Trip to Beijing (Day 3)

On our third day, we.. well, woke up, showered, crossed the freezing corridor, to the lobby, had breakfast, wait in the lobby, went outside, saw the giant factory pipe polluting the air, and went up the bus and off. Oh, and, our tour guide, he speaks of funny words, especially when he translates them into English since there's also some Malay friends in the group with us. And he speaks English in a sort of glitchy weird way… it was kinda funny though, Master and Kai Zhi always imitate him and listen closely as he speaks.

As we went to the Beijing City, we saw this extremely tall building, which is the tallest building in Beijing, the Beijing World Trade Centre, and then the CCTV headquarters building, odd shape..

After about half an hour through the straight highway towards the northern region of Beijing, we arrived at this Jade Factory, where large Jade stones are carved and shaped into beautiful sculptures, like this one that looks like a miniature hill with a miniature villages and buildings, that took like 3 years to complete, and it's very inspiring and every single detail, astonishing! but not for sale.. But there's some more inside the shop, Globes, towers, the size of a man! and some that look like animals, some are actually utensils and furnitures, made of pure Jade! quite expensive though.. well, most of them.

Then it's off to the Great Wall Of China 万里长城! the largest man-made structure in the world since thousands of years ago! Up to six thousand kilometres long, this man made structure stretches out half the length of North China! Amazing! It's clearly visible from space! We first start at the main entrance and then everyone is free to climb by themselves… but Kai Zhi decided not to climb because he's afraid of heights… And we even went up to some of the watchtowers and took some astonishing pictures. Surprisingly, Master actually went pass 6 towers! And took some beautiful pictures! The best among the group! What took him half an hour to climb up, only took him less than 5 minutes to get down, and he went down to the main entrance, and still have enough time for him to go down to one more tower, and came back up, walk back to the bus… Dad and Mama couldn't find us at first, and then Dad went to the bus and found us sitting right there, and Mama was still looking for us… So after some of us have came back to the bus, everyone started to discuss about their climb of the Great Wall.

There's the Great Wall of China... then there's Dad by the left bottom corner

After that tiring climb, it's time of some refreshments, so we went for lunch, and more.. roast ducks… and beer~~

Then we went to the 宝树堂 Bao Shu Tang medicine factory and learn about what makes their products so effective and useful all around asia for many decades.

And then we went back to the city, and had dinner at the Silk Street 秀水街, there's where go get to buy things at a surprisingly and extremely low price, most of the things they sell are counterfeited, but you'll have to bargain with these people in order to get a cheap price, for example at first it was like RMB500, the moment you say you don't want it, they'll ask you how much you want, and then you'll say the price you want, they'll argue with you, you'll have to be strong and argue, they won't give up until they sell it, they don't care how much, they just want to get rid of it, then you keep bargaining with them, then in the end you always get the price you want, these people are crazy… but you got what you want~ and then we went to have some dinner, and back to the bus.

We stop by at the Beijing City TV where there's this huge LCD screen on top in the ceiling, displaying love dedications, displayed on top in the ceiling! Then it's back to the hotel to watch TV, shower and sleep.

Trip To Beijing Day 2

The next morning, we woke up and went to the lobby to had breakfast, but in order to go to the lobby, we had to go down to the ground floor of the building which is open, so it's gonna be cold, then we had to cross this corridor which is also open, and it's freezing outside early in the morning at 6.30 a.m.

Master and Kai Zhi observing "Air Pollution"

We had breakfast at a restaurant next to the hotel's main building lobby. Then we went outside to wait for the bus door to open, while there, we saw this huge factory pipe outside the hotel releasing tons of smoke, which Master and Kai Zhi calls it The Air Pollution, plus it runs 24 hours non stop, and keeps on releasing smoke day and night, which is very common in cities like this… Then we head of for the trip for day 2!

First, we went to this place called 什刹海 (Shi Sha Hai) which isn't really a sea, but a lake. The story of how it was called that is very interesting, you see, last time, the Mongolians, they live in grass fields in mountain ranges, far from the sea, so they have never seen an ocean before, but when they discovered this lake, because of it's size, they assumed that it was a sea, so they called it 什刹海. And there's a Starbucks there which they bought some coffee, and went walking around 烟袋斜街 (YanDaiXie Byway), and saw some dogs wearing t-shirts running around freely, these dogs are very good, why? because they're scared that their owners will eat them… nah~ just kidding, but seriously, these people eat dogs! and birds! and Zoe and I are birds!

Starbucks!

Doggieeees!!!

Then we went to the Pipe Street Silk Factory, where we learn about the history of silk clothing in China, and how it came to be, so common in many furnitures and clothings these days. There we saw how silk clothings are made, layer by layer with silkworm cocoons, and outside, people selling nuts.. mmm.. nuts~ and more dogs running around freely. Then back to the bus, and we're off for lunch!

The Army of Insects, silkworm cocoons

Dead Silkworm Bodies

Nut Brittles!!!

At lunch, they had a steamboat, there was BBQ goat, some vegetables and meatballs. Of course, Master kept some vegetables for Zoe and I.

After lunch we went to the famous 天安门 Tian An Men Square, the Parlimen of China.. something like our Merdeka Square.. but you get the point, we walked around for a while, took some pictures, took a group picture of our tour group, then crossed the underway to the Forbidden City 紫禁城, it's a very interesting and historical place more than six centuries old. Before entering the main entrance, we had to walk through a huge park which took us around 10 minutes from the gate of the palace to the entrance of the so called Forbidden city. These huge red gates with some… erm.. "knobs" made of pure Gold!

Inside the palace, we went to a four star toilet with unlockable doors! how luxurious! yes, I was being sarcastic.. Then we head off deeper into the Forbidden City, with some interesting buildings built for the emperor last time… and we kept on walking for like an hour and a half….? Wow, that's one biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig house.. literally. During that time, there's this giant golden water tank, which was once golden and filled with water, but not anymore after the World War. The reason it came to be it that last time the emperor thought that as long as the tank is filled, his empire will live forever in peace. And there's also some large stone carvings along the stairs up every level of building around the palace, and there's this special building which happens to be the emperor's… toilet….? it's huge! and no doors!? Then there's the many different houses for the emperor and empress to stay every night, you don't expect them to stay in the same place every night, if enemies find out, they'll kill the emperor and empress! And at last, we exit at the emperor's garden, huge place.. And saw the emperor and empress' collection of rare lime stone sculptures and trees. Outside the palace, there's a huge river that goes around the palace for like kilometres long..

Kai Zhi in front of the Grand Theatre

Group pic!

After that, it's already like 5p.m. and we went to the Tea Factory, where we learn the many types of delicious tea and aromatic tealeaves which are famous all around the world. Then it's off to dinner at a buffet restaurant, with…. more… roast… ducks~~ and some beer!

 Then it's back to the hotel to watch TV.