1. Seaside

One of the seaside at the east part of Nanao is called YangMeiKeng.

It is less well-known than other seasides while it has fantastic views, which is often used as a place for shooting wedding photo or film. Yangmei is the Chinese translation for berry, and Keng stands for the pit. They are inspired by the hill that is filled with berries. The river that is connected to the sea is crystal clear. The stones that are on the edge of the river are with the pointed angle or with different shapes. You can see the newlyweds have the photoshoot, standing at the edge of the stones and taking their vow.

There are three major activities that most people do here. First, you can choose to book a yacht for a group of 10 and go fishing – they also provide fly fishing pontoon to people who love solo fishing, open a party or do sailing for a group of 7. The Intrepid website will offer you the best selection of powerboats. make sure to bring sunglasses for water sports with you in case you want to go fishing.

Some people choose to go hiking. You will start from Dongchong, crosses the Dayanding and arrives in YangMeiKeng. The total trip is about 7 miles, where you will see the overview of the Dapeng Bay. The most popular activity is biking along the beach.

The four people bike is an attractive option. I once tried it with friends. The first person in the front needs to navigate, and it takes time to experiment and finally to keep balance. The ride will lead you to the Deer Mouth Height, which includes cliffs, rock hills, and rock caves. Trying out the seafood here is another must-do option. The traditional dishes are deep fried fish, crabs and scallops, steamed oysters and seasoned shrimps, etc

2. Night view/life

Shenzhen- a city that never sleeps. Similar to the major city in the States, people do various activities at night. The majority of people living in Shenzhen are young people, who go to work at eight and get done around 6. Working out after dinner is becoming a trend. The Shenzhen Bay Park, located in the Baoan district, on the west side of the city and close to Hong Kong.

It has a six-mile bike route and a mangrove forest. To run or bike at the park is an option because you get to see the newly built commercial districts, sports center and a part of Hong Kong. The night view is extraordinary. The Shenzhen Bay bridge which connects Shenzhen with Hong Kong is brightly lit at night.

After the nice walk around the bay, going out to a jazz bar or whiskey bar at the Coco Park is another option. Coco Park is a shopping center, located in the Futian district. It contains multiple restaurants, entertainment and leisure activities.

One-fourth of the shopping center is outdoors, where you can breathe in fresh air after dining or shopping. The first floor of Coco Park consists of bars. Shark Fine Wine & Dine is one of them.

It is special since it features different selections of wines from 8 different countries and cuisine made by Michelin-Star chefs. There are also sports bars and bars with DJs.

Another place for night bars is the Sea World, located in the Nanshan district.

It is similar to the inner harbor in Baltimore, which contains a large cruise. Since the location is near the Shenzhen Bay, this place is popular for foreigners. It has the international bars street and tons of restaurants. I had a frozen yogurt there which has a similar taste with the one in Iowa City. Rama Club is unique since it is decorated as an exquisite Thai garden.

It has different Buddha figures all over the courtyard. Come enjoy a cocktail and have a slice of pizza surrounded by the cultural relics.

3.Food

In Shenzhen, you can taste a variety of food from different cities in China since it is an immigrant city. The dish range from the local Cantonese cuisine(South) to mid or northwest Chinese cuisine, Korean, Japanese, South Asian and American food. You cannot miss the Cantonese food, Yuecai, because it is probably the most authentic one you can get.

Jade Garden, located at the Yitian Holiday Plaza is famous for the Cantonese Dimsum. Food is good in its look and the taste. You cannot miss the steamed shrimp dumplings, pan fried pork dumplings (serve with soup) and lobster cream soup with puff pastry, etc.

Shigonghui, located in the Futian district, is a place for traditional seafood. The restaurant is in the large scare, where people would sit at large round table, talk while eat. The service is fast-paced since a lot of people are in line. Dishes we usually order are roast pigeons, abalones, and scallops with minced garlic. It might be exotic to people who are not familiar with seafood, but they will not regret to try them. The freshness and flavor of the dishes are the key to success.

4.Afternoon tea

Shenzhen is also full of bakeries, café, and the specialty- milk tea place. Growing up in Shenzhen, we cannot resist the fruit flavor tea and milk tea in any seasons. If you also are a fan of tea, get a tea subscription so you can taste new flavors.

Heekcaa, located at different shopping centers in Shenzhen. It offers all kinds of tea from cheese tea, fresh fruit tea, etc. It is better than other tea stores because of the richness of the tea. They use tea base from Taiwan, North India and mix them with ice and milk.

1. A website made by a local English newspaper for foreigners who live or visit Shenzhen: Eyeshen
2. This is a useful website for things to do in Shenzhen including events, places, apartments, language study: Shenzhenparty.com
3. A useful traveling tool  in Shenzhen for reviews and tips: tripadvisor
4. There are six major metro lines in Shenzhen that is convenient for visitors. You can find schedule and stops to take: SZM

My first part of the city guide: Travel around the World: touring in Shenzhen Part 1

This monthly column will cover my traveling experience, my reflection of the local culture, people and food in different locations. 

The post Travel Around the World-Touring in Shenzhen Part 2 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

March 17th: Grand Canyon- Marble Canyon-Zion
We got up around 9 am, packed and headed straight to cross the border from Arizona to Utah. We were on a steep highway, and the view was extraordinary. You can take a symmetrical picture with the blue sky and the red rock mountain on the side inside your car. Also, you can also go on a road trip through Grand Canyon, Marble Canyon to Zion National Park.

On the two hour trip, we made a stop at the Navajo Bridge crossing the Colorado River. There was a huge contrast between the modern bridge and the rough mountain. Our three girls just could not stop taking pictures and ran around like crazy. Around 12 pm, we arrived at Zion National Park. We were worried if we could not find a site since the reservations were always booked out. (A tip here is to make a reservation three months ahead of time, and then you are guaranteed for your spot.)We luckily got two spots, and there was phone signal. That signal seems important for the outdoor beginner like us.

Travel insurance can vary greatly based on your travel needs, and there are policies specifically designed for different scenarios, such as house swaps. These specialized policies can provide additional protection for your belongings and accommodation, which is especially valuable for peace of mind while traveling. You may visit sites like Forbrukerguiden for affordable insurance rates.

Hidden Canyon:
It was late afternoon, and we were finally ready for another hike. We took a shuttle to go up to the mountain. We got to the trailhead of Weeping Rock, which is a readily available tourist attraction. We were expected to climb for an hour, but it was a short trip, and we climbed to a dead-end after ten minutes. Weeping rock is simply the water descending from the sandstone, which looks like a small fountain.

Then our leader led us to a more challenging route-the Hidden Canyon after going back to the trailhead. It is roughly 3 miles total and 1000-ft elevation which is strenuous. At the beginning of the trail is fun. It is uphill switchbacks that are pretty narrow, but you can climb by holding the chain on the side.

After a five-minute climb, the route that we can walk ended; we faced huge rocks and log. Our leader was bit concerned and said we might not finish the trail since it was getting dark, but he seemed to want us to try the trail because it looks like the real rock climbing. Some people in our team are a big fan of indoor rock climbing (the one in the Campus Recreation Center), they could not hold back and climbed up on the stone.

I was scared by the first obstacle- the stacked rocks. There was a stand on the first rock, but then between the second and the third rock, only small support points that you have to use your leg strength to stand on and move on to the top rock. I failed the first time and then made it. There were other difficult parts. Such as to slide down a couple of occasions from a higher point to the end from a rock or walk on a cliff that you would rather jump than walk. The view is plain, but the whole process of hiking up and down through the obstacles is challenging and fun. Someone in our group joked that it is the real hiking.

March 18th Angel’s landing 

Before we started to hike, our leader discussed the Angel’s landing’s steepness with us. He explained that it looks like an 180-degree elevator. It is roughly 1500 feet steep, and it takes 3-6hours round trips. Angel’s Landing was my favorite hike during our journey when you accomplished the hiking straight up and saw the view from the top of the mountain. There was a fifteen minutes walk that was switchbacks like S shape before the trailhead of Angel’s Landing.

It was not even the trailhead of Angel’s landing. When I looked up to the top of the mountain, people were climbing up, and it looked like they were going to fall since it was so steep. There was stacked rocks put near the trailhead, which was used as a sign for hikers to know they are on a right track. The climbing gave me a different feeling than climbing in Grand Canyon. The surrounding view was brutal- the sharp red stone and no stairs for hikers. At the last part of the trail, the trail was becoming more and more narrow. Some people hiked down were waiting for us to hike up; they even cheer up for us: you are almost there. When we finished and rested sitting by the edge of the mountain and taking pictures, we saw there were people on the opposite of the mountain doing rock climbing. Oh my goodness how can they do that. When you finished the angel’s landing, you would admire the professional rock climbers. On our way to hike down, our team became more united as a team. We helped each other when there was no chain. There were other climbers that brought a music player playing some cheesy pop song like Gangnang style and jumped down the stairs or rocks.

The way to go down was more fun and hilarious. One funny clip, one member of our team had something bad at breakfast, and he kept going to the bathroom. Because there was only one bathroom before the trailhead of Angel’s landing. Whenever he went down to the switchback and felt uncomfortable in his stomach, he had to climb to the bathroom and came down back and forth.

March 19th Bryce Canyon- Arches Dedicate Arch

The next day, we went to a nice café for breakfast. It is a French style café, and we had fancy crepes or omelets. We all felt moved that this was the best breakfast during our trip besides having the tortilla with jam, or trail mix, etc.

Later we headed to Bryce Canyon. Because there was still snow on the trail, we decided to drive up to the sunset point to see the overview of Bryce Canyon. Below the point, there were thousands of hoodoos and forests in between. Bryce Canyon looks much lower and flat than Zion or Grand Canyon, but it is quite magnificent. If you heard of the Terra Cotta Warriors (buried with the first emperor of the Qin dynasty) that is located in Xian, China, they look quite similar in the size.

After the short view in Bryce Canyon, we were heading to our final hike- Arches National Park. We were determined to do the 3 miles hike and see the sunset. The driving tour already led us to see a lot of arches. Different rocks formed into the open or closing arch. The trail started with the flat route and turned into a huge slab, and we could not see the dedicated arch at this point. Slowly climbing and there were the dedicated arch and some other large stones. We were spread out and take pictures when under the sunset. A guy threw his bottle of water down the slope, and it continued to bump the rock and went down. Some people just chilled and laughed about his action of throwing it. I couldn’t remember our conversation down at the dedicated arch; I only remembered we were excited about the good retreat- food for our five-day hikes. We had nice dinner at an American restaurant in Moab. The burger, fries and sausage was what we were missing during the trip.

Camping life:

We spent two nights at the Watchman campground at Zion. Since we got to the camping site late, we occupied two sites; one was by the river, and the other one was by the parking area. It was not hot because we were near the river and we stayed at the bottom where we had a nice view of the surrounding mountains. At night, we did camp fire by the river.

At the first night, we were tired after the challenging hidden canyon hike, so we decided to have some beers and snacks. Our leader, the chef, started to do a dessert, which is a remix of sliced banana, marshmallows, and chocolates, and he wrapped it up in tinfoil.

The roast banana tasted just right. After that, we decided to do some photoshoots by using cellphones’ light to draw letters quickly. The long exposure time created cool delay pictures of our names we wrote.

The second night was quite unforgettable because we talked about our feeling as a team to make the hiking trip. I remembered one girl mentioned that she would never expect we got along well, and we enjoyed outdoors and also cared each others as a team. I was quite surprised that though our two leaders have never led a team before, but they were capable of making routes, cheering up and leading a fun trip. The small talk went on and switched to joke and gossip. I felt like the hiking trip was one of my field trips in high school that I want to explore again.

Checkout my next column on a different location and more fun stories!

This monthly column will cover my traveling experience, my reflection of the local culture, people and food in different locations. 

The post Travel Around the World: Spring Break Hiking Trip, Part 2 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

At the beginning of the semester, I joined a new student organization called ISORA, International Student Outdoor Recreation Association. I was exposed to some fun activities, like indoor rock climbing and skiing. Then, I found out they planned to go by car on a hiking trip to the Grand Canyon and some other national parks for a week, so I immediately decided I wanted to go on the trip and try something different than sightseeing. We had some pre-trip meetings to talk about the trip itinerary, gears and food menu. We had discussions on if we could finish the Bright Angel trail that is 12 miles, round trip. My friend and I were worried that we would be far behind the team and have to give up the hiking and head back. But in fact, the nine of us all finished the trail. The most interesting thing that we had for the gear list was the headlamp, which made me think, “We are going to dig the mine,” but it is for setting up the tent at night. Also, our leader suggested that we get a lot of stuff like utilities, sleeping bags, first aid, etc. It looked like we were going to a desert island. For the food menu – since we had fuel, a cooking stove and pots – we brought a lot of food. Depending on the length of the hike, the longer you hiker, the more food you need. We packed 10 energy bars and a bag of trail mix per person for our lunch during the five days hiking. We had a lot of options for dinner and breakfast, including powered milk, boiled egg, tortilla and meats.

March 15th: Grand Canyon Bright Angel-Plato
Our first hiking location was the Grand Canyon – one of the splendid natural landscapes in the world. It is created by the incision of the Colorado River. We stayed at Mather campground at the South Rim of Grand Canyon. Around 8 pm we came to the trail-head and started to prepare for our day hike. Our leader told us to do two things (which are crucial for hiking): double-check if we tied our shoes, if not it would cause blister due to the steep road condition. The next thing is to refill our two-liter water bottles. He said we could not rely on the water station – only ourselves. We planned to hike down to the Indian Garden till the Plato point and come back to the trail-head. It was around 12 miles, round trip.

We started out walking downhill; that was pretty easy for us. Our team spent a lot of time taking pictures and greeting different hikers. We saw Rangers who always go back and forth in the canyon, and we saw mules (they carried food to the bottom of South rim). The view was breathtaking. Fortunately I was able to catch some beautiful video captures with my new action camera I got online from My Pro Scooter. We were surrounded by plenty of valleys and cliffs. There were even red signs, which were left by the Native Americans on the cliff. After a couple of jokes and chatting, we arrived at the Indian Garden, Inner Canyon. It was interesting to see the helicopter put down the package; we figured out later it is the grass for the mules. On our way to the Plateau point, we were in a different world. No switchbacks and cliffs, but a wide-open area surrounded by valleys. Visitors stood on top of the cliff with the background of the Colorado River. To hike up is much tougher than to hike down. I remembered we would say, “Hikers’ up,” to make way for people who were going up since it was strenuous. Our two leaders were stationed at the front and back of our team. The leader at the back kept everyone cheerful. We took a rest near the water station, and we kept telling jokes to kill the time. One time, our leader thought his phone was taken away by a squirrel, but it was hidden by one of us. About ten minutes away from the starting point, a girl in our team and I tried to run up to the top. It was just like when you are almost on the finish line of the marathon; we forgot the weight that we carried and the tiredness and made it back fast.

March 16th Grand Canyon South Kabab-Skeleton point

Since we had a challenge first hike, our leader made the second hike an easier trip, which was 6 miles.

We packed our lunch – that was my favorite food during the journey, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We took a shuttle to the Yaki point and started our day hike. The trail was steeper and more narrow than the Bright Angel trail. We ran into a mule’s team.

The leader said we should leave the way for the mules anytime to avoid injuries. Also, the mules were moderate and slow. Eve if they were ahead of our team, we still had to leave room for them eventually. When we finished 45 minutes and arrived at the first viewpoint, the view was fantastic. There was a big cliff that was surrounded by layered valleys. Our group of ten decided to take a picture of us shoulder-to-shoulder. It looked like we were a step away from falling.

At the Skeleton Point, it was cool to look down on the South Rim, including the Plateau Point and the Colorado River. We could see how far we climbed down yesterday. It was not a relaxing work to go down. I tripped a couple of times, so I learned to use my one leg as a pivot and step down using the other leg. Around 6:30 pm, we managed to go down.

The camping life:
We expected that we could have a nice shower at the Grand Canyon, but no showers during the time in other national parks. But, we got to shower super fast. It was an awkward experience that it cost $2 to wash for 10 minutes, and I ran out of time to wash my hair. I had to go to my friend’s shower cubicle to get extra quarters to continue showering. The camping experience was also another highlight of the trip. We separated our team into different groups. A guy took charge of making the fire. Girls did the cutting of the vegetables; our leader did most of the cooking.

On the night of March 16th, we had a tasty soybean paste with barbecue sausages. I used to buy sausage in natural casings, but after reading a post about Natural vs Artificial Casings I changed my mind as casings do not actually effect the quality of sausage. After we were done eating, we decided to play several games to determine who was going to wash the pots and pans. We played a number game where we would start counting from any number and clap whenever a number contains 3, 6 and 9 or multiples of 3, 6 and 9. It was tricky when the numbers of tens are 3, 6 and 9 that we had to clap twice.  We played categories and names games. The name game was a good way to get to know everyone better since some of us did not know every one’s name correctly. The game was simply to say 1 to 5. People who said the same number have to say their names accurately and fast. We had a fun time and got to know everyone a little better.

Check out my next column on my second part of the hiking trip. I will cover our unforgettable experience in Zion and Arches national parks, interesting stories along the way and more tips for hiking.

This monthly column will cover my traveling experience, my reflection of the local culture, people and food in different locations. 

The post Travel Around the World: Spring Break Hiking Trip, Part 1 appeared first on KRUI Radio.