Shenzhen - The Gate of China I

DAY 3
Hari ini kami check out dari hotel menuju ke Shenzhen. Tapi sebelum tu, singgah di Bao Mao Garden. Segala taman la kami aga kan.

Berbanding shopping, I think China more worth to visit gardens. They take good care of the park. Its well maintained despite the huge size.

yang tinggi tu my sister in law. the centre 3 my sisters.

We went on Saturday so they were lots of school kids making lawatan. There was a stall selling fish feed, so you can go around feeding the fish. Aku suspek dorang sengaja nda kasi makan ni ikan-ikan dari kemarin sebab begitu ramai public kasi feed pun masih berebut juga ni ikan.

We continued to Shenzhen and the first stop is a shopping mall called Fumen. Not interesting at all. (Potong markah guide.)

Next to a Jade factory. No photos allowed inside. It's a building curiously consists of multiple chambers. First a general greeting outside, then we're brough through a door, where a senior assistant welcome us and launched to a detailed explaination on the history of jade, the grade and how to differentiate fake from genuine, then through another door, where we're showed the collection of sculptured jades. She has perfect English by the way. A nice change. For 2 days, we struggled to communicate. No one speak English in Guangzhou. Not ONE tiny bit of English. Kind of baffling. Macam mana tu aa? mustahil nda tengok cerita orang putih ka, dengar lagu english ka..basic like color, big,small ..itu pun dorang nda faham. But Shenzhen a bit modern, thank God, itu pun the ones yang very educated saja like this jade personnel. Elsewhere payah juga.

So back to the jade. I've never seen some of the unique ones, like the moonlight jade. Its creamy in color and the surface is freckled and if u shine a light it becomes translucent and look just like a moon. Its best placed near a computer as it absorbs heat and may reduce exposure to radiation. Fascinating.

Then we walked through yet another door where on the other side, there were already a few groups earlier than us. It's the chamber where they sell the jewellery jades. Suddenly its like we burst into a fish market. The noise, as everyone haggled the price and salesgirls pulled you to see this and that, its chaos. Me and sis fell in love with a rare purple jade. Later the detail. Suffice to say, we blew our budget.

They served tea in another hall (for the group who made purchases only I suspect). Interesting. We were served 5 different types of tea. There was one which is naturally sweet without sugar and no trace of tea-bitterness. Don't remember the names.

We had dinner at 6.30pm at a Mongolian muslim restaurant. Dont have pics here. Around 8pm we checked in to a new hotel, Lee Garden Inn. Guide advised us it's worth to browse Dongmen area where we stayed, can get some bargains but we were bit tired. I went down just a while with my younger sis to get some shirts, we only brought enough for 3 days. Out in the street we encountered some middle eastern (macam Lebanese) hawkers selling nougats in pulled carts. Homemade. Sedapnya. 25 yuan for half kilo. How on earth did they end up in Shenzen?

to be continued....