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.

Our tour guide says any lake located at the west side of the city is call 西湖. So, China got a lot of west lake. :p 潮州西湖 is basically a small park and a place where oldies come for their morning exercise.

Today we will be staying at 汇侨大酒店. The hotel doesn't look as grand and there are some renovation works going on too.

The rooms however has a modern setting although it seems kinda small. The only complain I have is probably the toilet flooring which is too slippery. Denver even had a slip and fell in the bath area. :( Other than that, the carpeting and interior looks new and refreshing.

View of Chaozhou city from our hotel room.

Father-in-law's tummy has not been feeling good since morning... probably due to the food we ate yesterday that is causing the consistent diarrhea. Bbil took him to find a doctor but only manage to find a Chinese physician after a long search. On the other hand, the children didn't ate much during lunch and has been indulging on the cup noodles which we brought along with us.

While my in-laws are resting in their room, Bbil's family and us venture out to the streets. It was still drizzling (sigh).... and we walked around to see what we'll find. Hubby had a slip and fell, cutting his knee. (nothing serious luckily).

We finally saw a small fast food shop and walk in to buy more food for the kids. Seems to be pretty cheap too!

It's really scary to cross the roads over here... even with the traffic lights, it doesn't help at all. We are at a junction and the traffic just turns green.... to my surprise, the cars can still drive past us even as we are crossing!!! Lesson of the day - always watch both sides before crossing... even when the traffic is green for the pedestrians! The cars doesn't seem to be keen to give way to us at all. So, we really need to judge well, pick a good chance and cross quickly. The adults also have to hold on tightly to their children. Everytime we need to cross a road, the kiddos will complain... "Not Again!"

We walked all the way back to the hotel to rest. I'm starting to get tired with the rainy weather. Body is aching and my sandals are wet.
Dinner is at another resturant and more food... I'm also feeling really fat as the days passed.. nine course Chinese lunch and dinner everyday.

We signed up for the 潮州夜景 tour in the night. Since we'll probably be stuck around the hotel and there's nothing better much to do. hehhe.
It wasn't raining as heavily but there are still some drizzling. Still, we can do without the brolly. The tour bus took us to 潮州金山大桥 for some night shots while my inlaws rest in the bus.

Earlier in the morning, we went to visit 湘子桥, now we are outside the 古城 and took a walk inside. It looked different in the night compared to the day. The ancient walls are brightly lighted (金碧辉煌）and still looked magnificent.

On top of the city walls...

On the city walls, there are markings to indicate the level of flooding in the past years.

湘子桥 in the night.

Next stop is 潮州人民广场 (People's Square).

潮州市人民广场占地面积 12.73公顷。是集市政、休闲、旅游、文化为一体的多功能多层次的大众文化中心。夜幕降临，广场华灯亮起，清泉、流水、喷泉、乐曲，构成了一幅优美绚丽的图画。

Hubby has a craving to taste the fried chicken from the local KFC. Everytime when we travel overseas, we'll make an attempt to try it. So far Hubby loves the one from Thailand best. Since there are not many KFC outlets, our tour guide took us to a nearby shopping mall near 人民广场.

KFC! One of the fewer outlets we saw in Shantou, Jieyang and Guangzhou so far. Final verdict. Still the one in Singapore taste better. :D

Different menu, different taste. But still as good and it's a different treat.

Chaozhou-Shantou - Day 4 (Part 1) to be continued......