Shenzhen
This has to be to most convenient travel we had: Walked from the Tsim Sha Tsui metro station (underground) to connect to the East Tsim Sha Tsui station where the KCR (Kowloon-Canton Railway) starts for its daily, 4-minute apart, trips to Lo Wu (the station near the border to Shenzhen, China) - took about 45-50 minutes (compared to the 2 hours by boat).
We got to see the New Territories along the way, lots of high-rises but with more space in between.
Rain was pouring when we arrived at Lo Wu station. Fortunately, the station is directly connected to the Hong Kong and China immigrations building. We had to turn in our departure card (which we filled out when we arrived in Hong Kong) to the immigration officer, then walked across the border (more like a passageway between buildings) to fill out another form (entry/health card) to submit to the Chinese immigration officer. We had a double-entry visa (which allows us to stay up to 30 days per entry) because we stopped by Hong Kong first before going to Shenzhen. We could have stayed another 30 days but we didn't plan for this and we need to start the developments in our beach property in San Juan.
The Immigrations building is connected to the main shopping center everyone who comes to Shenzhen goes to, Luohu Shopping Center, and to the Metro station as well as the Coach station.
We followed the signs to the Metro station. Got a trans card (same as the Octopus and Traffica cards) for ease in taking the Metro. They have 2 Metro Lines (for now). Line A begins right there at the railway station. We asked the Info lady where the nearest stop to the tallest building in Shenzhen, she said "Garden Theater" stop. Got down to where the trains area and looked at the sign saying "Garden Theater" only to find out that there are only Chinese and Pinyin on the route plan. At least one of the maps which had the English name had the Chinese characters on them too, we simply looked for the character that is the same. Found it later - Da Ju Yuan station.
Arrived at Da ju Yuan station and both Peter and I were caught by surprise when all the signs and maps only had Chinese characters in them - no pinyin! We only knew the pinyin (romanized version of the Chinese words), even then the way they say it is totally different. Peter asked the ticket officer to show in the map where Yan He Dong lu was, he pointed to the railway station. We tried to keep calm and decided to just get out of the station and find that tallest building.
We got out through the nearest exit and found ourselves diagonally across the tallest building, Diwang Da Sha, right at the main road - it was nice and sunny by this time. Our hotel's direction was simply "just one street opposite of the tallest building." Now this could mean anywhere. At least the street signs had pinyin, thank God! So we crossed the street (the same block as the Diwang Da Sha) via the subway then asked the newspaper stand girl where Yan He Dong Lu was. No luck. She couldn't understand at all. Next, Peter asked the street cleaning lady and she kind of understood him and directed us to go straight up (using her raised palm motioning to go there) then slightly right and somewere there. Okay, at least we got a direction. So we crossed back to the same side of the road we were one earlier but on the opposite side. Went to the next block up and through a smaller road in between the buildings. Asked another guard there and he sort of knew where it was and directed us to go cross the river and over there somewhere. As luck would have it, right where we were I saw the huge sign in the building across the river, He Dong Hotel. Yipee! We found it! It is located right along the river next to the World Finance Center.
This hotel is pretty cheap, probably 2-3 stars. For a three day stay in a twin room we paid about 640 yuan (compared to Hong Kong's 450 yuan/night). We also get to borrow a computer here in our room for only 30 yuan per day - now that's really cheap (amounts to less than 2 yuan/hour). Plus, we are right here in the center of the city.
We had brunch at the nearby The MixC mall before going up to the tallest building (connected via the subway with the mall) and saw how huge Shenzhen was. It was a good way of orienting ourselves with the city's areas. Now we know that where we are now is just north/west of the railway station. We were also to see the areas of the Hong Kong side.
Back at The MixC mall, we went to Honeymoon Dessert for my usual Snow White Sago while Peter had the glutinous rice and durian in coconut milk ice. Yum!
Next, we took the Metro back to Luohu Shopping Center to see why everyone (like the Filipinas in Hong Kong) comes here to shop. It is simply like a better version of Greenhills Mall in Quezon City. Clothes, bags, shoes, food, electronics, manicure, massage, tailoring, etc. are found here. No price on items so you will have to haggle to get a very good deal. Unfortunately, I am not the shopping-for-deals-type of person. Maybe, if it's something I really really want, I will haggle to get a good deal. But I will not buy items I do not need because it is cheap. So, we simply went around the 5 floors (pretty big) and came back down straight to the Metro station.
Went back to The MixC mall to buy some groceries at Ole then returned to the hotel to get some rest.
Later we will check out the other mall at Dongmen.
This has to be to most convenient travel we had: Walked from the Tsim Sha Tsui metro station (underground) to connect to the East Tsim Sha Tsui station where the KCR (Kowloon-Canton Railway) starts for its daily, 4-minute apart, trips to Lo Wu (the station near the border to Shenzhen, China) - took about 45-50 minutes (compared to the 2 hours by boat).
We got to see the New Territories along the way, lots of high-rises but with more space in between.
Rain was pouring when we arrived at Lo Wu station. Fortunately, the station is directly connected to the Hong Kong and China immigrations building. We had to turn in our departure card (which we filled out when we arrived in Hong Kong) to the immigration officer, then walked across the border (more like a passageway between buildings) to fill out another form (entry/health card) to submit to the Chinese immigration officer. We had a double-entry visa (which allows us to stay up to 30 days per entry) because we stopped by Hong Kong first before going to Shenzhen. We could have stayed another 30 days but we didn't plan for this and we need to start the developments in our beach property in San Juan.
The Immigrations building is connected to the main shopping center everyone who comes to Shenzhen goes to, Luohu Shopping Center, and to the Metro station as well as the Coach station.
We followed the signs to the Metro station. Got a trans card (same as the Octopus and Traffica cards) for ease in taking the Metro. They have 2 Metro Lines (for now). Line A begins right there at the railway station. We asked the Info lady where the nearest stop to the tallest building in Shenzhen, she said "Garden Theater" stop. Got down to where the trains area and looked at the sign saying "Garden Theater" only to find out that there are only Chinese and Pinyin on the route plan. At least one of the maps which had the English name had the Chinese characters on them too, we simply looked for the character that is the same. Found it later - Da Ju Yuan station.
Arrived at Da ju Yuan station and both Peter and I were caught by surprise when all the signs and maps only had Chinese characters in them - no pinyin! We only knew the pinyin (romanized version of the Chinese words), even then the way they say it is totally different. Peter asked the ticket officer to show in the map where Yan He Dong lu was, he pointed to the railway station. We tried to keep calm and decided to just get out of the station and find that tallest building.
We got out through the nearest exit and found ourselves diagonally across the tallest building, Diwang Da Sha, right at the main road - it was nice and sunny by this time. Our hotel's direction was simply "just one street opposite of the tallest building." Now this could mean anywhere. At least the street signs had pinyin, thank God! So we crossed the street (the same block as the Diwang Da Sha) via the subway then asked the newspaper stand girl where Yan He Dong Lu was. No luck. She couldn't understand at all. Next, Peter asked the street cleaning lady and she kind of understood him and directed us to go straight up (using her raised palm motioning to go there) then slightly right and somewere there. Okay, at least we got a direction. So we crossed back to the same side of the road we were one earlier but on the opposite side. Went to the next block up and through a smaller road in between the buildings. Asked another guard there and he sort of knew where it was and directed us to go cross the river and over there somewhere. As luck would have it, right where we were I saw the huge sign in the building across the river, He Dong Hotel. Yipee! We found it! It is located right along the river next to the World Finance Center.
This hotel is pretty cheap, probably 2-3 stars. For a three day stay in a twin room we paid about 640 yuan (compared to Hong Kong's 450 yuan/night). We also get to borrow a computer here in our room for only 30 yuan per day - now that's really cheap (amounts to less than 2 yuan/hour). Plus, we are right here in the center of the city.
We had brunch at the nearby The MixC mall before going up to the tallest building (connected via the subway with the mall) and saw how huge Shenzhen was. It was a good way of orienting ourselves with the city's areas. Now we know that where we are now is just north/west of the railway station. We were also to see the areas of the Hong Kong side.
Back at The MixC mall, we went to Honeymoon Dessert for my usual Snow White Sago while Peter had the glutinous rice and durian in coconut milk ice. Yum!
Next, we took the Metro back to Luohu Shopping Center to see why everyone (like the Filipinas in Hong Kong) comes here to shop. It is simply like a better version of Greenhills Mall in Quezon City. Clothes, bags, shoes, food, electronics, manicure, massage, tailoring, etc. are found here. No price on items so you will have to haggle to get a very good deal. Unfortunately, I am not the shopping-for-deals-type of person. Maybe, if it's something I really really want, I will haggle to get a good deal. But I will not buy items I do not need because it is cheap. So, we simply went around the 5 floors (pretty big) and came back down straight to the Metro station.
Went back to The MixC mall to buy some groceries at Ole then returned to the hotel to get some rest.
Later we will check out the other mall at Dongmen.
posted by Mimi | 10:59 PM
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