~ Shantou 汕头 - Day 1 (Part 2) ~

We are finally back at our hotel - 龙湖宾馆. It is a 4 star hotel and we will be staying here for the night before moving on to Jieyang the next day.

All of us are tired by now... and everyone is looking forward to resting in their rooms. We stayed in Rm 401 and the room is neat, spacious and tidy. The toilet is rather small but the tiles are new and the floors are non-slippery.

The children are very happy with the room and jumped onto the bed, switched on the TV to relax. Gladys kept herself busy scribbling with the pencil and papers provided. Earlier, Father-in-law also bought some 杨梅 which has a bit of sweet and sour taste. They seem to enjoy it but unfortunately not really to my liking. :p

We venture out again after having a nice bath and rest. Beside the hotel is 汕头龙湖.

汕头是中国现有5大经济特区之一。 （深圳，珠海，厦门，海南岛）。 是为了改革开放， 扩大对外经济交流而设立的。

The tour guide explains that 汕头 used to be the leader among all but has fallen behind in its developement and economy progress since 1990s. (which is a shame.)

We walked around and it's really hard to find an area to shop near our hotel... To make things even more difficult, the traffic there is extremely challenging. There are lesser traffic lights and crossing the road is really hard. (the cars doesn't seem like it is going to stop and let you cross) Hence, we stayed along the pathway avoiding crossing as much as possible and only found various interesting signboards on the local food.

Before we can walk further (after spotting some shops ahead), it's almost time to meet with our tour guid and drive out for dinner. So we U-turn back to the hotel.  

Family photos taken outside the hotel.

Dinner is at the same resturant again where we had are lunch earlier. Only this time, a different set of dishes are served. We were told that goose is commonly reared in Shantou and hence a popular dish. (It is much harder to find ducks here compared to goose). Oyster omelet and fried kway teow are also the local delights and it is a must try when you are in Shantou.

Another sumptuous meal and we are back to the hotel to rest for the night. We were a bit disappointed that there are no shops nearby where we could walk and explore on our own.... but I guess its just as well to have a good night sleep and pack our luggage for tomorrow's schedule.

Read on for Shantou-Jieyang - Day 2(Part 1)