~ Chaozhou-Shantou (潮州-汕头) - Day 4 ~

4th June - Day 4. Our 2nd last day into our Shantou Trip. Feeling really FAT already... accumulating the amount of food that I have stuffed myself so far... starting to get tired of eating. :( Breakfast is at a resturant within the hotel and I realized I am picking up lesser food to eat even though the table is full of spread.

After breakfast, its packing up and checking out of the hotel again. We'll be travelling back to Shantou to rest for tonight before leaving for the airport tomorrow. Changing hotel everyday can be quite tiring... considering the fact that Hubby has been pushing the beds together and I have been unpacking and packing the luggage every time we check-in to a new room. Then again, the children enjoyed it! They get to go to different 'House' everyday.

Photo takings at the Hotel Lobby.

We are on the road again. Today is SUNNY! Finally there is some sunshine after 2 days of rainy weather. It's a miracle I didn't get a cold! Starting to get 'sick' with the rain already. :) Did I mention how the children are spending their time on the tour bus? Denver and his cousins will be busy engaging in PSP games while Gladys will be either busy singing, drinking, eating or sleeping.

Gladys happily munching her biscuit into a moon-shape. :) Daddy's girl. :)

Along the way, we saw many farms.. Many are rearing Goose and we stopped by to have a little peek. Duck is not commonly found in Shantou and hence we will find many goose related dishes instead. First time the children are seeing so many of them...

陈慈簧故居 - 澄海隆都镇泰国华侨陈慈簧故居，是黄氏家族从清同治四年（ 1865 ）开始持续经营了上百年的大型民居群，包括郎中第、寿康里。善居室及三庐这 4 座建筑群，共占地 25400 平方米，有大小厅房 506 间。总体布局和每座院落布局依照传统潮汕民居大户人家的四马拖车格式，建筑群四围则是双层廊式洋楼。院落中为家族里未婚姑娘居住修建的“小姐楼”，楼身为西洋楼式。楼顶是传统亭阁。三庐外观西式，内部天井、厅房中式，楼顶天台却又是西式。建筑装饰更显中西结合。附墙柱上采用了各式西方柱头，檐梁花饰点缀有英文字母，不少门窗门廊既有潮汕嵌瓷又有石膏塑装饰。

This is a very big, old house over a hundred year and with 500 hundreds over rooms.. Every corners, setting of the rooms looked pretty much the same. I will definitely be lost and cannot find my way if I were to stay here in the ancient days. :p According to the lady guide, the people differentiate the location by the colours and tile on the flooring and walls. There are many halls and room at the sides and every area have its own colour theme with different patterns of tilings.

Traditional Teochew Opera show and puppet show.

Very old architecture and the other side of the building is badly damaged that no visitors are allowed to enter.

Outside the house, there are a lot of Lychee trees. Hubby and bbil picked a little to try even though its not ripe! Opps.. no picking! Un-ripe lychee doesn't taste good either.

We are back at the same Chinese resturant where we have lunch and dinner on our 1st day. Again, we are being served with 大鱼大肉 and more tea. No surprise!

After lunching, we had a little walk at 中山公园. Statue of 孙中山, a mini zoo, lake, bridges, fake mountains are found within the park.

Finally we are going to a mall for some shopping. First time that I miss shopping so much in a trip being the fact that I am not that much of a shopaholic! Hahaha. But we really haven't been buying much stuff. Not all the things are cheap there but we manage to buy some toys for the kiddos and a wallet for myself.

The children had some time to play at the indoor play area and had some fun time.

After 2-3 hours of shopping, we got back at the hotel - 龙湖宾馆. I happen to see that there is a Beauty Palour within the hotel that offers Hair cut service. It's pretty cheap, 10yuan for kids - i.e. $2 SGD! Quickly ask my hubby and Denver to go down for their hair cut. :D

We are finally into our final 9 course dinner for this trip which I am not looking forward to. At least the Orh Ngee was ok. After dinner, its walking around the streets of Shantou for our final shopping. We only have about 2 hours to walk around before bidding this city farewell.

We bought some snacks and desserts along the way. It is a waste not to taste the food at the road side stalls. :( But after having such a heavy dinner, there is only that much amount of space left for supper.

Our final purchase... Bag, wallets, umbrellas, stickers and thats all we got! Ending Day 4 and we are all packed to go home.