2023 Christmas Holiday Travel Notes in Chimelong (Part 1)
During the Christmas holiday a few days ago, my teammates and I took the kids to Guangzhou Chimelong. We bought a 3-day, 2-night package in early December, which included a 3-park tour (Animal World + Happy World + Bird Park) + a big circus. The kids had never taken a high-speed rail before, and this time they experienced its speed. The fastest high-speed rail from Hong Kong to Guangzhou South Station takes about 1 hour, which is really fast. I almost couldn't buy a ticket two weeks in advance, which shows how popular this one-hour ticket is.
On the 24th, we went to the West Kowloon High Speed Rail Station in the morning to take the high speed rail. It was our first time taking the high speed rail in Hong Kong. I found that I had to go through security checks and queue up, and I had to go through the manual channel with the children, which took quite a lot of time. After passing through customs, I found that if I was late, the tickets I bought before would be invalid (I remember that if I was late in the mainland, the tickets seemed to be refundable), and I needed to buy new tickets. Fortunately, I could still buy a ticket to Guangzhou South Station in 1 hour, which meant that the loss was still very small: a few hundred dollars and about 1 hour of time - the lesson I learned is that if you take children to take the high speed rail in West Kowloon, it is more reliable to arrive at the high speed rail station 30 to 40 minutes in advance. I have been to many cities, but this is my first time in Guangzhou. It feels a bit similar to other cities in the Mainland. It is much larger than Hong Kong, and the buildings do not seem to be as densely distributed, but the city’s historical weight is still there. We took a taxi to Chimelong Panda Hotel. Wow, so many people came. To be exact, many people from Hong Kong came. We queued up in a long queue to check in. I found that one advantage of queuing in the mainland is that while my teammates queued up, my child and I went out to play in the hotel lobby first. The hotel is very beautiful, with childlike decorations. There is a cotton candy machine. I immediately took my child to buy cotton candy. Fortunately, there were not many people in front of us. After two or three people, it was our turn to buy. This machine is self-service, and you can choose the style of cotton candy. My baby chose a pink heart-shaped one, which costs 25 yuan each. The price of this cotton candy is still slightly cheaper than in Hong Kong, and it tastes good. My child likes it very much:) After eating the cotton candy, my teammates slowly queued up for us, so we checked in. The front desk patiently introduced the hotel to us. The package included free sweet soup and cake, but the room was only available after 3 o'clock. I left my mobile phone number and the room number was sent to my phone via message, which was quite convenient as I didn't have to queue. So I took the room card and went to store my luggage. After picking up the luggage tag, I planned to take the child to eat something. However, the child might have eaten something on the high-speed train and ate cotton candy, so he was not hungry and said he wanted to play for a while. It turned out that he had his eyes on the stall that was painting faces in the lobby. The little guy chose a pink-based facial mask shape for 198 yuan, sat there and painted, and asked me "Am I beautiful?" I replied that yes, I was very beautiful. After the facial mask was painted, the little guy was very happy. The stall owner said that he could also choose a braid over there. The child went to take a look, and the braid was of ordinary quality. I asked the clerk: Is this free? The clerk replied that the regular price was 198 yuan. I said it was a bit expensive and I could actually buy it on Taobao, haha. The clerk said she thought so too (hahaha, this is why I was sure she was the clerk and not the stall owner). So I said to the child, "BB, this is too expensive. If you don't buy this, mom can give you cash". The little guy agreed immediately, which made me feel relieved - the fact that he can listen to suggestions is a valuable quality. Also, I must remember that I owe the child 198 yuan. Then we went to the Food Town to get sweet soup. We had bought a meal on the high-speed rail before, and the child ate some purple sweet potato and shrimp (the other dishes were too spicy to eat). We were about to arrive at the station, so in order to avoid waste, we put the lunch boxes in the backpack. Who would have thought that we brought a box lunch to Guangzhou Chimelong? Hahaha. We got three servings of sweet soup, one each of kelp and mung bean paste, red dates and white fungus, and sugarcane juice. The child drank some sugarcane juice and didn't like the other two. So I took the little guy around to see what he wanted to eat. I found that there was a children's area in the Food Town where many children were playing. I also found fruit juice, so I took the child to buy a glass of freshly squeezed watermelon juice for 48 yuan. Wow, it's a bit expensive. We bought watermelon juice and the little one drank it happily. We adults were also thirsty and hungry, so we took out the high-speed rail lunch box and ate it quickly with three sugary drinks. The children wanted to go to the children's area to play, where there were green slides, ocean balls, and some other toys. The children went to play happily, but I was still a little hungry, so I bought some steamed buns, shrimp dumplings, and pineapple buns, a total of 106 yuan. I used a 100-yuan coupon and paid 6 yuan. I felt that the coupon for the set meal was really thoughtful, hahaha. We were supposed to go see the big circus that night, but the kid didn't want to. Well, forget it. We went to the hotel buffet. There were quite a lot of guests that night, and each table was given clapping toys and whistles. The kid was very happy. Last year when we had the buffet breakfast at Suzhou Hotel, the little one was still young, but this year there was a clear change. Every time she was very interested in getting the food herself, and even if she didn't eat some of the food she brought back, she would say she got it for us, so we "helped" her finish it. Fortunately, she didn't take much and there was no waste. There is a "anywhere door" at the entrance of the restaurant. When you open it, you will see a panda video. There is also a big screen. People in front of the screen will have cartoon animal portraits randomly displayed on the screen. Not only children like it, but adults also like it. So after we finished eating, we played with the kids in front of the big screen for a long time. Koalas, elephants, monkeys, white tigers, rhinos, chimpanzees, and giraffes changed randomly. It was very fun and it also helped digest the food. According to the children's habit, they have to eat something before going to bed at night, so I reminded the child to buy some cookies and the like, so that the little guy would be willing to leave the restaurant. We went to the store to buy some jelly and strawberry Oreo, and saw the big screen in the lobby and played for a while. Then we returned to the room at more than ten o'clock. When we got to the room, I watched TV for a while. The little one quite liked the documentary about marine animals. Then I gave the baby a bath. By the time the baby went to bed, it was already 12 o'clock. Wow, what a tiring day.
Cost list: Set meal plus breakfast for three people for one day 5812, high-speed rail lunch 68, taxi 48, marshmallow 25, Facebook 198, juice 48, meal 6, snacks 27
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