Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Fashionista's Travels: Windows of the World, Shenzhen

Post Hong Kong (I'm referring to our trip in June 2011 here), we travelled to Windows of the World, Shenzhen. All in all our trip only lasted 6 days, in which we spent the first two-and-a-half days in Macau, followed by the remaining three days in Hong Kong (we went to Shenzhen for a day trip, to me it still qualifies as a day in Hong Kong) and on the last day we left Hong Kong for Macau to catch our plane back to Kuala Lumpur. So, this is kinda how our itinerary looked like:

Day 1: Macau
Day 2: Macau (pre-wedding photo shoot)
Day 3: Off to Hong Kong. Went to Victoria's Peak and Madame Tussaud's
Day 4: Hong Kong Disneyland and pre-wedding photo shoot at Avenue of Stars later that night
Day 5: Day trip to Windows of the World, Shenzhen
Day 6: Off to Macau to catch the flight back to Malaysia

Hectic, you think? Definitely it was very, very hectic. But we planned it in such a way simply because we knew that we would know what to do in Macau if we just stayed there for the whole trip and since we were going to Hong Kong anyway, why not make a short trip to Shenzhen?

Now, before I unleash our photos in Shenzhen (which only consisted of our trip to Windows of the World) I have a couple of confessions to make.

Confession #1: I didn't expect Shenzhen to be a metropolitan. That was a careless error on my part. I didn't really read up on Shenzhen (I only read the part that there was an MRT station leading straight to Windows of the World, and that was enough for me), so I didn't really worry so much on the city itself. We only discovered that Shenzhen is a huge metropolitan when we left the MRT station to look for a halal outlet (which we found from the website zabihah.com) and found ourself staring at skyscrapers not knowing where to go. So peeps, don't underestimate any place that you'll be traveling to. Make sure that you have enough information (on the nearest halal outlet) to at least help you not to get lost. So in the end (due to my ignorance), we ended up with very tired feet and hungry stomachs (not a good combination, I must say).

Confession #2: It's difficult to look for halal food in Shenzhen. I don't know about other travelers (and I would love to hear feedbacks on your trip to Shenzhen) but we ended up eating french fries (lots and lots of french fries) at KFC (which coincidentally has an outlet right in front of Windows of the World).

Leaving my confessions aside (I will definitely not rain on your parade), let me share with you the photos of our trip to Windows of the World.

Oh, a word of caution, these are all replicas. I did not go to Paris or London or India. These are replicas.


This is to the left of the entrance gate. If you choose this path, it's closer to the replica of the Eiffel tower. However, the other path (to the right) would have brought you closer to the pyramids (which we missed). According to wikipedia, there are about 130 replicas in all, so there's definitely plenty to choose from =).


I really don't remember where this monument is from but I'm guessing it might be from Egypt... (but I could be wrong and indeed I have been wrong before).


A replica of the Eiffel Tower. Little did I know that 10 months later I'd be seeing the real thing in Paris.


Arc de Triomphe. Amazingly, we did manage to snag a view of the real Arc de Triomphe from Champ Elysees, Paris when we visited Paris last April (will put up the blog soon). Didn't manage to get a closer look though as we were pressed for time (and too excited at the thought of getting an LV) to mind a second look at the arch.


The Parliament building of London. Teeny tiny miniatures they are.


A miniature version of the Tower Bridge of London.


A windmill house..


I'm not sure what's the name of this fountain though...


Nor am I sure of the name of the small town behind me, but I'm taking a guess that it's a European village...


And I'm also not sure of this building either..


This building, I know. It's the Taj Mahal in India. Am hoping to get to see the real thing sometime in the future.


This is just me being cheeky. I'm guessing the gate behind me is some sort of Japanese house. Hopefully a trip to Japan will help me identify whether this is a Japanese landmark of some sorts or not =).


Apparently there's a cultural performance at 8 pm every night. So we decided to sit down and watch the show. A very interesting show of dancing, singing, a little bit of drama and some kungfu fighting. Should you have a chance to visit Windows of the World, remember not to miss the show. After all, the show only lasts for one hour.


Post musical performance, we were showered by fireworks. The fireworks were literally raining down on us. And as you can see, the Eiffel tower is emblazoned with bright red neon Chinese characters (definitely not what you'd see on the Eiffel tower in Paris).


We left Windows of the World at around 9 pm, took an MRT to Hong Kong and was safely back in Hong Kong by 10 pm. Shenzhen is definitely not that far from Hong Kong.

The reason for the trip was that we were eager to see the wonders of the world and we don't have the budget to fly to all those amazing places, so to placate our desires (and not to mention save a big hole from our pockets) we decided to visit Windows of the World. There's actually plenty of other monuments that we didn't get to see (hint: the pyramids of Egypt) because the place is definitely huge and you might need at least a full day (or maybe two) to be able to see everything.


xoxo Mrs Fashionista

p/s: if you're planning of visiting Windows of the World, the name of the MRT station is Shijiezhichuang Station. And if you're visiting Shenzhen from Hong Kong, bear in mind that Shenzhen uses Renminbi (RMB) as its currency so you might want to stock up on some RMB before leaving Hong Kong. And since Shenzhen is governed differently than Hong Kong, if you're from Malaysia (like me) would need a Chinese Visa in order to visit Shenzhen (note: you don't need a visa to visit either Hong Kong or Macau).

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