If you look really closely you can see that people added air conditioners by grabbing some bricks and made it into a DIY project.
The First Day
On to Beijing! I was pleasantly surprised to see that Beijing isn't as crowded as I imagined. Maybe because Beijing is 16 times larger than HK so it seemed like it is less populated. However, tourist attractions are a totally different story - way too crowded and way too hot! Just to remind everyone we went on a tour and good thing because no one speaks english or cantonese.
So the first day was pretty relaxed. We went to dinner at a restaurant that tried to mimic a feast an emperor would have back in the day. The food was okay but to be honest I didn't particularly like any of the food we had. It might've been because it was tour food or because I'm not used to the type of cuisine. Anyways, after that we went to Wangfujing where we shopped a little and tried the street food. I was hesitant to try anything but I had to try the asian-style candied strawberries on a skewer. So delicious I went for seconds!
They had some interesting local delicacies like star fish, silk worms, etc. Of course Norm had to try something gross:
It looks like meat but it's actually water beetles =\
After that we checked into our big hotel room, which was a nice change from HK. But no matter how big the bed, waking up at 6:30 am everyday is still a chore.
The Second Day
The next day was a very long and cruelling one. We had a 6 hour walking journey through Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (Pic 1), the Summer Palace (Pic 2), and the Olympic area. The Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms and we saw all of them! Kidding... we only saw one part of it. There are so many rooms there that if you were to live there from birth and you lived in different rooms for everyday of your life, you'd be 27 before you'd finish living in every room. It was very cool to see how emperors used to live. They have a building for everything - even one for greeting his counsel every morning.
We couldn't go inside the Bird's Nest stadium because we made our own plans to go see an acrobatics show. Before watching the show we needed to grab some dinner, which was very very difficult to do. We ended up going to one random restaurant, didn't like the food, and went to KFC. It was all worth it because the show was amazing! Way better than any acrobatics show I've seen in Toronto. (Norman's Note: 10x better than Cirque de Soleil)
-M
The Third Day
Before I discuss the third day with you, I just want to emphasize how semi-balling the Beijing Marriot is. It's considered "5 stars" and just take a look at the room. Pretty swanky if you ask me. At least it's better than the Marriot in Toronto.
Anyways, the third day is what I call "tour guides squeezing money from silly tourists". There are always these trips that the tour guides take you to convince you to purchase something, and the tour guides get commission for the purchases. Anyways, in the morning we went to to an Eastern medicine shop and obviously the elderly Chinese people end up purchasing everything under the sun. Next, we went to a Jade store, where the purchasing spirit was more tepid. In any case, Mandy and I were just bored and hung out. Nothing particular of interest.
After that, we went to do the cultural stuff. We check out the Ming tombs where various emperors were buried. Pretty cool stuff. Below is the "archway to the dead". When you're leaving, you have to walk through the door and say "I'm back home" to go back to the land of the living.
The coolest cultural thing was when we visited the Great Wall of China. Talk about a workout... it stretches over 9000km and slopes up and down these large hills. Amazing view, but also amazingly tiring during the trip up the hills. I have to admit, there were some seniors that managed to get up and down the same hills that I got winded in. I'm not sure if that's an indication of their vitality or an indication of me being out of shape. Regardless, I was still impressed. Some of the scenery:
Anyways, that day for dinner we had Hot Pot, which to my gwai loh friends is a pot of boiling water and various meats and vegetables that you boil, then dip into sesame/soy sauce. Quite delicious, but eating at home is much better in my opinion.
Lastly, we checked out the Bird's Nest stadium at night... which is way better.
The Fourth Day
To begin the fourth day, we went on a ride in Hutong Village via rickshaw. It was a really cool village - a blend of old China and modern China. There were a lot of tourists and expats there so it was cool to see some white faces. Check it out:
After that, some more cultural stuff. We went to Tian Tan to see the heavenly stone, and the village surrounding. To be honest, though it was good to get back in touch with my cultural roots, it was quite trying with the weather being very hot and the lack of air conditioning. Also, all these villages which the emperor may visit do not have trees whicih exacerbates the heat issue. (Trees are absent because they pose a danger to the emperor through assassins, etc.) Here's a picture:
Another notable thing we did that day was that we went to see a Kung Fu show. It was about a young boy who became a buddhist monk, I thought it was pretty good, but Mandy looked like she was about to fall asleep. I guess the violence of Kung Fu is able to catch my attention. (Mandy's note: it had no plot and the Kung Fu sucked)
The Fifth Day
Good thing the very last day in Beijing was just shopping trips because we were pooped. We had imitation "shark fin" soup for lunch along with some bland chinese dishes. After lunch they tried to kill time by taking us to a mall that sells all fake stuff and a silk linen store. Finally after many hours of boredom we arrived at the Beijing airport =)
We are sooooooooooooooooo glad to be back in HK. Beijing was clean and spacious but it's great to be back home!
-Normster the Gangster
i think we went on the same type of tour, except yours was all beijing and i went to to shanghai too. i recognize all those squeezing money spots. lol.
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