As the elite the Guilin landscape. the Lijiang  River is a bright pearl among China`s beautiful mountains and rivers. Originated in Mao`er Mountain at Xing`an County. northeast of Guilin City. the Lijiang River winds its way southeast for about 437 kilometers via Guilin City. Yangshuo City to Gongcheng Estuary of Pingle County in Guangxi Province. The 84-kilometer-long segment from Guilin City to Yangshuo City resembles a green silk belt. winding among the peaks and the chains of mountains. The miraculous peaks. green mountains and blue waters mutually embellish. just as a 100-kilometer-long scroll. For several thousands of years. a great number of bookmen and scholars have been intoxicated with it. A segment of the mountains and waters of the Lijiang River are printed on the back of the new version paper currency RMB 20.

The voyage of the Lijiang River from the Guilin City to the Yangshuo City is about 83 kilometers. and it can be divided into the following three segments:

The first segment is from Guilin City to Yangdi (total 46km; 4 hours’ voyage). The scenic spots are a bit far from the waterway. The scenic spots near Guilin City include the Elephant Trunk Hill, the Pagoda Hill (Sword Hill), etc. Two hills named ” Chuanshan” on the east bank and ” Guishan” on the opposite west bank resemble a pair of fighting roosters.

The second segment is from Yangdi to Xingping (total 17km; 40 minutes’ voyage). This segment has the most beautiful landscape of waters and hills. Many scenic spots are on both banks of the Lijiang River. For example, the ferry precipices of the Half-Side Ferry seem cut by knife, which is seldom seen in the world; the peaks are standing upright on both banks and the flying waterfall is being suspended highly at the Erlang Gorge; the precipice of the Mural Hill is even straight as if cut by knife, interlaced and decorated with the colors of white, yellow, gray and black, etc. After boating out of the Siwang, one can see nine horses on the precipice of the Mural Hill, so it is commonly called as the Nine-Horse Painting.

The third segment is from Xingping to Yangshuo (total 20km; 2 hours’ voyage). When you can see the highest Green Lotus Peak in Yangshuo, you will reach Yangshuo City soon. Seen from the front side, the Green Lotus Peak is as smooth as a mirror, so it is also called the Jianshan (mirror hill).

One of the advantages to visit the Lijiang River is that the tourists do not need to worry about the change of the weather, since the views of the Lijiang River have different characteristics in different weather conditions: Tourists can view the inverted images of green peaks in sunny days ; view the clouds and mists covering the hills in overcast days and view the misty rain of the Lijiang River in rainy days. Even in the overcast and rainy days, the mist over the water is wreathing, the chain of mountains is gleaming, drifting clouds are moving among the miraculous peaks, and the rain curtain is covering the waters and hills as the lengthwise yarn, looking like many splash-ink watercolor paintings.(via MySpace.cn)

Only 60 km away from China`s huge capital Beijing there is this lovely little village called Chuandixia. This village is known for its well preserved 689 Ming and Qing dynasty-style houses owned by 76 families.

These houses are built on the side of a hill. surrounded by mountains and forests. Steep stairs and lanes paved with rocks are simple and unadorned.

The village was rated as a village of great tourist value and has been placed under national level cultural relics protection. It is a great place to take photos. Almost every family at the village now receives tourists.

The village is also near spots like Shuanglong Gorge. with its rivers and falls. the Pearl Lake and the Longmenjian grand canyon.

To get there: take bus 929 from Pingguoyuan subway station to Chuandixia village.
Tel: 010-6981-9333

Regarded as one of the three most famous treasure houses of stone inscriptions in China, the Longmen Grottoes are located in the south of Luoyang City. They are between Mount Xiang and Mount Longmen and face Yi River.

The grottoes were started around the year 493 when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) moved the capital to Luoyang and were continuously built during the 400 years until the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). The scenery measures 1,000 metres (about 1,094 yards) from north to south where there are over 2,300 holes and niches, 2,800 steles, 40 dagobas, 1,300 caves and 100,000 statues. Most of them are the works of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the flourishing age of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Lots of historical materials concerning art, music, religion, calligraphy, medicine, costume and architecture are kept in Longmen Grottoes.

Fengxian Temple is the biggest grotto in Longmen Grotto. It was built in the Tang Dynasty with a width of 36 metres (about 118 feet) and a length of 41 metres (about 136 feet). There are nine major figures of various facial appearances and temperaments in the temple that were built in accordance with the Buddhist rite and their relationships by the artists.

The most impressive figure is the statue of Vairocana Buddha sitting cross-legged on the eight-square lotus throne. It is 17.14 metres (about 56.23 feet) in total height with the head four metres (about 13 feet) in height and the ears 1.9 metres (about 6.2 feet) in length. Vairocana means illuminating all things in the sutra. The Buddha has a well-filled figure, a sacred and kindly expression and an elegant smile. According to the record on the epigraph, the Empress Wu Zetian together with her subjects took part in the ceremony of Introducing the Light (a Buddhist blessing that the Buddha opens the spiritual light of himself and shares it with others).

At the sides of Vairocana there are two statues of Vairocana Buddha’s disciples, Kasyapa and Ananda, wearing prudent and devout expressions. The figures of Bodhisattvas and devas can also be found in the temple. Some have dignified and genial expressions, while others are majestic and fiery. The various appearances and delicate designs are the representations of Empire Tang’s powerful material and spiritual strength as well as the high crystallization of people’s wisdoms.

Wanfo Cave, completed in 680, is a typical chronological cave of the Tang Dynasty of two rooms and square flat roofs. Its name is due to the 15,000 small statues of Buddha chiseled in the southern and northern walls of the cave. The main Buddha Amida sits on the lotus Sumeru throne, having a composed and solemn face. The wall behind Amida is carved with 54 lotuses upon which there are 54 Bodhisattvas in different shapes and with various expressions.

In addition, there are lifelike reliefs of pretty and charming singers and dancers on the wall. The singers are accompanied by various kinds of instruments and the dancers dance lightly and gracefully to the music. The whole model in the cave has created a lively and cheerful atmosphere. On the southern wall outside the cave is carved a statue of Kwan-yin of 85 centimetres (about 33 inches) in height, holding a pure bottle in the left hand and deer’s tails (as a symbol of brushing off the dust in spirit) in the right hand. This figure is well designed and is regarded as an example of Bodhisattva statues of Tang Dynasty in Longmen.

The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is located in Pudong Park in Lujiazui, Shanghai. The tower, surrounded by the Yangpu Bridge in the northeast and the Nanpu Bridge in the southwest, creates a picture of ‘twin dragons playing with pearls’. The entire scene is a photographic jewel that excites the imagination and attracts thousands of visitors year-round.

This 468 meters high (1,536 feet) tower is the world’s third tallest TV and radio tower surpassed in height only by towers in Toronto, Canada and Moscow, Russia. However, even more alluring than its height is the tower’s unique architectural design that makes the Oriental Pearl TV Tower one of the most attractive places anywhere.

The base of the tower is supported by three seven-meter wide slanting stanchions. Surrounding the eleven steel spheres that are ’strung’ vertically through the center of the tower are three nine-meter wide columns. There are three large spheres including the top sphere, known as the space module. Then there are five smaller spheres and three decorative spheres on the tower base. The entire structure rests on rich green grassland and gives the appearance of pearls shining on a jade plate.

Visitors travel up and down the tower in double-decker elevators that can hold up to fifty people at the rate of seven meters per second. The elevator attendants recite an introduction to the TV Tower in English and Chinese during the rapid 1/4-mile ascent. Once you reach your destination, you will be amazed at the variety of activities available as the various spheres and columns actually house places of interest, commerce, and recreation.

The inner tower is a recreational palace, while the Shanghai Municipal History Museum is located in the tower’s pedestal. The large lower sphere has a futuristic space city and a fabulous sightseeing hall. From here, on a clear day a visitor can see all the way to the Yangtze River. The base of the tower is home to a science fantasy city. The five smaller spheres are a hotel that contains twenty-five elegant rooms and lounges. The pearl at the very top of the tower contains shops, restaurants, (including a rotating restaurant) and a sightseeing floor. The view of Shanghai from this height fills you with wonder at the beauty that surrounds you. When viewed from the Bund at night, the tower’s three-dimensional lighting makes it a delight of brilliant color.

It is amazing that this ultra-modern tower combines ancient concepts such as the spherical pearls, with 21st Century technology, commerce, recreation, educational and conference facilities. All of this and it really is a TV and radio tower that services the Shanghai area with more than nine television channels and upwards of ten FM radio channels. Truly, ‘oriental pearl’ is the most suitable name for this tower.

Main Awards: (46 winners)

Hotel Group Brands (4 winners)

China’s Most Popular International Hotel Group Brand of 2009

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts

China’s Most Popular Local Hotel Group Brand of 2009

Jinling Hotels & Resorts

China’s Most Popular Serviced Residence Brand of 2009

Ascott Property Management (Shanghai)Co., Ltd

China’s Most Popular Economical Chain Hotel Brand of 2009

Home Inn

Hotel Management Companies (2 winners)

2009 China’s Most Investment-value International Hotel Management Company

Accor China

2009 China’s Most Investment-value Local Hotel Management Company

New Century Hotels & Resorts

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The Dig is a series of aquariums located beneath the lobby of the Royal Towers and is the world’s largest open air marine habitat. Hundreds of different aquatic species can be spotted in the Dig’s various tanks such as angelfish, sharks, manta rays, and various types of jellyfish. The goal of The Dig is to provide guests with a taste of life in the legendary destroyed city ofAtlantis. If one observes the bottom of the floors in the different aquariums, wreckage and debris will be scattered about representing the “Lost City of Atlantis.”

A Predator Lagoon is full of sawsharks, barracudas and stingrays. A 100-foot (30 m) clear acrylic tunnel runs underwater, allowing visitors unobstructed views of the marine environment.

Behind Shanghai’s skyscrapers, Art Deco edifices, and colonial bungalows lies a maze of lanes lined with teahouses, ancient markets, and sidewalk stalls—a parallel world that reveals an untold history. Recent transplant Emily Prager steps out her back door and into a hidden city few outsiders ever find

I had lived in Shanghai for about two months when I learned that behind every building which fronts the street is a second and far more enticing world: a labyrinth of winding lanes and alleyways that contains all kinds of eclectic little businesses and historic houses. It is an intimate Shanghai, and one that I got to know mostly by setting out and searching on foot.

I had moved here from Manhattan with my twelve-year-old daughter, Lulu, and had rented a lane house in the former French Concession. For the first few weeks, all of our movements were concentrated on the front of the house. Then one day, I unlocked the back door and stepped outside.

Here was a narrow sunlit passage with two-story, gray-brick lane houses like mine on both sides. It was lunchtime, and the weather-beaten wooden doors and rusty casement windows were flung open wide, and inside, people were bending over sizzling woks on hot plates in tiny hallway kitchens. Brown sparrows swooped and chirped and alighted on bamboo poles overhead, prancing on the laundry hanging there. Some women were laughing and chatting with one another as they scrubbed greens at an outdoor sink, and others squatted over pink and red tin basins of water, peeling root vegetables. Farmers, their faces dark brown from countryside sun, hawked cherries with a songlike cry, the fruit piled in woven baskets hung on shoulder poles across the back of their bent necks.

I walked slowly down this lane, turned the corner, and found that the lane wound on, connecting to an even narrower alley which led to two other lanes that twisted and turned around a natural garden of fruit trees and rose bushes and eventually snaked out onto Xinle Road, the street parallel to mine.

I stared up at the old Art Deco apartment buildings which line that road, and I thought that they were almost like storefronts on a movie set. Behind them, thousands of people lived unseen. Further, there were secret ways to move around the city incognito. I determined in that moment to perform a Cheever-esque act. I would try to cross the entire French Concession by secret lanes without ever using a main street or avenue.

Two distinct worlds have existed in Shanghai since the end of the First Opium War in 1842. After the British attacked the Tao-Kuang emperor and took the city, they demanded that Shanghai become an open trading port and that Britain be granted city land for an exclusive settlement run entirely under British law. Not long after, the French and the Americans each claimed the same thing, and lands along the Huangpu River were designated the International Settlement and the French Concession, behind which lay the all-Chinese city proper.

In time, the foreign settlements expanded and eventually encroached on the Chinese city, shoving it back behind the new, elaborate colonial buildings (which we now identify as the Bund), forcing it to squeeze itself into a warren of alleyways and lanes. So was born a Westernized, urban Shanghai, peopled for the most part by foreigners, rich Chinese and their retainers, and the desperately poor. That modern, bustling Shanghai of the 1920s and ’30s flourished until the Japanese invaded in 1939.

My friends Peter likes tourism, whenever he is free he loves to travel around. He said that the pressure of work is big, travel to enable him to relax physically and mentally. He has been to Alaska, Xi’an, China, and other location. He likes photography, every place he would take a lot of photos, He will put these pictures on the Internet to share with friends,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pccm/

He’s a very good photo shoot.
Last time I saw him, he said he would like to do a web site on tour and  hotel reservation, similar to Ctrip(http://www.ctrip.com/)
The establishment of such a site requires a great deal of work,such as web site development, Hotel information provider, Web site promotion etc. If there are appropriate resources, I suggested that he might try.
Of course, if I have time I will help him, because I like the development of the Internet site.

Now there are a lot of Internet hotel reservation sites.You know, looking for an affordable and beautiful hotel is not easy. I have found that a Web site, hotelscombined,  is to provide hotel price comparison service,the URL is  http://www.hotelscombined.com
This site provides us all on the hotel provided by the Web site, there is a price comparison, so that we can make better choices. We can search for hotel we need, and link to relevant sites to do hotel reservations.It can search for hotel from many web sites,such as hotels.com, Booking.com, TotalTourist.com, etc. We can search a specified hotel on the hotel page,for example, China Royal Hotel Macau:

http://www.hotelscombined.com/Hotel/Royal_Hotel_Macau.htm

This model is also worth considering, and this need to establish a good relationship with major travel sites. Therefore, the work needs to be done may be more. To consider what kind of model, we need well-considered. In any case, I hope he can achieve his dream.

Guangzhou is a world commercial center, and a shopping paradise.

It is the most important Commodity distribution center in south China. Worldwide brand-name commodities in complete categories can be found here. Fashionable dress, jewelry, watches, cosmetics, computer and electronic goods, photographing apparatus, sports goods, stationery, fashionable playthings, curios, arts and crafts, medicines and herbs, sea products and other endless goods will meet the different demands of visitors worldwide.

Guangzhou has some department stores and shopping malls that get most of its stock direct from Hong Kong. Shops open around 9.00am and close anywhere from 6.00pm to 10.00p.m. Actual hours depend on the nature of the business. Shops in areas frequented by tourists may open earlier.

The best thing about shopping in Guangzhou is browsing the weird and wonderful collection of animals, food and medicines in Qingping Market. The rugged and rough side to this city is open for everyone to see here, just make sure you hold your nose if you visit in the summer!

If this is all a bit too authentic for you, there are some great little boutiques to be found on Shamian Island and Beijing Lu. Guangdong is famous for its exquisite Embroidery which can also be found at some of the good night markets on Xinhu Lu or Jiaoyue Road.

Bargaining

Bargaining is generally not possible in department stores, but asks for a discount when purchasing expensive items with cash, such as electrical appliances and jewellery. Prices can fluctuate wildly from shop to shop. Bargaining is usually possible and often expected in smaller shops, particularly where items are not visibly priced. Food stallholders usually charge fixed prices.

Bargaining requires time and patience – most vendors have plenty of both and will appreciate your efforts if you are genuinely interested in buying and can maintain a sense of humor in the process. If you can speak just a few words of Chinese, such as numbers, you will enjoy the experience a lot more and often get a better deal.

In China it is possible, if not expected, to bargain in open markets and other shopping areas where prices are not already clearly marked. The goal always is to pay the local price, not the foreigner price. The only important rule is to be polite. It is perfectly fine to ask for a discount, but do it with a smile. While some would see a tough attitude as the key to a cheap price, it usually backfires with the “face” conscious Chinese and you end up not getting the best price. Remember that no vendor will sell you a product at a loss!

Means of Payment

Cash in Chinese RMB is preferred. Luxury restaurants, large department stores and star hotel accept credit cards, but it is wise to check first in the case of traditional Chinese establishments.

Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) are readily available in Guangzhou to use VISA, MasterCard, Dinners Club and other international banking systems.

Tips

Most restaurants and pubs include a service charge in the listed price, so tipping is not necessary.
Do not tip friendly government employees or business people as they may interpret your generosity as a bribe.

On the Xianggang Hill beside the Jiefang Road stands the tomb of Nanyue King who was the second generation of the King of Nanyue Kingdom in early West Han Dynasty and also the grandson of General Zhao Tuo of the Qin dynasty who unified areas south to the five mountain ridges. The tomb, enjoying a history of over 2000 years, was discovered in 1983. 20 meters deep down behind the hill, it was made of 750 stone slabs with 7 rooms in 2 parts separated by two stone doors. Each room was of its own function. After a few years of excavation, over 1000 pieces or sets of valuable cultural relic and 15 buried-alive dead bodies had been unearthed.

Up to date, this tomb is the earliest, largest and richest ancient tomb of early Han dynasty found in Guangdong and Guangxi areas. It is also the only all-stone tomb with earliest color murals. Of the unearthed cultural relics, bronze instruments, 36 large cooking vessels, 36 bronze mirrors and 3 gold coins (up to date, there have been only 4 gold coins in total of the time discovered in the area) and 240 jade wares. The King wore clothes with jade pieces threaded together. Besides, people found a blue colored flat grass slab, a set of printing copper moulds and African ivory and other rare treasures of significance.