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Home -> Travel Blogs -> Shenzhen 24 Dec 05 - 28 Dec 05 Pg 1
2, 3, 4, 5

It's the end of the year and travel bug hits extremely hard this round. Just felt the urge to leave Sillypore for a couple of days: away from all the hassles of family, work and shit. I contemplated on where to go. Sri Lanka, Beijing, Cambodia were all once in my plans. It was confusing and irritating reading all those guide books and thinking about my final destination. All the planning apparently didn't help. I woke up one day thinking that I should visit an ex-colleague (whom I have never met before) who was working in Shenzhen. I been to Hongkong and Shenzhen before: Nothing much, but I suppose it is suitable enough considering it is the first time I am travelling (alone). The cheap air tickets I got ($208) was a push factor as well.

So I boarded the flight to Hongkong on Christmas Eve. Pretty excited as it's my first trip alone. Had 2 beers and watched 2 movies during the flight. A good time for a rest because the plan is to cross the "border" to Shenzhen once I reached Hongkong. I can imagine all the Christmas partygoers crowding around Victoria harbour, greeting each other merry christmas. Glad that i can avoid all those shit. Maybe I am just a grouch.

Everything went smoothly and I cleared immigration at HKIA and Lok Ma Chiu in a jiffy. The queue at Huanggang was also ok, probably because I was travelling on passport and most people were travelling on "Hui Xiang Zhen" (loosely translated as "Returning Home" pass).

Met my friend and went for dinner and drinks. Came back to hotel to rest. Christmas came without all the celebration and greetings. I didn't even know that it was midnight. I slept like a log later. It was a good rest.
   

Hi, my name is Grouchy. On flight to Hongkong. Had some "god knows what it is" seafood and potato dish. Watched "Goal" and cried when the main actor scored. It was corny. The 2 beers was good though. Waking up my neighbour for the pee room wasn't.
Boarded coach (HKD$100) at HKIA at 1900hrs. Destination is Lok Ma Chui (Fallen Horse Province) so that I can cross over to Huanggang, Shenzhen. There were only 3 person (excluding the driver) on board. The temperature was pretty cool as the bus cruised along the airport highway. Saw some highrise flats and took a snap. Found it to be kinda strange because there seems to be 2 light saucers hovering. UFOs? Nope, it was just the lights on the bus.
Long queue at Huanggang taxi stand and it overflowed to the center of the overhead bridge (where I am standing). The surroundings are very different as compared to Hongkong. Crossing the immigration was a breeze. And yah, I got a authentic border stamp for my collection.
Met my friend finally and we went for dinner at the hotel. The food was barely ok though it was EXPENSIVE (RMB$87). We had half a chicken (it was quite tough and we didn't finish it), some stewed beancurd and stir-fried vegetables.
At a "call" shop (or whatever the name is). Called my mum in Sillypore for RMB$4/minute. The booth was abit cramped but it was cheaper than calling through my auto-roaming mobile phone.
We took a bus (service 205 I think) to the Shenzhen city center. Quite alot of people and everybody was in a christmas mood. Bright lights from the buildings filled the streets. Notice carefully the green beam in the center of the photograph. It's from "Di Huang" Towers, the tallest building in Shenzhen. Don't ask me why the couple were posing in my photograph.
Me watching the Premiership in my room. Feeling comfy after 2 cans of "Xue Hua Pi" (Snow Beer). Click the picture and you can see that I do have nice legs with lots of leg hair.
Pengzhou Zhao Dai Suo Huan Ying Nin *(Pengzhou Guesthouse Welcomes You)... at RMB$100 per night. If you loosely translate "Zhao Dai Suo", it will mean Recieve or Entertainment centers. My friend explained that before Budget accomodation became popular in China, there used to be these Recieve Centers set up by local officers to recieve officers from another province. However, as time passes, the meaning actually got eroded and perhaps not so applicable nowadays.
Shenzhen is filled with graffiti everywhere, including on the road! This one particularly states "Dan Bao 81545330". Ask my colleague when I got back to Sillypore and he explains that these people will act as a guarantor if you need one when borrowing money in China.
Zhujiang beer on a street in Xin Zhou village, Fu Tian district. It was christmas day, 10am. Beer is cheap at RMB2.9 (or S$0.62). I walked the streets, drank myself nuts. Background is a semi-busy streets before a supermarket.