Day 1 :
It's holiday again! And finally I'm stepping on to the land of China! This is my first time to China and I really hope that I will not be disappointed with the place. Anyway, self check in with the usual machine.
Taking SilkAir this time round.
Going with my dad and his friends and I am the only younger person on the whole group. I have never travel with such a big group before if you have realize.
Went to the airport staff canteen to have some breakfast and we are ready to go!
SilkAir actually have in flight entertainment but they are unlike Singapore Airline, which every seats comes with your own TV, SilkAir have to watch through you mobile phone. You can download their apps before boarding the plane ( because you need date to download the app ).
Before leaving to China, I actually bought data sim card from Qoo10! I head that a lot of data sim card purchase in China might not be able to use Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram and even Google! When I receive my card, it is actually from Thailand! Haha! Which ever country it's from, as long as it can use for everything I needed, it doesn't matter.
Flight meal! I don't remember SilkAir actually serve meals on plane. This is only the 2nd time I'm taking this airline and the previous one is years ago.
Ok, after 4hrs flight, finally get to say Hello to Xiamen!
Our big bus! When is the last time I travel with this size of bus? Anyway basically everything including tour and hotel were arrange by my dad's friend who is doing business in Xiamen.
Nice scenery along the way.
Did you see the a Ferris Wheel on top of the mountain?! Like WOW! How high will the view be when you reach the top?
Anyway, reached the first rest point after a not sure how long ride ( because I fall asleep ).
They sell local food at the exit too.
Look at these cute mini pineapple!
And those huge red (?) banana!
Finally reach our first destination, which is the famous Hakka Tu Lou ( earthen building )! We alight at the tourist center to get our entrance tickets.
Address :
Address :
100RMB ( SG$20.60 ) to 150RMB ( SG$30.90 ) for Chinese speaking guides and
200RMB ( SG$41.30 ) to 300RMB ( SD$61.90 ) for foreign languages speaking guides depending on the tour route you choose.
( which means you need to pay double if you can't understand Chinese... )
The tour guide roughly brief us on what we are going to see later.
We also have to change to their shuttle bus in order to reach the top.
Finally after all the turns, we reached the observation deck where we can have the bird eye view of the Tu Lou.
The view is so beautiful! We can see 4 round house and 1 square house in the middle, they call it 四菜一汤, which means 4 sides plus 1 ( bowl of ) soup ( like your dinner ). It is also arrange by the five elements, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth.
Tu Lou is actually a traditional house occupied by clan ( by surname ) groups.
There will be people there saying that they can help you take picture and print on the spot for 5RMB (SG$1.05), you can always politely reject them and they are totally fine with it. Anyway it is not expensive so if you really want a nice picture to keep as a memory, you can always accept their offer. Another way is to take selfie and welfie as usual.
History of the Tou.
The Tu Lou looks different when you look from the top and from the bottom.
There are people selling banana along the road and I have to say this is really the best banana I ever ate! So solid and sweet unlike those we had I Singapore! I will definitely miss the taste of this banana when I'm back to Singapore!
Enough of looking at the Tu Luo from outside, now it's time to see the inside! Walking our way to the Tu Lou.
Nice view outside the Tu Luo.
Total of 5 floor here with 270 rooms. Tu
Lou are actually for Hakka clan.
I saw it on TV, saying that from
Level 1 to 5 on the same row belongs to 1 family, so 1st floor will be
the kitchen, highest floor will be the storage room and the in between
floors are for living. Quite interesting right? This is really something
you can't see in Singapore!
So basically, in this Ye Chang Lou, the Liu, Luo, Zhang, Tang and Fan clan lives here and share among themselves with the 270 rooms.
There is free tea tasting and of course, to sell you tea leaves if you like it.
This is their well inside their kitchen. It is said that the tea will taste better using the water from the well.
Group Welfie before leaving the Yu Chang Lou.
Just beside the Yu Change Lou, there is another square Tu Lou but it is actually a hotel. Mr Wei ( mt Dad's friend's nephew who will be bringing us around ) told us that actually he wanted to book this hotel for us to experience the life of Tu Lou but currently they do not allow foreigner to stay.. not sure why but I really wanted to stay in one of them! Actually the Korean Variety show do the filming in one of the Tu Lou hotel too but too bad we can't try.
Anyway time to leave.
Head straight for some Hakka dinner at the YuanWei restaurant which is just located opposite our hotel.
Address :
Address :
Honestly the food is not bad, just that it's too oily and salty. The Chinese here has stronger taste bud then us so can't blame them. We already told Mr Wei and he says that he will inform the rest of the restaurant to reduce the oil and salt. Now I totally understand why does my China friend always say that Singapore food are too blend! Haha!
They offer free tea session at almost all their restaurant so after dinner, the aunties and uncle are happily chit chatting with the friendly young lady there and also taste their tea. They bought some tea leaves from her too.
Our hotel, Wan Jia Oriental Hotel for tonight!
Our room.
The toilet and bathroom.
In China, most of the hotel do not serve coffee but they serve tea instead. They will provide a tea set for us to drink tea but it is too professional way to drink tea already. Tea bags will be good enough for me! Haha!
Anyway good night!
Day 2 :
Still not sure where are we going but finally after 2.5 hours ride, it's lunch time!
Love this idea of wrapping the utensil!
Food are less salty now.
Just another 10 mins ride, here we are at the PeiTian Village. From our tour guide, 90% of the people in this village are the Wu Clan, which is the surname as me! Haha! Back to my village ( nope, but I'm not Hakka )!
Price of the entrance fee is 50rmb ( SG$10.30 ) .
Pass by a temple.
I wonder why are they sun tanning the rocks?
Lotus Pond!
Farmers doing their daily work!
What is this?! Selling lantern?
Interesting! Wu family are know as the most wealthiest clan in Pei Tian village and I'm surprise that women during that time get to study! I always thought that women are that time can only stay at home to cook and take care of the family!
3D arts ( using just stones ) are already been invented long ago!
Here we are at "my" Wu clan! The whole tour group only me and my dad belongs to this clan ( but actually not really because we are not Hakka... haha )!
Tea session again!
Home made rice wine! I don't drink but heard from my dad and the aunties, uncles that it is actually quite nice.
Hello grandpa! I guess he belongs to the Wu clan too?
Fun fact, one of the way to see how rich this family is, is to see how many "coins" they have on their door steps! The more is it, the richer they are!
There is people selling pure grass jelly, which said to be home made and without any artificial flavoring.
One of the auntie ask me do I get use to coming countryside like this and I told her that I'm totally fine with it! Haha! Somehow I like it though... maybe it's a opposite attraction? Something different from the cities!
Seeing high rise building means we are back in town area.
Checked in our 2nd hotel of this trip, Chang Ting Hotel.
Hotel looks ok but the front desk staff is quite rude as she was rising her voice when we are doing our checking in. I know we are a big group but we didn't even rush them for the check in. Or maybe it's just the way they talk?
Anyway, here's our room!
Toilet and bathroom.
The view outside our room.
Room is fine except this! Look at the moldy wall! Oh ya! There is Wifi here but the connection is bad! Can't do anything with the wifi here so I gave up. Lucky I bought my own data sim card.
Anyway, the weather now is so warm that everyone decided to rest in the hotel for an hour before going out again.
Pass by a lot of shops while walking to our dinner place.
OMG! I see something familiar here!
Just beside the dinner place, there is this old ancient gate, the SanYuan Pavillion.
Dinner was not bad too.
Walk over to Dian Tou Street, a street that has a very strong ancient feel!
( map might not be at the exact spot because I couldn't find in the map but it's along the street )
( map might not be at the exact spot because I couldn't find in the map but it's along the street )
Slowly we walked till the end of Dian Tou street, where the Hui Ji Men is. Although time changes, building change, they still remind some of the ancient elements here!
My shop?
Here we are at the Hui Ji Men!
Tada! Our surname!
We reached the end and also reached another gate which I believe is one of the main gate, the Ji Chuan Men. It is bigger then the Hui Ji Men too!
And not forgetting to take group photo!
Back to hotel and went to have their complementary supper. After supper, back to the room to rest!
Anyway time to sleep! Good night!
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