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Starbucks Christmas Offerings

One of the great things about Christmas in Hong Kong is the special limited edition food and drink offerings which many outlets serve up specially  for the holiday season. Like Christmas decorations, these food and drink offerings capture and imbue the festive spirit, but both only last for ...

One of the great things about Christmas in Hong Kong is the special limited edition food and drink offerings which many outlets serve up specially  for the holiday season. Like Christmas decorations, these food and drink offerings capture and imbue the festive spirit, but both only last for a limited period of time which is, perhaps, one of the things that makes them so special.   

One of the outlets that has got this down to an art is Starbucks which kicks off every cold Christmassy season with the return of their iconic festive-looking Red Cup. This year the classic Gingerbread Latte and Toffee Nut Latte are back in the cups, along with the new Cranberry White Chocolate Mocha, which features espresso, steamed milk, white chocolate, whipped cream, cranberry sauce and crystallized cranberry sugar. If this drink doesn't say Christmas indulgence then I don't know what will. Alongside the seasonal beverages there are also various seasonal food items such as Cranberry Scones, Cranberry Cinnamon Rolls, a special Turkey and Cranberry Breakfast Wrap, plus the indulgent Elvis Whoppie Twist (containing Peanut Sauce, Dried Bacon and Fresh Banana in homage to the 'King' himself, Elvis Presley).    

To further get one into the holiday mood and the spirit of giving Starbucks has also arranged seven special days with seven special promotions for customers (running between December 2 to December 8) and a campaign to raise funds for UNICEF which will run during the holiday season as well. 

 

Is Emei Shan worth the trouble ?

I' m sure there must be a big marketing team for Mt.Emei since the mountain is run by a listed company,and became a

huge money making machine . I have seen so much exaggerated advertisement about Emei.

Unfortunately my personal opinion about Emei is rather negative,and h...

I' m sure there must be a big marketing team for Mt.Emei since the mountain is run by a listed company,and became a

huge money making machine . I have seen so much exaggerated advertisement about Emei.

Unfortunately my personal opinion about Emei is rather negative,and have stopped offering tour to this mountain since September 2012.

Emei Shan or Mountain Emei,located in the western of Sichuan Basin and 160 kilometers away from Chengdu, said to be one of the 4 most sacred Buddhist Mountains in China(not many people in China are real Buddhist or know what Buddhism is) . It was listed as the World Culture and Nature Heritage by UNESCO in 1996.

1.The entrance tickets is very expensive,CNY185/PP,plus CNY90/PP for the mountain bus,plus CNY100/PP for its 5 minutes

cable car ride.

2. Extremely  touristy and crowded, each day ten thousands of domestic tourists visiting this mountain in the name of  pilgrimage,but I find few of them are real Buddhists, Chinese People are definitely not Buddhist, they are much more Confucius or Taoists.

3.The main scenery there are forest and Buddhist Monasteries,which were rebuilt in the past 30 years,the old ones were destroyed during the Culture Revolution.And I personally just think they were over built,too much monasteries,get bored to see so much because they are mostly the same. I think a real Buddhist should learn from the Buddha's philosophy and act following his good teaching.I'm sad to see Buddha's teaching is completely distorted.

4.The weather in the mountain are always wet,cold,foggy and cloudy,don't expect to see the scenery as you see in the the pictures,you might notsee anything in a whole day tour in the mountain except for some temples or monkeys(some of them are very aggressive,be caution).

The positive points of this mountain is that thesummit of the mountain is covered by heavy snow during December until middle  March of the next year. For the people(mostly are people from south China or South Asia) who want to see snow ,it's might be a place to go.

The Emei has became a famous mountain since 1980s is mainly because of  Jin Yong's Kongfu novels/movies, for his fans,they just want to say I have been to Emeishan.

So whether it's worth going to this mountain,really depends on what you expect there. Do get a overall information before going,

for most European or American tourists,China is so far away and costly,you might only travel to China once in a life time.

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Top China Tours

$238 Per Day

Private Hangzhou Day Trip from Shanghai by Bullet Train

Take in the highlights of beautiful Hangzhou on a private full-day tour from Shanghai. After hotel pickup and transfer by high-speed train to Hangzhou, your private guide takes you to see some city attractions, such as Faxi temple. Moreover, enjoy a tasty lunch at a local restaurant before heading to Longjing village. There, learn about the process of farming and producing dragonwell tea, the region’s most famous product. Finally, enjoy a scenic boat cruise on UNESCO World Heritage-listed West Lake before returning to Shanghai.

This is a private, full-day trip from Shanghai to Hangzhou. After you are picked up in your hotel lobby in the early morning, you will take a bullet train to Hangzhou. This is the fastest way to Hangzhou and you can experience train speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour. Your tour begins at one of Hangzhou's signature sites, the West Lake. Enjoy a lake cruise to see the top ten West Lake scenic views. You will then be taken to experience the wonderful cuisine of Hangzhou at a local restaurant. After lunch, you will visit Faxi temple, a well-known Temple dating back to the Jin Dynasty. See its famous wooden Buddha. Here, you will see fewer tourists and more locals. Finally, enjoy a cup of green tea when you visit the famous Longjing village to see wild fields of Longjing tea bushes where the locals produce the world famous green tea- Longjing Tea. In the village, all locals are tea farmers and you will see the entire procedure of making the famous tea and will get the chance to taste the best quality emperor tea. Afterwards, you will take the bullet train back to Shanghai and you will be returned to your hotel.


$150 Per Day

Guangzhou

Day 1 Arrive in Guangzhou

Arrive in Guangzhou in the morning, you will be met and transferred to hotel, then visit Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The Memorial Hall is a very famous historical scenic spot. It is in memory of Sun Yat-sen, the great revolutionary forerunner. After that proceed to visit the Ancestral Temple of the Chen Family. It is a unique site for offering up sacrifices to worship ancestors of 72 Chen families in Guangdong. This ancestral temple is also the largest, best preserved and best decorated ancient architecture existing in Guangdong province.

Day 2 Guanzhou Tour 

After breakfast, you will go to Yuexiu Park first, the largest and the most famous park in downtown Guangzhou. There are three artificial lakes and seven hills of Yuexiu Mountain. Then you will visit Temple of Six Banyan Trees, which is one of the four best Buddhist temples in Guangzhou and located on the Liurong Road (meaning the Six Banyan Trees Road). The Nanyue King Tomb Museum is a must-see Guangzhou attraction, which dates back to 2,000 years ago, is the earliest large scale painted stone chamber tomb ever found south of the Five Ridges. Buried with the tomb owner in a jade shroud are a gold seal and a lot of exquisite jade adornments. It has become a world famous museum. After the day tour you will be transferred to airport for your next destination.

$53 Per Day

Pingyao Highlights Walking Tour

Pingyao Highlights Walking Day Tour

With our guide to know the Ancient Pingyao better!

Our guide will meet you at your hotel lobby at 08:00 or 08:30, then show you the ticket office to get the ticket for the museums we will visit later.

First we will visit the 700 years old City wall, We will climb up from south gate and have a walk on the wall. We are not sure how many km we can walk, because of the renovating of the wall. Normally we will walk from south gate to the Yunlu Exit.

Then visit the Confucius temple, there is a old building named Dacheng Hall which is over 840 years old. From outside, we can see the big wood joints to lift the big roof around the building which is named Dougong. Due to this design, there are less columns inside the hall for giving the big space for the statues and the prayer. We have chance to see the Confucius statue and learn the philosophy of Confucius. If you like, you can pray for you and your children to get better study.

There is the Paper Cutting master named Wentao nearby the exit of Confucius temple. She is very smart and create the new style paper cutting with much more details and good wishes on it. Her products are made by hanks. It is worth to visit and buy as a souvenir from Pingyao. From the table standing and wall hangings. Please remember, take the red one because of red is the traditional and happy color. But the white one is the best. It is really difficult to choose, because of all of them are really nice.

Then you can have coffee break or tea break if you need at Chummy coffee, after this, visit the City god temple (ChenghuangMiao) which is most beautiful temple inside the wall. Because of the roof is covered by the colorful glazed tiles. There is not only city god and also the three money gods, Now you know why pingyao was the financial center.

Next we will visit the Ancient government building, to see the pingyao politics center in the ancient time. It is the complete building with officials bed room, kitchen and private garden. Follow the guide to look the official’s life from the 250km far away from the hometown.

Have a stroll in the alley to the Rishengchang exchange bank, which is the first bank all of china.You can not miss it.

After lunch, walk to the Ming and Qing street, this is the shopping street full of the stores on the both side of street. You can find alot things here , from post card to lacquered boxes, and wall panels. One more place to see, it is the Armed escort agency also named security and transport service for the business man before the bank founded.

Inlcusions

1.private english speaking tour guide servcie

2.bottle water for the tour