in ourselves half an hour before the flight depart. We walked very quickly to find the platform. We did not have our breakfast before the flight, luckily the two hours flight served us with light breakfast. haha...

We took a taxi cost RMB 16.5 for two person to Motel 168. The accomodation cost two person with RMB 396. It's a nice hotel and it is very famous in Shanghai. If you are travelling to Shanghai, it's a highly recommended budget hotel.

After checked in, we went to look for restaurant for lunch and asked direction for subway station.

Happening Nanjing street is located near the People's Square. Beautiful lights is on and people after work went there for shopping and meeting people. We saw a chinese pizza 烧饼 shop has very good business, so we went to try.

Along the street we also have tried 甜不辣 RMB 1.5, 连心血藕糯米羹 RMB 2.5, 烤羊肉串 RMB 2.

The sky started drizzling when we are heading to The Oriental Pearl. We took the Bund Sighseeing Tunnel cost RMB 40 for round trip to the other side of Shanghai. Nothing special in the Bund Sighseeing Tunnel, just a short period of light performance when you were in the cable car.

Arrived at the Oriental Pearl, we took a number of photos before going in. The entrance fees is RMB 50. In the observation deck, we can't see the bund clearly as there's fog and everything is blur. We are very disappointed!

After we went back to the bund via the tunnel, it rains even heavier. We have no choice but to get a taxi to go back.

However, it is not easy to get a taxi in the raining day. All the taxi that passed by are occupied. We have to change a few place to try our luck in getting a taxi. But, it is difficult. We were starving and cold for almost 2 hours then only we able to get a taxi. This is the nightmare in Shanghai!

After get back to the hotel, two of the group go to the same restaurant which we had lunch on the same day to pack our dinner and the other two went for foot massage that cost RMB 48 per person.

OMG, it is still raining since last night!

We checked out from Motel 168 and going to take a train to Su Zhou. It was a wet morning. As it is near Chinese New Year, a lot of people is rushing back to hometown. Railway transport is the cheapest and hence a lot of people have queued up long for tickets to go home.

I forgot how long we have been queuing for ticket. We bought ticket to Wu Xi (cost RMB 20), as we planned to visit Ling Shan Buddha 灵山大佛 before checking in at Su Zhou. However, due to lack of time, we changed our plan and decided get down from Su Zhou.

Upon arriving at Su Zhou railway station, there's a local tour agent looking for business, asking us where we would like to go. We accept their offer and they sent us to our booked hotel, another Motel 168 at Su Zhou.

After discussing tour price with the local tour agent, we accepted their offer to take us few places in the evening. The first destination is San Tang water village 三塘水乡. It is near our hotel compare to other water villages. It is not recommended to go there. It is dirty and nothing much to see. We travelled the village with boat that cost RMB 60.

It has never been stopped drizzling since the rain from Shanghai :(

The next destination is the silk research center, it's the popular destination if you are travelling in Su Zhou or Hang Zhou. The tour agent for sure will take you there. The research center is still using silk from silk worm. There's a guide to bring us looking around and explain how they extract the silk from the worm.

We bought some souvenirs: silk blanket and silk art products.

From books and people said, Su Zhou's garden is very beautiful. 上有天堂，下有苏杭. It is very true.

We went to Yi Yuan garden which opens till very late. The entrance fee is RMB 45. Although it is dark, it is still look beautiful with lights.

It's dinner time. We asked the agent to bring us to a nice restaurant with nice Su Zhou food. So they brought us to a restaurant which they visited often when there's any celebration among their friends. We ordered the fish with squirrel style cooking. It is very delicious and special. It is called squirrel style cooking is due to the fish shape looks like a squirrel after it is fried. The meal cost RMB 233.

After the dinner, we went back to hotel.

Tong Li 同里 is a beautiful and famous water village. The entrance fee cost RMB 80 and we rent a tricyle for RMB 30 each. It looks beautiful to me in the raining day and I think it would be even more beautiful in sping and summer. There are total 10 places of interest in the village. We only manage to visit 5 places as it is closing soon.

The total to rent the van as transport cost us RMB 850.

Every Motel 168 has a restaurant named Mei Lin Ge. It was complimented as a nice restaurant by the people in the forum, except for unfriendly service.

We ordered the popular dish of the restaurant. The roast mutton is nice. The meal cost RMB 124.

Heading to Hang Zhou by bus from Su Zhou. The ticket hall has a lot of people. But the waiting hall has little number of people, it's cleaner and no pushing scene as like in the railway station. The ticket cost RMB 72 a person. It is more expensive than taking the train.

After two hours travelling in the bus. We took taxi to youth hostel at Nan Shan Street which is very near to the West Lake.

After checked in with the youth hostel and discussion with a local tour agent, we depart to travel the city.

Next, we go to Long Jing tea farm 龙井问茶. An emperor of dynasty Qing dropped by at the village and asked for drink from the village people. The village people took water from the well and served the emperor with Long Jing tea 龙井茶. After several drinks, the emperor likes the tea very much and take some for his mother - Ci Xi. It has then become a popular tea in China.

We were invited by a villager for tea drinking. She explained to us how to differentiate genuine Long Jing tea leaves. And showed us two types of Long Jing tea leaves that was plucked in different month of the year.

If we have not came here, I still do not know who is Lin Biao 林彪. He was a leader who revolt against president Mao 毛泽东. The 704 project was build as a center to fight against the president. It is now as a museum.

The entrance fees is RMB 12 per person.

We then go to Lei Feng Ta temple 雷锋塔. It is related to a famous legendary story. A white snake with a man love story. The story were sculptured in wood and store in the temple. On top of the temple, we also can view the West Lake, but in fog, bad weather.

The entrance fees is RMB 40 per person.

After visit the temple, we walked along the street to enjoy the night view of west lake and also to find Zhi Wei Guan restaurant 知味观. The restaurant has two levels. The first level is a food court and the second level is the restaurant. Both floors are managed by the same restaurant. We went up to try Hang Zhou's special food. The nicest food is Dong Po Rou 东坡肉. Initially we ordered two of this Dong Po Rou dish, but after we've tried it, we decided to order another two, it is superb! The meal cost RMB 277.

After the meal, we went downstairs to try some food. hehe...this is because some of the food was not in the menu. And we spent RMB 12 for 4 person for what we've ordered.

We then walked back to the hostel. The night view of the West Lake is very nice. Hang Zhou is beauty like a heaven to us.

After they have came back, we packed our stuff and checked out.

We were going to Shanghai by train, ticket cost RMB 58. As we have bought a later departure time ticket, we deposit our luggage at the train station and took a taxi to Su Causeway 苏堤 which total length is 2.8km.

Yue temple 岳庙 is a temple to remember Yue Fei, the loyal general.

After lunch, we went back to the train station by taxi.

When we reached Shanghai, we took express train back to Beijing. The train is very cozy.

It's the last day in China in this trip. We went to Wang Fu Jing street to buy souvenirs and books. To us, the books in China are cheap. Too bad we have limited suitcase and weight limitation to store the books.

After that we took Airpot shuttle bus to Beijing International Airpot. This airport is always fill up with people and queues.

In the afternoon, 4.10pm we on board our return flight and fly back to Malaysia. It is a nice trip!