中午开始就不能登录Live Messeger了，貌似Microsoft更新了软件，不更新就不能登录。报错80004004，反反复复安装了n次，终于下狠心完全卸载，再重新安装，终于搞定。

可恶的软件冲突。

过年回家，老爹老妈对于我仍然单身的状况表示极度不满。宣称，明年春节，要不就带个女朋友一起回家，要不就不要回来了。

网上的故事终于发生在了我的身上，要努力了。

1. Forbidden City
Can't miss the forbidden city if you are going to traveling to Beijing.
English website URL: http://www.dpm.org.cn/English/default.asp
Guide to the Museum: http://www.dpm.org.cn/English/C/C1/c3a.html
Exhibition  http://www.dpm.org.cn/English/c/c3/c3.htm
This guide is good enough for visit, I suggest you to spend one whole day inside forbidden city and enjoy the visit. hall of supreme harmony(Tai He Dian), hall of central supreme harmony(Zhong He Dian), Hall of preserving harmony(Bao He Dian) are the most imposing building inside forbidden city. These three buildings are the places where emperor  work inside and hold the ceremony.
For the exhibition, please try clock gallery and the treasure gallery. Inside the clock gallery, you can find "Clock with a Writing Figure" (http://www.dpm.org.cn/English/phoweb/Relicpage/1/R164.htm),  it's amazing, please read the notes carefully.The most complex and dramatic part of this clock is the mechanical gentleman on the lowest floor who can write eight Chinese characters on paper. The robot is dressed as a European gentleman. Half-kneeling, he is poised in writing position and rests his left hand on the desk. When the mechanical device is activated, the robot writes characters meaning that others countries all worship China and send emissaries to pay homage to the Chinese emperor. He also moves his head in imitation of human writing gestures.

The right part of forbidden city is Treasures Hall, it contain thousands of jewelry, it's best part of forbidden city. you will find the biggest Jade:
http://www.dpm.org.cn/English/phoweb/Relicpage/2/R936.htm

2. Great Wall
BaDaLin Great Wall are so famous, most people only know BaDaLin, but actually, this section of Great Wall was rebuilt, and also so crowd. In my opinion, the best part of Great Wall is SiMaTai section.
The link as below:
http://www.simatai-greatwall.net/english/index1.asp
 


Yes, it is ragged, that's the original Great Wall, that's why it is attractive.

YangShuo is the best place I have been!

Transportation:
Three options from ShenZhen to GuiLin:
1. By fly, from shenzhen airport, more than 7 flies from ShenZhen to GuiLin, will take around 1 hr. Easy to find taxi in GuiLin airport.
2. By train, take T37/T40 Express train, start from LuoHu train station at 10:23, and arrive GuiLin station at 21:48, around 12hrs 35mins. price: 242RMB
3. By long-distance bus, more than 10 buses to GuiLin, take more than 12 hrs, not so comfortable, price 200-250RMB.

The best way from ShenZhen to GuiLin is taking fly or train, there is a bus station beside GuiLin train station. Due to there is no railway station or airport in YangShuo, we have to take bus from GuiLin to YangShuo. But don't worry, every 15mins, there is a bus only take 80mins from GuiLin to YangShuo, this 80 mins won't be so long, because outside the window, it's so beautiful, will let you to forget the time. Please taking the regular bus inside bus station, if you take any bus outside bus station, it maybe takes more than 2 hrs to get to YangShuo, because the bus will always stop any village for waiting passenger.

Accommodation:
There are hundred inns in YangShuo, so please don't worry about the accommodation. The normal inns price is around 60-80RMB with AC inside. A lot of inns along and close to West Street.  An advantage is close to bars, you can enjoys the hustle and bustle of YangShuo, but a little noisy during the night. So my suggestion is take the hotel facing the Li river, price is higher but worth. Going to the balcony, lay down on the cane chair, facing the river and reading the news paper, and enjoy the sunshine at the same time, That's the LIFE!

1. YangShuo Oversea Chinese hotel.
This hotel has nice river view, the third floor has the best view, telephone number: 0773 8866488. Price should be less than 200RMB.
http://www.yangshuo-ochotel.cn

2. Paradise Hotel.
4 stars, nice but too expensive.
http://www.paradiseyangshuo.com/room.asp

3.Marco Polo Hotel
http://www.ysmarcopolo.com/index.htm
The ground floor of this hotel is the best bar of YangShuo, every night the best band has show to 24:00. The second and third floor is hotel, every room has balcony.

4. River View Hotel
http://www.riverview.com.cn/English/default.asp

So many inns, if you aren't going to YangShuo during holiday, no need book hotel at all. You can go there first, have a look around, make a comparison, then choose which hotel to settle down.

Walking Around

Entertainment

Shopping

Food

Plan to write something about traveling for a long time, too lazy to start.
Thank god, the busy October is over, I can have a rest now. It's time to start now, otherwise, will be finished never.

First, Let's have a look at south part of Chinese map, a lot of nice places for traveling, I will start with

the places I have been.

1. LiJiang and DaLi
2. YangShuo
3. ZhangJiaJie
4. Kanas
5. Beijing

Transportation:
The best way to Lijiang from shenzhen is taking fly.
First, take fly from shenzhen to KunMing (left side of the map below) which is capital of YunNan province(around 2 hrs), then change the fly to LiJiang around 50 mins. The ticket from ShenZhen to LiJiang, you can by together in ShenZhen, only need to change fly in KunMing.

Lijiang located in the north of DaLi, you can find DaLi in the second map.

Second, from LiJiang airport, take bus to LiJiang county for 15 or 18RMB. Get off in the end - LiJiang bus station, take taxi to Old Town of LiJiang (LiJiangGuCheng 丽江古城 in Chinese), the sign of the old town is big waterwheel as picture below. Taxi in LiJiang is slightly cheaper compare to Shenzhen.

My suggestion is buying a hand drawn map of LiJiang old town, ask for English map, it makes your traveling much easier. The old city is too big to walk around within one day, so maybe you can spend several night to enjoy the old city.

There are a lot of bars in the old city, the biggest is QianLiZouDanJi and "YiMiYangGuang(one meter of sunshine)", but I think Sakura bar is the best wine bar, there are huge crowds of people during 8:00pm to 11:00pm. Another one is QingNiao Bar, it's beside Square SiFang, they have nice coffee and music,  there is performance of original singer every night, I like his voice, if you like too, can buy the CD inside the bar.

Accommodation:
In May First St. and July First St., there are so many inns, price around 60-100RMB per day, most of them are clean and 24 hr hot water supply, some of them provide WiFi. From Square, follow XinHua St. JinXing lane, there are some inns half hill, price are more expensive, but you can have good view of the old town.

If you can't accept some inns, a lot of hotels are available, from 2 stars to 5 stars, price is from 250RMB to 2500RMB. But I strong suggest you to try the inns, most of them are clean, comfortable and convenient. You can know more people and enjoy the real life of LiJiang.

Walking Around
LiJiang traveling is not only stay in the old town, but also you can walk around. There are several places to go:
1. Yulong Snow Mountain
2. Tiger Leaping Gorge
3. LuGu lake

1.For YuLong Snow Mountain, I suggest to find travel agency to arrange all the traveling.  MaoNiuPing, YunShanPing, DaSuoDao and BaiShui River(white water river) are the most famous places in YuLong Snow Mountain. From MaoNiuPing, you can see the nice YuLong Snow Mountain, in DaSuoDao, you can touch the snow, this is real snow mountain. There are shops selling oxygen tanks, but that's unnecessary.  BaiShui river, you can find the picture below, I don't know how to describe the river:)

MaoNiuPing

 
DaSuoDao

BaiShui river

2. Tiger Leaping Gorge
Really nice gorge, I suggest to spend 2 days here, the best way to go to tiger leaping gorge is taking public bus to QiaoTou town, and start your long march from QiaoTou, The first night you can stay in Tina's hotel, maybe can find some foreigner. Second day start from Tina's to the ferry, the way to ferry is confused, you'd better keep the number of Tina's, ask them to communicate with ferry, make sure you can take ferry before 5:00pm. Take ferry to the another side, and there is a nice inn named DaJu Inn, you can find the number below. There is a nice courtyard inside DaJu Inn, and the host are so friendly.
My way is walking from QiaoTou to DaJu, but you can also try to start from DaJu to QiaoTou, not too much difference.

 
Tiger Leaping Gorge hand drawn map

Taken from 小妖精，你在哪里？: 2008.7 LiJiang

Taken from 小妖精，你在哪里？: 2008.7 LiJiang

Taken from 小妖精，你在哪里？: 2008.7 LiJiang

Taken from 小妖精，你在哪里？: 2008.7 LiJiang

Taken from 小妖精，你在哪里？: 2008.7 LiJiang

3. LuGu lake
I have never been there, but heard it's nice place. If you have enough time, try to take 5 days or more walk around the LuGu lake, enjoy your vacation.

LuGu Lake map

LuGu Lake

Entertainment

Shopping

Food

DaLi

Dali is a nice town, peaceful an quite. you can take train or coach from LiJiang to Dali.
Dali is not so crowd, rent a bike for 10RMB, enjoy the whole day. The most famous thing in DaLi is Wind-Flower-Snow-Moon, in Chinese it stand for romantic. Wind is a small town named XiaGuan, so strong wind there, another small town named ShangGuan, they have beautiful flower. The mountain close to Dali is CangShan mountain, it has snow all the year and one lake "ErHai Lake" is close to Dali as well, in the night, enjoy the moonlight beside ErHai Lake, romantic, right?

Note:
1.   Take sunscreen cream with you, don't forget. The sunshine is so strong, will burn your skin definitely. The higher SPF the better, and buy one hat in LiJiang.
2. There are shows in YuLong Snow Mountain and Old town, I know a good traveling agency in July First St. named Aladdin Agency, you can ask them for helping to arrange the traveling.
3. You can find my photos taken in LiJiang as these links:
http://baboonatsmth.spaces.live.com/photos/
http://picasaweb.google.com/babooncn/20087LiJiang

To Be Continued...

奥运之前在平台上，工作之余在餐厅看看电视。7月底8月初奥运气氛很浓，无论哪个频道，总是一个接一个的奥运话题，就连凤凰卫视也未能免俗。

凤凰的记者小mm在北京小胡同的一个菜店门口蹲点，三言两语就和一个北京大妈套磁的熟络了起来。问得问题自然也很老套“大妈，您知道北京要办奥运会了吗”，“知道”；“您对奥运会怎么看？”“奥运会，这是好事，今年（2008年）多灾多难，年初不是南方下大学嘛，然后不是四川又大地震，这不奥运会紧跟着就来了……”

My God，当场被雷到了，也就是北京大妈敢这么说，也就是凤凰卫视敢这么播，果真，凤凰比CCTV好看的多。