Spring Flowers Called Viola

I have seen these colorful blooms in Shanghai, China in the beginning of the second quarter of last year. 

Violas at Nanjing Road, Shanghai

It was the start of Spring, hence these pretties are abundantly blossoming almost anywhere in Shanghai. I actually posted them before and just called it “Spring Flowers” because I do not know the name.

Violas at the entrance of Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai

Until, today when I google for “violas for students”. I was expecting for classical instruments because that’s the only Viola I know. Then I saw these flowers, the flowers I have only seen in China for the first time in my life and they are indeed spring flowers but this time with a name called “Viola”. 

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The Dragon Door Handles

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Because it is a happy celebration for our Chinese friends, might as well take you back to one of the ancient temples in China.

My last year’s trip in China, my first foreign trip ever was very unforgettable. The memories are still fresh and I can’t hide the fact that I am one lucky girl to be able to visit the country for free.

One of the few attractions that we visited in Shanghai was the Old Temple, you can read about it here. What I am featuring this time are the old doors painted in red and with dragon head design brass door handles.   

History tells us that, the dragon was used to symbolize the Emperor of China.  It is the a symbol of good luck, strength and power. This may be the reason why there a lot of things designed with dragon in it just like the door handles.

Over time many had changed, including the designs of furnitures and doors  or just everything. They are designed not just for decorative purposes but as well as to the function and durability, like the grant sliding door hardware. If I am to choose which door to install in my future home, I might choose the old style with a touch of modern.

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The City Temple of Shanghai

I thought I’ll be spending the remaining hours I had in Shanghai down and sick. Fortunately, after 2 hours of rest and sleep in the van my back to my old self and at the same time hungry, because I wasn’t able to eat my lunch. 

When Mr. Chen aka Logan came back from where he dropped off the rest of the group, I asked him if he can take me to the nearest fast food particularly KFC. That time I needed something to eat that is not Chinese cuisine.  Logan took me to KFC near the Old Temple of Shanghai, which surprisingly just walking distance from where we had our lunch. I thank him for taking me there and that he can leave me alone, since I already know where the meeting place will be. But Logan insisted to take me to KFC and that he’ll be the one to order for me, I gave in, after all it will be easier for me because I can talk in English then he will translate it to the crew. After, that I told him he can go back to the van, and I’ll take care of the rest. 

The burger + soft drink satisfied my hunger, and I’m now ready to explore the area. The wind was chilling and I wasn’t able to grab a much thicker coat. I went to the Old Temple of Shanghai, peeking through the open spaces from outside, then decided to pay the ¥10 entrance fee and see for myself what’s inside a Chinese Temple. 

I already have the ticket in my hand, and ready to explore the Temple for the first time.

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Pink and Purple Spring Flowers

Because some of our colleagues were not done with shopping for their families "pasalubong" yet, we went to the nearest shopping mall where we stayed in Shanghai, China. 

There are some shops that sell branded items at a lower price compared here in the Philippines but most of the items that I have known have almost the same price or more expensive than those we have here. So instead, I just roamed around and later went to our meeting place. 

While waiting for the rest, I took some photos of beautiful flowers in the planters along the coffee shop nearby. Because the colors were so vibrant in pink and purple, I did not hesitate taking some snaps using my Galaxy  Note 3 smartphone. 

  
And in the end, I went home from the mall not empty-handed at all.

Today's Flowers

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The Huangpu River Cruise in Shanghai China

After our tour at the Oriental Pearl Radio and Television Tower, we headed to the dock for our Huangpu River Cruise which we were scheduled to board the 11:00AM ferry.

The snake like river is the largest river in Shanghai about 114kilometers long and 400 meters wide with an average depth of 11 meters. Huangpu River divided Shanghai into east and west part, the Pudong and Puxi respectively. 

 

Cruising the Huangpu River lets tourists like us witness the development of Shanghai. You’ll be amazed with the well known the Bund, from the historical buildings that were preserved to the modern buildings made of steels and glasses aligning along the river bank.

These are some of the photos taken using my Galaxy Note 3 smartphone.

The cruise wharf taken before boarding.

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Spring Flowers near Oriental Pearl Tower

It was the beginning of spring when we went to Shanghai, China. Spring flowers bloom not only in Nanjing Road, but in most of the side streets where planters are located. The entire city must be blossoming with different flowers with striking colors at the peak of Spring, how I wished I had stayed longer to see them.

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A Tour at the Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower in Shanghai China

April 5, 2014 was one special day for me, because as a first timer in China, particularly in Shanghai, seeing the iconic Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower that I got to see on the television is already a dream come true. Especially when the travel was an all expenses paid by the company and the sponsor. 

 Blue Monday 

The tour guide’s target was for us to be at the Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower before the 8AM opening time. We arrive there at 7:00AM and the entrance was already jam-packed with foreign as well as local tourists. Using our passports, our guide got us tickets for the tower tour and the River-Cruise. I forgot to borrow one of the tickets for photographic purposes. I think the admission fee was around ¥120-220 depending on the area you want to visit. In our case I think we got the combo ticket, because we explored the upper sphere + the river cruise.

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Spring Flowers in Nanjing Road Shanghai China

My series of China trip blog posts is not over yet, I still have a few more to write about. Even now I'm still grateful and blessed to be selected to attend a work related training in China and experience travel abroad for free. 

  

I realized it was already spring in China when we got there, because of these beautiful blooms you can almost anywhere in Shanghai. If I was able to catch a few of the cherry blossoms in the city of Nanjing, here in Nanjing Road in Shanghai these spring flowers were flourishing.

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Once Upon a Time in Nanjing Road, Shanghai

A day tour was allocated after our training. Since our exit is in Shanghai we made arrangement that instead of having the tour in Nanjing, we’ll have it in Shanghai, and fortunately our sponsor agreed.

Together with the tour guide that our sponsor hired, off we went to Shanghai after our breakfast on Friday April 4, 2014. 

After a 4-hour drive, we arrived at Shanghai just in time for lunch. Mr. Chen, our tour guide took us to a restaurant that serves Chinese dishes;

Have I asked our tour guide to read the characters written? I think so, but I completely forgot what he said. 

We had about 14 dishes served in front of us + rice, house tea, Minute Maid orange juice and a bottle of Tsingtao Beer.

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The Dinner + Few Shopping Finds in Nanjing

We’re done with breakfast and lunch, now let’s hurry back to the hotel for the dinner…

Because we were so curious with the kind of food that the hotel will serve for dinner, we stayed until it’s over on the first day before heading out to explore the malls and stores nearby. These are the dishes served, still no exotic foods in sight;

Like before I did not bother asking the name of the dishes, nor read the menu because I’m quite sure there were no English translation.

Some smelled different, some tasted different, and some were also delicious… Overall the food experience was quite extraordinary,

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The Cherry Blossoms in Nanjing, China

Later did I realized that these flowers blooming inside the institute’s compound were actually some variety of the beautiful cherry blossoms.

I took some photos, using only my point and shoot camera, from the pathway.  As much as I want to get nearer and reach out for these almost fuchsia flowers, but can't because the cherry trees were taller than what my maximum reach.  

Kanzan

The same with this multi-petal Sakura also known as Kanzan, was also taken from a distance using the 18x capability of my smart camera.

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Food Trip in Nanjing, China: The Lunch in the Employee Cafeteria

Those are the breakfast meals we had, next stop is the lunch meals at the company’s cafeteria.

Like the rest of the employees of the engineering technology center in Jiangning District, we had our lunch at one of the level of their three-storey cafeteria between 12NN to 1PM. Yep! You read it right, the company has a 3-storey self-service restaurant that caters their thousands of employees.

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Food Trip in Nanjing: The Breakfast at the Hotel

Like I’ve said in one of my previous post, I was really hoping to try any exotic Chinese cuisines, like, the turtles, snakes, frogs, etc. Sadly, our one week stay never allowed us to have any unless, if paid using our own pocket money, we could have tried, but thinking it will be expensive made us backed off. Nevertheless, trying their local foods that are a little different in terms of taste, appearance and the method of cooking compare to Filipino cuisine, was a one worth of experience.

I already shared the first meal we had in Nanjing. In this post were the food served at Phoenix Hotel.

Day 1

The breakfast at the hotel is served starting 7AM, but since we have to leave the hotel at 7AM to catch the company bus going to Jiangning District, Nanjing, we asked the hotel to open the breakfast area for use by 6AM and have whatever is available.  

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Few Hours in Fuzimiao, Nanjing China

Per info from other colleagues who have been in Nanjing for training also, the training venue is about 1 hour ride by bus from the hotel we lived in. That means we don’t have time to explore the city and we do not know yet if there will be a day tour allocated for us before heading back home.

Might as well make use of our free hours and see the Confucius Temple at Fuzimiao, with Sir Nards as our guide, because it was his second time in Nanjing. Our plan was to take the subway from Xinmifanmalu to Sanshanjie station, then by foot going to the temple.

Following the downloaded map, we took another walk of the day to the nearby Nanjing Metro Subway Station the Xinmofanmalu, which was about 20 to 30 minute medium to fast paces from the hotel.

  

Luckily, the ticket counter at the subway station has an English translation. A little click here and there viola, we already have our tickets in the form of plastic coins.  

The printed English translations within the Metro subway made it a tourist friendly transport option.

 

Blue Monday

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First Meal in Nanjing, China + Some Scenes

After a long 4hours+ following the national highway from Shanghai, we arrived at the Nanjing, Jiangsu at 1:30PM. The guide brought us to the hotel to check-in, left our things and went out to take our lunch. A super late lunch at a local restaurant about 10 minutes walk from the hotel.

The boys walking ahead of us, they sure were very hungry.

The Local Restuarant. I do not how to read the characters.

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From Shanghai on our way to Nanjing

A representative from the company/supplier in-charge of the project came to fetch us at Shanghai International Airport, and took us to Nanjing, Jiangsu where the training venue was.

As a first timer in a foreign land sightseeing, picture taking are always present. I positioned myself at the window side of the van for that purpose.

Sadly, I chose not to bring my DSLR with me because I felt that it will be too heavy for me to carry around, which honestly I regretted. Nothing beats the quality of the pictures taken from a DSLR especially from a moving vehicle.

Anyway, since I only have with me my Samsung Smart Camera WB250F + my Samsung Smartphone (sorry for emphasizing the brand, I'm a Samsung avid user, I guess) so let's just enjoy the pictures taken from these gadgets.

To start.. these are photos of Pudong Shanghai International Airport taken from a distance. A wide angle lens is badly needed to be able to take a better view of the one of the sophisticated airport in the world.

 

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Touchdown Pudong International Airport

On March 30, 2014 4:55AM together with 9 colleagues we took off NAIA International Airport on board China Eastern to Shanghai. After a smooth 3 hours and 20 minutes above the ground, flight MU212 landed at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 8:15AM.

Even with only few hours of sleep (we checked out from the hotel in Manila and went to the airport at 2AM) I tried my best to keep myself awake when the plane landed. Seeing the first foreign land I ever went to in my whole 36 years matters to me most than sleep that time.

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