I caught the flu bug. I was sick for 3 days and I absolutely hate it when I have a cough. 2 years ago, I cough and it last for a month. I never knew there will be so much mucus clocked up in a person’s throat untill I started sneezing non stop like a mad cow this morning and I can form a pyramid with those used tissues. On the first day, I got sore throat, follow by running nose and raspy throat. I have been doing a lot of unproductive stuff since yesterday such as sitting in front of my laptop and starring at the screen.

The doctor gave me a bottle of cough syrup and some pills for flu. If I had known they will be giving me this cough syrup, I would have purchased it myself at the grocery store. The syrup is actually formulated from Chinese herbal ingredients and plants extracts together with honey and sugar. It was said to provide temporary relief of coughs, sore throat and loss of voice.

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I disappeared off the web because I’m seeing someone in Shaanxi last week. Yes, he is Chinese, ever stayed in London for 6 months, he don’t speak English and was actually born in Xi’an – a historical place to the southwest of Beijing. The moment I touched down at Xi’an XianYang Airport, I was very excited and looking forward to meet him and discover a bit about Xi’an.

Xi’an city view from the top of the City Wall.

The city was one of the four Great Ancient capitals of China. It used to be called “Chang’an” and has been the capital of some most important Dynasty in Chinese history. There’s a saying: “Rome in the West, Xi’an in the East!”.

Before I meet Mr. Yong, the first thing that all visitors and I would see is the old wall surrounding the city. You can rent a bicycle and cycle on top of the walls around the entire city. The 3,000 year old wall is entirely intact and it’s one of the few that remained in China.

It takes about an  hour cycling on top of the old walls with exciting sceneries including the modern interior city and the sometimes dilapidated outer city with spring blossoms surrounding the walls.

Meeting Mr. Yong and climbing the City Wall are the 2 to-do things that I wanted to complete during my stay in Xi’an. He is the prime example of a great soldier! I admired his unwavering faith and commitment.  He never complained, never quivered and never gave up protecting the country.

OK… His full name is Bing Ma Yong.

The terracotta warriors.

They are indeed magnificent!! No pictures or photos can describe the feeling of seeing them personally. I’m pleasantly surprised time and again with the delicate details. It has been said that going to Xi’an and not seeing the Terracotta Warriors is like going to Egypt and missing the Pyramids!

The Terracotta Warriors.

The warriors were arranged in a actual battle formation. These soldiers are part of the vanguard and do not wear any armor at all.

The first warrior in the 3rd row was restored from broken pieces. It is said that it takes an archaeologist 1 year to piece together a single warrior. The warrior in the 2nd row looks rather “well fed”.

The grumpy old balding guy in the photo was the farmer that discovered the terracotta warriors back in 1974. To get his autograph, you need to fork out RMB150 for a book about the terracotta warriors.

It’s best enjoyed with some initial knowledge of the Terracotta Warriors’ history.

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I was recently introduced to this eatery house that serves AUTHENTIC Taiwanese food. The place was particularly famous for their Mi³-Tai²-Mu⁴, a sort of rice noodle. While I can understand why restaurants serving foreign cuisines change and adapt to suit the local taste buds, I appreciate and prefer restaurants that stick to the original favours and taste.

One of the restaurant’s signature dishes: Stirred-fried Mi-Tai-Mu. Yummy… A MUST try!! (RMB 16)

They have many ways to cook and serve Mi-Tai-Mu. This is the dry Mi-Tai-Mu and they do have Mi-Tai-Mu soup.  A simple but authentic dish. (RMB8)

The famous Taiwanese Lu-Rou-Fan – Stewed Meat Rice – (RMB 6). Don’t be fooled by this photo. The serving is quite small though. The braised tiny pork pieces spreading over the steam rice, and are sprinkled with braised meat souce which often accompanied with radishes and pickles. The tasty braised pork rice will keep you wanting seconds!

It’s fun coming here and listen to the Taiwanese owner blah-ing out Chinese terms in their Taiwanese accent.

Instead of “Lu-Rou-Fan“, they say “Lu-Lou-Huang“. Instead of “Yiu-Dou-Fu“, they say “Yiu-Do-Hu“.

“Yiu-Do-Hu“, (RMB 8): one of my favourite dishes.  A bowl of rice….  Some hot steaming braised tofu and I’m good… They are cooked in a braised souce made with special Chinese herbal ingredients. With a strong herbal scent, this tofu have a special taste that is like none other.

Another signature dish: Oriental stuffed chicken roll (RMB 16). Basically, it is minced chicken meat and some water chestnuts wrapped in bean curd skin and fried together – just the thing to get the stomach rumbling.

Try the Taiwanese Sausage as well (RMB 18). I could smell the sausage across the room before the waitress even delivered the plate to our table. The slices of garlic adds just a touch of spiciness to the dish.

The restaurant is very small and are only about 5 tables. It looks like Taiwanese style “xiao chi” and tea house. Couple of Taiwanese linger over some snacks at simple square dark wood tables as Taiwan channel news play on the wall mounted plasma tv. When we got there at 1pm, it was crowded and there were no empty seats.

The owner cum chef is a Taiwanese grandma.  Many Taiwanese dine there to fulfill their craving for authentic home-made dishes.

The eatery is named after its signature dish, Mi-Tai-Mu. The rice noodle is hand made and the ingredients are imported from Taiwan according to the chef. For dessert, you can try their Ice Mi-Tai-Mu, which rather unique. Unfortunately, we were not able to try this dessert as the restaurant have finished selling their last bowl.

Aside from these dishes we ordered above, the menu has O-ah-jian (Oyster Omelet), fried drumstick rice, fried calamari ball, braised egg, braised pork knuckles, variety of soups and more…

ALL food are served without MSG!!

Address: No.158 Zi-Teng Lu, Minhang.

Delivery: 34315456
Opening hours: 10:00am – 12:00am

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The World largest Barbie store is located on the busy and popular HuaiHai Road, designed by New York-based Slade Architecture and Ogilvy & Mather’s BIG division. Whimsical lattice pattern of Barbie iconography that was printed on the facade is not striking in the day. At night, however, it transforms into Barbie heaven as the pink lighting makes it stand out. The Architects has developed a puffy underlayer of vacuum-formed clear polycarbonate behind the facade, allowing visitors to have a glimpse of the street and natural sunlight that will spill deep into the interior. I really LOVE architectures and interiors that use a lot of natural sunlight.

There are 800 of current and vintage Barbie dolls lining up in clear tubes at the center spiral stairwell connecting levels 3, 4 and 5. Shoppers young and old, immediately spot this spectacular  display and it really sets the tone and theme for the entire store.

Dichroic-glass mobile of Barbie-icon cutouts – purses, hearts and petal-shaped sliced out of tinted clear acrylic over the stairwell.

Top magnets that attach display items to a steel-paneled “shoe-wall”.

Ceilings are tastefully decorated to lighten up the mood of visitors and shoppers.

Real life Barbie and Ken!? They were very popular and the ladies seem to prefer taking photos with the suave looking Ken rather than Barbie. Everywhere they went, a crowd would follow closely behind.

Some of the staff near the Design Center wearing a pink outfit, Barbie signature color which looks like a cross between a rain coat and a lab coat.

The Design Center where die hard Barbie lovers can use their creative juices to create new designs. Looks like a computer lab… Barbie style!! All these children must be really enjoying themselves.

The world’s most famous blonde is 50 years old! But the American icon could never be just another middle-aged woman.

The dolls on the left are wearing the vintage zebra black & white swimsuit. When Barbie made her first appearance back in 1959 (yes… she is 50 years old now), she was wearing the same kind of swimsuit. It wasn’t until 1962 that Barbie changed to the Red Helenca swimsuit (shown on the right).

The 3rd doll in the Byron Lars’ Chapeaux collection.

The dolls do not come cheap at all. Be prepared to spend a few hundred yuan at least. The African American Barbie doll above was designed by Bryon Lars, a fashion designer and prodigy.

The Barbie cafe in mosaic flooring…

Shoppers explore the newly opened Shanghai Barbie flagship store. This is all good news of course, because it means the Barbie store are probably going to do well with her first dedicated store in Shanghai, the most modern and fashionable city.

On the first floor, near the entrance is the Image Shop. The photos taken can be compiled into a photo album or a customized unique table calendar.

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When I came back just now, I saw these sausages moonbathing outside my bedroom’s window (at their kitchen’s window).

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A while back ago, I wrote the Nokia E71 that was very popular. It seems Nokia intends to follow up on this success with a new E-series phone.

Anyway, I was looking for cool themes to use in my E71 when I came across the application Multiscanner. With this application, I have found another useful function for the Nokia E71 camera. The Multiscanner lets you takes photos of business cards and saves the information as a contact in your address book. It will automatically recognize those info and will save each part of the data in the correct spot.

Been using this application for some times and no more flipping through the box of namecards to search for a contact…. this application really compliments the E71′s function as a business phone. Some editing is required as the interpretation of the infomation on the namecards is not perfect. It does seem to work better with typical namecard layouts. The camera flash kinda gets in the way when the name cards have a glossy surface.  However, it is still a interesting and cool function.

Try it here!

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It’s here, WordCamp China is happening on March 28th April 4th, 2009 at Fudan University (School of Journalism) in Shanghai, and follow by WordCamp Hong Kong on April 5th, 2009. Registration is open for attendees as well as speaker submissions on topics relating to all things WordPress. If you ever wanted to find a room full of people that are pasionate about WordPress, find tips on publishing and beyond your expectations, or meet Matt Mullenweg the founding developer of WordPress, event like this are a great place to start learning about blogging and coding. Sign on up and plan for a weekend in one of the most happening cities in China, not to mention a 2010 Shanghai World Expo venue.

Please visit WordCamp China 2009 for the most up to date details. First 100 registered attendees will get a free WordCamp t-shirt.

For upcoming WordCamp around the world, please click here.

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There are 2 ways to get a better view of the Giant Buddha…. there’s the view from the boat for those willing to fork out RMB50… and there’s the view from the opposite bank for a mere RMB1.

Obviously, being the scrooge that we are, we chose the cheapest route available.

After looking at the Giant Buddha up close, we set off to get a better view. We got onto the local public bus No.13 from the Dafosi station. The bus fare cost only RMB1… plus you can slowly take in the local scenes from the leisurely ride.

Get down at the JinBeiYinZuo bus stop.  You find yourself in a street bustling with activities.

Across the bus stop, you should find a Cinema and a fast food outlet… KFC… (what else ) … KFC seems to have penetrated every corner of China

Continue walking down the street, cross a junction and you should come to a fortified river bank (did the Great Wall extend all the way to Leshan!?!?)

From here, you can take a boat ride to the opposite bank for RMB1. Or you could swim across… we saw some chinese swimming in the murky river… beware though! the river current is rather strong!!

On the boat with some Mongolians? Tibetans?

The opposite bank seems to be an “island” made up of sand and smooth rocks. One of the many activities to engage in on the island… kite flying.

Another favourite pastime of the locals… Mahjong. There are easily 30~40 busy tables on the island.

The rocks are kinda tricky to walk on… in the background you can see the Giant Buddha. To get a better view at the edge… walk on!!

Don’t be fooled and take the narrow and seemingly flat path…

In Sichuan, the taste of the food is spicy, very spicy or veryyyyyyyy spicy. Even the tofu puddling is spicy.

Someone swims across the river and lost her bra…

Now you got the view!

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Leshan is about 1.5 hours drive by coach from Chengdu. It houses the Giant Buddha which is something rediculous like 71 meters tall, 1200 year old World’s Largest sitting ancient statue of the deity. It’s carved out of a hillside in 8th century and looks down on the confluence of 3 rivers in southwestern Sichuan province. Glad that this Unesco World Heritage site was undamaged by the nation’s strongest earthquake that hits Sichuan last year.

We bought our bus tickets from Chengdu tourist bus station, RMB 49 per head. The first bus starts at 7.30am. At the counter, we were asked if we wanted to go to Leshan town area or Leshan Giant Buddha. The trip to the town area cost RMB43.

So we bought our tickets to the Giant Buddha which turn out to be a 6-pax mini van. The van brought us to this side entrance that cost RMB150 for an entrance ticket, which include another scenic area – The Buddha Paradise, whilst the entrance fee for the Giant Buddha is only RMB70.

We read in the internet somewhere that some so called “public” bus will travel to the Giant Buddha scenic area from Leshan Tourist Bus Station. However, they will drop passengers off at the side entrance instead where the ticket prices of the Buddha Paradise and Giant Buddha is bundled together. It is probably a private arrangement to drive more visitors to the less known Buddha Paradise. Unwilling to fork out the extra RMB80 for the other scenic area, we took this tuk-tuk car up to the north entrance for RMB 10.

The tickets also functions as postcards. You can find a post box on the top of the hill, just behind the Buddha’s head.

I love how the imposed so many conditions just to justify describing them as the World’s Tallest, and World’s Largest.

I have to say, this wasn’t my first Giant Buddha experience.

Tian Tan Buddha, completed in 1993, was the World’s Largest (again) outdoor bronze seated Buddha statue on a lotus, whilst the
Lingshan Buddha, completed in 1996, is the World Tallest bronze standing Buddha statue weighing over 700 tons and 88 metres high.

The great masterpiece is carved out of a cliff that faces Mount Emei scenic area. There’s an old saying: “The mountain is a Buddha and the Buddha is a mountain“.

Another attractive place is the side of the Buddha’s head. You can go up there directly through a plank way along the cliff and appreciate the engraving art, by seeing his hair as worn in icing embedded with stones.

This statue is so old that even weeds grow inside it’s 7 meters long ears!

The precarious staircase zigged and zagged down the cliff, bringing the Giant Buddha into sights at different levels. The stairs were really small and slick!

The giant Buddha is not the only scenic area. From the entrance, walkways takes you along paths that bypass other Buddha carvings, statues, temples, cliff tombs and caves. There are loads of steps up and down high hills making the rounds in the parks a tiring affair.

We met some local tourists visiting the giant Buddha. Mostly senior citizens with a tour group, each one had a square coloured, numbered tag attached to their cloths.

It is a pity to see such graffiti at the Leshan Giant Buddha scenic site. The Giant Buddha have been around for more than a thousand years. We really ought to try our best to preserve these historic sites and let future generations appreciate them.

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