Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, is one of the world’s fastest growing metropolitan areas in the recent years. During the British rule from early 19th century to the 1930s, many Chinese immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong provinces came to Malaysia (or Malaya back then) to escape poverty and to seek better lives. Most Malaysian Chinese today, including us, are descended of this wave of immigrants, considered the largest influx of immigration to Malaysia.

Although we didn’t have much time for sightseeing, we managed to cover a few well known attractions. Sanfang Qixiang, included in UNESCO’s Tentative List, is largest well-preserved historical heritage site in China. Dubbed as “The Beverly Hills of imperial China”, we visited the Huang Mansion, considered the most impressive building structure in that area. Our relatives were very gracious to drive a few of us to Drum Hill after we expressed our desires to visit that area. They brought us to visit several attractions in this wonderful national park.

It was an incredible way to end our 13-day trip in China. After 10 days of guided tours, most of us were tired of predictable meals, crowded areas and long walks. Our remaining time in Fuzhou was very relaxing. We had plenty of rest. We tried many spectacular Fuzhou dishes. The elders were able to spend quality time with the relatives. Some of us managed to squeeze more shopping opportunities. Most importantly, our relatives from Fuzhou went above and beyond to make all of us feel very welcomed.

A couple of observations…

• With Fuzhou being the closest city to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, the possibility of China’s reunification of Taiwan seems to be lingering in my mind. China recently unveiled the plan to build the world’s longest undersea railway tunnel to connect the mainland and Taiwan. With the two country leaders not seeing eye-to-eye at the moment and there are enough chatters about deploying military troops in Fuzhou in case of war, I can’t help to wonder how dire the current situation is.
• Knowing how extensive Fuzhou is under constant surveillance, the local citizens are taking it rather seriously. There was one instance where our relatives tried to coordinate amongst themselves to chauffeur all of us around with multiple vehicles and we told them we didn’t mind squeezing another person at the backseat. We were then told there cannot be more than 3 individuals at the backseat. They won’t even park their vehicles at the parallel parking slots if the vehicle cannot fit nicely in the white box. There are plenty of motion sensor cameras installed above most driving lanes where the strobe light flashes once every time a vehicle passes by. It was rather disorientating and nauseating to see constant flashing strobe lights during high traffic at night.

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In Hangzhou, we had the opportunity to taste and buy Longjing (Dragon Well) Tea, the most famous green tea in China… so famous that it was once recognized as the “Imperial Tea” during the Qing Dynasty (221-206 BC). We spent half a day wandering around the West Lake. As part of the first batch of national parks announced in 1982, the West Lake is also recognized as the UNESCO World Heritage Site for its garden design influences in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries. The lake is so big that we only managed to cover a small part of the scenic spots. We also spent half a day visiting Xixi National Wetland Park, the first national wetland park in China.

From Hangzhou, we took the 4-hour bullet train ride to Fuzhou, our last destination in China.

The chronological events that occurred between Hangzhou and Fuzhou was by far the most stressful experience throughout our entire trip in China:

• Although we arrived earlier than scheduled at Hangzhou East Railway Station in effort to sort out the train ticket problems I experienced when traveling from Beijing to Shanghai, we still nearly missed our journey to Fuzhou. The ticket employee refused to issue my ticket due to the error made by the tour agency and was adamant that I would need to purchase another ticket at later date and time. The whole scene after that was very chaotic, which involved countless of phone calls, running around, convincing the security officers that I paid for the ticket and finding other group members in the crowded station. In the end, I managed to board the train with everyone else.
• Four station stops prior to our arrival in Fuzhou, I lost my seat to a fellow passenger who boarded the train later and was assigned to the same seat. Apparently, my unissued ticket was resold a few hours later. Instead of causing any commotion, Tony and I took turn standing at the hallway for an hour until arrival.
• Upon our arrival at the hotel, we discovered the tour agency had made a last minute change to our trip itinerary without informing us and booked a different hotel located outside the town center in the name of “upgrade”. Exhausted, hungry and furious, we stood our ground, literally and figuratively, at the hotel lobby for more than 1.5 hours arguing on the phone with the tour agency to revert this change. In the end, we prevailed but it certainly left a bad taste in our mouths dealing with this tour agency. A good and hard lesson learned is… if the tour agency decides to “upgrade” your hotel, it means they are trying to make more profits by making you stay in a secluded area.

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From Xitang, we traveled another 2 hours to Suzhou, a city famous for its exquisite classical Chinese gardens. Out of 69 well-preserved classical gardens dating back to 600 AD, 9 of them are recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We visited 2 of these gardens: Couple’s Retreat Garden and Lion Grove Garden. During our 2-night stay in Suzhou, we also visited Tiger Hill, a scenic area with more than 2500 years of history, and 2 shopping streets: Guanqian Street and Shantang Street.

A couple of observations…

• Things seem to be moving at a slower pace in Suzhou than in Beijing or Shanghai. Beijing is at least 2 times larger than Suzhou in population and Shanghai is at least 4 times larger than Suzhou in population. That said, to put things into perspective, the city of Suzhou has similar population size (~5 million) as the state of Minnesota.
• We realized our trip itinerary issued by the tour agency was slightly different from the tour guide’s version. Initially, we were supposed to stay a night in Suzhou and 2 nights in Hangzhou. However, after being convinced by the tour guide that we would still be able to cover all the attractions plus an additional attraction in Hangzhou, we stayed 2 nights in Suzhou and a night in Hangzhou instead. This way, we rested better after a long eventful day in Suzhou instead of arriving late at night in Hangzhou.

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We spent the entire morning wandering along the Shanghai Old Street and its vicinity. This street is structured in a way to show progression of architectural styles from different periods: the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and finally, the early republic with influences from the European culture. While there are century-old establishments embedded here, most of them do not have significant historical values. At the Yuyuan Bazaar, we split up into smaller groups to explore at our own leisure. Based on high recommendation from Angelina’s dad, we followed him to visit the Yu Garden. A few of us also made a quick dash to the Old City God Temple before hopping on the bus.

In the afternoon, the bus dropped us off along the Nanjing Road, a century-old shopping street in Shanghai. From there, we strolled our way to the Bund before using the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel to get across the Huangpu River to the Pudong district. Pudong has several iconic skyscrapers, including the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Shanghai Tower. We spent a few hours exploring the Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Municipal History Museum, located at the base of the tower.

We ended our day with an evening river cruise along the Huangpu River to watch the spectacular light show and Shanghai skyline. Everyone was exhausted and slept during an hour ride back to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel at 10 PM. Based on our initial tour itinerary, we were supposed to visit the Oriental Pearl Tower the next morning. Nevertheless, we were glad to be able to cover all these attractions without extending another half day because the traffic in Shanghai was horrendous.

A couple of observations…

• While Beijing has many traditional hutongs and historical sites, Shanghai seems to be on the opposite end of that spectrum. Being the 3rd largest cities in the world with more than 25 million of population, Shanghai is an incredibly modern city that has experienced rapid growth since the mid 90s where more and more old buildings are being demolished to make way for new development.
• Our tour guide shared many stories about life in China. One fascinating story that sticks on my mind was while Shanghai has worse traffic than Beijing, most people tend to obey the traffic rules here. Breaking the law, such as running red light or jaywalking, means they will get points deducted from their social credit scores. First announced in 2014, China plans to rank all its citizens based on their “social credit” by 2020. This Orwellian-like system has been piloted in various cities in the country, including Shanghai. Citizens with high scores may enjoy better social privileges and economic benefits while those with low scores may face complications, such as travel ban or exclusion from top schools.

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During our first 5 days in Beijing, we visited 4 UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Forbidden City, Great Wall of China (Juyongguan section), Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven. We also covered Tiananmen Square, Jingshan Park, Beijing Olympic Park, Silk Market, Wangfujing Pedestrian Street, Shichahai and Yandai Byway.

Beijing is famous for its hutongs. These hutongs showed us a glimpse of the old China where the traditional courtyard houses laid out along the narrow alleys hundreds of years ago during the Ming and Qing dynasty eras (1368-1912). We explored several hutongs by rickshaw and by foot, including Zhanzi Hutong, Daxiangfeng Hutong, Nanguanfang Hutong, Qiangan Hutong and Dashibei Hutong. We did not visit Nanluoguxiang because some of us were tired.

On our final day in Beijing, we took the G3 bullet train ride to Shanghai, which took 4.5 hours to cover a total distance of 800+ miles.

A couple of observations…

• This is a very special trip… our first ever trip with Angelina’s family members and relatives, let alone an international trip. Yes, we didn’t cover many places in detail. Yes, we spent more time looking out for one another to make sure everyone didn’t get lost in busy areas. Yes, we had to tolerate with 13 opinions every time we make any decisions. And yes, we didn’t get to try enough local cuisines because we ate at the same hotel restaurant too many times. In the end, was it worth it? Absolutely so… wholeheartedly. We honestly had a very memorable and priceless experience, spending quality time with the loved ones while exploring new places together, having meals together, sharing jokes and laughters… a genuine camaraderie that money simply cannot buy. Furthermore, it doesn’t hurt that all of them speak way more fluent Mandarin than me, which was a big plus during the trip since that is the most widely spoken language in China.
• I personally experienced a few stressful complications moving around in China. Upon arrival at Beijing Capital International Airport, I was stuck at the immigration area for nearly an hour but I was allowed to enter the country without any reasons given. My bullet train ticket to Shanghai couldn’t be issued because the tour agency mistyped my passport number when booking the ticket. It took the tour guide many phone calls with his supervisor and many more frantic discussions with several high-ranking officers at the railway station to allow me through the gate without a ticket.
• Our phone’s network, Google Fi, worked flawlessly with LTE speed in China. We were able to bypass the “Great Firewall of China” and access forbidden sites, such as Google, YouTube and Facebook, without the need to buy any local SIM card or sign up any VPN subscription since Google Fi provides seamless VPN by default.
• GPS doesn’t work well in China because China uses GCJ-02 coordinate system (oddly known as Mars Coordinates) while the rest of the world use WGS-84. So, anything plotted on the non-Chinese map apps such as Google Maps is always 300m to 600m off from the actual location.
• The electric vehicles (EV) are widely used here. China is truly decades ahead from the rest of the world in EV usage. The electric bikes are very quiet, stealthy and at times, very dangerous especially when the riders sneak up behind the pedestrians without any warnings because most of them didn’t turn on the lights to conserve the batteries.
• Digital payments is deeply integrated with all aspects of life in China. Most establishments will accept either Alipay or WeChat Pay, or both. Even in small grocery stores, the cashier will scan the barcode or QR code on the customer’s phone. The local folks rarely pay with cash. Credit card payment is almost non existence here.
• We were fully prepared to deal with the infamous misbehaviors by a few bad local apples. So, it didn’t surprise us to witness obnoxiously loud and rude people, or to see people shoving and pushing in attempt to cut the queues. Pedestrian walk signs and zebra crossings were not respected. Crossing the road is like playing Frogger… it always gave me these tingling sensations that one of us was about to get hit by the vehicles.
• Being a city with more than 3000 years of history, Beijing has many world class historical sites. The downside is, these attractions also attract a lot of local tourists. At times, it was very difficult to enjoy these attractions in peace due to sheer size of the crowds.

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