Author Archives: Carolina

How to spend a week in Lijiang? Enjoy your life in this Poetic old city in Yunnan

Lijiang is a romantic and prosperity old city in the northwest of Yunnan province near the Dali, it is the UNESCO Heritage Site and famous for the Old Town of Lijiang and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. This old city is every Chinese poet’s dream to live and write, every Chinese want to find love and meet the right person in this city. Today, when skyscrapers have seeped in throughout the entire world, but there remains something old, mythical and beautiful in this land, and I would say that Lijiang is the cherished old memory of China, this city represents the eternal ancient culture and romantic love.

Dayan-The Old Town of Lijiang

Dayan old town is the historical center of Lijiang City, which has a history going back more than 1,000 years. When you walk into this old town, which means you are walking into an ancient historical picture of the plateau. The ancient Naxi houses on the old street are surrounded by mountains and rivers, scattered and chic; the clear and transparent stream flows down the ancient bridge; the clear and bottomless river and the dust is not stained; The Yulong Snow Mountain in the distance towered into the clouds, standing tall and handsome. It such a beautiful town that attract billions of travelers from around the world visit, many students meet at this place and travel together, people come here to embrace nature and the love, this land is such a gift from the earth, It is the dream and happiness in my life, try to spend 4-5 days in this old town and feel the wonderful life in Lijiang!

Waterwheel
Flowers eveywhere
Stream flowing
Ancient Naxi houses

The night in Dayan old town is also gorgeous when darkness has fallen and lights are on, we can see the sparking lights in a myriad of houses. The crowds flowed down the street, every seat in restaurants is taken by people, everywhere hung with red lanterns and decorations, which gives this town up and down a bustling and lively atmosphere.

Lijiang at night
Have fun in front of the restaurant

LOCAL FOOD

Speaking of the local cuisine, the most famous one is Yunnan rice noodle, or we called the”cross-the-bridge rice noodle” which and has up to 30 tasty ingredients include the meat and vegetables, you can find the most authentic rice noodle in Lijiang! Moreover, I really recommend Lijiang Baba, which is a golden crisp and sweet local flour snack. For dinner or lunch pleasure, the Naxi Barbecue is the best choice for tourists, Naxi barbecue is a traditional dish in local with the main ingredient of pork belly, which can make for soup as well.

Yunnan rice noodle

Mu Fu Mansion

There is a saying in Lijiang, you can’t know Lijiang without going to Mufu, Lijiang was under the rule of the Mu family native chieftains during the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. Today, Mufu become this most well-known tourist attraction where attracts tourists from worldwide and lets them visit the glorious history palace, and also a splendid architectural art garden. By the way, remember to bring the student ID or senior citizen pass, which can have a discount on the tickets.

cof
Mufu Mansion
Ancient Chinese Pavilion
Ancient corridor

Blue moon valley

Blue Moon Valley, which located the foot of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the god mountain of the hearts of the Naxi people. The water in this lake is from the ancient ice and snow that originated from the snow mountain glaciers melted down the cliffs, and then converged into mountains and streams. Eventually, crystal clear and sweet rivers formed in the deep valleys upstream of the Blue Moon Valley. The water consists of white limestone thus looks extremely pure. On sunny days, the color of the water is blue, and the valley is crescent-shaped. From a distance, it looks like a blue moon inlaid at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, thus locals called it ‘Blue Moon Valley’.

Jade Dragon snow mountain

I took many amazing photos with my sister here, we also saw many couples took their marriage photos here, they believe they will get the bless from snow god. Notice that the water in the lake really cold, so do not play water in a long time, due to that the water in Blue Moon Valley has copper ions in the water, so you cannot drink it although it looks pretty.

happy
Love

-IT IS BETTER TO SEE SOMETHING ONCE THAN TO HEAR ABOUT IT A THOUSAND TIMES-

-BEAUTIFUL YUNNAN IS YOUR NEXT DESTINATION-

ESSAY 2

My online publishing reflection, how to become a popular blogger?

To be honest, it is really grateful for me to have such amazing chance to become a blogger and online publisher in this semester, I have learned many valuable things from PUB 101, which taught me how to use WordPress and elaborated my online presence. For a long time, I have had a big passion on moments recording, writing is definitely one of my hobbies as well as photographing, but this was my first time to practice blogging in totally English, thus everything is fresh and exciting. In recent years, except the social media, blogging has become one of the most popular ways of communicating and sharing information, in this platform, people can talk about their interests, write about their life experiences or publish their thoughts subjectively in a more detailed way.  As Tara mentioned that: “the discursive spaces of the blog as critical to the activity of trading cultural and social capital and, importantly, shaping expressions of emerging identity” (Tara, 2010), after our exploration of the world of blog during this course, I realized that blog is not only a great self-promotion tool to help you address and communicate with your audience but also a channel to make benefits.  Also, the design and content of the blog are significant for attracting viewers, software like Google Analytics will help blogger to know their audience, running a blog is not an easy work that I thought before, the fact is plenty of things you need to make effort on.

Bloggers today are writing a blog for various reasons; some of them have their own story to tell, others may do the business to promote their own products. My blog was created for sharing my traveling stories and experiences with the world, which also included the introduction of my selective tips and cuisine. This is defiantly a valuable blog for supporting people who love traveling and gives them the best tips, besides, my blog is also very welcoming those who like beautiful traveling photos.

Design is also a key for a popular blog, my blog is mainly focused on the visuals and I believed that the atmosphere of the blog will change viewers’ emotion and feeling, this is the power of color-as the symbol of eye-catching. In the beginning, I designed this blog to present lively and fun, which showed an optimistic theme that uplifts readers rather than a traditional travel blog. But after I read some of my peers’ reviews, I knew that the original design might be too intense as a blog aesthetic, thus I took their advice and spent much time adjusting in order to match my blog content and online identity. Finally, I chose to design my blog in a pink background that creates a lovely atmosphere which is quite appealing in a more simplistic style. Moreover, viewers can various breathtaking travel photos in this blog, as Gertz states that: “The art direc­tion isn’t a sub­sti­tu­tion for the con­tent, but it begs us to dive in and get dirty. The cov­er gives us a hint about what’s inside, and teas­es out our emo­tion, beg­ging us to read the rest” (Gertz, 2015), those pictures not only decorate the blog but also guide visitors into a reading world.

Google Analytics is an effective tool that helps nowadays’ bloggers, advertisers and marketers to analyze their online target audiences and adjust website content into the best results. Originally, I imagine my target audience group consisting mostly of girls who like travel and delicacy between the ages of 18 and 25, but according to the data which shows on Google Analytics, the age group is expanded broadly that beyond my imagination because the primary audiences are 25-34, and even include the elderly in 65. What really surprised me is that the data show 54.15% of my audience is male, but 45.85% are female. Pod claims that Data is big business, most of us accepted the idea that digital data equals money (Pod, 2016). Google Analytics creates a new chance for me to know the internet and data trails deeply, which gives me a clear idea of who my audiences are, how they behave and help me to improve my website and expand my marketing.

Furthermore, incorporating transmedia into the blog will contribute to connect your blog to the relevant audience and boost your traffic. In my own view, Instagram is a great online channel for me to attract the audience, according to my google analytics I knew that many readers of my blog come from my Instagram, visitors can drill deeper into the expanding world of their followed bloggers through these transmedia platforms. In addition, the rising global phenomenon of online harassment and online shaming needs to be noticed by all internet users, everyone should control their actions towards and reject online shaming appearing, thus I decided to set up some community guidelines for my blog to prevent horrible comments or shaming happening.

Overall speaking, after reviewing my whole semester’s experience as an online publisher, I have a deeper understanding of blogs rather far than before. As the semester comes to the end, it’s really hard to say goodbye, thus I decide to continue blogging after this course and keep recording my travel footsteps, which helps me to improve my writing and record all the beautiful moments in a journey. Additionally, the photos on Instagram will still be updated, Vlog may be coming soon in the future and I hope to attract more audiences to my blog ideally. Furthermore, marketing is another goal of my future plan, making some money from my favorite thing is literally a great experience. Regardless of what the future is going to be, I will insist to work on it and become a better online publisher. Blogger has taken over the world, but want to become a successful and fantastic popular blogger still needs much effort than we think. Lastly, I would say that this is the end of my PUB 101 class, but it’s just the start of my blog.

References:

Gertz, T. (2015). “Design Machines. How to survive in the digital Apocalypse.” Retrieved from: https://louderthanten.com/articles/story/design-machines

Pod, A. ( 2016). “Digital breadcrumbs: The data trail we leave behind us.” Retrieved from: http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/

Tara, C. (2010). “Digital dressing up: modelling female teen identity in the discursive spaces of the fashion blogosphere.” Journal of Youth Studies. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676260903520902

Take me to Dali: Experiencing the folk customs of Yunnan

If there is a touch of enjoyable spring scenery in this world, it must be colorful Yunnan. The beautiful Kunming, the soft ancient Lijiang, the timeless and peaceful Shangri-La and the venerable Dali. Yunnan, a beautiful and clear place in Chinese people’s hearts, we always remember the clean landscapes, unsophisticated ethnic minorities, bright national costumes …this old southwest land is known for its beauty, richness, and magic. It has always been called the “myth” by the people, which attracts tourists from all over the world. The feeling of Yunnan is like a colorful cloud chasing another one, which showing colorful auras, flowing with a variety of dynamics.
Colorful Yunnan, South of the Colorful Clouds, if it’s the mystery land in China you’re looking for, then Yunnan is a place you will not want to miss.

The first stop we come is Dali, the fanciest city in Yunnan, it represents Cang Mountain and Erhai Lake, which was the capitals of ancient Nanzhao. Dali Listed by the Chinese government as one of the first 24 national historical and cultural cities and it became the first of the top ten charming cities in China.

Erhai Lake

According to locals, we know that Dali has four major scenery, the wind, the flower, the snow and the moon.

Cang mountain represents the snow and Erhai lake is the one which represents the moon, that looks as bright and clear as the moonlight. It is an alpine freshwater lake in Dali, the name Erhai means “Ear-shaped Sea”, due to its shape as seen by locals in hundreds of years. Erhai was also known as Yeyuze in ancient times, which hears more poetic than today, the whole city of Dali is surrounded by this lake, Erhai is the life lake for all locals.

It’s hard to characterize the beauty of Erhai with a single word, When the lake is calm and under the sunshine, it looks like a blue gem inlaid on the ground of Dali. The breeze blows, the lake is glittering with gold and beautiful flowing waves, all these things make it become one of the most popular spots among worldwide travelers.

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Due to the reason that the Erhai lake as an important food source for the local people, until today, we still can see some fishing men in the boat in Erhai. Different plants decorated around the lake, which makes everything looks like an oil painting.

Many spots are around the lake, you can get one map of Dali and Erhai from your hotel or any city station, tourist can rent the car or bicycle to riding, also the lakeshore include Erhai Park and many islands include Erhai Parkcan be explored by hiking, many beautiful islands are available to visit for people, choosing where you like and take the photos in these place, remember to bring sun cream because Uv is very strong.

If you have enough money, I highly recommend you book the gorgeous homestay which nearby Erhai, you can not find a beautiful hotel easily like this in other Chinese cities, otherwise, for those who want a cost-effective price, the recommended homestay living area is nearby the Cang mountain.

On the road, we always see the crystal clear blue sky with clouds, what a breathtaking view! Green hills, fresh air, bright sunshine, beautiful white clouds, bright snowy mountains, dreamy blue water, just like a burst of poetic painting! I began to enjoy the slow life of Dali, our journey is just getting started.

Dali

Shuang long town

As well as Xizhou town, Shuang long town is one of my favorite old towns in Dali, which is the hometown of Chineses famous dancer- Yangliping, the sun and moon palace nearby the Erhai is her private house, but now it is changed to become a tea shop, tourist can sit here and enjoy the afternoon tea and enjoy a peaceful time on side of the lake. Shuang long town was a small fishing village, now become a hot tourist destination in Yunnan.

Sun & moon palace

By the way, do not forget to try some local hand-made flower yogurt, there are several flavors for you to choose from, it tastes really great!

Flower yogurt

Butterfly Spring

Butterfly spring is located at the foot of Cangshan Mountain in Yunnan Province, southwestern China. It is about 7 kilometers away from the Dali old town and is a famous tourist spot in Erhai Lake. Butterfly Spring is a square-shaped spring surrounded by marble and has very clear water. The spring water looks like jadeite which presents a colorful light, there are many butterflies fly around the spring in the past but today it is infrequent to see. Moreover, you can wear folk cloth and take a photo with your friends or families, there are many beautiful styles you can choose, I picked my favorite Miao style dress with a gorgeous silver headwear.

Butterfly Spring
Wild Butterfly
My sisiter and I

Cang Mountain

Cang Mountain is located to the west of the Dali town and belongs to the Yunling Mountains. It has a rich variety of plants on the mountain, including the nineteen peaks and eighteen streams. The snow in winter is beautiful thus Cang mountain represents the snow in Dali. Tourists can take the ropeway or walk to the peak. In Chinese traditional legend, celestial beings are living on the peak of the mountain, when we stand on the top, it makes you feel that you are close to the fairyland and the gods.

Touch the sky
3920m

Visitors can see the whole Cang mountain and the Dali town in a ropeway, the view is awesome! Besides, there are many stores under the foot of the mountain that sell the oxygen bottle to alleviate the effects of altitude. If you come here in Winter, it’s better to rent a down coat because the top of the mountain is really cold.

Dail old Town

Dail old town is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Yunnan, known for its historical and cultural heritage, and vibrant nightlife. There are many bars, cafes, antique shops, tie-dye shops and galleries on the historic street. I highly recommend tourist come to shopping and eating in the old town, you never find a place like this which bring you into an ancient Chinese dream.

-Wandering among the beautiful mountains and rivers, or walking through the quiet alleys of the ancient city, or just sitting and feeling the ancient and mysterious breath of Yunnan-

Week 12 Process Post

This week, we discussed some issues about nowadays’ online commentary and online shaming, we know that these problems can be easily found on social media platforms. Many people do not take seriously about their behavior on the internet, thus the conversations are not friendly but aggressive sometimes, as we usually said that the medium may be changed, but people do not. In class, we talked about a Twitter post from Justine Sacco, she posted that “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”, maybe It was just a joke, but this post evoked public’s anger and everything changed after she turned off the flight, her life was totally destroyed by Twitter in just several seconds, she lost almost everything. This event is such a tragedy, while it also reminds us to rethink online shaming. Sometimes Internet users do not care about the truth, they prefer to follow public voice blindly. I believed that the real name system rather than anonymous can heal this issue effectively in some cases, people will be concerned about their online behavior, not say things without thinking, but sometimes the real name may create limitations for voice out, generally it really depends on the event itself.

For me, I am happy to give my opinion on my favorite topic online and notice avoiding shamed people, I rarely comment on gossip because I do not care about the sensitive topics. I set public comments for both my social media or blog website, which open for every person online, honestly, I’m not worried or afraid of online shaming, if anyone judges me hurtfully, I will delete it and keep the community peaceful. This week’s lecture-discussion really inspired me a lot, thus I decided to set up some community guidelines for my blog to prevent horrible shaming happening. My blog is about sharing my traveling stories, I hope everyone feels glad to read it and communicate with each other friendly, I am so excited to see funny and interesting comments.

My community guidelines are:

  • Strongly encourage comments about traveling-Be free and kind to comment anything about travel and share your feeling or unique experiences, but no advertisements.
  • Be respectful to everyone– Visitors need to respect author and each other, be aware to use appropriate language and create a harmonious environment together. No shaming, attacks, discrimination, and offensive comments.
  • Thinking before you comment-Thinking twice before making a comment, try to comment in a witty way.
  • Feedback or advice are encouraged
  • If anyone doesn’t comply, the comments will be removed

Overall speaking, social media is more powerful than we think and impact our life deeply, everyone should control their actions towards and reject online shaming appearing, I hope to see all my audience follow my guidelines and participate in the communication positively and optimistically, let’s start our happy trip!

Meet the “City of Angels”-Los Angeles

Los Angeles was the kind of place where everybody was from somewhere else and nobody really droppped anchor. It was a transient place. People drawn by the dream, people running from the nightmare. –Michael Connelly

Imagining you are walking on the Sunset Boulevard with palm tree and a breeze, feeling the warm sunshine and charming of Los Angeles. In this city, you can always find something fresh, different, and interesting after your exploring. Los Angeles is enthusiastic and passionate, it is also well-known as the historical city of the movie, if you are a crazy fan of Hollywood, just come and feel this culture! This week, I made a lovely LA travel guide list for introducing my favorite LA landmark sights. Now! follow me to this wonderful place in America and start this beautiful trip with me! when summer suns were glowing, you could not help but recall the cherished memory in Los Angeles.

Tips: Using Airbnb to book the hotel or BNB is really convenient and money-saving, besides, LA is much drier than Vancouver, water supplements are necessary. Moreover, because public transportation is not very developed in LA, so car rental travel is my relatively recommended choice!

Griffith Observatory 

Astronomy and stars, past and today, everything exhibited in Griffith Observatory is about the mystical sky. As the most famous landmark in LA, which located right across from the Hollywood Hills and offer a great place to see the English letters “Hollywood” on the Hollywood Hills clearly when you standing on the top of the Griffith Observatory. I suggested that it is better for tourists to achieve here in the afternoon, parking cars would be more easily, and you can see different views between noon and night, sunset scene of the Griffith Observatory is very beautiful, and you can capture amazing sunsets in many places in this park. In addition, the night view is so romantic at night, you can look at the high-rise buildings and enjoy the bustling city night scene at the observatory, the lights of the Los Angeles’ family at night are like the twinkling Milky Way galaxy. Griffith Observatory offers three different planetarium shows each day, it is not free and you need to pay for tickets, but it is really worth to see.

Address: 2800 E Observatory Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90027 USA

Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain is a hillside visionary environment created by Leonard Knight in the California desert area, which favored by most instagrammers and tourists around the world, wearing your most beautiful cloth and photographing here, notice that this mountain is in the desert, photos sometimes are misleading, it is really hot!

Address: Beal Rd, Calipatria, CA 92233, United States

The Getty Center

The Getty Center, one of the most famous cultural and artistic center with rich collecting art in this world, and impressive modern design. The museum also offers spectacular views of Los Angeles on clear days. Recent travelers loved the museum for its value and beauty, One thing is really awesome, the museum of such a magnificent art in the Getty Center actually does not need tickets, only the parking fee-15 dollars without time limitations. Additionally, this museum can be regarded as a heaven for arts-lovers, here they will find Renaissance paintings, royal french furniture, 20th-century, modern photography, baroque sculptures and more, I was really lucky to see an exhibition of Egyptian culture, I am literally a big fan of archeology so it was really exciting and unforgotten for me.

Address: 1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90049, United States

Hollywood Universal Studios

Hollywood Universal Studios- the amazing themed amusement park with a variety of exciting and entertaining facilities that attract billions of people come and play every year, every tourist can not miss such a wonderful place and enjoy a sense of joy in LA!

I really like the”City Tour”, which is a car cruise about 45 to 60 minutes. Here you can see a lot of Hollywood scenes and techniques details, including the world’s largest set studio built by Spielberg as a consultant. One of the most impressive scenes is the Bates Motel, the man chasing our car with a knife. Moreover, the Walking dead and Mummy are also my favorites, you can only experience them in LA.

Disneyland Park & Disney California Adventure Park

As the oldest Disneyland in this world which built-in 1955, it has become the classical theme parks in the world and has been hailed as the happiest place on earth. You can see the first Disney castle in LA, it is not big or exquisite than other places, but it is priceless for Disney fans. By thie way, never miss the firework show at night!

Silly Symphony Swings

Moving to the adventure park, the Paradise Pier area included ‘Mickey’s Fun Wheel Ferris’ and ‘California Screamin’ is considered as the landmarks of California Disneyland, It is also the place where the fountain of water shows the world of color at night. Mickey’s Fun Wheel Ferris is not the same as an ordinary Ferris wheel, the baskets above are divided into two types: rocking and fixed, you can choose it by yourself, I chose the rocking one and almost spit out on it, I will never forget this feeling!

Hollywood walk of fame

Hollywood Walk of Fame has been recognized as a cultural and historical landmark by LA, no doubt that it is the must-see for visitors. In addition to more than 2,000-star medals with Hollywood celebrity names, there is also the famous TCL Chinese Theatre and the Oscar venue Dolby Theatre. To be honest, I actually hesitated to come here, because the online review is really bad. I heard that there are a lot of cosplayers who are forced to take photos and ask for money, but you know, how can I miss this place when I come to LA, I try my best to avoid them, the whole street was a little bit chaotic. I came to some street shop and bought some souvenirs for my family, overall it was an interesting experience, but I suggested that do not visit here alone.

Beverly hills

The name of Beverly Hills has long been known, It has the title of “the most prestigious residential area in the world” which represents wealth and fame. I have to say that this is my dream and I am a big fan of TV show-the real housewife of Beverly Hills, standing on the street will make you feel the charm of the world’s top luxury capital. After that, we went to the nearby Rodeo Drive, which is dominated by famous shops. It contains all the most expensive stores in Southern California, and each famous store has its own unique architectural style. All the famous jewelry and costumes are found here in the most gorgeous exhibition halls There is a saying here: “Don’t ask how much money, if you ask, which means you can’t afford it.”

Santa monica beach

Santa Monica is a famous seaside resort and one of the most lively places in Los Angeles evening, it is especially popular with local residents and tourists. The beautiful sea view is also favored by Hollywood directors, thus the pier frequently appears among major Hollywood movies. It’s already five o’clock in the afternoon when I arrive at Santa Monica Beach. I have enough time to step on the sand at the beach, played with water and take a leisurely ride to enjoy the scenery. In such a sunset, I forgot where it is and forgot what I was going to do later. There were only the boundless quiet and deep-sea level in the eyes, and the gradual sinking halo and the golden glow that was dyed in gold and red.

People cut themselves off from their ties of the old life when they come to Los Angeles. They are looking for a place where they can be free, where they can do things they couldn’t do anywhere else. –Tom Bradley

Week 11 Process Post

Up to now, my online social media presence is focused on my favorite platform -Instagram, I use it for promoting my website and attracting more audiences, and I believed that the visual media platform like Instagram is effectively to build the connection between bloggers and readers. The reading “POKEMON AS TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING” from this week really sparked me a lot, the author mentioned that transmedia storytelling is the ideal aesthetic form for an era of collective intelligence. As social media have become more prevalent and easy to use, fans and audiences can drill deeper into the ever-expanding world of their followed blogger, transmedia makes a unique contribution to the narrative system as a whole, which helps readers to piece together a comparatively fuller picture of the blogger’s life. Thus I am considering incorporating more transmedia integration into my online publication, maybe a mixture of other social media platforms or channels such as youtube if I will create my Vlog in the future.

The main reason why I choose to incorporate Instagram specifically into my website and online presence is that Instagram is my most familiar social media and I have been using it for a long time. I like to post my traveling photos and share them habitually on Instagram, it is a good way to record my traveling footstep, which not only helps me to enrich my self-online publishing but also promotes my website effectively. In my view, Instagram is a great online channel to market to my audience, according to my google analytics I knew that many readers of my blog come from my Instagram.

Moreover, I put my Instagram page on the widget of my website, this widget is displayed my Instagram feed on the homepage of my blog, which shows many beautiful traveling photos directly for my audiences, if they are interested in any picture, they can click the “Follow” button and easily check the story of the photo or follow my account to know me well.

Overall speaking, be a transmedia creator is an interesting experience for any blogger, but is not easy to balance each channel. Personally, I will keep up with my Instagram account and continue my traveling photography posting for my blog, and make progress on content creating or blog promotion for my audiences, maybe in the future, I will happy to buildup Youtube channel and create my own traveling Vlog.

References:

Kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com. 2013. “Pokemon as transmedia storytelling: https://kevinbrittenylauren.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/pokemon-as-transmedia-storytelling/


Sunset in London

The Hottest ‘Instagramable’ Restaurants in LA you can’t miss!

It comes as no surprise that Los Angeles is a famous food palace, you can always find worldwide cuisine and some unusual restaurants in this beautiful sunshine city, food choices would never be repeated here. Want to know which restaurants are the hottest on Instagram now? let’s have a look together!

1.The Ivy (LA)

Flowers, artistic and vintage, those are bright features of this popular LA restaurant-the Ivy. If you want to have an unforgettable lunch in a wonderful garden, I really recommend you to come. Recently it has become a new favorite of the ins-bloggers, tourists and celebrities, if you are lucky enough, you can enjoy the cuisine while takes a close look at them. I really like the building itself, like the restaurant introduced that-a prettily decorated country-cottage rooms, distinctly, it looks really like a beautiful pastoral house of the grandmother in the 70-80s countryside, you feel really warm, comfortable and relax in this amazing atmosphere.

When you walk inside, you can see a big fireplace and the light yellow walls hung with retro plates, but compare with indoor, the flowery outdoor terrace with cozy sofas is my real love. Another adorable thing which really attracts my eyes is that every table was decorated with fresh roses, how romantic is it! Speaking of the food, the price is a little bit high and most meals are beautifully laid out. Besides, the lobster pasta is the signature dish and almost every table must be ordered. By the way, the fresh juice in this restaurant is my personal recommendation, I really like the apple juice which tastes really well. Noticed that this restaurant also needs an appointment, you can use OpenTable or just called the phone.

Address: 113 N Robertson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048 USA

Phone: +1 310-274-8303 Hours: 08:00-21:30


2.BBCM-The Butcher, The Baker & The Cappuccino Maker Cafe

Have an amazing breakfast will cheer you up and bring a fresh new day! In my own view, this quote is definitely made for BBCM-the most popular restaurant in West Hollywood, LA. It opens daily for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, but the brunch and lunchtime are the busiest periods in a whole day, almost overcrowding! You can see a really long waiting line every day, which represents the popularity of BBCM, so try to avoid going there at weekends and vacation days! Also, making a reservation through bbcmcafe.com, OpenTable or phone call will help you to save time.

At first sight, all decoration of BBCM is based on white and designed in a modern simple style, which is totally different compared with the Ivy. The food is really really fresh and delicious, I believed the food placing is in a European style rather than American! My favorite is egg benedict and the smoked salmon croissant, Furthermore, the drinks are also nice and creative! I strongly recommend the specialty coffee beverages and craft cocktails, you will know that food is also the art when you see them!

color burst latte
Champagne flight

Address: 8653 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069 USA

Phone: +1 310-360-6900 Hours: 08:00-22:00


3.The Living Room (The peninsula beverly hills)

If you are not much hungry, but want to have some food and chat with your friends, the living room in peninsula hotel (Beverly hills) can be your first choice in this situation. The afternoon tea offered in this hotel spreads fame the overseas, which attract many people to come and taste. It also served breakfast, dinner and some snacks, pianist will play the piano in the evening, and you can enjoy a lovely time with some cocktail in this romantic and exquisite room.

Accompanied by the music of a classical harpist, The Peninsula’s legendary Afternoon Tea start. There are two types of tea sets you can choose, an optional glass of Champagne and a tower of traditional high tea requisites; I order the Champagne including one, which is more fit for the atmosphere I think. For the tea menu, I do recommend the black tea and matcha, which are really rich and delicious. Moreover, from sandwiches to bite-sized pastries and scones, all the desserts in the selection are really tasteful, whole snacks inside the tea set are well-prepared and value for the price.

Address: 9882 Santa Monica blvd, The Peninsula Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Phone: +1 310 975 2736

Travel guide to the insta-famous attractions for photo-shooting in LA

Los Angeles, a city of the Instagram-famous spots, there have many desirable walls (art background) that attract the worldwide Insta-fans come to take the photos! In Los Angeles, Melrose, downtown and Venice beach are the three main sites with those famous walls, today I will focus to introduce the guide of Melrose’s artistic wall.

Paul Smith-The pink wall

Paul Smith’s pink wall is undoubtedly the most popular ins-style wall in the United States, the oversized and all-pink wall is easy to frame and photographing, you can stand anywhere with a pink background to take a good photo (no need to worry about the crowd and the weather). You can even avoid the crowd and take photos around the corner, the works are still awesome!

Address: 8221 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046, United States

LA Angel wings

There is no specific address for the wing wall, it just on your way from the pink wall to made in la. You can definitely see it, so don’t be worry!

Made in LA wall

Address: Cisco Home, 8025 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046

Rainbows Wall

Address: The Paper Bag Princess, 8050 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046


-Different artistic wall on Melrose street-

“Love is everywhere”

Peer review 3

For my third peer review, I am going to read Rain Mutlu’s blog small steps in a big world

This blog is about traveling and photo sharing, Rain has loved freezing moments to keep them forever and she would be more than happy to share those memories with her audiences, she mentioned that she decided to create this travel blog where she talks about what kind of feelings the places she went to trigger in her and what kind of feelings they might awake in you. I believed this is a romantic idea that will create a bond with readers and express the emotion together through reading blogs.

Speaking of website design, this blog holds simple aesthetic with white and black, author decorates some visual pictures in each post, because it is a travel blog, so I would recommend adding more travel photo to replace other types of pictures, otherwise the online identity is not clear and may leads this website looks like a business or personal blog without certain theme. The scroll bar on the homepage as one of the first things viewers see when they go to her website is a good design that Rain can utilized to capture audiences’ attention, it is an important part to create interest and convey the blog’s identity in a clearer way, thus beautiful travel image is needed. Besides, the menu and category widget, which are very helpful to help her viewers choose what they want to read. Generally, more vivid designs for travel blogs may help increase the participation between the author and audiences, as it would make the reader more interested in this blog.

Moving to blog content, her blog posts are very interesting and I really enjoyed reading her travel experience. Compared to other travel blogs, this one is a little bit different, it focuses on emotional expression rather than traveling itself. In a recent blog, Rain said she wanted to focus on small and unpopular places in certain locations rather than traveling around the world and briefly talk about the must-seen-places, she shares many Vancouver spots, because this is a travel blog, it is better to write about other places rather than local, otherwise the blog theme needs to be more focused. Also, the featured image on the blog post needs more charming, which will attract more audiences to read the content and help her to increase the target audience, otherwise it makes them feel confused about the blog content. A few changes would make these posts even better, the typeface she will use also can be more unique in the future.

For marketability to their intended audience group, I think to create a specific theme and adding more attracting travel elements or design will help her to create a more unique and interesting blog, which become easier to market with a more specific group of readers. By the way, the automatic pop-up window is really disturbing for audiences so I do not suggest to install this. When I was reading a post intently, this window made me feel really annoyed and want to quit this website. Personally, showing Instagram photos on the homepage will help to increase awareness for this blog and bring traction. Some adjustment will attract more fans and prepare for Rain’s future blog marketing and digital monetization.

Overall speaking, Rain’s traveling blog is relatively different than other travel blogs, I will continue to read the website for new posts in the upcoming weeks and hope to see more interesting things!

who can reject a dreamy trip to Italy?

some of my photo collection, hope everyone likes it!