Taipei Airport - A Unique Airport with Interesting Waiting Lounges of Various Themes

Taipei Airport

We arrived at the Hong Kong Airport with plenty of time for lunch before boarding the plane to Taipei and then catching our connecting flight to Toronto, Canada

 Waiting Lounges with various themes, Taipei Airport

We always fly with either Air Canada or Cathy Air since they are the biggest airlines operating in Asia. This time we flew with EVA Airline from Hong Kong  to Toronto via Taipei Airport with a stopover time there of about three hours.

In our travel, I love exploring the different airports at the same time o stretch my legs and see what kind of shops and services they have to offer.

Taiwanese Ceremonial Waiting Lounge

The Taipei Airport is not the most modern nor is it the biggest in Asia. At first glance, it appeared that there was nothing to write home about.













 Since we had about an hour to kill, we took a leisurely walk about and explore the various shops.

Numerous shops can be found in airports everywhere to entice travelers' spending

During our numerous trips, we found that though airports in each city look a little different.

However, they are very similar in that in every airport, there are shops and brand name stores and restaurants trying to lure travelers to spend money buying their products at the last minute before catching their flights.

We found the Taipei Airport charming and unique.  After passengers clear security and customs waiting for  their flights,  there are actually something interesting for them to experience.

A Waiting Lounge with a floral theme

The waiting areas in the Taipei Airport are not just lined up with restaurants, shops and more shops. But it has been divided into a number of theme waiting areas such as the one on the left with a floral theme of Taiwan's most famous flowers.





Each one of these theme waiting areas offers travelers a comfortable space to relax, wait, and something to read about should they be interested in that particular theme.

For example, we saw the Music Waiting Area.

The Music Waiting Lounge - Taipei Airport, Taiwan

The Skyline Waiting Lounge

The Skyline Waiting Lounge - decorated with model planes and hot air balloons and other flying objects. These colourful decorations must set off the imagination of those kids interested in aviation!

Decorated in bright pink colour with small tables and play equipment for kids to explore while waiting for their next flight with parents, this was a waiting lounge with a  Hello Kitty theme. 

 

Display of a Taiwanese artist's work at the airport

We liked the traditional wood furnishing at the Taiwan Image Waiting Lounge which was showcasing the arts and crafts of Taiwanese citizens at the time of our visit.




We admired the pieces in the Art Gallery displaying the artwork of a well known Taiwanese photographer.

Art gallery showcasing as artist's work at the airport

We visited a number of stores selling merchandise to travellers.
One of the stores sold local crafts items and also highlighted the aboriginal people of the island with a map and related information about them.

What I really like was the Library Waiting area where it has been decorated with book shelves and filled with reading material.

The E library Waiting Lounge at the Taipei Airport looked inviting and lined up with books

Cushions were placed on the floor should one wish to relax, sit down and read.

Travellers reading in the e Reading Waiting Lounge

In fact, we saw some people doing just that and a girl was enjoying some reading time with her mother.

I enjoyed wandering through the different colourful waiting areas with various themes and reading material and related displays.

I only wished we had more time so that we could explore the Taipei Airport more and see all the different themed areas.  At least  we could learn something while waiting for our connecting flight without being bombarding with only stores bombarding us with material goods and tempting us to buy more things we may not need in our lives!

R.T.
Taipei Airport
Taipei, Taiwan

   

Taking a Direct Bus from Guangzhou to Hong Kong Airport

Schedule of the daily direct buses going from Guangzhou to Hong Kong

There are a number of ways to go from Guangzhou to the Hong Kong Airport by bus:

   1. By Guangzhou bus to HK, then take the HK transit system directly to the airport

  2.  By train from Guangzhou to HK, then take the HK bus to the airport

   3. By special coaches from Guangzhou, going directly to the HK airport

Rosedale Hotel - where we purchased coach tickets from Guangzhou to Hong Kong Airport

We chose option 3 with the coaches operated privately by a local tour company.

We bought the tickets the day before and  were picked up at the Rosedale Hotel at 7:30am.

We took a taxi from our hotel to board the coach going directly to Hong Kong 

The whole bus ride  including clearing customs would take about  four hours.

We passed by a few famous areas

First, we board a big highway coach at the Rosedale hotel.

The coach made a couple more stops on its way to pick up more passengers.

We enjoyed the scenery from Guangzhou to Hong Kong in our coach

After we crossed over the Chinese border, we were transferred  to a van as there were 6 of us going directly to the HK airport only.

Entering  Hong Kong by bus from Guangzhou was not too bad 

The best part about this ride was that we did not need to get off the vehicle at all when crossing to the Hong Kong immigration  as the travel company handled the crossing from within the vehicle with all our documents and information ready.

Chinese Immigration Inspection 

This ride cost 220 RMB per person which was about $ 45.00 Canadian.  I knew we could pay a much cheaper fare by taking the public bus, but we would have to run around changing buses a few times going through the custom twice and dragging all our luggage once at the Chinese border and then again at the HK custom.

Waiting to clear customs at the Hong Kong border

The direct coach was worth it as it saved us all these troubles and the possibility of missing one of the public buses and possibly causing us to miss our plane back to Canada.

Patience was required when crossing border from one place to another

Crossing the border from Guangzhou, China into Hong Kong took a little while as the custom officials poured over the documents carefully.

People just needed to be patient and wait for the process to finish.

We arrived at the Hong Kong Airport with plenty of time for lunch

It was a very comfortable, air conditioned ride.

We arrived at the Hong Kong Airport at around 12pm without any incident and with plenty of time for a nice lunch there.

A great way to end our adventure in China!

Tips - Whether you are taking the public bus or the private coach, you need to be aware that there is no washroom facility on the long distance buses in China. Therefore, you need to be prepared for the ride and not to drink too much liquid in the morning.

R.T.

Guangzhou Bus to
Hong Kong

Lychee Bay Scenic Area - One of Must See Places of Guangzhou City

Knowing that our trip in China was coming to an end and this was our last evening in Guangzhou. J.  called  to take us out at 5:30 pm. We went to his place and finished helping him with some decoration.


He took us to the Lychee Bay Scenic Area - a beautiful place with traditional buildings and houses

A huge traditional Chinese lantern placed  in the Lychee Bay scenic area

This is not a man made heritage village specially built to attract tourists and lure them to spend their dollars, but a genuine place where people have been living and working for generations and hundreds of years.

Entrance to the famous restaurant in the Lychee Bay area

Off course we had a meal at the very famous restaurant where well known political leaders and celebrities have frequented!

We had a great meal and conversation in the restaurant! 

We enjoyed a very nice meal and great conversation. We had not seen J. for a long time! I couldn’t remember the last time when we had such a good conversation with him!

A beautiful place with old heritage buildings

Buildings in the Lychee Bay Scenic Area

After dinner, we strolled around this pretty traditional place, with a small river winding underneath old bridges.

A beautiful night view in the Lychee Bay area

Old houses and buildings lining both sides of the river, some were decorated and lit up with the unmistakable traditional red Chinese lanterns.

A beautiful place for an evening stroll!

We must come back during the day  as we could not take too many pictures or see the place clearly.

J. was mesmerized by the traditional Chinese buildings and the beauty of place. The awesome scenery of the restaurant facing the river took our breath away. I said to J. that this would be the restaurant where his wedding reception should take place. He agreed happily!

Though it was well past 9 p.m. there were still people walking around and some shops were open. We bought some tea at the tea shop which offered a pretty good selection of local herbal teas.

We went back to our hotel where we watched a little CCTV  program together. Later I shared a passage and prayer with him. That was a long time since we shared a bible passage with him; we prayed together too. Amen!!!

We hugged and said good bye. I was sad that we had to leave Guangzhou the next day!

R.T.
Last night in Guangzhou
China

Attending Sunday Service in a Heritage Church Building in Guangzhou

We went to an English speaking church service in China the first Sunday we were here in Guangzhou. Thus was our second Sunday, our last Sunday on this trip and we would really like to attend a local church meeting. Since google has been blocked in China, we had to searched online using another search engine.

It was not easy for us to find a local church here as they were not widely advertised. So I got info from a church friend in Canada and she gave us a few recommendations.

 Unfortunately, we could not find the service hour and got there at about 10:30 am when the service was just finished at that time.

This church is a beautiful historical building in Guangzhou

We found out that the service at this church started at 9am!

A nice lady recommended us to another church where the service started at 12pm.  On our way to the second church, we stopped at the Heng Bao Shopping Centre,  had our breakfast and then headed to the church.

Located very close to the Jie Tai Plaza, this church has been declared a heritage building and under the Guangzhou City Government's protection since 2008.

This church is a historical building under the government's protection 

This is truly a magnificent church with some interesting architectural detail such as the semicircular balcony outside one of the  front windows.

We got to the church around 12pm, a lady pastor was already preaching to the congregation.

Once inside the church, we tried to find a seat and sit down as quietly as possible. Heading towards a pew, I was called back by the usher and was informed that I could not be in the main sanctuary because I was wearing flip flops !

We sat in the balcony of the church for the Sunday Service

The young people leading the last hymn

She told us to go to the upper level where there was a TV set up. But we peeked into the balcony level and there were not a lot of people so we went and sat there.


We could understand little of what the pastor was saying. Later, we found out that the service started at 11:30 and we missed half of the program already.

When they sang the last song,  a team of young people led the singing with a female drummer accompanying the team.

I was touched by how the congregation worshiped at that church

When I saw the family in front of us raising their hands to praise God,  my eyes were filled up with tears, not sure why.

Address of the church in Guangzhou in Chinese

I was sorry that we missed the beginning part and almost half of the service. I would love to have attended the service in its entirety.

After church, we did some shopping in the area and bought some pretty sandals, also went to Ikea and bought some stationery items for J.

It was a busy afternoon for us as we went to the Rosedale Hotel  and bought the coach tickets for our direct ride back to the Hong Kong airport for the next day.

R.T.
Guangzhou
China

Visiting Taishan, Guangzhou

Guangzhou  Station

We visited my husband's ancestral village last week and today we would be visiting my parents' villages in southern China.

We got up at 6am, and took a taxi to the Guangzhou Station. After presenting our passports to the ticket agent, we bought tickets to Taishan (63 Yuan per person).

We took the bus to my parents' village

The bus left at 8:30am right on time and arrived at Taishan city at around 11:30am. My father mentioned Taishan City to us often when we were young.

He told us many stories about that city, therefore I paid special attention to this town as the bus approached this place. I could imagine my father as a young man traveling back and forth in this town.

We enjoyed the scenery on the bus to Taishan

After arriving at Taishan City, we had to take a local bus to Dofu, (10 yuen /person, very affordable indeed!) and it took another half hour.

By the time we got to Dofu, it was around 1pm. We did not see any taxi at the Dofu bus station except for a couple of  motor cycles and tricycle converted to seating passengers.

I remembered those stories my father told me about his village 

We opted for the tricycle and it took us another 15-20 minutes to get to Yachi's village.

Yachi's sister was there at the entrance to the village. She led us to her house and we met her parents and uncle. They had prepared a feast for us. We ate, got to know the family better and visited with them for a little while.

One of the ladies took us to my dad;s old house

Ya's village was a small one with around a hundred residents. There was not much to see. Ya's sister booked a taxi for us and the taxi driver drove us to my mother and then my father's village.

The house has been vacant since my father left

It was a lifelong wish that I could trace my root and visit my parents' villages. I was surprised that there were some who still remembered my parents and grandparents.

Weeds and plants have overtaken the courtyard of my father;s old house

We were led to my father's house. My father left the village long time ago back in 1940's before the civil war broke out in China.

The house has since been abandoned and it has fallen in disrepair.

Many houses have been left vacant in the village as young people all went to the cities for employment.

My mom's old village

After visiting my dad's village, the taxi driver took us to my mother's.















I was very emotional as I met and conversed with one of the elderly women who remembered my grandmother when I mentioned her name.

Tears swelled up in my eyes when I saw my mom’s village and house.

The same thing happened here with many of the young people having left the villages in the rural area of China


My mother's side family was better to do therefore her paternal house was one of the biggest and better built house.









Neither of my parents showed any desire to return to China to reside in their ancestral home.

However, my mother still has distant relatives living in the village and someone is currently occupying her father's house.











The population of the villages we visited have declined steadily and dramatically leaving only old people and the very young behind.












It seems to be a growing trend and a problem which the government has to deal with.

Then, we got a call from J. who asked us to return early so that he could spend more time with us.

We did and asked the taxi driver to take us to Taishan Station so that  we could take the coach directly back to Guangzhou at 7:30pm.

We spent some time at J's place. Using some construction paper, we made some art work to decorate the shelves at his place. We were glad to be able to help him. J. seemed to like it too.

It was after 9pm before we went out to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant in the area. The cooked sushi were  very good, much better  than those we ate in Canada!! Wish we could stay for another two weeks or so!

R.T.
Taishan/ Guangzhou
China

0723, 2016

Pangyu - Visiting a Suburb of Guangzhou, China

Somehow I didn't know what was wrong with my cell phone, I missed a few of J's calls and again this morning when we were at the hotel.

Realizing our trip was ending and that we would be going back to Canada after a couple of days, he asked if we would like to visit Pangyu with him in the afternoon. Off course we would!

We were so glad that someone told us about the ICBC where we could change our Canadian dollars to RMB. With cash in our pockets, we were more confident to travel and continue our trip in China. 

We could go pretty far by taking the public transit in Guangzhou. Travelling with J., we took a train, changed to another one and then hopped on a bus which took us to Pangyu, a bus ride of about half an hour.

We went to visit the apartment located in a gated community, a nice and spacious place. We met Dobson, his roommate and a very nice guy.

To my pleasant surprise, we had sometime while J. was waiting for his mattress cover to soak for a little while. Good thing I brought my computer and we could sing some hymns downloaded and stored on my desktop! Hallelujah!

At least we had a few moments of singing some hymns together. We always treasure such moments with our loved ones!

J,  being extremely busy these days, didn’t have time to have dinner with us. We grabbed a few buns and ate them on our ride back to Guangzhou.  He went to meet his friends.

I went shopping for some clothes while S. waited for me patiently in the store! I bought quite a few outfits because I could try each one on in the store. Thanks to my husband's waiting without complaining. Nice husband indeed!

A long and busy day for us!

R.T.
Guangzhou, China
0722, 2016

Where to Exchange Foreign Currency for RMB in Guangzhou, China?

Prior to our departure for China, we converted a certain amount of Canadian dollars to RMB at a Toronto bank in Canada.

Since credit cards are still not commonly accepted in everyday transactions in China, we have to pay for our purchases with our RMB once landed here.

However, for Chinese these days, shopping and paying for their purchases are easy, convenient and fast. Using their cell phones, many Chinese can instantaneously pay for their purchases to the stores, online, even taxi fares. The exact amount would be deducted directly from the customers' bank accounts and transferred to the merchants' within minutes.

After vacationing for almost two weeks in China, we almost ran out of Chinese money and needed to replenish our wallet. We wanted to exchange our Canadian dollars to RMB in Guangzhou, China, but it was not as easy as we thought. For the past few days, we encountered the following:

1. First we went to the Bank of China which is a big bank with many branches in Canada. But they would not exchange money for us unless we had an account with the bank.

2. Then we went to the Bank of Guangzhou,  a big bank here. They would exchange money for us. But to our disappointment, the bank would only exchange U.S. dollars, not Canadian money! This happened before on our other trips in other countries! I couldn't believe it happened again in China.
For the past two days, we went from bank to bank without success.

3. Finally, on Friday, after asking a few people around, we were directed to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ( ICBC )  closest to our hotel. To our pleasant surprise,  they exchanged our Canadian money for RMB!  And there was no charge either!

Hurrah for the ICBC in Guangzhou! You have saved our tour in China!

R.T.
Guangzhou
China