Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip (Henan and Xi'an Tour Day 1)

We joined 8 days trip to to Henan and Shaanxi Province, China organized by Apple Vacations & Conventions. Travelling westward along Huang He (Yellow River), we visited several attractions- Kaifeng City, Zhengzhou City, Yuntai Shan (Yuntai Mountain) near Jiaozuo, Shaolin Temple at Dengfeng, Luoyang City, and Xi'an City. Well, we would like to bring you to our first destination in our China trip- Kaifeng City.

Founded more than 2700 years ago, Kaifeng City (开封市) was important as the capital for 8 dynasties in China, and has been identified as one of the major ancient cities in China. However, in our country Malaysia, the city is famous because of the Mandarin television series "Justice Bao Qingtian (包青天)", which the story of Baozheng as a judge and prefect of Kaifeng was featured in 236 episodes.

We reached Kaifeng City around 2 pm. The first stop- Lord Bao Memorial Temple (包公祠). The temple was built in 1984 thus no historical value. However, we learned much about this historical figure in the next 60 minutes stay. Lord Bao Qingtian (包青天) real name was Baozheng (包拯). From the family of scholar, he stayed with his old parents till the age of 39. After the decease of his parents, he started his politician life as the magistrate of Tianchang County.

He became the prefect of Kaifeng City in the year of 1057. Although he held the position for only 1 year and a few months, he brought a few reformations. One of them was allowing the citizens to lodge of complaints directly to the administrator, by-passing the corrupted city clerks. He died in 1062 at the age of 65. In his 25 years of civil service, he punished many corrupted officers, and set a very good example as a righteous man.

During our visit, most of the information given in the temple were in Chinese only. Thus hire a tour guide or do some pre-visit reading is necessary for those who can't understand Chinese. Lord Bao Memorial Temple cannot be entered without a fee- CNY30 for adult and CNY15 for child. The operation hours: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm daily, and 7:30 am - 6:00 pm for winter. 

The entrance of Lord Bao Memorial Temple.

Baozheng was a man with medium stature with fair complexion- different from what we saw in the television series, which he was portrayed as dark, muscular, tall, and proud. The character of Baozheng as described according to the history was portrayed in Second Hall of the temple.

Baozheng as described in television series was featured in East Hall of the temple. Most of the description was not historically correct. For example, Lord Bao could never execute Chen Shimei (陈世美)- son-in-law of the emperor, as Lord Bao lived in Song Dynasty, while Chen Shimei lived in Qing Dynasty. Lord Bao's face was darkened by Chinese opera to feature his righteous character, and had been adopted by the television show.

The Main Hall shows Baozheng as a god of justice. The Main Hall is the place where people come to pay respect to Baozheng. "正大光明" or aboveboard describes why and how Baozheng becomes one of the god of justice.

 The temple compound was well-decorated.

 The rockery beside Lord Bao Lake.

Scenery beside Lord Bao Lake.

3:10 pm, we reached Kaifeng Fu (开封府), the governor office of Kaifeng City. Of course, this is a replica as the original Kaifeng Fu was destroyed by flood long ago. This replica of Kaifeng Fu locates at the north side of the West Lord Bao Lake (西包公湖), some 10 minutes away from Baozheng Memorial Temple.

"开封府" at the main entrance was written by famous calligrapher Cai Xiang (蔡襄) from Song Dynasty. Kaifeng Fu contains more than 50 pavilions and complements by beautiful gardens. This replica was built according to the plan from Song Dynasty, and had been rated as 4 stars attraction by China Government. The entrance fee was CNY60 for adult with opening hours 7 am - 7 pm.

Kaifeng Fu is huge. It took us more than 1 hour to walk around the area. Thus comfortable footwear is important. Umbrella is needed in case of raining as not all pavilions are connected with covered corridors. Snacks, beverages, and souvenirs were available for sale at Martial Art Arena.

 Main entrance with "Kaifeng Fu" written by Cai Xiang.

Yi Men (仪门) or the Gate of Rite is the door after the main entrance. The drum and the gong were used by citizens during Song Dynasty to summon officials from their office.

The main hall is the office of the governor, with the stone of admonition stands in front of the hall.

The stone of admonition states "everything that I earned was given by the people. It is easy to mistreat the people but it is hard to escape the judgement from god".

 Inside the main hall.

 The Lake of the Bright Mirror (明镜湖) and The Pavilion of Scholar Fan (范公阁).

The performance at Martial Art Arena (演武场). To know more about the performances in Kaifeng Fu, please visit the official website of Kaifeng.

Climbing onto the wall of Kaifeng Fu promises nice lake view from above.

4:30 pm, we reached the entrance of our next destination- Kaibao Shi Pagoda (开宝寺塔), or commonly known as Iron Pagoda of Kaifeng (开封铁塔). The pagoda was built using glazed bricks (琉璃砖) which the colour of the bricks resembles rusty iron. That's how the Iron Pagoda got its name. Built in 1049 in Song Dynasty, the octagonal pagoda is 55.88 meters in height.

The pagoda was built to replace its predecessor, which was destroyed by fire sparked by lightning. To avoid the lightning struck twice on the same place, engineers at that time decided to built the tower with glazed brick, which was non-flammable material with zero conductivity. The pagoda stands still through at least 38 earthquakes, many times of flood, storms, hails and wars. Consumes by time, the structure is now tilt a little bit to the southeast.

The entrance fee of the pagoda garden is CNY30. Another CNY30 is required to enter the pagoda. The garden opens 8:00 am - 5:30 pm. The pagoda was far from the entrance, thus we took the electric car (referred as battery car in China) to get to the compound the pagoda with CNY10 for a return trip. The pagoda was the only relic from ancient China that we visited in Kaifeng. It was amazing to see a pagoda that tall kept in good shape for such a long period of time. We lost our chance to enter the pagoda as it was closed to visitor at that time.

The entrance to the pagoda garden (upper left). The electric car service is available at the entrance (upper right). The whole garden is well decorated (lower right). The pagoda can be seen far away in the middle of the garden.

Family photo in front of the pagoda.

The top of the pagoda is now intalled with lightning rod (upper left) so the fury of Thor will not affect the structure anymore. The pagoda looks dull from distance away, but the exquisite sculptures on the glazed bricks can only be revealed when we get close enough to the structure.

We stayed in Zhong Zhou International Hotel (中州国际饭店) in Kaifeng City. The hotel was one of the top rated hotel in Kaifeng by Tripadvisor- clean, nice decoration, cozy room, polite staff, and with bathing water pumped from underground. The best thing was- we could control the temperature of the air condition whole night long. Located some 5 kms away from major attractions, the best way to move around from the hotel is by taxi. Xiao Song Cheng (小宋城) food center is located opposite of the hotel. It was a good place for supper.

We took our lunch at Kai Fu International Hotel at Zhengzhou and our dinner at Xiang Li Ren Jia Restaurant (湘里人家) at Kaifeng (upper row). We had the chance to try Kaifeng soup dumpling (开封汤包) at the restaurant (lower left). The taste was much below our expectation, and there was no soup within.  Besides, we had braised pork (pig feet) together with 9 other dishes. We had braised pork for a few consecutive meals in our whole trip.

Our dinner were sumptuous, but with a bit disappointment on the soup dumpling. We decided to try our luck at Xiao Song Cheng (upper row) for another round of dumpling- the taste was more or less the same. However, we did found some nice snacks there- the pear soup with crystal sugar (冰糖雪梨) (lower left), fried pork buns (生煎包) (lower right),  and almond tea （杏仁茶).The prices for the food and beverages a Xiao Song Cheng were reasonable with beautiful decoration.

For our first day China, we visited Lord Bao Memorial Temple and unveiled the truth behind the darkened face, strolled in the replica of Kaifeng governor office (or referred as prefecture), and witnessed a near 1000 years old Kaibao Shi Ta, tried some of the local delicacies, and rested in one of the top rated hotel in the city. We continued our trip early the next day to Yuntai Mountain nearby Jiaozuo,  around 155 kms away from Kaifeng City. Follow us now.

[Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip] [Yuntai Mountain, Truly a World Heritage]
[Henan Museum and Huang He Scenic Area]
[Dengfeng Shaolin Temple and Guanlin Temple] [Longmen Grottoes & Charriot Luoyang]
[The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty]
[Xi'an City One Day Trip] [Xi'an Huimin Street- Food & Shopping]

Two Days One Night in Cameron Highlands

We visited Cameron Highlands during Labour Day holiday. Being one of the popular locations for vacation, we were lucky to find a place to stay at Eight Mentigi Guest House few days before our departure. We departed around 7:45 am from Kampar, took our breakfast at Tapah, and reached Lata Iskandar at around 9:40 am. We took a 50-minute break there to enjoy the refreshing environment and nice coconut drink. The traffic was smooth and we managed to maintain the speed at 50-60 kmph.

Then, we took 45 minutes to drive from Lata Iskandar to Bharat Tea Plantation, 4 km away from Tanah Rata. We stayed there for almost 2 hours. Afternoon, we took a leisure trip to two strawberry farms and night market at Brinchang. As expected, the night market was congested. To avoid being caught in heavy traffic, we parked our car far away from Brinchang town center. We drove smoothly back to hotel at Tanah Rata while the traffic was congested at the opposite direction.

Second day, we went out early for breakfast and started our journey back to Kampar. On our way down, we stopped by Boh Tea Plantation in Habu and again, at Lata Iskandar for a snack break. We would share our experience through photos. More about our previous experience in Cameron Highlands (2010) is available here.

9:40 am at Lata Iskandar. Not many visitors were there. Refreshing air and cold water make this place a popular resting spot between Tapah and Tanah Rata.

This is the area where people can dip in the cold water flow from the hill.

Not many cars were on the road (upper left). Fruits (upper right, lower right) and souvenirs were the main items sold by the stalls nearby the waterfall. The coconut was sold between RM 4 - RM 5 depending on the size. The souvenirs were sold with reasonable prices. However, many of these souvenirs were not local products.

This was where we rested and enjoyed coconuts. The fried noodles and nasi lemak were nice too. The location- opposite of the waterfall, next to the entrance of the public toilet. The owner of the shop could speak in English.

11:15 am, we reached Bharat Tea Plantation and the road side was full with cars. We had to park our car some 100 meters away from the tea house (upper left). Again, we were lucky to find an empty table to sit down for original Cameronean tea break. The original tea was RM3.70 per cup while flavored teas were RM6.35 - RM8.50 per cup.

  Having afternoon tea here is an experience of a lifetime.

After a nice tea break, we strolled around the tea plantation. The view was breathtaking.

Another view at Bharat Tea Plantation. The plantation was established by Mr. Shuparshad, who was also a famous grocer and transporter in Cameron Highlands. The plantation covers an area of 1620 acres.

It is a great place to take photo. Located just beside the main road, this place can be easily reached. It is a place that worth a visit in Cameron Highlands.

After lunch at Tanah Rata, we visited Healthy Strawberry Farm located between Tanah Rata and Brinchang. The compound of the farm was planted with nice flowers and cacti (upper right). Strawberry? Not that much. We tried the strawberry ice cream and pancake (lower left). Both were nice with reasonable price. Due to the super peak holiday, the dining area was full with visitors (lower right).

Big Red Strawberry Farm in Brinchang was still the better one (upper left). The farm is big, organized, clean and of course full with flowers, cacti, and various types of vegetables (upper right and lower left). The canteen was clean and full with visitors. The price of the food was more or less the same with Healthy Strawberry Farm. The only problem was to find a place to sit at the dinning area.

Flowers and cacti available in the strawberry farms.

More flowers and cacti.

Brinchang night market is located at the northern end of the town. The night market started as early as 5 pm. To avoid traffic jam, we visited the night market around 5:30 pm, bought some food and fresh baby tomatoes, and left the market around 6:15 pm. The sea coconut drink, steamed sweet potato, fried rice with chicken, and sweet corn were nice choices for dinner. The night market is getting more organized by moving away from the road side. 

On our way back to Kampar, we stopped at Habu to visit the vegetable plantations and Boh Tea Plantation there. Vegetable plantations can be seen on our way to the tea plantation. For us, the best location to see the beautiful farms is at the Hindu temple some 500 meters from the main road.

Vegetable farm at Habu.

Boh Tea Plantation is some 6 km away from the main road. There are two guard houses stationed starting 2 km from the visitor center.

We climbed up to the viewpoint, 170 meters uphill from the visitor center (upper row). There is a clear area on the hill top (lower right) with a boulder in the middle of the area.

Climbing up to the view point is not a very hard task, and the reward was the great view from the hill top. The whole tea factory can be seen from the view point.

This photo shows the patch of the tea plantation that cannot be assessed by visitor.

The workers' quarters in the middle of the plantation.

Eight Mentigi Guest House is near to Tanah Rata town center. Located at Mentigi Road, it is just 5 minutes walk to the town center- easy assess to food, groceries, transportation and services. The guest house offers very simple room (upper right). Television is placed in the living room with the coffee making facility, which we need to share with others (lower row). It is definitely not a first class guest house, but still worth the money spent if what we need is just simply a place to rest and stay overnight.

We took our lunch at May Flower Restaurant at Tanah Rata (upper left). It is a Chinese restaurant located at Camelia 4 Road (near to our hotel).  The portion of vegetables was big, while the taste and the price were average (upper right). The good thing was, the prices for the dishes were clearly shown in the menu. Restaurant Sheng Ming at Besar Road offered Chinese style breakfast, where we tried the fried bee-hun, noodle, and flat noodle. The price was a little bit expensive but the taste was good.

Cameron Highlands is really crowdy during public holiday and school holiday, so do expect long queue all over the places. We can avoid the crowd by being early, but still we cannot stay ahead of the crowd whole day long. The road to Habu Boh Tea Plantation is very challenging, especially when the small hilly road is full with vehicles from both ways. We have to be patient and prepare to give ways to others so everyone can keep on going. Both strawberry farms have sufficient parking place for visitors, but for Brinchang night market, we will try to park our car a bit further from the market site. Well, 15 minutes of walking is always better than 30 minutes of traffic jam.

Cameron Highlands is not that cold during the day, but might get colder during the night. The price for the food offered by the restaurants around Brinchang and Tanah Rata is not much different. The price for the steamboat is quite standardized as well. We didn't try any of the steamboat so we couldn't comment on the quality of the food. For shopping, try to buy items produced in Cameron for a better deal. Cacti, flowers, local vegetables and fruits (like strawberry, tomato, and cabbages) are some of them. 

One thing get lesser in Cameron Highlands, compared to our previous visit- antique land cruisers. For more about our previous visit to the highlands, please read our older posts as below.

[Cameron Highlands 1][Cameron Highlands 2][Cameron Highlands 3]

[All Our Destinations]

Other nearby attractions:

 [Last tin dredge in Malaysia] [Kellie's Castle] [Nice Food in Kampar] 

[Short Stay in Kampar][A Trip to Pangkor Island] [Ipoh Old Town]

[Lime Stone Caves around Ipoh] [Ipoh's Food]

Trip to Danang, the Third Largest City in Vietnam

Danang is a big city. Although it has been established long time ago, Danang had never been an important town, until the rule of Minh Mang Emperor, which Danang took over Hoi An as the major port town in 1836. French made the port town a foothold to spread their influence into Vietnam as well.

In our previous trip, Danang served as a jumping point for us to visit Hai Van Pass and Lang Co Beach, Hue, Hoi An, and My Son. Although the city has a population of one million, we couldn't really feel the "busy" of the streets, like what we experienced in Hanoi.

Accommodation

We would advise to stay somewhere near to Tran Phu Street and Bach Dang Street. This is where most of the attractions and shopping area located. Many hotels are available along these two streets. We could get a taxi or rental car easily at this location as well. Anyway, if you are a beach lover, then you might opt to stay somewhere near the beach. 

We stayed for two nights in Happy Hotel at 160 Bach Dang Street. It is a hotel with great location- 10 minutes by foot to Danang Museum of Cham Sculpture and Dragon Bridge to the south, while 7 minutes to Han Market, 10 minutes to Indochina Riverside Tower, and 25 minutes to the new Danang Administration Center. The Han River esplanade is just at the other side of the road. The hotel was built high up beside Han River, thus we could enjoy great river view on the top floor of the hotel. The rate- USD 23 per night.

The hotel room  was small (standard room), but the amenities were enough for a comfortable stay- air conditioner, mini bar, LCD flat screen tv, free high speed wifi connection, hot water, and timely room service. Drinking water (hot and cold) can be refilled at the lobby and complementary breakfast was served at the top floor of the hotel, with nice view. The down side, the staff could only communicate with very simple English, and there was no special non-smoking area assigned for the customer. We could smell the burning of cigarette in the restaurant, or at the lobby area (luckily not in the guest room area). The closest convenient shop was around 100 meters away. Recommend it? Definitely yes.

Happy Day Hotel is conveniently located at Bach Dang Street, side by side with a few other hotels (upper left). The lobby of the hotel is shown at upper right. The room was a bit small, but still could accommodate both of us.

Bach Dang Street from the top floor of the hotel.

Nice scenery of Danang Dragon Bridge and the Han River from the hotel.

Attractions

The only must visit site in Danang is Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture (DNCS), while strolling on the Dragon Bridge (Cau Rong Bridge by locals) can be a great experience too.

Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture was opened to public as early as 1919. The collection was brought from My Son and other nearby area by French archaeologists. It is located at 2 2 Thang 9. The museum is in fact just at the southern end of Tran Phu Street, next to the big-yellow Dragon Bridge of Danang. The entrance fee was just VND 40k per person, cheaper than the National Museum of Cambodia with the treasures from Angkor and Bagan Archaeological Museum in Myanmar. More information about the museum is available at the official website of the museum. Guided tour is not necessary if you have already visited My Son temples beforehand.

The museum is a must visit place in Danang, especially after you have visited My Son temples and the ancient town of Hoi An. We couldn't see much of the sculptures and the artworks of My Son on site, but by looking at the exhibits in this museum, we could imagine bit and pieces of the beauty of the temples temples in the past. We spent around 1 hour in this museum.

The ticket counter of the museum (upper left) at the front of the museum (upper right). Some of the sculptures were exposed to the elements outside of the museum (lower right) We didn't really know why they brought these heavy stones miles away to the museum, to be consumed by rain and sunlight. A few sculptures are big.

Very fine artworks collected from My Son and several other sites in Vietnam (left column). Polo was invented by Cham? (upper right). The Apsara from Vietnam and Cambodia were really different from each others (lower right).

Danang Dragon Bridge was officially opened for traffic in 2013. The bridge was named after the big yellow dragon shaped backbone. From afar, it looks like a dragon swimming across the Han River. Well, a bridge with a steel dragon might not look attractive enough, but the scenery across the river is the selling point of the whole thing. We crossed the river at around 10:30 am, from the tail to the head. We spent around 40 minutes on the bridge, enjoying the strong wind and beautiful scenery of Han River. Of course, the hot sun was not welcomed, but it provided blue clear sky for nice photo. 

Looking at it for afar is really different from walking on it. A leisure stroll on the bridge is highly recommended. Umbrella is necessary if you are about to walk around under the sun.

 The head of the dragon is facing east. We walked 666 meters from the west to see it.

The tail of the dragon.

Very nice scenery from the bridge. All the best of Danang City by the Han River can be seen from the bridge.

Danang Cathedral was built in 1923, currently serves a congregation of 4000. It is not very attractive, but it does no harm to walk around the area for a while. This cathedral is located in the middle of the busy Tran Phu Street.

Food

Danang offers various types of food, both local delicacies and international cuisine. We tried several stalls around Tran Phu Street and Bach Dang Street. All the foods we tried were nice (at least acceptable). Let us show the food around with our photos.

Quan Pho Bac Hai is located at the junction of Tran Quoc Toan Street and Tran Phu Street, this small and decent shop receive many local customers. The address of the shop is 185 Tran Phu Street. We took our first lunch at this shop. Fried rice, noodle with beef, and noodle with chicken, all of the dishes were nice. The price for the noodle was VND 40,000 per portion, while the rice was VND 50,000 per portion. Cheap and delicious. Of course, like many other small stalls around, you might need to put away the concern about the cleanliness.

By the way, no one from the shop could understand English. What we did is, we pointed at the menu and show the number of order that we wished to have. It was successful for the food, but for drinks, we could only order Coca-Cola, which the name was universal.

The food court in Indochina Riverside Tower is located at the top floor of the shopping mall (upper left). The food court was clean, organized, and air conditioned (upper right). The food court served Vietnam food, Thai food, Western food, Japanese food and many more. We took the duck rice, pork rice, and fried vermicelli with an average of VND 75,000 per dish. The location of Indochina Riverside Tower is at 74 Bach Dang Street. 

The Rachel is a cafe bar located 30 meters from our hotel. The food served was special, but with a higher price. We stopped by the cafe for our early lunch before we went to Danang International Airport. We tried several dishes including crispy spring rows, grilled clams, grilled pork ribs with rice, and rice with stir fried beef. The Vietnamese food for one person was between VND 65k - 200k, while other Asian main courses were served with VND 145k onwards per person. If you wish to have a meal with good atmosphere beside Han River, the Rachel is a good choice for you.

Recommended by Lonely Planet, we visited Mr Duc's at 11 Tran Quoc Toan on our second day in Danang. Exhausted from a day trip to Hoi An and My Son, we didn't take any photo of the restaurant. The restaurant is located 5 minutes away from our hotel. We took dishes with beef, fish, and vegetable, together with steamed rice and fried noodle for that night. The food was very nice. The price was approximately VND 65,000 per person including drinks. By the way, the restaurant was clean and the staff were polite and able to communicate in simple English.

Central Market and the Street

Located between Tran Phu Street and Bach Dang Street, Han Market is easy to find. Groceries, jewellery, souvenirs, food, clothes are some of the things that we can get from the market. Well, like Dong Ba Market in Hue, we could see very few tourists in the market. Although the ventilation was much better than Dong Ba Market, it didn't attract us much as for us, it was just another version of Dong Ba Market. We strolled around for 15 minutes and left the market without buying anything. By the way, the goods available in Han Market were more or less similar to Dong Ba as well.

Han Market from Tran Phu Street. The market is just around 50 meters away from Indochina Riverside Tower.

This market looks more organized and cleaner than Dong Ba Market in Hue. The groceries, jewellery, and food are available at the ground floor, while clothes are sold on the upper floor.

Indochina Riverside Tower is a tall building that can be seen far away. It has a shopping mall with a nice food court at the top floor of the mall.

Jade Mountain is near to Danang. Thus we could see many sculptures along the esplanade (upper left). Danang is a blend of modern and old, which can be seen from the buildings along at Bach Dang Street (upper right). Tran Phu is another busy street with many hotels and tourists (lower row).

 Overall, the streets in Danang was much more less busy than the streets in Hanoi. The area around Tran Phu and Bach Dang streets were safe. We could see people jogging, strolling, or reading newspaper around the Han River esplanade. However, we could see a few tourists around the area. Most of the area were filled with the locals, except for the Museum of Cham Sculpture. 

Danang has the potential to be a vacation paradise, but more effort is required, such as more convenient shops are needed and more English speaking tourism related workers are required to provide a more friendly environment for the visitors.

[The Ancient City of Hoi An]

[My Son, Relics of the Oldest Civilization in South East Asia]
[Imperial City of Hue & The Museum of Royal Fine Art] [Getting Around Hue]

[Tombs of Emperors & Tien Mu Pagoda] [Hai Van Pass & Lang Co Beach]
[All Our Destinations]

Our sharing about other places in Vietnam:

[Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Places Nearby] [Exploring Hanoi Old Quarter]
[Food in Hanoi] [Getting Around Hanoi] [HanoiKids, the Ambassador of Hanoi]
[Amazing Ha Long Bay Cruise Experience]
[Vung Vieng Fishing Village at Ha Long Bay]