Beijing 2010
This trip to Beijing is my third time being in China. And just like Harbin, I went during the winter and stayed there for eight days.
Our trip began on the 16th of December, leaving Malaysia at 9a.m+ and on to a six hour flight. Me and my brother had lots of fun, even in the plane. After arriving at Beijing, we started our journey around China, on a bus.
My mother told me to blog about the important parts only. ._.
16th of December 2010
Airplane food sucks.
Our bus was smaller, compared to others on the road, dunnowhy.
The sun was setting when we finally reached Beijing. I think we had dinner first before we saw a China acrobatic show. Our tour guide said it would be interesting to watch and it was okay. You know, somersaults, super flexible people, comedy scenes. The most interesting act was five motorcyclist inside a sphere, doing dangerous stunts.
Later that night we checked into a hotel called Chang An Grand Hotel. It looks like a pretty normal hotel but I guess not everyone in our tour knows that the hotel kept a live seal. Yes, a seal.
Pityful. ):A video of the seal.
17th of December
Leaving the places that I don't really remember aside, we saw the building where the body of Mao Zhe Dong lays. I'm surprised that we didn't get to see his body.
Well, one of the places that you have to go when you're at Beijing is the Forbidden Palace. It was where the royalty lived and people used it to shoot dramas about ancient times, lol. But for me, it's just old looking building that all looks the same. Sorry, I don't like History.
That place is huge. All I know that I had taken millions of steps.
We had the Peking Duck that they say you have to eat when you're at Beijing for lunch and visited a museum. The museum has filled with students on a field trip and it was like, a disaster.
One thing you have to know about China people that they are - rude. They push you away if you're walking too slow, the waitresses speak in a loud volume when you're having your meal and they are not afraid to talk at your back, literally.
At the evening we visited a street that has lots of shops. And they had the, something like a train. Took photos and shopped, and waited near the Christmas tree waiting for other people. Later, we visited a shopping mall that is freaking big. My family got separated so we didn't really shopped much.
Again, we waited for other people in the bus. Beside the bus there was stalls selling food including, starfish, bugs, and meat. Bugs and starfish, ain't what you see everyday. My brother bought some mutton and the sell vendor just cooked squid for me without me saying OK. ._.
Then we saw a gigantic TV on the ceiling at some place. It was beautiful, but after five seconds, nothing special.
WOWgiganticTVontheceilingohokayslet'sgobye.
18th of December
Finally, there's some thing to do on the third day. We went to the one of the World's Seven Wonders - the Great Wall of China. But before that, we went to see some jade shop.
I managed to climb more than anyone in our tour. I don't know how to say it. Let's just say I climbed a lot that many people can't climb.
After that, we visited a place that had some kind of underground thingy, LOL. It was kinda creepy. I didn't listen to any of the tour guide's words so I don't know. Photos weren't allowed there but even it was I won't post any of them here. :D
19th December 2010
Another great day because I got to see giant pandas! Apparently there are two types of pandas - normal pandas and Olympic panda. The only difference I could make between those two types are the Olympic ones are more active.
Panda knows how to pose!
There's a video I recorded of a very active panda, but it will take a long time uploading that. Or you can just watch Discovery Channel for a closer look of cleaner pandas. But anyways, this was the first time me seeing a panda and I am very grateful for this chance.
Then, the tour guide took us to have a ride on a trishaw. They bought us to see the small lanes of China which the bus can't go through. It was really windy and very cold there, wonder why someone wanted to get married during this weather.
Congratulations.
After that, we went to another location where we can see the whole Forbidden Palace. After climbing the Great Wall, climbing up the hill is another hard task. Well, for the older people in our tour. Teehee. But the sun was in front and we can't really take a good picture, damn.
Our bus then head for Cheng De, a place that is more colder than Beijing. Because of the jam, we arrived late to our destination. We had another tour guide in Cheng De to guide us. Unfortunately, she thinks that we had never stayed in a hotel before and even told us how to open the hotel door.
20th of December
I couldn't remember where we went on the 20th, I just know that I'm really cold. All of the tour members were glad when we took a break beside a boiling kettle, haha. Nether less, the place was beautiful.
Which is up and which is down, I'm sure you know.
We visited another place in Cheng De, but I don't remember what it was. But anyways, the highlight of this day was what I thought I would hate forever - skiing.
I had a bad impression with skiing because after what happened at Harbin. Skiing was like something impossible then as we couldn't even move an inch. The coaches there was mean and even called me and my cousin stupid.
Even with the bad memories, me and my brother still wanted to ski. Well, I wanted to exercise and get my body warm. We had two hours only but we made used of every single minute.
I can't believe how wrong I was when I actually had fun skiing over there. The coach was nice and very helpful and I finally learned how to ski. I didn't even fell down, not even once! I wished I had more time so I could ski at a higher slope.
Whee, too bad it didn't snowed.
Hmm, I thought I could had much for fun if the people around didn't smoke. My tour guide smokes, the bus driver smokes, a guy in our tour smokes, and my ski instructor smokes too. My mother said it's normal for China people but I don't really like people smoking. Mehh.
That night, we had steamboat for dinner and stayed at a resort. You could say that the ice among all of us broke that day, because one of the tour member suddenly talked to me while skiing. It was nice, because we were running around like little children at the hotel.
By the way, the resort has hotsprings. And I bought a pair of shoes that day! <3
We finally went to see the Bird Nest stadium that was used during the 2008 Olympic. It was great to be there, it'll be even better if it was two years earlier. We also saw the Water Cube.
The stadium looked small from the inside, though.
Then, we went to a place to get our feet soaked. People over the age of 20 were allowed to get a massage but there was one guy who was 18 got the massage, made us questioning his age, lol. After that, we went to see a theater play called 'The Legend of Kung Fu : Chun Yi'.
I was disappointed when my mom almost dozed off and my brother said it was boring. I thought it was a perfect performance. They had displayed amazing martial arts, a little musical, great drama, great acting and what do you know, modern contemporary.
The only person who understood how I felt was my father. It was really touching when Chun Yi lost his mother. To be honest, I already cried when Chun Yi had to leave his mother to learn Kung Fu. Hee.
22th of December
The tour guide told us to pray for snow because it was the second last day already. He said that because he bought us to place where the royalty would pray for snow. Other than that, I'm just following wherever the tour was going.
I think it was this day when we couldn't go to Tian Jin because of the smog. We then went to other places.
23th of December
It was the final day and Beijing and that means leaving the cold weather and less clothing when going back to Malaysia. I'm not going to lie, I was dying to get to the airport and be back at Malaysia.
But there was a few places before we head to the airport. You know what, I'm lazy to upload photos, so read my words! We went to some place which I can't remember(again), and my feet was freeeezing to death! I thought I could get frostbite and lose my toes.
Well, during the whole trip I didn't made any real friends. But that's good because I wouldn't miss them dreadfully when we went home. In fact, I was happy to finally not see two annoying kids at my tour. They were, I don't have words to describe them. But if you look from the outside, they're cute.
We finally left Beijing and head back to Malaysia. Home sweet home.
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2010 is going to end! It's a year that, sorry I can't remember anything.
I hope 2011 is going to be a pleasant year, unlike all the feng shui books said.
Tower of DRUAGA is awesome!
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