Historical Nanjing

I went to Nanjing last weekend. It was an unplanned, last-minute trip. We had a free ride from a friend who works in Nanjing – so we just hopped on for a free vacation.

It was a 3.5-hour drive from Shanghai. Nanjing is a very scenic place. And in my personal opinion, I thought it is more beautiful and “real” than Hangzhou. Both Hangzhou and Nanjing share many similarities – big lake, beautiful hillside landscape, good dining and shopping street etc. However, Nanjing stood out with its rich historic past (Not to mention the infamous “Rape of Nanjing” incident). The city houses the world’s “longest city wall” – not to be confused by the Great Wall. Viewing the wall by the lake side, it is such beautiful sight.

Nanjing is also the resting place of Dr Sun (at ZhongShan Ling). And you can find natural hot springs in Nanjing too. Too bad, our trip was so short and we didn’t really explore much – except the Wall and shopping streets. It is certainly worth the trip to come back.

Beautiful Cebu

This year, my client threw their annual conference on a very beautiful island called Mactan Island, Cebu. I flew out from the bitter cold Shanghai and landed on a familiar tropical island. I had to stopover Hong Kong for 1 night. The entire journey took me about 11 hours (minus the sleeping hours).Cebu (not confusing it with another Sibu Island) is a beautiful place. I stayed at Shangri-la Resort (very much like our Rasa Sentosa). The whole group of us were there for work…but we also took time to chill out on the beach. Not much sun, it rained almost everyday. The resort was crowded with beach-goers (you see lots of Japs, Koreans and Asians).

My client was such a great host. They threw such a grand beach party and we partied till 2am. It was great for both agency and client. The mental wall of “client-agency” isn’t there at all. Like old friends, we drank, dined and made merry! There were fireworks, free flow of drinks and lots of exotic dancers. It is hard to describe the atmosphere – you just got to be there!Surely, it is a business excursion for me – but we came back with job well accomplished. We earned our ranks and most importantly, friendship and trust with a group of very dynamic people.