Crimson Bisque

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

3rd day isn beijing. we started off at 9, but this time we stayed in town though.

wanted to visit mao's mausoleum today, but the queue was really really damn long, it practically surrounded the building. so we decided to do that another day and head to our next planned destination, Tian(1) An(1) Men(2) Square.

it was a great view of the square once you entered the actual building on Tian An Men, and they had a nice exhibition on the history of the place. our tour guide, tracy, bought me a memorial card, which stated my chinese name and the date of my visit. they've been really accomodating, and once they found out that i wanted to make a scrap book, they started to give me small things like ticket stubs, buying me guide books etc!

i must reinterate. they are the best tourguides ever. there is no way we would have conquered beijing without them. the places are so far apart and some of the places are really hard to find. we're really really blessed to have them taking us around and explaining things as we go.

after tian an men, we went to the forbidden city or gu(4) gong(1). it's a really really massive place, but once again, the major bits of it were undergoing renovation for the 2008 olympics, so there was a lot we missed out on. was really tempted to but a chinese painting on sale in the exhibition, but i felt we were getting ripped off, so didn't get it in the end. the architecture is fantastic as usual, and it really was a sight to behold.

by the time we came out of gu gong it was 1pm and time for lunch! we decided to try another of my uncle's suggestions (if it ain't broke, don't fix it! his recommendations are all really good and cheap too!), a mushroom hotpot place. they specialise in mushrooms there adnt hey can come up to 68 yuan a plate!. the black chicken soup base (with a whole black chicken inside), was really to die for! we ordered i think 3 or 4 types of mushrooms, some vege and some rice to go with it. wah, i really think i should stop ordering rice, i NEVER finish it! i don't really like starchy food lah, unless aaron cooks really hot curry!

anyway, dad managed to pull the old "i said i was going to the toilet and i did but i came out and went to pay the bill" trick. it was the 1st time we pulled it off and we finally got to buy tracy a meal! after 3 days here! but the food came up to 141 for 4 of us, which equates to SGD 28 or approximately 10 quid!

after mushrooms, we headed to bei(3) hai(3) [north sea] park, which is built, you guessed it, on the north sea itself. gorgeous scenery to behold, with of course, lots of views of the sea!:) there were several temples scattered around the park, including one big ass white one on the jade islet, had to climb pretty high up, but it was worth it! we had a bird's eye view of beijing, including tian an men, gu gong, and jin(3) shan(1) park, which we didn't go to even though it was just behind the forbidden city as it was, erm under renovation!

by the time we were done it was about 5, and the 3 of us headed our seperate ways. mum went to the raffles beijing hotel to meet some colleagues, dad went back to rest (remember he had to climb up too! i think i've convinced him to exercise though!), and i went to visit wang(3) fu(3) jie(1), the shopping street of beijing with tracy! we didn't really spend much time there cos mum had called the driver to pick her up already, and he was on his way to pick us up to bring us back to the hotel. (not that there was much to see. the sales were fantastic though!)

we took a short break before heading out to meet my uncle for peking duck. although all his suggestions are really good, the restaurants are tucked away in the alleys or hu(2) tong(1) of beijing. glad we found this one though! the peking duck was really really good. the skin and the meat were both excellent, and yes, they actually serve both together (they seperate the skin from the meat though, but unlike sg, you don't have to order another dish to get the duck meat as well). we also tried some yellow wine (v potent stuff!). we also ordered another 8 dishes, incl, prawns, chicken, kang kong (cooked a diff way from sg), string beans, winter melon soup, pig skin (it tastes really good ok, but it looks like jelly fish, not the suckling pig type of skin), cucumber, and beef.

after managing to steal the bill again (dad's on fire! with uncle august's help this time. and this time we managed to give the driver a treat as well.), we set off for red moon bar in the grand hyatt hotel, where uncle august says there are 4 beautiful women, who sing and play chinese musical instruments, to chinese and english tunes. well, i didn't think they were that pretty, but 1 played the er hu, 1 played the pipa, 1 was a singer, and 1 was playing on a very expensive Korg keyboard.

after 2 sets, we had to get home, as we have a 7am start tmr. sigh, it's now 1236, which means i'm gonna be a bit cranky in the morning. oh well, i can still hear the cars horning at each other outside the hotel. the drivers here are incredible, they don't obey traffic rules, but i've only seen ONE car accident in my whole time here. our driver's the bomb man, he's an excellent driver! he started driving since he was 17 and was a driver for the army at one point.

that's enough from me tonight. have to turn in now!:)

take care and God bless everyone!:)

Inscribed @ 3:56 pm