Celebrating my second cousin's 9th birthday at a Chengdu restaurant
Yesterday (August 12) marks exactly one month since my immediate family (mom, dad, and brother) and I came back from a 2 week long vacation in Asia, where we visited Hong Kong (from June 29 (our flight took off the day before but we arrived on June 29) to July 1), mainland China (particularly Shenzhen (from July 1 to July 5) and Chengdu (from July 5 to July 9)), and Singapore (from July 9 to July 12). It was my first time in nearly 10 years that I visited Hong Kong and mainland China and my family and I's first time visiting Singapore. I also have a TikTok post in addition to Instagram stories and an Instagram post (which are shown below, although their photo quality in this blog post may not be that good) recapping some of the most memorable moments from my family and I's trip. One of the Instagram stories also included some photos from our layover flight to Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport, with the flights to Taiwan and back home in the Bay Area being Peanuts-themed and the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport having a Hello Kitty/Sanrio-themed gate and store at Terminal 2. During the flights in the trip, I watched several movies, TV shows, and music videos, including Wicked, Barbie, Moana 2, Turning Red, some SNL season 50 episodes, Camp Snoopy, some Taylor Swift music videos, a Steph Curry tv show, Selena + Chef, The Peanuts Movie, Anyone But You, and Soul, listened to some Taylor Swift music, and finished 2 books. I also played an Angry Birds game (called Angry Birds World Tour) during the flight back home. Moreover, on the high-speed train from Shenzhen to Chengdu, my family (both immediate and some extended family) passed by various cities in China, including Guilin, where my paternal grandpa used to live. Overall, I had a very fun time getting to visit many different attractions in Hong Kong (including Kowloon Park and Snoopy's World Theme Park), mainland China (including Window of the World Theme Park in Shenzhen and seeing live pandas in Chengdu), and Singapore (including Marina Bay Sands, which has attractions such as a light show at night (known as Spectra - A Light & Water Show) and the ArtScience Museum) and would be open to visiting these places again in the future. It was also great getting to visit several members of my extended family, including my maternal grandma's younger brother who lives in Chengdu, my younger second cousin from Taiwan (whose 9th birthday took place during the trip), and one of my aunts who currently lives in Zhuhai. In the following sections of this blog post, I'll go into detail of some of my most memorable moments in each of the places that my immediate family and I visited in Asia.
Some Instagram stories about my vacation in Asia
Some of the photos from my Instagram post highlighting my trip in Asia
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Observation Wheel: When exploring the Central and Wan Chai districts of Hong Kong, my dad and I went on the Hong Kong Observation Wheel, which stands right at the waterfront of Victoria Harbour, and we were able to see views of Hong Kong's skyline (60 meters above the ground). The ride itself is 15 minutes and although we went on the observation wheel during late morning, it's said that sunset, 8pm (during Symphony of Lights), and late in the evening (when all of the city's lights sparkle and shine) are the best times to go on the observation wheel.
Avenue of Stars and K11 Musea in Tsim Sha Tsui: My immediate family and I toured the Tsim Sha Tsui district (which is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong district) during the evening. There's an avenue in the district called Avenue of Stars, which is based on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, celebrating Hong Kong's film industry celebrities. This avenue features plaques with handprints, signatures, and names of famous celebrities (including Bruce Lee (there's even a Bruce Lee statue) and Michelle Yeoh). A statue of the cartoon pig McDull is also featured in the avenue, and a full list of stars featured in the avenue can be found on Wikipedia (there's a total of 116 stars). K11 Musea features various shops, including one with Garfield characters and another with a Mimicry Pet pig.
Placing hands on handprints of Michelle Yeoh (one of the celebrities featured in the Avenue of Stars)
McDull statue at Avenue of Stars
Bruce Lee statue
Snoopy's World Theme Park: Located in New Town Plaza shopping mall in Sha Tin, it's a completely free theme park that opens at 11am. It was fun getting to pose with Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Sally, and other Peanuts characters, and apparently the "Community Hall: Snoopy Wedding House" in the theme park is a place where people can get married and so there are any couples who like me, are very into cute cartoon characters, this is a good place to tie the knot. There's also a boat ride in the theme park, but my dad and I decided not to go on the ride as it's geared towards little kids. Even though we did not go onto the ride, there were still fun areas to explore in the theme park, including going into the school bus and checking out the playground.
Snoopy, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and Linus at Snoopy's World
Shenzhen
InterContinental Shenzhen: This was the hotel that my immediate family and I stayed in. The hotel has various amenities, including a swimming pool with a large ship nearby, a small train, and the hotel room having a playground bed (the initial hotel room that we were in also had a balcony with play structure for little kids). With all these amenities, the hotel is one of the most interesting that I have ever stayed in.
Hotel playground bed
Hotel ship near swimming pool
Huaqiang Electronics World: Huaqiang Electronic World includes cartoon character-themed electronics gadgets, including Doraemon and Sanrio characters. According to this link, Huaqiang Electronic World is the second largest electronics trading center in Shenzhen, and another link states that Huaqiang Electronic World is the earliest and largest electronic products trading place in China.
Doraemon at Huaqiang Electronic World
HQB Museum (Huaqiangbei Museum): Like Huaqiang Electronic World, this museum is located in Huaqiang North and has information on protecting Huaqiangbei electronics market's unique culture. Specifically, according to this link, it presents Huaqiangbei's 40 year history, and it seems that it's a relatively museum, opening to the public on December 31, 2020.
Panorama of HQB Museum
Acrobatics in the Chinese show
Window of the World Theme Park: Window of the World features many miniature replicas of famous landmarks, cultural sites, and architectural wonders from around the world.While my family and I have visited Window of the World a few times in the past, our trip to Shenzhen this year marked the first time we watched the shows in the theme park (although my dad wasn't able to join my mom, brother, and I to watch the shows due to other commitments), with these shows taking place during the evening. The first show that we watched was Chinese-themed (including having Chinese music and Chinese dance) and took place on an outdoor stage. It featured various stunts, such as flips, which are included in Chinese dance. Some other parts of the show had slower dance movements, and other parts had some acrobatics involved. The next show (called Love Show) that we watched was Western-themed and indoors (in a building called Kaiser Palace), featuring Western music, and the performers were closer in distance to the audience compared to the Chinese show. While Love Show also performed on a stage, the stage area was larger, with some performers performing in the left and right sides of the stage during parts of the performance. Moreover, Western dance and music were featured in the show. Like the Chinese show, Love Show did have some acrobatics. In addition to watching the shows, my mom, brother, and I also planned to go on some rides in the theme park, but since we arrived late to the park, we were not able to ride any of the rides we wanted to ride. We also unsuccessfully tried to go on some rides during the time between the Chinese show and Love Show, which involved going to a different area of the theme park, and we ended up being a few minutes late to Love Show as a result of getting lost in the dark on the way back to Kaiser Palace. However, we did get some pictures with some of the landmarks in the theme park.
One of the dances featured in Love Show
Shenzhen Museum: Founded in 1981, Shenzhen Museum is Shenzhen's first cultural museum, comprises 4 museum sites, including Shenzhen Museum of History and Folk Culture, Shenzhen Museum of Ancient Art, Shenzhen Reform and Opening-Up Exhibition Hall, and Former Site of Dongjiang River Guerilla Command Headquarters, and covers an area of more than 60000 square meters. My family and I visited the Shenzhen Museum of History and Folk Culture. The museum includes ancient and modern history, and there was a hologram of historical figures in the ancient history section.
Hologram at Shenzhen Museum
Chengdu
Chengdu Panda Base: At the Chengdu panda base (full name is Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding), my family (including both immediate and extended family members) and I were able to see live pandas. The pandas have various names, including twins Chao Chao and Nao Nao (who were born the day after twins Ai Si and Ai Lun), and in addition to their names, their descriptions on the name plates include other information about them, such as when they were born, their gender, their mother, and their personality traits. There are also sculptures of cartoon pandas in addition to panda-themed items, including ice cream and backpacks, cardboard cutouts of pandas, and some people in panda costumes. Hua Hua (nickname of He Hua) is considered to be the most popular and most loved panda in China, and while there's typically a long line to visit her (2.5 hours - 3 hours), my mom, brother, second cousin, second cousin's mom, and I managed to wait in line for about 30 minutes to see Hua Hua. However, we could only see the panda for a few minutes. Hua Hua is smaller, weaker, and has a lower reaction time than other pandas (due to developmental delays), resulting in her onigiri-shaped body, and in addition to her appearance, she has a laid-back and gentle temperament (e.g. being unfazed when another panda repeatedly stole her freshly peeled bamboo sticks). While the panda base had many pandas, we also saw a peacock at the panda base.
Live panda
Panda ice cream
Posing with people in panda costumes
Posing with cartoon panda
Peacock at Chengdu Panda Base
Standing with panda cardboard cutout
Chengdu Wuhou Shrine Museum: In addition to its historical significance, being constructed as a temple to commemorate eminent Shu Han figures like Liu Bei and his chancellor Zhuge Liang, I liked how there were various stores selling panda items such as various plush toys (some pandas were wearing superman-styled t-shirts, although with the letter P instead of the letter S). There were also other stores selling other items, including one Flour-made figure store selling items such as Labubu, Ne Zha, disney princesses, and Sanrio characters of My Melody and Kuromi. There's also other fun areas in the shrine museum, including a place to play video games (which my dad and second cousin decided to play), and I even saw a live cat at the shrine museum.
Dujiangyan - Selfie Panda and Irrigation System: Located in Dujiangyan (which is under the administration of prefecture-level city of Chengdu), Florentijn Hofman created the 26 m long, 13 m wide, and 13 m high Selfie Panda sculpture of a panda taking a selfie. In addition to the Selfie Panda sculpture, Dujiangyan also has an irrigation system, which is an ecological engineering feat by using natural topographic and hydrological features to solve problems of diverting water for irrigation, draining sediment, flood control, and flow control without using dams, that began to be constructed during 3rd century B.C. (256 B.C.) and is located in the western portion of the Chengdu flatlands at the junction between the Sichuan basin and the Qinghai-Tibet plateau according to this UNESCO link on Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System.
Selfie Panda
Dujiangyan Irrigation System
Taikoo Li: Like Chunxi Road, Taikoo Li is located at the center of Chengdu. It is close to Chunxi Road and Daci Temple, being an open shopping center in the traditional West Sichuan styled buildings. My family and I passed by and visited several stores in Taikoo Li, including a Doraemon store and Lego store (which had Lego pandas), and we also got to see some 3D pandas. Moreover, my dad, brother, second cousin, and I went on a drive featuring a self-driving Tesla.
One of the 3D pandas seen at Taikoo Li
Doraemon store
Panda in Lego store
Singapore
National Museum of Singapore: My immediate family and I went to the museum's Singapore History Gallery exhibition, which goes into detail of Singapore's history. The gallery is divided into 4 sections: Singapura (1299-1818), Crown Colony (1819-1941), Syonan-To (1942-1964), and Singapore (1945-present). One part of the exhibition that stood out to me was how during World War II, Japan invaded many countries in East and Southeast Asia, including Singapore (the fall of Singapore took place February 15, 1942). It was also interesting how Singapore used to be poor but is now one of the richest countries in the world, with this website showing Singapore having the highest GDP per capita in the world.
Japan invaded Singapore in 1942
A Transformed Cityscape in Singapore section
Spectra - A Light & Water Show at Marina Bay Sands: During evenings (8pm and 9pm every day in addition to 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays), Marina Bay Sands has a free 15 minute light and water show called Spectra that features stunning choreography of fountain jets, colorful visual projections, lasers, lava and mist effects, accompanied by a majestic orchestral soundtrack. I liked the music that was played during the light and water show (one of the songs featured in the show is Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, which can be heard in the video shown below). Moreover, it was very cool to see the orchestral music soundtrack (which consisted of orchestral instruments and a female opera voice) being accompanied by the colorful fountain jets – I don't think there's anything like this in the Bay Area.
Singapore light and water show
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands: There's many stores and restaurants in this shopping mall, including Din Tai Fung – my immediate family and I went here during dinner during our first full day in Singapore (July 10 - we arrived in Singapore July 9 late at night). It was my first time eating at Din Tai Fung, and I enjoyed eating there. Although there is a Din Tai Fung restaurant in the Santa Clara, I heard that reservations are needed for Santa Clara's Din Tai Fung. In contrast, the Singapore Din Tai Fung in The Shoppes didn't require any reservation, so my family and I were able to eat at the restaurant. It was cool to see a robot guiding us where we were going to be seated in the restaurant (I'm not sure if a robot is used in other Din Tai Fung locations though, such as Santa Clara). In addition to the stores and restaurants, there is also a giant 14 m tall chandelier made of LED lights that is part of the Digital Light Canvas, which also has a floor made of interactive LED lights. On the floor, there's exotic flowers, giant koi fish, and all manner of animal life coming out to play. There's also tickets for going down to the floor area of the Digital Light Canvas, although my family and I did not buy these tickets.
Din Tai Fung in Singapore
Chandelier at The Shoppes
Merlion Park: The park features a 28-foot Merlion statue – a half-fish, half-lion stone carving that shoots water into the bay), with the fish symbolizing Singapore's beginning as a fishing village and the lion being a nod to Singapura (Malay for "Lion City"). In Shenzhen's Window of the World, there's a replica of this statue, and I took pictures with both the actual Merlion statue and the replica. The replica seems to have a higher head-to-body ratio and shoots less water than the actual statue.
Left: Merlion statue in Merlion Park. Right: Merlion statue replica in Shenzhen's Window of the World.
Marina Bay Sands SkyPark Observation Deck: The SkyPark Observation Deck is located at the roof of Marina Bay Sands and features stunning scenic views and cityscape of Singapore. My family and I initially wanted to go to the observation deck during the evening, but tickets were sold out for the evening and so we ended up going to the observation deck during the afternoon. Nevertheless, it was a great experience viewing Singapore from the observation deck, and I was able to get pictures of prominent buildings and attractions, including all the 18 supertrees (12 of them are in Supertree Grove, while the remaining 6 are placed on clusters of 3s near Arrival Square and Dragonfly Lake), Singapore Flyer (the largest giant observation wheel in Asia – my family and I ended up not going on this observation wheel though), the ArtScience Museum (a building shaped like a lotus flower), and Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay (a performing arts centre building with durian-shaped stands – although my family and I did not go inside this building during our trip).
A Singapore view from observation deck – supertrees can be seen
ArtScience Museum: The museum features a various exhibitions (including teamLab Future World) and programmes (including a laboratory). All of my immediate family went into the laboratory of the museum, and my brother and I had tickets to enter the teamLab Future World exhibition. This exhibition featured a collection of digital interactive installations that allowed one to be immersed in a world of art, science, magic, and metaphor. The digital interactive installations were very cool to view and interact with, including walls with flowers, paper animals (aquatic animals, hawk, and butterfly) and airplanes that visitors at the museum colored in with various pastel colors, and climbing on an interactive artwork known as Aerial Climbing through a Flock of Colored Birds. My brother and I were able to see our colored in fish as part of the Sketch Aquarium: Connected World portion of the exhibition and airplanes as part of the Sketch Umwelt World portion of the exhibition. We both enjoyed the exhibition and even got free tickets, with my dad getting free tickets as well, to visit another exhibition called Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses. This exhibition features showcases the work of fashion designer Iris van Herpen, who is one of the most visionary fashion designers of her generation and blends traditional norms of fashion with innovative production procedures. It is fascinating that her work is inspired by nature, including shapes found in nature, hybridization of human and animal nature, water, sea life, anatomical representations of the human being, and she's also fascinated by structures (whether natural, artificial, organic, or architectural) and explores cosmos.
The fish that I made
Some of van Herpen's dresses
Garden Rhapsody at Supertree Grove: On our last night at Singapore, my family and I went to watch Garden Rhapsody at Gardens by the Bay's Supertree Grove, where the supertrees light up with colorful lights while the music is playing. There's free daily admission with shows at 7:45pm and 8:45pm. Music from the 1970s was played when we were at Supertree Grove due to Retro Fever-themed music taking place throughout all of July. Songs that was played included I Want To Hold Your Hand (although the song was released in the early 1960s), Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind, & Fire, and Stayin' Alive by Bee Gees. Some of the songs that were played were very danceable, such as Boogie Wonderland, and I danced to some of these songs.
Dancing to Boogie Wonderland
Posing with the colorful Supertree Grove trees
Indoor Waterfall at Jewel Changi Airport: The 40 m (7 stories) tall indoor waterfall (Rain Vortex) at Jewel Changi Airport (which is next to Terminal 1 of Singapore Changi Airport) is the world's tallest indoor waterfall, and the Reflective Pool is the black ring of water surrounding the Rain Vortex. While my mom and I stayed on the bottom level of Jewel Changi Airport, my brother went up a level to get pictures of the indoor waterfall from above. My dad went up as well later to find my brother, as he was taking a while to come back down, but my brother came back down a few minutes later and so the rest of my family had to wait additional minutes for my dad to come back down as well. Thus, we did not have that much time to fully explore additional sights in the Changi Airport (such as the Shisedo Forest Valley surrounding Rain Vortex and Canopy Park) since it was getting close to our boarding time of our layover flight to Taiwan.
Each of the different places that I visited throughout the trip to Asia had many unique and fun attractions and qualities that can be done during the day and night. Although I have visited Hong Kong and Shenzhen in the past, I'm glad that I got to experience things that I haven't experienced prior to the trip, including Hong Kong's Avenue of Comic Stars and Avenue of Stars and Shenzhen's evening shows at Window of the World. It was also great getting to visit Chengdu for the first time – it's the capital of China's Sichuan province, which borders Chongqing (where the families of my maternal grandma and grandpa grew up). Throughout my family's time in Chengdu, we encountered many pandas (including live pandas at the panda base, panda sculptures, panda plush toys, and panda keychains). I had a great time during my first visit to Singapore as well, where I found the attractions to be very engaging, including the Marina Bay Sands light and water show and the ArtScience Museum. At the time of this post, I was also in the process of making a YouTube video highlighting many photos and videos that were taken during the trip, although I was experiencing technical difficulties with iMovie unexpectedly shutting down several times (possibly due to the fact there there were many photos and videos taken during the trip). The video is now up on YouTube (one day after first publishing this post), and it can be found below.
