JAPAN - ODAIBA

Japan is one of my favorite country , but I only have been to there once long time ago when i was small. I went to Tokyo and all I remember is Hello Kitty Land, Snoopy Land and Disney Land. Japan is now more attractive than before, it opens up lots of new shopping center and many amazing attractions. 


This post is going to be a little bit different from the others that i posted, since this is my best friend experience, I asked her to let me share her experience and I would love to share her recommendation to you!


Aqua City Odaiba:


Aqua City is a famous shopping center in Tokyo, it is next to the Odaiba Kaihin Park, if you travel to Tokyo it is a place that you must visit at least once, since around the shopping center there is also some attraction around  including the Odaiba Kaihin Park that I've just mentioned, also the Fuji Television building and Odaiba Shrine and the Rainbow Bridge. This is a collection of  places which can satisfy people who want to relax and sightseeing also interested in shopping.

Fuji Television:

You can find lots of Japanese drama goods in the Fuji Television building, the photo of the blue dog is the mascot of Fuji Television called ラフ君 (lafu kun) , you can see lots of ラフ君 around the building , and you can take pictures with him. 




The Fuji Television building is just opposite to the Aqua city , it is very easy to regonise since it has a "planet" on the top of the building.


Here is a wonderful place that if you are interested in media.




Rainbow Bridge:


The rainbow Bridge is another famous attraction in Odaiba, it is best to visit at night and you can see the beautiful sight of the bridge, Tokyo tower and the liberty status as the same time.
Here is some photos .

P.S. all photo copyright goes to the original phototaker

Capital City of Australia: Canberra

Canberra is a capital city of Australia with a population of more than 300,000. The city is excellent destination for museum addicts, with wonderful fine art and historical collections.

 Museum of Australian Democracy

If you want to know more about the history of Australia, you can go to Museum of Australian Democracy. The museum's exhibits place Australia's tradition in the context of the broader history of democracy, spanning the globe over two millennia.

Autumn in Canberra

If you go to Canberra in between April and May, you may find out many beautiful  red or yellow maple trees. Autumn is my famous season, the weather in Autumn not too hot and not too cold, and you travel to Canberra, you can enjoy a relax autumn by enjoying the maple trees. In ANU (The Australian National University) it is a wonderful place to enjoy maple trees.

Not only in ANU, you can enjoy maple trees anywhere in Canberra during April.

When you go to Canberra by driving your car, you can still enjoy many beautiful view of Canberra, this will give you a easy holiday when you are in Canberra.

 Hope you will interest in Canberra after reading this post! :))

Yummy Guangzhou

In this post, I would like to introduce my home town - Guangzhou to you. There is a phrase "Food is the paramount necessity of the people." to describe Canton people. This is because Cantonese really like foods and understand how to cook or eat a food can find out the best taste of it.
Therefore, if you go to visit Guangzhou, you must to try the Cantonese foods and some street snacks.
In Guangzhou, if you want to know about the history of Guangzhou, you can go to YueXiu Park, there has a statue which is five goats. This represent Guangzhou and this is reason for why Guangzhou has another name called "City of Rams". Also if you want to visit some modern building in Guangzhou, you can go to Flower City Square, there has a new Canton Tower which is the highest building in Guangzhou.

But the scenery of Guangzhou is not the important part that I want to introduce to day. Foods in Guangzhou is me really want to introduce to you!
If you want to  have experience about to be a local Cantonese, you should try this food stall "Chen Tian Ji". This is a food stall which has a history, its fish skin and Tangzai Porridge you must to try! And its only $3.71..!!!! It is SOOOO cheap..!!!




There are the TangZai porridge, fish skins with peanut and rice noddle roll with soy source. There are the famous foods of this food stall. Not only local Cantonese like this food stall, but also many foreign visitors come to Guangzhou they must go to there to have a try!







Also, I would like to introduce to you a street snack called "Put Choi Ko". This is my famous snack in Guangzhou. It is a rice cake with many different flavor such as red bean, pineapple, strawberry etc.

There still have many interesting places and many yummy foods waiting for you to discover! Hope you interest in Guangzhou after you read this post! :))

A trip to Melbourne (2)

Last post, I've talked about the Phillip Island chocolate factory, in this post I will talk about the Nature Park in Phillip Island and some other places.

Phillip Island Nature Park:
The famous attraction in the Nature Park is the watch the Penguin Parade as this is almost the landmark for Phillip Island.See here, advisement of Tenpin Bowling uses Penguin to promote as well.

Here is the entrance road to the Phillip Island Nature Park.
   
The photo on the left are the sign to remind the drivers to check under their car that make sure there is no little penguin under it, as the whole park is a open wildlife environment, penguin can go anywhere and sometimes if they lost their way home by accident they might be in dangerous if they ran into the car park.

One thing that has to notice is you are not allow to use camera to take photo of those penguin when you start walking into the viewing platform, there will be a notice sign to remind you in different languages.
Inside the park there are some shop where you can buy some souvenirs,some cafes; you can also take pictures with penguins using technology with Photoshop there. There is also a corner that you can pay and rent for a iPod which have details instructions and information about the penguin parade with different languages installed.

Sovereign Hill :

 

Sovereign Hill is a outdoor museum, which re-create the decade after the discovery of gold. Staff in Sovereign dress up in those decade, horses are around, visitor can pay to experience the horse carriages as well.

Some special activities such as watching a melting gold performance is one of it.

People can take picture during the performance, it have different languages which convince visitors and tourists.

There is also some activities that allows visitors to experience of panning golds , and you can take away the gold that you've panned. Near the  Red Hill Gully Diggings (the place when you pan golds), there is a little shop that sells a little bottle with water init which let you put the golds that you find into it so you can keep it. Here is the bottle that I panned with my family.

The Twelve Apostles:

The Twelve Apostles is another famous attraction in Melbourne, the Ocean road has a great sight of view about nature. The Twelve Apostles are actually striking stones that are standing out in the seas, the rocks are formed by erosion, visitors can walk to the peak of mountain to see this amazing view, or they can pay to watch this view though the helicopters. 

Shanghai: A Largest City of China

Shanghai is the largest city by population of China, with a total population over 23 million of 2010 and it is a global city. Also, in 2010, there was a World Expo in Shanghai. I have been to Shanghai in the end of 2010, I felt that Shanghai is a combine archaic and modern styles city. But honestly, the evening in Shanghai is more beautiful than the morning in Shanghai. :P

The Bund
The bund is a famous scenery of Shanghai, you can find out different views from two sides of the bund.
If you view from PuXi, you can see the Oriental Pearl Tower, and If you view from Pudong, you can see some archaic buildings. That is a different feel of Shanghai.

The view from PuDong

The view from Puxi

City God Temple  

City God Temple is a temple located in Shanghai, within the old walled city. You can feel the archaic feeling in here and taste a lot of famous foods of Shanghai in here.

 

 Also, there is a Pavilions and teahouses in city god temple, you will feel like you are in ancient times of China

When you feel tired in City God Temple, you also can taste a tea in a famous tea shop "Hu Xin Ting"
There are many different kinds of tea you can try, such as rose tea, jasmine tea etc.

 Hope you will enjoy in this post! :)) I will introduce my home town Guangzhou to you in the next post, Please looking forward to it!

A trip to MELBOURNE!

MELBOURNE  is one of the most popular city that people will travel in their visit to Australia.

There are various of things that you can do in Melbourne. If you are looking for something that back to nature and something fun, Phillip Island will be a good choice.

Phillip Island, is one of the well-know attraction in Melbourne.
You can go to the Pannys Phillip Island Chocolate Factory and the Phillip Island Nature Park.

Pannys Phillip Island Chocolate Factory:
In this chocolate factory, you are able to try and taste the handmade chocolates, of course you can purchase them if you want.There is also include a chocolate art gallery, where all of the art work are made of chocolate. If you are not a chocolate fan, you can still enjoy a cup of coffee inside the Cafe, and waiting for your kids to finish exploring and spending their joy in the factory.


    

These are some artwork that made of chocolate!! 

      

These are some chocolate displays. The photo on the left shows different displays when you press the button, and the last button will show this (the photo shows) and with screaming sound effect. The photo on the right is a displays of chocolate waterfall, as the sign says "400 kg of Chocolate" will "fall down" in every 3 minutes.

You can also try to make one chocolate using the machine provided, all you has to do is move the machine in 5 seconds to draw out the shape that the chocolate you want. While you are moving it, the melt chocolate will also move along, after that you can go to the end and wait for you own chocolate. This is the chocolate that i made, can you see what is it? BINGO, it's a STAR!! =]]

Another attraction - Phillip Island Nature Park will be introduce in the next post! Please look forward to it.

Hunter Valley: An Amazing Wine Country

I have been to Hunter Valley three weeks ago, it is a GREAT place for people to spend their holidays. Hunter Valley is only two hours drive from Sydney, it is not far for people who want to have a quite weekends.As Hunter Valley is known as Wine Country, there a many vineyards and factories to produce wine. Also, the serene beauty and tranquility of the area give the Hunter Valley the feeling of quiet country charm, but with all the mod cons.

Vineyards of Hunter Valley:

You are not only can taste different kinds of wine in Hunter Valley, but also you can visit the Chocolate bar or Oyster bar in Hunter Valley, I guess you will find the different impression of Hunter Valley.

If you feel tired, I would like to suggest you to find a restaurant to enjoy the local and yummy food in Hunter Valley, to spend your lazy afternoon. After the lunch, you can choose to drive back to Sydney or wherever you come OR choose to stay in Hunter Valley to enjoy a quite evening with your family or lover. :)

Hallyu Wave: South Korea

South Korea. Having created what is known as a Hallyu Wave, the spread of Korean culture through out the world is becoming increasingly popular around the world with people of all ages, namely teens and young adults. "Cultural exports – including films, comics and computer games – hit a record $4.2bn last year, up from $2.6bn in 2009", obviously showing the rapid rise in interest with Korean culture.
Many know it for their technology and popular music, but what else is there that makes Korea such a fascinating country? 

Being a country that has rapidly grown from poverty to being one of the most flourishing countries in the world, I will show you various tourist destinations to visit if you're planning to go there, and if you're not, I'll try my best to persuade you to want to pay a visit to the bustling country of South Korea.
There are two cities in Korea that I visited, Jeju and Seoul. Jeju, being an island created from volcanic ash, a great and relaxing honeymoon destination; and Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, ideal for shoppaholics and people with an interest with history.  



Question for the readers: Have you been caught by the Hallyu Wave? If so, what made you so interested with this country? 


Watch out for my next blog post on Jeju, the amazing island created completely by a volcano.


Christy