City Wall @ Xi'an - China

It was our second trip to this ancient capital of China which has the most interesting historical sites and mountains. The last trip in 2012, we barely had enough time to visit this famous City Wall of Xian which is the most complete city wall that has survived all the fierce battles in China.

So we made sure we allocated one full day to visit the whole city wall and enjoy the panoramic view! We truly enjoyed riding bicycles around the whole city wall.

Come let's tour the walls now....

1. I was told many times that my past lives were in China &

once fought in many battles alongside the Chinese Emperor's army.

2. This beautiful City Wall's fort was built during the reign 

of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty 

(Year : 1368-1644)

3. The map covers 13.7 kilometers (8.5 miles) in length 

with a deep moat surrounding it.  

4. The City Gates stand with grandeur and look very majestic 

as a prominent landmark in Xi'an especially when lighted up

at night fall.

5. This solid looking ancient steps of the city wall , 

is ranked as one of the largest ancient military defensive 

systems in the world.

 6. It is very wide and spacious all around. You need to pay

a fee to get inside to enjoy the panoramic skyline of Xi'an city.

 7. There is a booth to rent bicycles and a shop that sells

many types of interesting souvenirs. You can buy from them

at fixed & very reasonable prices.

  

 8. Look at the cute letter box!

9. There are almost a thousand bicycles for grabs!

In Summer the whole place is very hot with big crowds.

That's why we chose winter when the crowd is smallest

and the wind is cold.

10. That's my wife with wrapped face. She cycled very fast

as she has 2 expensive bikes at home and has joined

the inter state cycling in Malaysia!

11. Some outer walls are higher and this side is the inner wall.

 12. This is another City Gate.

  

13. Many bridal couple would come here for photo shoots.

14. All tourists stopped to look at their photography

session with a nice spectacular backdrop.

15. There are several buildings inside the City Wall.

 16. I loved these very old Chinese houses that stood outside the walls. 

17. This is one of the many viewing posts for

looking out at intruders.

18. We stopped a few times to 'Wefie' for remembrance.

  

19. More benches to relax and browse their smartphones.

 20. I spotted this magnificent looking Tibetan Buddhist Temple.

21. The same temple looks huge and lengthy in area size.

22. This is another side of the City Gate.

23. My wife who is a Tai Chi gold medallist, stopped

and did a warm up exercise in this ancient site.

24. It is almost 2 hours and they are still shooting

the wedding photos in the grey weather.

25. These are real solid ancient walls where the soldiers hid to

peek at the enemies.

26. I could see the entire Railway Station Of Xi'an where

we boarded the 24 hour train ride to Dunhuang.

27. It was a victory for me to race across the huge City Wall on a bicycle.

I have prayed in a temple that I will visit Xi'an again.

***

Otaru City Of Canals - Hokkaido

I would vote Otaru as the most interesting place to visit in Hokkaido. It is a small harbour city which you could make a day trip from Sapporo by train. We only covered Sapporo, Otaru, Muroran & Chitose towns during our trip.

We walked out of our Sapporo hotel to visit a small Buddhist Shrine

which is located on the next block. Here is the nice entrance

to the shrine.

This is the Amitabha Buddha's Shrine which was closed on that day.

Our hotel is just next block to this Hosui Susukino Train

Station in Sapporo. It is very easy to reach everywhere once

you are inside the train station. We connected our way to the main

Sapporo Station and hopped to the line that took us to Otaru.

OTARU CANAL CITY - HOKKAIDO

It takes slightly over 1 hour by a normal train which passed 

through many picturesque snow scenery and mountains along 

the way. Here at the Otaru Station, there is a Tourist Information

Booth where there was a friendly lady who spoke Japanese,

English, Mandarin and Cantonese!! She advised us to take the

public bus to the end of the bus route and get off.

 My postcard pose at the lovely old buildings with European

architectures during Hokkaido's colonization during the 1800s.

They have many lovely old warehouses and herring mansions that line

along the famous Otaru Canal.

 We had to stop by the world famous Hokkaido Ice Cream parlour.

They have the purest lavender and melon flavours. Too many to choose.

  

Here is my yummy 6 flavoured ice cream! Sluurrpss!!

There are many fresh seafood restaurants along

the many streets in Otaru.

It was my first time seeing Snow Crab alive!

  

The prices scared me!

We took a ropeway (cable car) up to Mount Tengu.

Mount Tengu is a very popular ski resort in Hokkaido.

This is the panoramic view of Otaru Town with its harbours
and the Shakotan Peninsula across the seas.

***

68th Sapporo Snow Festival 2017

We just got home after a week long holiday in Hokkaido, Japan. It was a wonderful experience for my wife to see real snow falling from the skies for the first time. She screamed so excitedly like a happy child again. In the past, she had seen plenty of snow in China and even South Korea during our ski trip but the snow didn't fall from the skies then. 

NEW CHITOSE AIRPORT - HOKKAIDO, JAPAN

  

Our overnight flight took over 8 hours from Kuala Lumpur

to Sapporo at Hokkaido, Japan. We had difficulty to sleep well

even with the front row's spacious "hot seats".

 This is the New Chitose Airport which is very huge and

made headlines recently when the China tourists had

a nasty brawl inside with the airport officers over the

unexpected delays due to snow storm.

 They have many interesting facilities inside the airport

such as retail shops, seafood markets, museums,

children's play lands and even a spa with a hot spring

onsen for the public to relax.

 They have ample sitting areas to have coffee or browse

your smartphones with free WIFI which was very powerful.

  

The famous ROYCE chocolate factory in Hokkaido

took up large areas to house their chocolate museum,

cafe and retail shops!

  

There are so many types of chocolates here!

 We saw many cute and lovely cakes, desserts and ice cream

sold in many shops. They are so creative and innovative!

This is one of the many seafood mini markets indifr the airport
that sold all kinds of seafood catch from Hokkaido's famous seas.

 They sold many frozen crabs, fishes, squids and everything

from the ocean..... Yes, inside the airport!

68th. SAPPORO SNOW FESTIVAL 2017

 We took a train from the airport and arrived at this Sapporo's

JR Station which was full of people and excitement inside.

 It is always packed with locals and the thousands of tourists 

who arrive each day to discover Hokkaido.

  

 My wifey outside the Sapporo's JR Station.

It was -3 degrees C.

  

Yours truly posing outside the Sapporo's JR Station.

The snow festival was held in 3 different park areas in Sapporo

but we only visited the main one at Odori park.

They had many stalls selling barbequed seafood, sake

and souvenirs.

 

There were many snow sculptures on display and we came

here because Sapporo's Snow Festival has always been rated

the BEST. It is different from Ice Carvings.

Yours truly with 2 cute Japanese cartoons.

 They even built Donald Trump.

 Everything was so white and would hurt our eyes!

So we wore shades.

 

You could guess who is this singer?

 The snow man and I.

We made our way walking through their mile long shopping

area underground and spotted this talking robot who was

so talkative, friendly and welcomed everyone in

any language you wished to speak.

  

We stayed for 2 nights at the popular red lights area in Susukino

district and my wife's eyes went wide seeing the hot

GROs wearing skimpy G-strings ogling at their

customers at the full window views of the drinking clubs!

  

We enjoyed so much eating the Japanese barbeque

food which was delicious and hot to keep warm

together with a bottle of sake wine.

  

We toasted and cheered "Kampai"

Happy Valentine's Day 

to all the readers!

***