What to do on your first trip in Yangon, Myanmar

Yangon, the former capital city of Myanmar, is the main gateway to this beautiful Southeast Asian country. Pagodas are the main tourist attractions in Yangon, but Myanmar is also well-known for good food, such as Mohinga (rice noodle in fish soup), coconut noodle, and Laphat Thote (tea leaf salad). With your first trip to Yangon, what will you do?

Be captivated by the Chauk Htet Kyi Pagoda

This 65-metre-long reclining Buddha is another popular tourist spot in Yangon. Make sure to pay special attention to Buddha’s feet when you visit this pagoda, as there are 108 unique symbols that represent the former lives of Buddha before attaining the Enlightenment. You can also visit the Ngar Htet Gyi pagoda, which is located across to see the statue of the sitting Buddha.

Take in the grandeur of the Shwedagon Pagoda

The main attraction in Yangon is undeniably the Shwedagon Pagoda, one of the most well-known pagodas in the world. The colossal gilded structure is 99 metres (325 feet) high and sits on top of a hill overlooking the city. It can be seen from most places in Yangon in the daytime and becomes part of the beautiful skyline at night. Believed to have been built some 2,600 years ago, the Shwedagon Pagoda is thought to be the oldest pagoda in the world.

A dazzling 7,000 diamonds, rubies, sapphires, topaz, and emeralds encrust the stupa, while the main dome is plated with shining gold. A dazzling sight no matter what time of the day, it is no wonder that the Shwedagon Pagoda is also affectionately termed as “The Crown of Burma”. The revered pagoda also enshrines strands of Buddha’s hair and other holy relics, making it a major pilgrimage site for Buddhists.

Admire Taukkyan War Cemetery

This gravesite serves as the final resting place for over 6,000 Commonwealth soldiers who fought for the Allied cause in World War II. The immaculately-manicured memorial park is the largest war cemetery in Myanmar, having received remains previously buried in other, less accessible gravesites.
A memorial on the site bears the names of 27,000 missing Commonwealth soldiers presumed to have died while serving in Burma. Unlike other parks in Yangon, Taukkyan requires no entrance fee; getting here takes a 45-minute drive from Yangon's city center.

Sit at a local tea shop

The most common eatery you will find across Yangon is a teashop. You will also be surprised to find all these teashops filled with Burmese men. Believe it or not, but you can get more than 10 varieties of teas (such as Cho Seint, Cho Pawt, Pawt Seint) depending up your preference level of condensed milk and evaporated milk.

Buy souvenirs at Bogyoke market

Bogyoke market, also known as Scott’s market, is the popular tourist attraction for buying souvenirs in Yangon. The recently-built Junction City shopping mall is located across Bogyoke market, and a bridge connects these two areas. A helpful tip for shopping in Bogyoke market, you may bargain for half the quoted price. So, flex your bargaining powers to stretch your shopping budget.

Read more: Visit the interesting markets in Yangon, Myanmar

Travel around the city on the Yangon Circular Train

Before you fret about not having enough time for the rest of Yangon, hop aboard the Yangon Circular Train for a ride you won’t forget. The local commuter rail network travels around the city in a 45.9-kilometre (28.5-mile) loop with 39 stops bringing you through landscapes of urban concrete, paddy fields, and rural villages.

The cheapest method of transportation in Yangon, the flurry of locals on board will give you plenty of opportunities to interact and share a thing or two. From monks to chicken-sellers, strike up a conversation to add spice to your journey, or just sit by the window and enjoy the diverse views and breeze.

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What to do in Beijing at night

When people travel to Beijing, they usually pay more concern in the sightseeing activities in the day. But to maximize your time in Beijing and explore more about Beijing, you can make good use of your night time in Beijing to visit some places that you miss in the day, see the views that is not available to see in the day, or join in activities or shows that are only available at night in Beijing. There are many interesting things for you to do at night in Beijing.

Lose yourself in the Hutong alleys

The hutongs, the winding and maze-like narrow alleys of old Beijing, are the best place to experience local life. In the evening, when the residents are back home after work or school, the hutongs come to life.

The best hutong areas are around the Drum Tower and Tong Luo Gu Xiang. You can have a leisurely walk along the hutongs to see residents playing mahjong in the street, enjoy a jamming session on traditional instruments, or find a local restaurant for your dinner.

Visit Solana

Solana Lifestyle Shopping Park is like a small town coming from the European by air. It is a perfect blend between commercial civilization and the natural landscape and is full of innovation and surprises. As a water shortage city of Beijing, SOLANA has a superior hydrophilic environment on its three sides, the south and east are teeming with the water from Chaoyang Park, and the north from
Landmark Lake.

If not in person, you are hard to believe that there is such a beautiful environment in the city center! Solana houses more than 1,000 international brands, with dozens of retail shops, restaurants as well as a lively bar and clubs. It is located south-west of Chaoyang park, the largest city park in Asia.

Watch a Kung Fu Show

Chinese Kung Fu is a unique Chinese style of martial arts, and probably one of the earliest and most enduring sports, utilizing both brawn and brain. The theory of Kung Fu is based upon classical Chinese philosophy.

The most popular place to enjoy a Kung Fu show is Red Theater. The show, the Legend of Kung Fu, tells the story of a young boy, who dreamed of becoming a Kung Fu master, overcomes difficulties and temptations on the road to enlightenment. This spectacular show is a combination of Kung Fu, acrobatics, and dancing. It is a show not to be missed for Kung Fu fans, or families with kids.

Have beer at Latte

Photo: Latte - Hit Music & Drink

Do not be tricked by its name, despite the Latte moniker, the venue is not at all a quiet café, quite the contrary. As one of the few ticket-free clubs in Beijing, it is very popular, with one customer commenting that “the club at midnight looks like a subway station during morning rush hour”. It is said that Latte’s performances are a bit cheesy, but that does not stop it from being one of the most popular clubs in town.

Read more: A day to visit Beijing, China

Do some shopping

Shopping in Sanlitun keeps tourists and Beijingers on their toes. From local souvenirs to the latest high-tech devices and “Western” fashion, there is nothing one cannot buy.

After a day-trip to Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City, having dinner in a traditional Chinese restaurant, and hanging out in Wangfujing Street is a wonderful way to finish a day. The shopping malls generally close at 10pm. Similar to Wangfujing Shopping Street, Qianmen Street is one of the most popular shopping streets in Beijing, with traditional-style buildings.

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Explore 4 great cuisine of China

There are many styles of cooking in China, here is 4 culinary traditions as the best. These have set the course of how Chinese cook food, and are looked to as models. Each of these schools has a distinct style and different strengths.

Guangdong

The great joke about Guangdong, or Cantonese, cuisine is that the Cantonese will “eat anything that has four legs other than a table, anything that flies other than an airplane, and anything that swims other than a submarine.” However, do not let this deter you.

Cantonese cuisine is lauded for its focus on bringing out pure flavors, the result being bright, crisp vegetables, steamed fish, and elaborate, lightly sautéed dishes. Cantonese cuisine is also well regarded for its roasted meats, like lacquered barbecue pork, burnished golden pigeons, and crisp, flavorsome goose. Perhaps most famous of all is the dim sum that hails from the region, elaborate and delicate steamed dumplings, custard buns, radish cakes, and more eaten in the mornings with tea.

Yue Cuisine

Yue Cuisine, also known as Cantonese cuisine, originates from Guangdong Province in South China. Yue Cuisine is especially skillful in techniques of stir-frying, frying, stewing and braising. Special attentions are paid to the heating temperature and duration. The tastes feature pure delicacy, freshness, tenderness, and crispness.

An emphasis on preserving the natural flavor of the food is also the hallmark of Yue Cuisine. A Cantonese chef would consider it a culinary sin of the highest order to produce a dish that was overcooked or too heavily seasoned. Special care is taken to make sure that the tastes are light but not tasteless, fresh but not vulgar, tender but not raw, oily but not greasy.

Sichuan

Sichuan cuisine is one of the most popular in China, famous for its brash flavors, mouth-tingling pepper, and sweat-inducing heat. The province is characterized by the iconic numbing and spicy characteristics, but Sichuan cuisine should not be judged by the pure power of its spiciness alone. The cooking here is as diverse and exuberant as the complex topography (and population) from which it springs.

In fact, chilies did not even make it to China until the 16th century from the New World, and Sichuan cuisine quickly picked it up as a way to balance the effect of the prickly ash, which was already iconic in its cuisine. Today, its capital (Chengdu) buzzes with foodies who delight in everyday eating, and the city houses chefs who are both rooted in tradition and some of the most innovative in China, who are buoyed, not shackled, by its deep-rooted history.

Lu Cuisine

Featuring freshness of materials and salt flavor, Lu Cuisine is derived from the traditional and historical cooking methods of Shandong Province. It is considered the most influential and popular in China. Modern day schools of cuisine in North China, such as those of Beijing, Tianjin, and Northeast, are all branches of Shandong Cuisine. However, it is not so popular in South China and even in the all-embracing Shanghai.

Lu Cuisine consists of Jinan cuisine and Jiaodong Cuisine. Jinan Cuisine is particular about being bold and unconstrained with thick color. Moreover, it is characterized by using soup and utilizing soups in its dishes. The use and making of clear soup, milky soup and superior soup all have strict stipulations. Jiaodong Cuisine, which includes dishes in Qingdao, Yantai and Weihai, is characterized by seafood cooking, with light tastes. The cooking method of Jiaodong Cuisine is particular about freshness, liveliness and insipidity though its flavor gives priority to tenderness.

See more: Challenge yourself with top 5 Chongqing spicy dishes

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