Monday, December 18, 2006
This is some garden that apparantly used to be a dump site...But was later converted to a nice park that's open to the public for free.
Day 2
Palaces! Visited the Summer Palace and Imperial Palace. Pity part of the Imperial Palace was under renovation in preparation for visitors during the Beijing Olympics 2008, so all I could see for those parts were cardboard photos of what the buildings are supposed to look like. Bleah.
Day 3
The Ming Tombs, where the Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried upon their deaths.
And how can i go to Beijing without climbing up the Great Wall of China? :P Two kids in my tour group actually made it the furthest up the wall, one tower higher than me!! Haha makes me feel so lousy in comparison...:P
Day 4
Riding on a trishaw to look at what is called a Hu Tong, aka one of the living quarters of oridinary citizens in the past...
Tian An Men and Ren Ming Da Hui Tang. Haha sorry don't know how to translate...but these are pretty much iconic buildings in Beijing, so doubt they'll need much explanation. :)
Day 5
The temple that the emperors went to pray and send offerings to the gods in the past. The pic in the middle is the spot where the emperors used to kneel when they prayed...:P
Later on in the day, we went off to Tianjin for a day tour to buy their famous clay sculptures, to taste and purchase some of their unique tidbits, and to eat the gou bu li bao zi (or dog don't care buns, if you go by a literal translation...:P). My family bought SO MUCH food that we ended up having to buy an extra luggage in Beijing a couple of days later! As my dad said, it's such a waste that we had to spend 140RMB on a luggage to store what cost us 80RMB to buy...:P
Day 6-7
Went to Chengde, which is a small town surrounded by mountains a 4hour ride away from Beijing. The temp there was -5 degrees in the day! Brrrr...Also experienced what was a rather primitive toilet system on the way there, as the group stopped over in a small village for a short toilet break in between. Had all the girls going up in giggles. What was funnier was cos the door was only covered halfway, and then when you bend down, ppl outside can't really see if there's anyone inside...So there was this person who actually stuck her head underneath to check if there was anyone in there! Needless to explain what she saw. :P
Anyway, we toured the 'resort' where the Qing dynasty emperors went in the summer to get away from the heat, which is incidentally also where Huan Zhu Ge Ge was filmed. Then, also visited a temple based on the design of Mongolian temples, except that whilst you have to actually climb up a MOUNTAIN to visit those temples, this one is just on a HILL, which makes it easier to climb up. :P
Day 8- Shopping in Beijing!
Haha, so i was pretty much too busy looking around and bargaining to bother taking any pics...:P
One of the hotels I stayed at!
This hotel was built to imitate the Imperial Palace, and is DARN majestic! Pity my tour group only stayed there for a night, probably cos the hotel prices are too exorbitant. :P They even have a parade of the 'emperor' going out on the streets every morning, which is what we watched before setting off to our next destination...:P
Random pics of scenery that i took along the way...
My Tour Group!
We had 42 ppl in all, which is a darn BIG group...Filled up the entire tour bus...:P
