Walked to the 918 Museum

from the hostel, an exhibition about Japanese invasion against China in 1931, September 18. Sep 18th was also called the Manchurian Incident where a bomb damaged the Japanese controlled railway and Japan took this as an excuse to attack China. That night, Japan occupied Shenyang and in 18 months occupied the whole DongBei, northeastern China.

Some gruesome pictures

Total number of Chinese killed 20 millions, wounded 15 millions. Number of Japanese killed 2 millions. The numbers seem so big and I can’t imagine how terrified the people must had felt during that time. I am thankful that the world is becoming a better place now and I can even indulge in my hobby of traveling.

Concluding remarks

ZhongJie, a shopping street in Shenyang

Lunch at the food court in HappyFamily mall (13 Yuan~USD$2)

In almost all major cities in China are now constructing subways. All subway companies are state owned if I am not mistaken. Companies digging the tunnel and companies making the subway cars are also state owned. That’s why the government has a lot of power to push through the project of constructing subways very quickly. The government has a lot of money now since many state owned companies pumped back money to the government. I also heard from some individuals that municipal government love pet projects like building subway systems because it’s lucrative for their own pockets.

Marshal Zhang’s Mansion behind Zhang XueLiang statue. He was the warlord and ruler of Manchuria after his father was killed by the Japanese. In December 1936 he kidnapped Chiang Kai Shek (the Xian Incident) and somehow Kuomingtang and the communist then made peace to fight the Japanese.

Catholic Church

Went to Wu Ai market and finally bought a compass there. Wu Ai Market in Shenyang is the biggest wholesale market in the northeast of China.

Television and radio tower.

There a US embassy in Shenyang. I remembered seeing on tv years ago where North Koreans tried to rush in the embassy and the Chinese guards prevented them from going in.
Security was pretty tight around the US embassy.

Since it’s a low season for tourism, there are only 3 of us at the hostel.
XiaoGao and XiaoXia

From Shenyang to Dalian is around 5 hours. Trip taking 4-6 hours is a pain because it’s not long enough to get on an overnight train and not short enough to travel during the day. I hope to arrive in Dalian in the morning in order to maximize my time in the city when it’s bright during the day, so got a 5.52am train ticket to Dalian (33 Yuan ~USD5).
Went to the bath house where I stayed the first night with XiaoXia since it’s close to the train station and she also wanted a massage. Sent XiaoXia back to the hostel and missed my train to Dalian by just 2 minutes. This was the first transportation that I missed in my travel so far. Got on a next train K7382 (55 Yuan~USD$8) at 7pm to Dalian.

It’s around 300 km from Changchun to Shenyang.

View Larger Map

The train was delayed for 2 hours and arrived at Shenyang north station at 2am in the morning.

Since it’s late and I needed a shower, took a cab (9Yuan which is the starting fare)to a bath house to spent a night. Bath house is very popular in China and is a cheap alternative to ZhaoDaiShuo or hotel. Usually bath house has hot pool, sauna, continuous hot water, free toiletries and other services such as different types of massage, some even provided illegal services.
This bath house I stayed at only cost 38 Yuan and included a 30 minutes massage, what a great deal.

ChangHuiGuangChang

A traveller told me that there’s a hostel here and is the only one in Shenyang. Tried to find my way to a hostel by taking bus 271. Got off at ChangKeZhan and wasn’t able to find the place. So had my breakfast first.
HunTun and ZhengJiao (6 Yuan~USD$0.90)

Walked for 1km north and finally found the place. The hostel is called ShanPi hostel at the 5th floor of 21 YaLvJiang road.

Beds (40 Yuan~USD$6)

Shenyang is the capital of Liaoning province and is the largest city in DongBei, Northeastern China with a population of almost 7 millions. The city was also the capital of Manchu in the 17th century before the Manchu conquest of Beijing in 1644.

Took bus 113 to DadongMen, GuGong is just few blocks west.

Dragon Ball without the Z

Shenyang Imperial Palace, this is the second Imperial Palace in China with a Manchu style of architecture. It’s also called Mukden Palace. The palace was constructed by the first Manchu emperor, Nurhachi and his sons from 1625 till 1936. The palace was the residence of the Manchu rulers before they moved the capital to Beijing during the Qing dynasty.

FengHuang Pavillion

Room of ZhuangFei, Concubine Zhuang. The place looked quite simple.

Qing Dynasty Emperor pics, from left, KangXi, QianLong and JiaQing

From GuGong, took bus 140 West to Liaoning Provincial Museum. Like other provincial museums in China, it’s free and the museum has a good content.

There are a lot of interesting artifacts in the museum. Lots of artwork from Ming and Qing dynasty.

Manchu, Chinese and Mongol writing on this plate. Manchu used scripts that are very similar Mongolian alphabets, except they have dots on the script.

Like most cities in China, there are a lot of constructions going on in ShenYang. 2 big projects are Forum 66 and SUnwah IFC. I did a search and found that those 2 projects are ranked quite high up as 100 tallest construction going on in the world now.

Shenyang has a big Korean population. Most of the ethnic Koreans are either borned in China or from North Korea.
Went to XiTa which has a Korean town.

Ate Korean cold noodles (7 Yuan~USD$1). I remembered at New York city Korean town, a bowl of Korean cold noodles cost USD$12, not including tips and taxes.

There are tons of shops seliing dog meat. Some even have fresh dog meat, dogs that were just killed.
Dog Meat

LiLianCongRouDaBing (5 Yuan~USD$.8), a kind of fried bread with vegetables and pork. It’s a Shenyang famous I guess.

The biggest statue of Mao is in Shenyang, ZhongShan square.

Many people from Northeastern China, especially Harbin has an ill feelings against Japan. An hour from Harbin, there is a Japanese germ warfare base built during 1939 named 731 where Japanese army commited gruesome experiment on Chinese, Koreans and prisonars of war in some very cruel ways during the war. United Nation classified those war crimes as crimes against humanities.

Got to the train station at 9.40am and then bought the 11.45am train ticket to ChangChun (K704 train, 41 Yuan). Woke up a little later this morning cause spent some time updating the blog yesterday night and slept late. Thought I can get to Changchun with a fast train but instead this train will take 3 hours.

Big crowd waiting to get on the train

K704 is to QingDao, passing by Changchun

Changchun is the capital of Jilin province. It has a population of around 4 millions and was the capital of Manchukuo, the puppet state of Japan during the 1930s. Manchuko was led by the last emperor of China, PuYi which was installed by the Japanese. But behind the scene, the real power lies with Japan. Changchun has a big automotive industry and produce almost 20% of the automobiles and 50% of passenger cars in China.

Got to ChangChun train station at 3.30pm.

Stored my bags for 18 Yuan at the train station. I was planning to rush to the provincial museum but I don’t think I can make it so took bus 80 towards the south west direction for sightseeing on the bus.

It’s wet and rainy today.

Tram 54, my first tram ride in China.

The sky gets dark around 4.30pm here.
Got to Changchun Film Studio, ??????? but it’s already close.

Took bus 264 to WenHuaGuangChang. This square offers a glimpse into Changchun’s Japanese imperial past. The square is surrounded by several historical buildings from the Manchukuo era.

Took bus 264 to WeiHuangGong, Puppet Imperial Palace where the last Emperor of China, PuYi lived.
Map Layout

The palace was close by the time I got there, I just had to blame myself for not taking an earlier train.

I was debating if I should stay overnight in Changchun and decided to take another train to Shenyang instead because of time constraint.

My half day trip in Changchun

View Changchun in a larger map

Changchun looked relatively older and the street is slightly dirtier as well, taking after taking into account of the rainy day.

Restaurants selling dog meat. Dog meat is popular in Changchun, one reason is also because it’s also close to Korea.

Got a 8.26pm train ticket, train 2220 to Shenyang. (24 Yuan~USD$3.5, 4 hours). The train ticket is so cheap because the ticket is classified as wuzhuo, meaning without seat. Sometimes going to places just few hours away, it’s still easy to get a seat on the train even though the ticket is zhanpiao (standing ticket). However, A fast train will only take 2.5 hours, 90 Yuan.

Dinner at a food court in the train station, this is sort of my first meal for the day. (36 Yuan~USD$5.5).

It’s slightly expensive according to Chinese standards. I paid only 8 Yuan in Harbin for a similar dish. Most of the time, things at the station are always more pricey.

Train was delayed

Another church on TongJiang road

Old district of Harbin (DaoWai area)

On the left are some old buildings and on the right are buildings there are renovated.

Frozen farm chicken

ErRenZhuan Theater. Harbin is famous for its ErRenZhuan show, sort of a Chinese stand up comedy with a thick DongBei accent.

Liu Yang brought us to a local DongBei restaurant. On the left is the typical Chicken Mushroom dish, the middle one is called SaZhuCai, meaning Killing Pig Dish. It has a funny name because the pork is fresh and the pig was killed the same day.

Liu Yang treated us for lunch and DongBei people are quite hospitable in treating their guest.

Walked to SongHuaJiang from DaQiaoGuangChang. The river is all frozen. There is even a car race held on the river.

Dog Sled

Sophia Cathedral

View on ZhongYangDaJie

HotPot buffett for dinner (25 Yuan~USD4)

Went to USA bar at night with some friends. On the wall of the bar, it’s all plastered with photos of the owner himself. It’s kind of a unique and creative theme, an individual obsessed with himself.

Jewish Synagogue

Russian built bridge

There were ice sculptures everywhere on the street in Harbin

Lunch at a food court (8 Yuan~USD$1.2)

Memorial of Russian troops helping the Chinese communist party defeating Kuomintang.

HeiLongJiang Provincial Museum. The museum here is so so, not that great compared to the other provincial museums I visited so far.

Dinosaur exhibits

Took bus 14 to DaQiaoGuangChang and then switched to bus 88 to get to BinXueShiJie to see the world famous Ice Festival.

Main entrance. The ticket to the Ice Festival cost 200 Yuan and 90 Yuan for those with student cards. I got a student card in Beijing so was managed to get the student discount. (90 Yuan~USD$12).

Ice Sculptures…

This clip is slightly longer

Sculpture of ruins of ancient Greece

Roman’s Colosseum

Chess Set

Harbin Beer

Snow Sculpture

Stage

The entrance ticket included an hour of skiing

Got back to the city by bus 88. China has a growing automotive industry and just surpassed US this year as the biggest producer of vehicles. Story.
A Chinese made car

Went back to the Youth Hostel to see if I can get a spot tonight but it’s still full. Met XiaoCao at the hostel, she has a local friend and he brought us all for dinner and drove us around the city at night.

On the train

Passing by countryside

Got to Harbin train station at 3pm after 16 hours on the train.

Harbin is a city of around 4-5 millions people. The city is famous for its cold and dry winter and for its Ice Festival. Harbin was originally a small city populated by Russian engineers during the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1900. During the Russian civil war, many Russian refugees migrated to the city and was also populated by 20,000 Jews who fled the Nazi.

Just in front of the train station, there are some huge ice sculptures.

Took bus 13 to TongJiangJie. I read that there is a Youth Hostel there. However, the hostel is full so I decided to check back later.

Just a street away, is ZhongYangJie, a shopping street.

More colorful at night.

Took bus 64 to Harbin Institute of Technology to meet a friend. The university is famous for its engineering faculty.

Ate some NorthEast Chinese cuisine for dinner
Big Bone

Liu Kai treated us for dinner. After dinner group picture

Back to the train station

Some aunties trying to climb over the fence

Took bus 13 back to the hostel but there wasn’t any spot and found another cheap hotel around that area for 20 Yuan~USD$3. Yes, it’s 3 dollars!

The bath house where I stayed at.

Roads in Tianjin were harder to navigate because it’s not that straight and a little windy. It doesn’t help that I lost my compass yesterday.

Tianjin Station

Long line to get a ticket in the train station

Not many tickets left

Sometimes it’s easier to buy train ticket for the next day then getting ticket for the next few days because smaller station on the way will give back tickets to the ShiFaZhan (Main departure station of the train) if the tickets are not sold. Plus, people tried to change their trip last minute and there are tickets refund.

View of Tianjin

Big clock

Tianjin has some western influence since it’s an old port city and was always invaded first.

Some erotic sculptures along the river

Big Christmas tree still standing

Fishing on the river

Mahua, Tianjin famous

Shopping Street

Church

There is a subway line connecting from the northwest part of Tianjn to the southeast part of the city. Took the train to NanLou and walked to the Tianjin museum. So far all the provincial museums I visited in China was great. The contents in all the museums I visited were informative, every museum architecture is unique and entrance is free.

Tianjin Museum

Tianjin has some very interesting history. Because Tianjin is a port city, every time during a foreign invasion, Tianjin was targeted first.
Tianjin was the main import point for Opium by the British and was attacked by the British in Opium war I and II. China was forced to sign the Treaty of Tianjin after Opium War II and Tianjin port was opened to foreigners and Opium is legalized.

After traveling around, I noticed that the British Empire directly or indirectly did many harms to countries around world.

Atrocities by foreigners done against the Tianjin people

Tianjin was divided into multiple concessions by the British, Austria-Hungary, US, Japanese…

During the beginning of 20th century, Tianjin has foreigners from multiple countries. The eight nation alliance invaded China in July 1990.

2 Cornell Alumnis

NanKai University. I had a friend who studied mathematics there and mentioned that it’s a good university, so just check it out.

Had dinner with LiuFeng at Tianjin Finance University and took bus 676 to the train station.
Back to the train station

Took the 1471 train at 11.18pm to Harbin.

Met up with ShuLan for lunch today. It’s kind of weird that we met up in Beijing because I didn’t even know he was visiting Beijing until I sent him a random email. Like many Chinese that furthered their studies in the US, Shulan hasn’t been back to China for 12 years and this time he is bringing his 3 year old daughter to see their family.

Lunch on Shulan since he is getting his fat bonus soon. As an expert in US mortgage market, he mentioned that ABS market last year was even better than 2007, seems like the US economy is improving.

ShuLan’s daughter. She wasn’t even born while we were in graduate school, how time flies.

Somehow I lost my Bank of China ATM card which I just opened few days before. It’s quite bureaucratic in China where I had to go back to the same branch to close my account. I had to look for the same branch because I was planning to leave Beijing the same day. Since I lost my ATM card, I wasn’t able to withdraw any money so I had to open another account in order to transfer all my money to the new account and withdraw from the new account. My old account was still left hanging because it will take 7 days to report my lost ATM card and after 7 days I will need to go back in person to the same branch to close it.

Sometimes, things in China look nice from the outside by inside, it’s not what it really is.

Went to the Beijing south train station and took the 6.25pm bullet train to Tianjin (58 Yuan~USD$8.50). The south train station looks pretty new.

The design of Beijing South Station

The bullet train will only take 30 minutes to Tianjin traveling on a speed of 300km/h.

Beijing is huge, even after 5 days I still wasn’t able to cover many parts of the city.

Got to Tianjin station at 6.55pm. Tried to find a youth hostel and took bus 5 from Tianjin tran station to the north part of the city. Missed the stop and decided to stay somewhere else since the place is quite far off from the city. Most small hotels around the train station don’t accept foreigners as well.

Took bus 50 to BinJiang Dao and met up with Liu Feng and Li Jian for dinner. Li Jian treated me for SiChuan food.

Went back to the train station and got a ticket to Harbin for the next day (140 Yuan~USD$20 for hard seat). It’s hard to get ticket currently because most Universities are having vacation.

Walked around and decided to stay at a XiYuZhongXin, bath house. (38 Yuan~USD$6). The place was pretty nice and clean, inside looked just like a 3 stars hotel. There’s a hot pool, sauna and they even gave out towels and pajamas as well. I slept pretty well in the big room.

Visited TianTan, Temple of Heaven. This is the place where the Emperor made sacrifices to the God during the Ming and Qing dynasty. Some people draw comparison between Shang Di who worshipped by the Emperor and the Christian God saying that the earliest Chinese form of worship was of a monotheistic God recognizable by His attributes as the same God Yahweh of the Old Testament worshipped by Jews and Christians.

Faith in the Creator God in Ancient China

The Book Faith of Our Fathers will provide more information regarding this subject

Map of the site

Kicking a feather ball

Gambling, one of Chinese favorite pastime

Visited Beijing Film Academy. Many famous directors (Zhang YiMou) and actresses (Gong Li, Zhao Wei) were alumni of this school.

Lunch at the university canteen

Back to ZhongGuanCun.
Sohu Headquarter, one of my favorite stock

Visited TsingHua University again

TsingHua Business school

Took a bus to YiHeYuan (Summer palace)

Had dinner at a Korean restaurant with Jack and his classmates from Tsing Hua mba program. There is a big Korean population around here as well. Was asking around why they decided to study there and learned that by enrolling in Tsing Hua mba program, they are looking to get some political connection because many of China’s leaders studied in Tsing Hua university as well.

YaBao Lu has a big Russian community
Sort of a Russian market

but I only see Chinese shop owners

Headquarter of CNOOC

Sinopec Building

Advertisement for making fake IDs and fake certificates

Took line 1 on the subway to the last station at the west side, PingGuoYuan to see Beijing suburbs.

Went to a headhunter networking fair at Hilton hotel with Jack (50 Yuan~USD$7.5).

Trying to get some information regarding the job market in China.

ZhaJiangMian for dinner (7 Yuan~USD$1). It’s a Beijing famous