Shanghai ! 上海灘 !
Posted On Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at at 8:45 PM by Alvin浪奔 ! 浪流 ! Here we are in one of the greatest cities of China - Shanghai ! The sheer magnitude of its grandeur could match any metropolis in the world. We took a boat out to The Bund (上海灘) and we saw busy ship yards getting down to the serious business of building magnificent sea-worthy cruise ships, felt the intensive commerce at work in the many sky-scrapers in this vibrant city and explored the packed temples on the city outskirt - the fascinating city would leave us tired and disorientated but wanting to explore more !
Adrian, SherLi and Tioman
Posted On Wednesday, March 27, 2002 at at 10:03 PM by AlvinAdrian and Mandy went back a long way as Mandy met him during her Maths Degree course (+-x÷ ∫ d/dx Σ Sinh Cos n=n+1... and stuff like those) in Surrey. Adrian found a new lease of life of late, as he emigrated to Malaysia armed with a decent job and even managed to find a girl in SherLi ! Well done, Adrian old chap ! We hadn't seen him since probably 1993 when he came over for a visit in Frascati and we thought it would be fun to go to KL and raid his fridge, cramming in a side trip to the tropical island of Tioman. And it was fun, as we had a good old chat over a couple of bottles of Shiraz and we got the hint that this SherLi girl would be the one, congrats and good on ya, matey !
We took a bus from KL Sentral to the seaside town of Mershing and boarded our boat to Tioman. The days spent on the island were relaxing and we pretty much spent all our time snorkeling, eating, drinking and sleeping it off on the hammock, a bit like the lazy cat below...
We took a bus from KL Sentral to the seaside town of Mershing and boarded our boat to Tioman. The days spent on the island were relaxing and we pretty much spent all our time snorkeling, eating, drinking and sleeping it off on the hammock, a bit like the lazy cat below...
The Great Wall and Tiananmen Square
Posted On Monday, March 4, 2002 at at 8:27 PM by AlvinWe spent a week in Beijing (北京) and visited the impressive sites of this ancient city that was the capital for numerous past dynasties. Undoubtedly, the number one attraction in Beijing was the immense Tiananmen Square (天安門廣場) that was one gigantic open space which easily took us 20+ minutes to walk from one end to the other. We also ventured to the (天壇) which was a characteristic monument built in the Ming Dynasty for the Emperor to perform his worshipping rituals to the Universe.
不上長城非好漢 ! We managed to find the Bus #101 and enjoyed a day trip out to Ba Da Ling (八達嶺) where we climbed The Great Wall - taking large, steep steps (and deep breaths) and enjoyed the accompanying magnificent vista of the surrounding countryside where "Barbarians" once roamed ! We were impressed not only with the sheer size and the seemingly endless length of The Great Wall but also how intact the huge bricks still were after so many thousand of years.
