I went to China and Hong Kong courtesy of mom's funding.
Mom is an avid traveler.
When my siblings and I were still young, mom decided to alternately bring each of us to travel with her.
Mom brought my eldest brother to Singapore.
Then my second elder brother had his first travel to Taiwan.
I was supposed to be the third but mom said, I have been traveling (on my own) lots compared to my other siblings. So she decided to take my youngest brother first.
Fortunately, my kid brother did not want to go.
Mom had reserved his place so by not going, it means there was one empty seat in the flight. So yours truly finally made her way outside Malaysia for the first time in her life.
I could not remember much about my travel besides those in the pictures. Probably because it was my first time and I did not now what to expect of this first international travel besides just seeing other people place. Some more, the itineraries were all according to the tour company and everything seemed to be in a hurry. We went to places according to what was listed in our itinerary.
So, basically, I can just share pictures (with some copied info from wiki) of my visit there.
Not so much on explaining cos I don't remember much details about the place we visited.
Proud to say, I've conquered Great Wall of China! Well, 1 km of the eight thousand plus kilometers long lah. Hey, we weren't there for a marathon, right?
Forbidden City, the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It has been declared World Heritage Site in 1987 and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
On the left, with my mom behind Shanghai prominent towers, the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Jin Mau Tower. The Shanghai World Financial Center which is said to be the second tallest building in the world was still on construction at that time.
Top right picture was at some palaces in Shanghai while bottom right was at the mini Forbidden City which is an acting site for movie filming.
One of our itineraries was Tea Tour. We were educated on the importance of tea to the Chinese people and the country, taught us the process of drying and brewing tea as well as having our hands on plucking actual tea leaves at the tea plantation.
Stood on a bridge that built across the third longest river in the world, Yangtze River.
Bicycles are still the widely used transportation in China.
Group picture at the Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
At the silk making factory. The boy was the youngest member in our tour group and I was the second youngest. So, you can understand why we clicked so much. :)
Our tour package includes a stop over at Hong Kong for a night. We were brought to Victoria Peak (top picture). It is a major tourist attraction which offers views over central Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour, and the surrounding islands. I have always been a fan of amusement park. So when the tour guide told us that we would be going to Ocean Park, my eyes lit up and the kid in me came out from its darkest closet. It was week day, so not many people patronized the place. But the joy was on me cos I didn't have to queue long. During night time, we braved ourselves to follow the underground tunnel (I could not recall what's the name of the tunnel) to go to the night market. I was told it was the best night market there was in Hong Kong at that time. Forgot the name of the night market though.
So, that's about it on my first international travel.
China has been a wonderful place to visit but Hong Kong is one place that I long to be back again.
One day...
