HK Independent Traveller Blog

20 July 2011 It was a sunny day, the best of the 3 days in Lucca and Pisa.  The beauty of the buildings shown to its best.  We got off a station prior to the main railway station in Pisa , getting through a normal street in the town, the baptistery came in sight, became concrete and admirable.  The famous building group is situated on a lawn, white marble on the green, a soothing contrast - gorgeous!                                       Everywhere is full of people.  All came for the leaning tower . It is really stunning.  Our attention was always on the tower and shot it from all perspectives.  Most tourists were posting as resisting / supporting the 'falling' tower or gave it a kick to accelerate the fall.  We?  We did not take such post.  It costs 17 Euro to climb the tower.  We did not but bought a 10 Euro join...

16 July 2011 Lugano , largely a Swiss lake city, but under the joint influence of Swiss and Italian.  It was previously an Italian town  but took over by the Swiss since 1512.  It is now Switzerland's third most important financial centre.  Ha, HSBC erected a building in the little town centre. Apart from playing its economic role, Lugano  is also a magnet attracting tourists with beautiful parks, flowers, churches and villas. We headed from Milan to Lugano.  The journey lasted a bit more than half hour by car.  Getting away from Milan to the highway takes some time.  I forgot to take my passport.  Fortunately we were not stopped by the custom at the border.  A good start of the day. My first visit to Switzerland is 1991.  Lugano is different from my impression of Switzerland, nice country houses, green mountain and picturesque surrounding.  I don't mean it's not beautiful, but different from my impress...

Shanghai is a vibrant city.  Changes happening everyday.  There were only 2 subway lines in 2007 when I first visited.  Now, 11 lines !  Tremendous!  I visited most of the tourist spots and a waterway town.  Strong impression on the historical buildings at the Bund and the picturesque Xitang , a waterway town close to Shanghai where Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible III  was shot. Lately, I could spend a weekend free during my work in Shanghai.  This time, I opt for a quiet strolling in the French concession area and experience more of the ordinary life. My day started with a visit to Eileen Chang 's 張愛玲 residence. It's only passing by, taking a picture outside the building. She was a very famous writer at her time and is still so nowadays. Her works are often filmed. Famous ones include Lust, Caution and Love in a Fallen City . Then I turned to Yanqing Road 延慶路 a street with glimpses of ordinary life.  Aged nice houses are a...

Guyi , complimented with high quality and consistency restaurant in Shanghai. It serves Hunan dishes.  It lives to the compliment.  A fantastic restaurant delivers first class food.  Not a dish disappoints its pilgrims.  We were a big group, having a business lunch.  Appetizers did a great job to impress.  Hunan dishes are famous for its spice.  But none of the appetizers was spicy, threatened you to succumb.  Only got you to raise your thumb and say good. This Hunan braised pork, a dish deep in Alex's memory.  It delighted my taste buds.  It's sweet and not spicy.  The spicy prawns were a enchanting experience, delible and never forgotten.  Chunky prawns went wonderful the spice, stimulating desire to have a more and another more.  I had two. The cow frog was huge.  Flesh was tender, not super hot but heavenly.   A few mild dishes:  refreshing lotus roots were crunchy.  Mixin...