Author Archives: Justin Fox

Day 5 we were off again, this time to Xi’an to see the Terracotta Army. We got to catch the magnet train to the airport.

431km/hr! Pretty impressive huh? The way it cornered was impressive, banking up like you would on a velodrome.

We had some trouble at the airport as Christina was somehow not in the system to catch the plane, but it was all sorted out and on landing we were greeted by Sharon (we proceeded to call her “Shazza” for the rest of the trip) who ushered us straight to dinner which was a dumpling feast with 18 different dumplings on offer!

Packed bus.

Power plant right in the middle of the city…

The view from our hotel. Note the city wall which went on as far as you could see (which wasn’t very far as the city was so polluted!).

Pemium Condom and Nail-Chippers!

Day 6 we got up early to avoid the heat and checked out a part of the city wall. Pretty impressive stuff.

I had a stomach bug at this point so I wasn’t feeling great but seeing this painting made me feel a little better.

This particular shop had a massive load of paintings done by local farmers. Christina and I picked up this beauty and we’re looking forward to getting it frames ASAP.

We then visited a bit of a tourist trap where they were making reproductions of the Terracotta Warriors. Here’s the kiln (ie: hole in the wall) that they were using.

Jess, ever so cool.

Some warriors in the making.

They had heaps of warriors for sale, in all different sizes. I liked these small ones the best so we bought a few for family and for the house too.

Perhaps the best meal of the trip. A very local style lunch.

Museum.

Restored chariot (one of 2).

Finally we got to see the real thing (I think the tour did it the wrong way around). On walking in to the hanger I was gobsmacked.

Later that night we were treated to a lame dinner which set the tone for a pretty lame show (ie: tourist trap).

Day 7 we saw visited this pagoda.

Unfortunately we were forced to visit this Jade Factory which had a massive showroom, definitely low and it wasn’t at all listed on the itinerary. Sneaky bastards!

The heat was super hard to deal with (still) and my stomach gave in so I missed a few bits of the tour today. I rested up and the next day we flew to Hong Kong.

I miss the old Hong Kong airport which forced the planes to fly super close to the city buildings. We still got a great view of the city from above though.

I spotted so many amazingly hot JDM cars on the way into the city. The cars are modified harder and better every time I visit. This time around there were a LOT of hot VIP styled cars and lots of huge people movers too (Toyota Alphards were popular). Here’s an M3 with Advan rims on it.

Lock Road!

We stayed at the Marco Polo on the schmick side of Hong Kong (I’ve never stayed on that side before and have always stayed at Causeway Bay). The elevator literally opened up into the shopping arcade. Insane stuff! Coming from a very conservative China, Hong Kong was like a smack in the face. Money, sex and advertising. So many huge billboards with lingerie advertisements, porn at news stands… certainly a juxtaposition from the days before in China.

One night we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant which let you choose your own hot sake cup (very nice idea).

It had a pretty amazing view of Hong Kong’s mega city too.

Mr Lock was after a new camera and it was between this Lumix or the similar Olympus, both new compact DSLR style cameras. We tested both and found the Lumix lens amazing (we took it off and had it on the olympus and it made the olympus amazing) so he bought one, in white and I bought one too, in black! They chucked in a free tripod, extra battery, 8gb card, carry pouch, carry bag, screen protector and even a stylish Adidas David Beckham hat (?!).

On the 3rd night we were dragged along to Mr Lock’s Uni re-union party. I was freaking out about it initially but by the end of it I was tanked up on wine, great Italian food (who would have thought?!) and great conversations with a few English speaking guests.

VW display at Ocean Terminal was a hit with the locals.

We spent the rest of the days eating and shopping (as you do in HK). Suga went nuts, 8 pairs of shoes I think… maybe even 9. I feel sorry for Mr Lock who really wanted all of us to have the best time but it was a testing trip as so many little things just went wrong not to mention the intense weather which was so against us.

On Day 4 it rained hard.

The streets flooded up pretty badly.

The local firemen laid out hoses all over the town in an attempt to pump the flooding water out.

We visited Qingpu District, an old town which reminded me of Venice.

Still smiling despite the tortuous weather (that’s my girl!).

We passed a lot of funky looking food in the tight streets and when it came to lunch time I was a little worried.

Pork and rice which was pretty nice (the fish they served was pretty fishy though).

This lady came along to sing (for change). As soon as she had finished a guy with a Chinese violin came from nowhere and was also performing for change (the restaurant owner kicked him out though before he got to finish).

No it’s not food. On the side of the river there were ladies selling all sorts of animals caught from the river. The idea is that you buy them and set them free for good luck.

Patches at one of the many little shops.

Girl holding her shoes. My fave shot so far (wish I was using my new camera instead of the pocket camera though!).

We then headed over to an interesting art district which was full of photography studios, specialty stores and tourists. I saw this in a window, it looks a lot like the work of ilovedust (in fact it’s almost a direct rip-off of this piece).

We then headed over to the communication tower, but like the expo there was an hour wait to get to the top. None of us were willing to wait so we just took photos from outside.

Tall buildings. The tallest one is the one in the distance with a square cut out of it at the top (they call it the bottle opener). Our guide was telling us that it was designed by the Japanese and originally was meant to have a circle cut out of it at the top but the Chinese thought the circle resembled the Japanese flag too much so they replaced it with a square instead.

Later that night we headed over to a fancy area of Shanghai for dinner at T8 which was a modern Australian restaurant headed up by an Australian Chef.

The decor was amazing so we were pretty excited about what was to come.

Maybe the most open kitchen I’ve seen. You could literally watch your meal being prepared.

One of their signature dishes was “popcorn pigeon” and when it came out with pieces of popcorn adorning the plate we all had to laugh. Literal much? The pigeon was overcooked and the reduction tasted like nothing. The popcorn itself was packet popcorn. Ridiculous(ly funny!).

So the EXPO the day before was so full on that we thought we’d avoid it altogether on day 3. Mr and Mrs Lock saw a Chinese bridge on an episode of MegaStructures on the National Geographic Channel and thought it would be a good idea to go and check it out (?!).

We hopped in the hired mini bus (which had no seat belts) and hit the highway for 2 hours to get there.

Turns out the Sutong Bridge was pretty damn long. Amazing? Not really but hey it was either an air conditioned bus for 2 hours or 3 hour queues at the EXPO.

We dropped into these lovely gardens (unfortunately I didn’t catch the name, will do so ASAP).

The Locks.

After the gardens we checked out a restaurant which had it’s entire menu on display.

They had a whole lot of strange live seafood to choose from.

WTF that?

Live octopus.

Saddened me to see these gorgeous live muddy mud skippers.

Giant electric bikes being used for KFC deliveries.

The drive home was long and tiring. We didn’t do much but damn we were tired (I put it down to the heat which was scorching hot and humid to boot). We settled for a simple local dinner (kinda like a make your own noodle soup fast food joint). We had a little walk down the city’s main shopping strip where I spotted this piece of fantastic Engrish.