Friday, July 13, 2007

Beijing - 24 to 27 June
Day 1. The beijing trip was down to the 2 of us, no more travelling with 18 people. we reached the airport in the afternoon and had peking duck for our first dinner in beijing!

ingredients for peking duck: thinly sliced roasted, crispy duck skin with a little bit of meat, sweet dark sauce, 'pohpiah' like skin, spring onions and cucumber.

Day 2: Forbidden City
The Mao Ze Dong museum, it was under renovation when we were there :( lots of places were renovating. even the popular 前门大街 (qian men street) was not open. the entire city is preparing for the olympics next year.

inside the bell tower:

Tian An Men square:
im amazed at the large roads they have around the square. 2 way, 16 lanes in total!

inside the forbidden city:
this palace is freaking huge. took us hours to tour the place. we left at the closing hour and yet we still havnt completed combing every part of the palace. damn tiring..


Day 3: The Great Wall - Hike from Jinshanling to Simatai
the weather was so hot that day, 40 degrees! bad day to do strenuous exercise. its a 10km hike on the ruined great wall. took us 4 hours+ to complete the journey and we had a great sense of accomplishment after that. its not easy okay...
see that ugly straw hat im wearing..bought it to block my face from the sun and UV i hope..
this is the renovated part of the great wall:
The ruins, damn difficult to walk on that kinda path. climbing the extreme up and down slope was INSANE. we even met up with an american lady who wore heels there! *salute

Day 4: Temple of heaven.
Its a boring place..haha..

it rained so heavily after we left the temple..more like a storm..an umbrella cant save you from getting wet, it was merciless..
we waited in the rain for a cab for close to 15mins, by that time we were drenched. i think the back seat was very wet too.

we went to the must try peking duck in 全聚德. we couldnt care less about the money, just splurged 70rmb on that meal. it was worth it. haha..70rmb (S$14) is considered a splurge ok, imagine the kind of food you will get with that little bit of S$!
that's all for my china trip! from 9 Jan to 30 June '07.
it has been a very memorable 6 months in the land of the cheena chinese and working with them. it was lots of fun too hanging out and travelling with the group of crazy GIP friends. it is an experience of a lifetime and i will never forget these 6 months :)

belle * 12:33 PM