RANDOM QUOTES, RANDOM THOUGHTS



Tuesday, April 15, 2008

5 MARCH 2008: Shenzhen

Day 2: 5 March 2008

Iterinary: Air-ticketing at Shenzhen Airport; A visit to Windows of The World; Huaqiangbei electronics market; Shenzhen metro system; Shenzhen Airport for flight to Chengdu.

The plan for the day was quite straightforward. Vienna Hotel runs half-hourly shuttle buses to the Airport, I took one to the airport at about 8.30 am, grabbed a quick breakfast at the Airport (there are quite a number of eating places there) and then went about doing the rest of my air-ticketing. First stop, the Sichuan Airlines counter to pickup my prebooked ticketing voucher hard copy. Then went through the list of possible flights which was prepared beforehand and checked with the various airline and agent counters. One key thing I learnt was that you will not get the pricing stated on the respective airlines website purchasing them through the airport counters. The fares could go either way depending on supply and demand each day. I got the Air China return flight from Lhasa to Chengdu at 30% off full rate (七折). I was having trouble deciding where to fly back from to Shenzhen as I could not get in touch with the Chengdu travel agent, the roaming did not seem to work, I could not even answer incoming calls! After some deliberation, I jumped at the rare opportunity of an 80% (两折) off ticket from Wuhan to Shenzhen and decided to go with the Three Gorges cruise option which will end in Yichang. The flight timing was appropriate too! On paper it looked quite straightforward to get to Wuhan from Yichang by coach and I could also visit the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan. So the Wuhan-Shenzhen flight seemed a good and logical choice. The worse that could happen if there were no slots for the cruise, I could just buy another ticket from Chengdu back to Shenzhen.

The flights arrangements were done, next was to find my way to Windows of The World. I checked with the airport staff and was told there was a direct bus to Windows from the airport, lucky me! Headed straight to the bus stop but was a wee too late as a bus was just leaving, had to wait for the next one leaving in another 5 mins. The fare was only 5 RMB and it took about 40 mins to reach Windows. Luckily I boarded from the starting point and managed to have a seat througout the bus journey, it got more crowded with each stop and eventually the bus was packed! The funny thing was the way the ticketing was done. It was so stressful for the lady bus conductor to ticket those who boarded the bus along the way, I mean there were so many people that the poor lady must have a hard time keeping up who did or did not purchase a ticket. Along the way I noticed quite a number of persons managed to ride for free as they disembarked before the lady could reach them. There were even a couple of persons who simply stood there as if they had already purchased a ticket when they have not, There was no way the lady conductor could tell.

A big difference between the public buses in Shenzhen and Singapore (and other cities) was that there was a pre-recorded announcement of each stop and the next, so you will definitely know when to get off and more importantly get yourself prepared one stop earlier to get off.

The Singapore government like to boast about Singapore having a world class transport system, having experienced my first ride on a public bus in China, it just re-affirmed my long-held belief that the Singapore government are deluding themselves & its citizens by their incessant pronouncing that we have a world class transport system, FIRST WORLD my ass!

N.B.: My next ride on the Shenzhen metro further confirmed this as a matter of facts and first-hand experience!

世界之窗

This is a fairly big park divided into sections according to different continents of the world. You could catch a glimpse of the various landmarks of the world in miniature form.
Be warned that some replicas are simply not up to scratch and some are in bad conditions. Also if you had seen the real thing, then these miniature replicas may mean nothing at all and insignificant.
The plus point is that you could actually frame these replica landmarks in full picture at a much shorter range than the real thing. Pick those better replicas and take photos with them, remembering that you could not do it with the real thing. I guess that is THE best way to enjoy this place. Following are some of the better scenes:




The Shenzhen Metro (Subway) had LED signalling system on each route map located above each door. This is very useful to keep the passengers notified on the train stops in addition to the pre-recorded annoucement of each stop and the next stop.

Now why can't the Singapore MRT have such a system, I just don't understand. On most MRT trains, especially the older ones, the route map could hardly be seen depending where you are in each train cabin. The positioning of such route map should be made available and visible irregardless of where you stand, it is all about planning and taking in the perspective of the passengers, apparently the Singapore MRT seem to miss the point. Worse still I had come across on several occasions that the annoucement of the next stop was totally wrong! WORLD CLASS?? Better think again or better still, just shut up until you are up to scratch and stop embarrassing yourself!
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There is a Metro station right in front of Windows of The World and it was a straightforward ride to the electronics market at Huaqiangbei where I got the batteries for my Compaq. From there to the airport the fastest way would be to take the Metro to next stop where the Express Coach to the Airport departs from Hua Lian Building.


This picture was taken at the Shenzhen Airport. Couldn't quite understand it. Is there an "Un-civilised" airport?? Or was it supposed to be a "Civil" airport (as compared to a "Military" airport)? I would go for the latter meaning because I could not imagine an airport that is "un-civilised".

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