Crimson Bisque

Friday, August 11, 2006

last entire day in beijing!

we started off early at 7 to see mao's memorial. we queued for 40 mins, just for 5 seconds of seeing him. and they kept us moving alright, hurrying us along at every second possible.

then it was off to yi(4) he(2) yuan(2), or the summer palace. not as done up as the rest of the places we've been to (in terms of restoration work i mean), but it was really big (3X as large as beihai park!) and it was a really cool day to stroll along the palace gardens as well. there were tonnes of people there though, must have all tried to come here since it was raining yesterday! either way, we spent 3 hours in the park, and we were really exhausted after that. guess the lack of sleep is catching up with all of us.

after the summer palace, we headed to beijing university, cos my paternal grandma kept asking me to go. that's where my grandfather got his masters in economics you see! since you can no longer enter the premises of the uni (the tourists were disruptting the students' lives), a took a quick shot of one of the entrances of the uni, before we headed off for lunch.

then it was lunch at a yunnan food place. the food wasn't at all impressive, it was the worst of my uncle's suggestions, but maybe we just ordered the wrong stuff). we had beef, pork ribs, yunnan ham, some vege (that was delish i must say), chicken and mushroom soup, and some rice in bamboo thingy.

1st stop, silk alley, which is actually like a market place. all the branded goods you see there are fake, but they are very well made fakes! they didn't spell anything wrong or anything like that. i managed to get what i wanted: seals of my chinese name, and a pair of earrings. mum and dad bought painted bottles for colleagues and relatives. sun(1) jie(3), the other tour guide (who i found out is actually the GM of her company!), bought a bagpack and a wallet.

then it was off to wang(2) fu(4) jing(3), beijing's famous shopping street! we went to a branch of this chain of tea shops in china called tian(1) fu(4) ming(2) cha(2). bought loads of snacks including some tie(3) guan(1) yin(1) tea, tea flavoured kumquats (damn nice man), tea flavoured plums, tea flavoured olives, green tea chocolates, green tea almond biscuits and green tea walnut biscuits. will definitely go back there if i go back to beijing. then went to get a set of chinese silk pyjamas for ah ma. it was like 298 RMB, which is SGD 60 approximately, so i hope she likes them.

then we went to the last of uncle august's suggestions for restaurants, the japanese one called Matsuko. we ordered chawanmushi, miso soup, soba, tempura (prawn and sweet potato), california rolls, beef cubes, roast chicken, unagi and roasted cod. we were so full at the end of it. our driver came along with us and had his own plate of teppanyaki noodles along with everything else (we didn't order sushi or sashimi cos he didn't like it and he's been really good to us!) the meal was excellent though, and well worth the price that we paid for all 6 of us.

after that it was nighty night, where i caught alexander on star movies and NYPD blue on star world while packing. glad i managed to get it over and done with.

for a little sidetrack, i found out today that our driver not only used to be in the army, but he used to be the driver for deng xiao ping! and he also went through special training for driving! he's a really nice, humble guy, and very down to earth, and he promised to take us around if we come back again!:)

well, i must say i wouldn't mind coming back to china to visit again, and sun jie will be in sg next week, hopefully will be able to meet up and pass her some photos to hand out to the crew!:)

will be visiting the lamasery tmr, since we didn't really have time today, and then have lunch then head straight to the airport after that. hope all the stuff keeps in tact through the flight. i worked really hard to pack everything in!

see you guys in sg (or glasgow as it may seem *waves at mel*) and God bless!:)

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