Koala is so cute, so lovely, and so funny!

Koala embraces the tree branch tightly, like the branch is the great thing in the world for it.

Koala in the Dream World, Gold Coast, Queensland

Koala is shy and slow. Look at this one. It is moving from one branch of tree to the other, slowly, and gracefully.

The other one.

I share at least one habit with Koala – sleeping. A Koala sleeps as much as 20 hours a day. This lazy little guy falled sleep again.

This sleeping Koala is in the Tangaro Zoo in Sydney

I start to wonder what the Koalas are thinking about everyday. They seem to be very happy everyday with a smooth tree branch to stay, nice sunshine to keep them warm, and delicious tree leafs to eat… Seems pretty good life, isn’t it?

During this trip, the facade of many nice buildings caught my attention. They are shining in the sky and is just as the graphs I draw in university.

Service apartment in Surfers Paradise

Building along the George Street in Sydney

The tall building along the Martin Place in Sydney

The building on the east side of the Circular Quay,Sydney

These days, I am working hard to post some pictures of the trip and share it with my family and friends. Here is another such post.

The tide of the Surfers Paradise, as the name implies, is very suitable for surfer, and not so good for swimmers.

I like the tide (only the tide, not water) in Qingdao better, since it was soft and gentle. In the Surfers Paradise, when the tide goes away, the water is just as high as your knees, but when the tide comes, it is higher than your head. The strong force of the tide sometimes create that kind of “water hole”, which the surfers love so much. For me, without a surfer board, it is just a water wall that I need to break into. The force strongly pushes me directly onto the beach. I have to get back to the original position.

In conclusion, very good for surfers with surfer board, and kind of depressing for swimmers – you just cannot swim in tide like that.

When we stepped into the Watermark Hotel in Surfers Paradise, I happen to witness a fire on the bridge over the river.

Fire fighter arrived and within 5 minute, the fire was put off.

There was no news on TV or on Internet about the fire.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

These pictures were taken at the Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, QLD.

Look at how clean the water in the beach is! I cannot believe it is the water from the sea! It is as clear as the creeks in mountains. However, it is still bitter – as bitter as sea water.

During travel, people expect to experience different things. The more different, the better. Driving on the left is obviously one major difference between Australia and China.

Look Right!

On the major roads visitors first arrive in the city, there are sign on the road to remind people to look right first.

I saw many signs like this in Hong Kong also. The sign above is shot in the Metro Museum Station (Cnr Liverpool & Elizabeth)

Keep Left

It seems obvious but since it is too important to do that, there are countless Keep Left sign throughout Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and, I believe, in all other Australia cities.

Keep left sign on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria

No Entry

Some other places use the No Entry to notify people not to go to the wrong way.

Wrong Way! Go Back!

On the freeway, imagine what happens if someone go to the wrong way and drive the car onto the freeway with 100+ km/hour only to find out all other cars are running at the same speed toward them?

In Australia, I found more “Wrong Way” sign than in any other countries.

The Wrong Way sign in Brisbane, near the North Quay of Birsbane river

The Wrong Way sign on the M1 freeway near Melbourne

My Experience of Converting from Driving on Right to on Left

The shift was not hard – after several km out of the parking lot, I start to get used to it. However, the road width in Australia seems to be narrower than in China or the States, which is very scary for me.

The gas paddle and the brake paddle are of the same position. The problem is about the turning lights. In cars running on the right side, the shift to turn on left or right turn sign is on the left of the wheel. In the car of Australia, it is on the right side. The other side is the wind glass brush.

In the first half an hour or so, I kept turning on the wind glass brush in the Sunny coastal freeway.

P.S. When I am back to Shanghai, and drove for the first few km, everything is perfect OK, but I just turn on the wind glass brush when I turned right.

Other Traffic Signs in Australia

The speed limit sign is everywhere.

Speed limitation

The traffic signs in Australia are maybe the most interesting signs I saw in the world. They have details! Look at this pedestrian crossing sign. It is the only traffic sign that shows the shoes of the people on it!

Several learnings from the Australia trip – something I don’t know or not so clearly before the trip. Share with everyone.

Shanghai, the Gateway to Eastern China

I finally realized Shanghai is more important to international travellers than I thought. When I really planned my trip to Australia, we found out that Sydney is the gate way to Australia. There is Shanghai to Sydney direct flight, but no such flight between Shanghai and Brisbane, Gold Coast, not to mention the other attractions along the east coast. The Shanghai to Melbourne flight is not as frequent.

I believe it is the situation for Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou. Travellers must visit these cities first before they visit other cities. Since they are in the city, they spend one day or two in the city, just as we did in Sydney.

This helps me to understand why there are so many inquiries about from Shanghai to Nanjing, from Shanghai to Yiwu, and even from Shanghai to Chengdu. When I was put into the shoes of international visitors, I realized how valuable this kind of travel information is.

For me, Shanghai is a city. But for most international travellers, Shanghai is the gateway to China, (or at least eastern China).

Shanghai in the Chain of Pacific’s Coastal Cities

Just as someone put it in a brochure about Melbourne’s history, you can understand the coastal cities’ history better and easier if you put every single city in the background of international trading:

Shanghai, Hong Kong in China

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane in Australia

Auckland in New Zealand

San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle in the United States

Vancouver in Canada

Travel and Tourism are Still Different

Tourists are totally different from business travellers, or visitors. Australia has done a great job on tourism. They have great brochures, nice tourism information centers, nice public transportation and hotel pickup buses, and nice travel tours. They wrap up the attractions and points of interest in a appealing and convenient way so visitors are willing to go and spend $$$$ on it.

There is a long way for Shanghai to go on the tourism industry. I see I can do something to make Shanghai more accessible. Yes. “Accessible” is the right word for Shanghai.

After nice 9 day trip to Australia, this is the last night in Sydney. The last night. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane – all these nice cities is stored in my memory. We also visited many small villages, and towns, along the Great Ocean Road, in the Blue Mountains, near the Suffers Paradise… I even tried to drive the left-going car for one day to the Hunter Valley on National Highway No. 1.

Tomorrow I need to say goodbye to these nice cities, this nice country, nice continent and even the south hemisphere. Also, need to say good bye to the lovely Koala, and Kangaro. I love these lovely animal so much.

I will post more pictures on this blog later when I am back to Shanghai. It takes some time to choose the best pictures out of the 2000 pictures I took in the 10 days.

The Art of Travel

As Alan de Botton put it in the Art of Travel, the true meaning of travel is sensation. People are much more sensitive to the world around them when they travel.

It is a great experience for me. The major benifit is to enable me to see the world from a new and different angle. The goal of my journey in the world is to enable me to understand the humanity, the nature, the business better.

The right is no long the right;

the expensive is no longer the expensive;

the common is no longer common.

It enables us to jump out of our daily life for a moment, view it from a remote and new land, and understand it better. Then I believe I can get back to the life with more joy, and more confidence.

Sample Photos

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang. 2006.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang. 2006.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang. 2006.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang. 2006.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang. 2006.

I am now in Gold Coast near Brisbane.

I saw many comments but don’t have time to check out and answer yet. Everytime I grasp an Internet kiosk, it ticks in seconds and quickly, it shows “time-up”. I also don’t want to spend too much time on Internet when the nice pacific sea shore is just on the right hand side. I will clear the back-log later.

It is the forth day in Australia – Sydney for the first two days (blue mountains, Kangaroos, River Cruise, Darling Habor…), and now I am at Melbourne Airport, leaving the great city.

It was not easy to find Internet access in the city – for first time visitors. Internet cafe is not that popular as Sydney, and thank to the Netkiosk in the Melbourne International Airport. I can finally

update my blog after three days of OOB (Out of Blogging)

Melbourne

I took many pictures, something like 1000 to 1500 pictures in the last few days. The netkiosk does not support SD card or USB – just keyboard, screen, mouse and Internet access. I will upload some pictures later.

Melbourne is a lovely city. As Wendy put it, “Congratulations, Jian Shuo. You have setup another personal connection with a city!”