China Town, or Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur is the traditional hub for Chinese New Year countdown every year. Many Malaysian Chinese are coming here to buy dried foods, flowers and decorative for the festive season. I came here every year mainly to buy Bakkwa (Rougan,肉干) or dried meat as new year gifts to relatives.

I blogged about the same trip to Petaling Street last year. The scene is similar. This year I shot with my Nikkor 35mm f1.8 instead. You may spot the difference! Haha.

This year, a new version of Bakkwa came out. Instead of using minced or sliced meat, they are using bacon! It tastes marvelous but more costly. These smoky scenes are seen everywhere in China Town!

If you’ve seen how it looked along the covered terrace at Petaling Street last year, this is how it looks this year. Any difference?

These are some traditional Chinese candies made from ginger, melon, plums, lotus seeds and etc. A must in Chinese New Year!

Red means happiness in Chinese culture…. so everything must be in reds!

Another season delicacy, Chinese styled waxed meat! They are mainly from China or Taiwan and could be in the form of waxed sausage, waxed duck or waxed meatloaf. Chinese waxed sausage is made of either minced or sliced pork meat and both are also my favourites.

Chinese chestnut. I missed this last year and managed to capture it this time. Look at the little photo within. Is this called the Kung Fu chestnut??

Also missed out last year, this little hawker stall selling Longan (Dragon eye, 龙眼) herbal drinks is the most popular drink stall in Petaling Street. For only RM1.20 per cup, every traveler to China Town deserves a try!

As usual, we went to China Town last weekend to have a walk at night. We bought many many bags of dried meats or Bakkwa, waxed sausages also some Chinese candies for Chinese New Year gifts to our relatives. Before we go off, we had a cup of Longan drink to ease our thirst. Not showing in photos here (but you could spot in in my last year post) are also those many seafood restaurants with roadside seating which are the foreign travelers’ favourite eateries. Come here to visit this China Town aka Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is the only place where you could really appreciate the festive feel of Chinese New Year in K.L. See ya! – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog

Chinese New Year 2010 is around the corner. Another 6 days on 14th February (double celebration together with Valentine’s Day), all Chinese around the world would be celebrating lunar calendar’s new year. Chinese ethnic in Malaysia is busy preparing their houses, clothes, foods and decoration at this final moment. Shopping malls are decorated for this festive season.

I posted some of the photos on CNY celebration recently in one of the local mall. Since you love it, I shoot more Chinese New Year celebration photos around town in Malaysia. These is Chinese New Year celebration art performance organised in MidValley shopping mall.

Chinese cultural drum musical performance.

Dragon dancing is one of the ‘must see’ performance during Chinese New Year. Have you seen it before? It dance with the drum music. There are actually 2 persons in the ‘dragon’; One is holding the dragon head and moves its eyes and mouth; The other less ‘important’ actor is holding the dragon tail and acts as the 2 rear legs of the dragon…

People like this kind of performance here. See the crowd? Photographers like it even more. Look at those cameras held up in the air!

Not enough? Subscribe to this travel blog via RSS or email. More CNY celebration photos in Petaling Street is coming up next. – Travel Feeder.

I need to confess here. There won’t be any perfect period of time to travel in a year. It’s all depending on what you want in your travel in the first place. If someone tells you he had a perfect vacation somewhere in a particular month, he actually referred to a perfect timing for himself only. It’s not necessary yours too. There are similarities between this and my thought on perfect travel destination.

The perfect time of year to visit a country or city is up to you to decide on what you want to see or experience there. Some might wish to see snows while others hate cold weather. If you are looking for blooming flowers, you can’t expect to see snowfalls. Or you don’t hope for falling leaves while you are looking for hot sunshine! Isn’t it logic? Every place or travel destination has its own characteristics at different time of year. That’s the fun part of travel! It means we can travel all year long at any time to have a perfect timing and a perfect vacation!

So, what would be the perfect timing to visit a city? Let’s list down what you should expect from these 4 main seasons of the year so you could plan for your next perfect vacation.

1. Spring. This is when the flowers start blossoming and mountains turn green especially in Mediterranean countries and other areas with temperate weather. Sunlight is getting stronger and longer during Spring until the peak in Summer. Travelers should expect 12 hours of daylight in a day. For hobbyist photographer(that’s me!), this is the best time to capture colourful scenery with deep blue sky! Temperature is also moderate during this round of time. However, snow melt may cause flooding in some of the areas. Spring is the season for new life. Other than blooming flowers, other micro organism are being born as well. This may include new born viruses.  Influenza A H1N1 and SARS viruses started to spread at this time also. Thunderstorm is also another possibilities during this season.
2. Summer. This is the hottest time of year. Sunlight is bright (photographers may find it too harsh sometimes) and it has the longest day and shortest night. Travelers would able to enjoy more daytime activities than night markets. Also the hottest period for sports, people are rushing out to the beach for water activities. FIFA World Cup and the Olympics falls on this period too. However, being the most popular season for travelers, Every corner of those travel destination in North Hemisphere is always packed with people! Another reason to travel during Summer is the grand Summer Sales for fashion! Good news is viruses normally are less active and controllable during this season!
3. Autumn. This is when the leaves start changing colour and falling especially in Mediterranean countries and other areas with temperate weather. Sunlight is getting softer and shorter. Travelers could expect equal daytime and nightime as Spring. For travel photography, though flowers and mountains may not as colourful as in Spring, blue sky or twilight scene could still be expected. Temperature is also moderate during this round of time which is much cooler than in Summer but warmer than in winter.
4. Winter. This is when all flowers die off and leaves fall. All living creatures become inactive or hibernate. Photographers could capture snowfalls and white scenes everywhere in this season. Daytime is much shorter than night hours. Other than snows, travelers visiting those temperate countries like Europe should expect another round of grand Winter Sales! Good news is all micro organism disappeared during this time of year! You don’t have to worry about cockroaches or lizards!

See? The decision is yours. Every seasons have their own characteristics to suit everybody’s taste of travel. Plan your travel according to what you want from that travel destination. If you like hot sun and people (or bikini? ) watching , plan for your Summer trip. Otherwise, you could plan for your Winter travel to feel and hold snows in person! For me… I’m planning my Europe tour for this coming Spring. Reasons being those blooming flowers and clear blue sky with plenty of sunlight which I’m seeking for my next travel photography project. – Travel Feeder, the ultimate travel photo blog.

Good news! Travel photo wallpaper calendar for April 2010 is now available here to download! If you still haven’t got the February and March 2010 wallpaper calendar, Download it first) As usual, 2 sizes are available here: 1920 x 1080 px for Full HD wide screen LCD and 1280 x 1024 px for conventional computer screen (or neither size is fitted nicely on your computer screen? Please let me know…). Choose either one to fit your LCD and download it for FREE. Or you may download both. No problem.

Download this widescreen version 1920 x 1080 px

Download this standard version 1280 x 1024 px

This travel photo of Nanjing Bridge was taken on my travel to Nanjing. You can read the story behind by following this link to Nanjing tour. It was in the evening just before sunset. The sun set at around 4:30pm during late Autumn in Nanjing. With the help of mist, there is some kind of differential focus effect shown in the photo.

Again, this travel photo wallpaper calendar is free to download from here and there are more wallpaper calendars for other months coming up next. If you like it, please support me by dropping a note to say ‘hi‘ in the comment section of this post, or preferably, subscribe to this travel blog feeds via RSS or email for free updates, or, you may buy me a cup of coffee! – Travel Feeder – the ultimate travel photo blog.

It’s time now to conclude the whole stories of my packaged travel to Shanghai and other 4 cities in South Yangtze region of China. We spent 8 days in the tour to cover many tourist attractions in Shanghai, Hangzhou, SuZhou, Nanjing, Wuxi and also the water village, Wuzhen. For the first 4 days, we explored the financial capital of China, Shanghai, and also the 2 cities of heaven on the earth which were Hangzhou and Suzhou. I’ve posted a half way summary for these first 4 days of tour earlier. Click this link below if you haven’t got a clue where we are coming from:

South Yangtze China Packaged Travel Halfway Update – Where Have I Been On The First 4 Days?

On the fifth day, we traveled to another significant city in South Yangtze region of China, Nanjing and followed by Wuxi, before traveling back to Shanghai. Here are the stories for the final 4 days of travel in China:

1. In Nanjing, we visited the SongMeiLing villa;
2. Later in the evening, we came to Nanjing Bridge and visited the crystal inner art gallery;
3. At night, we went shopping at the largest pedestrian precinct in Nanjing, the FuZhiMiao;
4. On the next morning, we explored the Nanjing Wall at QinHuai Scenic Area;
5. Being the biggest hoax of our tour, we bought a jade pendent from a jade factory;
6. After having lunch in Nanjing, we progressed to another scenic city of Wuxi;
7. On our way there, I realised we would not have such fun if we didn’t pack these 5 items into our luggage before traveling to China;
8. In Wuxi, the first attraction to visit would definitely the Lingshan giant buddha;
9. I recorded a video also on the scene of “Buddha being bathed by nine dragons”;
10. That’s nothing much on Wuxi nightlife where we only went to a shopping mall;
11. Early in the next morning, we took a fresh air at Lihu Lake scenic area;
12. What else could we do in Wuxi? Check out the film shooting base of “Three Kingdom City”;
13. What could we drink in Wuxi? I had a Taihu Lake Water beer!
14. Taihu Lake is also famous for its freshwater cultured pearls;
15. Enough looking at pearls ladies? Let’s move to go back to Shanghai!
16. We were close. We shopped and drank for the last evening at Nanjing Street, the biggest shopping street in China!
17. Still exploring Shanghai on the final day? Yes. We dropped by the TongRenTang chinese pharmaceutical centre before taking the Shanghai Meglev Train to the airport.

Long stories isn’t it? Sorry if it took you so long to follow me on my travel experience in China last last Autumn. However, you may find it interesting and informative to guide you through the packaged tour or at least you would have a preliminary idea on what you should expect from this type of all-inclusive packaged tour to South Yangtze China.

Good news for me! I’ve finally concluded my weblog on China tour, for this round. Next. So I could concentrate my next travel stories on Phuket…

p/s: If you think this travel blog is worth for your reading, please support me by one of these ways: Subscribe to Travel Feeder’s feeds for free upcoming stories via RSS or email; Search and purchase my favourite photos from istockphoto; Get your camera stuffs through my link to Amazon where you won’t lose anything and I could earn some commission, or, buy me a cup of coffee as you like. Thank you. – Travel Feeder.