SZ Botanical Gardens

A few friends from d.light (Sabina, Kristen, and Jason) and I decided to go check out the Botanical Gardens in Shenzhen one weekend at the end of July, where we found a variety of things. You can find lots of trees, plants, flowers, lakes,...

 dinosaurs...

 pagodas...

 old town houses...

Just another day in Shenzhen!

-dana

Macau!

It's great when friends from Stanford have to pass through Shenzhen for work. Amish was here at the beginning of July for work. Hey Chris, when are you coming back? We can when you come!

We decided to make a day trip to Macau, which was a Portuguese colony for almost 500 years. I think it's smaller than San Francisco.

 Here's Amish in a Cathedral! Cathedrals in China? Cool!

 This is one thing I really liked about Macau: feeling like I was walking through Europe. I found piazzas, water fountains, and cobbled streets in a place that looked like Hong Kong, though much less crowded!

 Here's the inside of the Venetian. Yes, it does look just like Vegas.

 St. Mark's Square (inside the Venetian).

At the end of the day, we got to see a Cirque du Soleil (Zaia) show for 25usd! I think if you're in Vegas, 25usd will buy you two drinks while you're watching a Cirque du Soleil show.

Visit from Sirena, Trip to Xi'an

I was really happy when my lil sister, Sirena, came to visit me in Shenzhen with a few of her friends at the end of June. After her friends left to go back home, she and I made a 4-day trip to Xi'an.

 Sirena and I biked around the city walls, which I hear is somewhere between 12-14km. I'm pretty sure I did 80% of the work...

 We did a day trip to Hua Shan which is 2hrs away from Xi'an by bus. The peaks are at ~2,000m.

 Yeah. The views were pretty awesome.

 Can't go to Xi'an without making friends with some Terracotta Warriors!

More pix on my Picasa page: http://picasaweb.google.com/danaung/XiAnTrip#

I had a lot of fun. Thanks for visiting, Sirena!

Housewarming!

After moving in around the beginning of May, I finally had a housewarming about a month ago on 06.13 where I attempted to do a BBQ. I think I bought twice as much food as I needed. Better overprepared, right?

 I came to realize that I was spoiled with grilling with nice big propane grills or with nice coals and lighter fluid. Look at this tiny grill! First it took a long time to get the coals started, then it took a long time to grill since my grill was so small. Luckily I had 2 grills.

 (left to right) Here's Dorcas and Ned (friends from Stanford) Bertina, Kira, and Kai (friends from the office building).

 Yum... Good food, including Mei's corn dip!

 (left to right) Mei and Scott (coworkers) Dorcas, Ned, Bertina. Oh, and Daniel in the back (another buddy from Stanford).

Pix from LiJiang

Sweet I'm back on Blogger! I just have to say Hotspot Shield is awesome!

Here are some pictures from the company trip to LiJiang in Yunnan, China at at the end of May. Of the 4 days we were there, it rained every day. It was tons of fun though! I think LiJiang is the Asian Swiss Alps (and I loved the Swiss Alps). You do have cable cars that take you up Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (yes, it did have snow, and it was cold!), and everything is so fresh and clean. The water there tastes great and the scenery is beautiful.


 
Here is a picture of LiJiang, one of China's best preserved Old Towns. I spent 3 days walking through the city and only only the day before I leave did I realize that I had explored less than 1/3 of it.

 
More beautiful views!

 
Nothing like having a cold beer while watching the city's nightlife come alive.

 
At 4680m, you get hail, strong winds, thin air, freezing fingers, and some pretty awesome views! One of my coworkers and I made it to the top (where I bought a well spent 10rmb tea, a very critical handwarmer).

There are way too may pictures, so the rest I've posted on Picasa.

http://picasaweb.google.com/danaung/ZaoTechCompanyTripLijiang#

More pix and stories to come!

Back on Blogger!

So I finally found a way around the Great Firewall, which is good, since they started to block Facebook too! I now have a lot of updating to do. I'm not sure if I'll be able to post pictures , but we'll see.

Blogspot is blocked by the Great Firewall

Sorry I haven't posted in over a month. China has blocked Blogspot because of the Tienanmen Square anniversary. I'm not sure when they'll unblock it. I'm currently blogging from HK (since I've made 3 trips to HK in the last week!).

So what's new with me...

Since the last time I blogged:

I took a company trip to Lijiang in Yunan Province. It was awesome! It reminds me of an Asian version of Switzerland. There's a well-preserved old town, beautiful nature views from the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, lots of great food, etc. I have yet to post pictures, which I will put on Picasa at some point.

My little sister Sirena is in town visiting, so I showed her and her friends around HK and Shenzhen. She's currently in Shanghai and will be back in 10 days or so to hang out.

Also, there seem to be quite a few people passing through Shenzhen at the moment. Besides my sister, Derrick Jue was here, Jon Gaw is here, and Chris Li is here too.

Still learning a ton and having lots of fun! I do love Shenzhen!