Crimson Bisque

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

i must brush up on my mandarin! it was so difficult trying to say simple things like website webpage etc. crap, i've really "huan gei lau shi le" (given it back to my teacher = forgotten a lot of stuff).

today was a walking day. we set off at 7am to reach the mu(4) tian(1) yu(4) portion of the great wall of china by about 9+ in the morning. the weather was perfect for it as well! it was really cloudy and i thought for a moment it was going to rain. but the weather held up for us very nicely, and we managed to conquer 8 towers! that's watchtower 10 to 17. i had wanted to go to tower 20 (the final tower that is open to tourists), but mum protested and she had done very well as it is. dad had to take the cable car up as his muscles started cramping really bad. by the time we got to tower 17 it was 1130am, and the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds, and starting to slowly beat down on us.

we took the cable car down cos mum thought it'd be safer. we left the wall around 12 and made our way towards to fruit farms. we thought we might enjoy picking peaches/plums/apples. too bad though, a lot of the fruits weren't really ripe yet, so as mum said "it wasn't a fruitful journey" erm, haha? haha. i think mum's catching our "obvious" humour ailment (my father and brother are strong proponents of this certain type of humour, and make every effort to practice it on me.)

we then headed back to town to try another of uncle august's restaurant suggestions (the dumpling restaurant was the 1st). it was originally a hu(2) tong(1) (courtyard with 4 houses surrounding it) restaurant, but is now v modern. it was a wonderful atmosphere to enjoy wonderful food (and the toilets were very clean too!). we ordered their peach tea, specialty chicken, the suan la tang (hot and sour soup), seafood noodles, lamb dish (which tasted like curry), some giant pork meatball, beef dish and a tofu dish. it was v tasty, and it got me all sleepy.

as usual, i fell asleep in the van, as we next headed to the temple of heaven, where the emporers would make sacrifices to the gods and goddesses to ensure a god harvest for the next year. the colours of the temple were really very vibrant, much nicer than the ones we saw in kyoto. upon reading the history of the place though, it was just done up within the last year, just like almost every other tourist attraction and every road in beijing is being done up, all in preparation for the 2008 olympics.

tonight we tried another of my uncle's suggestions (it's such a popular place, that the restaurant called us at 745 to ask us if we were coming, even though our reservation was for 8!), called fei(1) teng(2) yu(2) xiang(1) (erm prosperous fish village?!).

their catfash was really fantastic. they charge you by the weight of the fish, then they fillet it and pour boiling oil and spices over it to cook it. it wasn't very greasy strangely enough, and was really nice too! we also had the pear soup, beef tendon, fungus in ginger juice, spare ribs which were chopped up and fried, with some very tasty cornflour concoction! fried rice which wasn't very oily as well. as usual we didn't manage to finish our meal and as usual, the girl snuck off to pay the bill once all the food had arrived!

i think i forgot to mention that they have a lot of customs when it comes to dining in beijing:
1. there's a certain way of sitting around the table (the host sits opposite the guest of honour)
2. when you say cheers, you try to get the rim of your glass lower then the fella you are toasting with as a form of respect. this often results in hilarious situations though, like not noticing how close you glass is to the table and spilling your drink instead)

anyway, best get to bed, late start tmr at 9, but still have to get up for b/fast and stuff! night and God bless everyone!:)

Inscribed @ 3:22 pm