Best Place to enjoy free fireworks at Hong Kong harbour

Hong Kong fireworks festivals are legendary, watching as thousands of bright lights explode over the world's most beautiful harbour is simply a mesmerizing experience, one you should not miss if you happen to be in Hong Kong during one of these occasions.

The most favourite spot to watch is from the Tsim Sha Tsui side with the Central Skyline in the background, you can watch all along the Promenade and the Avenue of the Stars from the Star Ferry Terminal to the New World Centre in the East.

Chinese New Year: The most popular of Chinese festivals, Chinese New Year falls on January or February in the Western calendar. Fireworks are an essential part of the celebrations and in Hong Kong the New Year is greeted with an extraordinary 25 to 30 minute production which can be seen from both sides of the Harbour.

These are some of the best outdoor free spots to watch the fireworks in Hong Kong:

Here the photo was taken at the Hung Hom ferry pier which has less crowds than at Tsim Sha Tsui area. We arrived at Hung Hom ferry pier after the fireworks had started for 10 minutes, and we still can see this view below.

Stone Forest from Kunming - Journal Day 7 of 8

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It is very easy to go to Stone Forest from Kunming. 

We started from our hotel at around 09:00 am, taking a taxi to Kunming Eastern Bus Station (昆明东部汽车客运站), then you can see the big sign at the entrance "Stone Forest Express Bus Ticket Hall". Make sure to buy the ticket to the new Stone Forest Bus Terminal (which is only 300m away to the Stone forest ticket entrance). Normally you need to wait for around 10 - 30 minutes to catch the bus.

The bus ticket is RMB34/person. Travel time from Kunming to Stone Forest is about 1 and half hour (depend on traffic).

Stone Forest 

Known since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) as the 'First Wonder of the World. An old local saying says that 'If you have visited Kunming without seeing the Stone Forest, you have wasted your time.' Truly, the site is one of the most important attractions of Yunnan. 

Major Stone Forest, Minor Stone Forest and Naigu Stone Forest, all of which feature stones in various formations. Animals, plants, and even human figures can be found here. Some are elegant, some are rugged, and each is lifelike with its own distinguishing characteristics. 

In the heart of the Stone Forest, there is a very special stone called the Ashima stone. Legend has it that this stone was once a beautiful woman named Ashima, which literally translates as “more precious than gold”.

Many beautiful legends originate in this magical place, passed along by the native people known as Sani, a branch of the Yi ethnic group. Yi people were one of 56 of the nationalities in China. One particular story about the faithful love of Ashima, a beautiful, clever and warm-hearted Sani girl, is the most popular and has been told for thousands of years. The Sani people celebrate their national festival - the Torch Festival - every lunar year on June 24. 

Ashima, Folktale from the Yi people of Yunnan

Once upon a time, a girl was born in a poor Yi family. The parents hoped the girl would be as beautiful as flowers and as shiny as gold. They named her Ashima.

When Ashima grew up, she was very beautiful. Many young Chinese men were attracted by her singing and dancing. But Ashima was in love with Ahei, who was a brave and wise young man. They were engaged to each other at one of the torch festivals for Yi people.

One day, when Ashima was on the market, she met the son (Azhi) of the village leader. Azhi thought Ashima was very pretty. He wanted Ashima to marry him instead of Ahei. Azhi was very rich, and Ahei was very poor. Still, Ashima loved only Ahei and wanted to marry him.

When the fall came, Ahei had to leave the village to work in the field. When he was gone, Azhi kidnapped Ashima and forced her to marry him. Ashima cried and insisted she loved only Ahei. This made Azhi very angry. He whipped Ashima until her whole body hurt. Still, Ashima believed Ahei would come to rescue her.

When Ahei heard about Ashima’s kidnapping, he rode his horse home without delay. When he got to Azhi’s door, Azhi would not let him in to see Ashima. Then, Azhi proposed a song contest with Ahei. The contest lasted for three days and three nights. Ahei won the contest, and Azhi had to open the door for him.

After the contest, Azhi asked Ahei to stay overnight in his house. He promised to let Ahei leave the next morning and take Ashima with him. However, it was a trick. During the night, Azhi unleashed three tigers to kill Ahei. But Ahei was ready for the attack, and killed the three tigers with three arrows. The next morning, when Azhi found all the dead tigers, he allowed Ashima and Ahei to leave together.

But Azhi did not give up. He wanted to kill Ashima since he could not keep her. When Ashima and Ahei were playing by a river, Azhi used his power to flood the river. Ashima was drowned. Ahei could not find her. He kept calling Ashima’s name, but he heard only his echo.

Ashima was turned into the river stones. Later, whenever Ahei missed Ashima, he would face the stones and call out Ashima’s name and talk to her. He always heard the echo of a response. In this way, Ahei lived with his beloved Ashima forever.

New Year's eve in Kunming - Journal Day 6 of 8

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We were taking the morning flight from Shangri-La to Kunming.

It's only 15 minutes drive by taxi from Dukezong Ancient Town to Diqing Shangri-La Airport (DIG).

It's not a big airport, but it's not small too, there are souvenirs shops and restaurants that we can have our breakfast there.

New year's eve in Kunming

There were no much things to do to spend new year's eve in China, especially in Kunming, (do not expect fireworks....) and even some hotels don't have any special events, so we went to the Green Lake that night which had one event at The Park Bar and Grill with live music until new year's countdown.

Location The Park Bar and Grill 

Green Lake Park (Cui Hu Park)

Telp : 15368171162

There are a lot of food stalls and drinks with the famous Yunnan's special Shangrila beer stalls outside the bar that we can choose while enjoying the live music. 

Live music starts from 7:30 till 12:30 pm. 

And the good things was free entry to enjoy the music during new year's eve!

Shangri-La "the Eden in Dream" - Journal Day 5 of 8 - Songzanlin Monastery, Potatso (Pudacuo) National Park

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Songzanlin Monastery 

Songzanlin Monastery or The Ganden Sumtsenling Monastery, it is at elevation 3,380 metres has another alias - 'the little Potala Palace ', so named because the whole monastery is in the traditional style with mysterious atmosphere.

The entrance ticket is RMB115/person, and to get to the Monastery, you need to take free yellow bus for about 15 minutes near the ticket office, or you can take public blue bus no. 3 from the city.

Built in 1679, the monastery is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan province. Located in the capital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, it is also the most important monastery in southwest China.

The Monastery was the highlight of the visit to Shangri-La. Be prepared for a climb to the top - there are many stairs. It is very interesting to walk through the Monastery at the summit, and the view across the plain is worth the effort. Although it was not easy to climb a few hundreds steps in high altitude with low oxygen.

If you have time, take a walk around the lake, which you can see the wooden path near the lake in front of the Monastery entrance, where you can get some amazing photos of the monastery reflecting on the lake. It only takes about 30 min to walk around the entire lake.

Potatso (Pudacuo) National Park

In Sanscrit, "Pota" means the same as "Putuo" in Buddhism, while "Cuo" means "lake" in Tibetan language. "Potatso" therefore means "a lake which releases living beings from suffering".

It located about 13.5 miles (22km) southwest and 40 minutes drive from Shangri-la downtown area. It is renowned for well-preserved primitive landscape, which is endowed with lakes, wetlands, forests, meadows, streams, brooks, rare plants and animals. 

The ticket fare is RMB258 (including RMB138 admission fee and RMB120 sightseeing bus fee). 

In the park, there are three main scenic areas open to visitors: Shudu Lake in the north, Bita Lake in the south, and Militang Alpine Pasture in the middle. The sightseeing buses run among these scenic spots and stop at fixed stations. Passengers can get on and off freely with one ticket.

Shudu Lake is the first stop of sightseeing bus, It is about almost half hour bus ride from the sightseeing bus stop from the park entrance. The lake was frozen when we came there in end of December.

 

At Militang Alpine Pasture, people are only given 10 minutes for shooting and viewing the grandeur grassland while bused on route from Shudu Lake to Bita Lake. Militang in Tibetan dialect means "Buddha's-eye grassland". It is a famous highland pasture in Shangri-La.

The last stop of the travel route is Bitahai Lake, which is located in the south part of the park. It is the key scenic spot of this park. The altitude of the lake surface is 3, 539 meters above sea level.

Giant Prayer Wheel

We arrived at the old town in the afternoon, and after finished dinner near the old town, we went to The giant prayer wheel just next to the Dukezong Ancient Town. And it is time for us to say good bye to our nice driver as she will return back to Lijiang, and we could walk back to our hotel and exploring the old town by ourself that night.

An eye-catching 24 meter (80-foot) tall golden prayer wheel sits on a hill. It has become an authentic building because local Buddhists now climb the hill to spin it to submit their prayers. When we got down to the carpark, there was very little time left to explore the ancient town. We went back to our hotel and explored the old town and found that most shops had closed.  So we directly go to our hotel, turned the heater in our room,  have a good sleep to prepare another journey to Kunming the next morning.

Shangri-La "the Eden in Dream" - Journal Day 4 of 8 - Lijiang, First Bend of Yangtze River, Stone Drum town, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangri-la

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Since it first appeared in British novelist James Hilton's Lost Horizon in the 1939, it has been associated with a mystique place which could not possibly exist here on Earth. In Tibetan, Shangri-La means the "sun and moon in heart", an ideal home only found in heaven.

We departed from Lijiang at 08:00 in the morning by renting a car with driver to Shangrila, and we booked her for 2 days trip at Shangri-La from Lijiang (yes...the driver is a lady, and she was super nice!! I would recommend her to anyone). 

It's about 175 kilometers (108.74 miles) from Lijiang to Shangri-La. At an average altitude of more than 3,000 meters (about 9,843 feet), this city is quite difficult to be reached. There are no railways leading there at this moment, the only transportation is by car or taking long distance bus.

On the way, our driver offered us to buy some apple which we saw some people selling on the side road, we stopped and the seller took us to his farm house to choose from there and we experience the most fresh apples that we ever taste, it was so juicy and sweet without any additional chemical which we can found at supermarket at the big cities.

The First Bend of the Yangtze River & Stone Drum town

After 1 and half hour drive from Lijiang, we stopped for a while at the photo spot of the first bend of Yangtze river, it is just next to the main road. Yangtze River, considers the mother river of China, flows majestically through the center of China and is the third longest river in the world.

We continue exploring the village near by from this first bend of Yangtze river, Stone Drum town, which is only few minutes away from the photo spot. Stone Drum Town is beside the First Bend of the Yangtze River. The reason for the name of the town is that there is a white marble monument in the shape of a drum in the town.

There is a famous iron chain bridge called Tiehong Bridge, it resembles the shape of a rainbow arching over the waves below, spanning across the river that flows along from the left side of Stone Drum Town. 

The iron chain bridge was built during the Qing Dynasty with wooden boards held onto the iron chains on the bottom as the flooring and on the both sides as fence to protect the walkers. 17 meters in length, people would be feeling a bit wiggling while on it, but it does send them back to the snapshots of history.

Stone Drum town was a significant and vitally strategic military area where many famous historical events have been taken place. It was here that Zhuge Liang, the famous and highly military strategist of the Three Kingdoms Period, chose to cross the Yangtze River and gain "battle advantage" over his opponents. 

The first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan, used this place for his expeditionary forces to ferry across the river. 

In April 1936, the Second Route of the Red Army, led by General He Long and Ren bishi, crossed the river here and continued to march north. There are memorials here honoring the people whose histories are entwined with the Stone Drum Town.

The road sign of some attractions around Shangri-La, we found on the way between first bend of Yangtze to Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hǔtiào Xiá)

We continued our journey around 1 hour drive to Tiger Leaping Gorge, we paid the entrance ticket for RMB65/person. When we arrived at the parking area, you already have a splendid view on the wild part of the river and the huge mountains that together form the Gorge.

A stair leads you down to the river, but keep in mind that it are in total 440 steps down and up again. 

In the middle of the smallest section of the river there is a big rock. It is told that at this point a chased tiger escaped a hunter by jumping over the river.

At a maximum depth of approximately 3790 meters (12434 feet) from river to mountain peak, Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the deepest and most spectacular river canyons in the world.

it's easy taking stairs down to see the main area of tiger gorge, but it hard and need some effort to go up by stairs to exit which is the only way to the parking area, so you will need to consider to take more time  to exit when you are with elderly people.

Journey to Shangri-La

After 2 hour drive from Tiger Gorge with amazing views of hills, tibetan villages, horses and yak on the meadow which you will see on the way to Shangri-La.

For some people might fell uncomfortable due to high altitude sickness. So, it's advisable to bring oxygen canister with you while you are in Shangri-La (can be bought in many supermarket/hotel around this area).

We stayed at the old town village, Dukezong (独克宗), and luckily car can get it to the old town, so it is more convenient for us to go to our hotel. 

Some of the old town now is under renovation due to big fire in early January in 2014, About half of the old town was destroyed by the fire, half was spared.

There were not much things to do at night in Shangri-La, so we decided to join Tibetan dinner house with singing show and dancing performance. It started at 19:30 and its a thoroughly engaging show, just that it's all in Chinese.  The food is cooked in a hot pot in front of you with vegetables and many kind of meat, served with drinks such as butter milk, traditional wine (very strong!!)

We learnt one word that night; "Zha-xi-de-le", then....drank a cup of local wine...bottoms up! and again!

Proposing a Toast and Tea :

Before you drink a toast proposed by Tibetans, you should moisten your index fingers with the liquor, flick this finger three times, and then say "Zha-xi-de-le". ("Zha-xi-de-le" means "as lucky as one's wishes" in Tibetan.) According to the Tibetan customs, you should sip three times and the host will refill your cup three times. After that, you ought to drink up. If you really can not stand much liquor, you can tell the host politely.

To be continue : Day 5...