Took the midnight flight out of Auckland so I arrived in KL by 8 am the next morning. Wahoooo Asia, how I have missed thee. Mum and Dad took the first flight out from Sibu that morning too so I loitered around the shops until they arrived at midday. It was another We arrived there around 2 am so it was a very long day for us.
Poor Dad was up till 3 am the night before, putting the final touches on our trip! He planned the whole trip, booked all the accomodation and plane tickets. He booked us into a 2-room service apartment in Beijing but when we checked in, they were all out of 2-room apartments. So we were upgraded to a 3-room apartment. Yippee, freebie!
Lounge and dining room:
Kitchen - sorry about the fuzzy photos:
Storage room:
Dad's room:
Hallway with Mum's bedroom on the left, bathroom to the right and my room at the end of the hallway:
Alcove that leads to Mum's bathroom:
My bedroom:
Ignore my pajamas pants haha:
After a good night's sleep, we decided to walk two blocks to the nearby mall in search of breakfast. We ended up at Food Republic. It was nothing like the Food Republic in KL or Singapore. Sigh.
Looked as good as it tasted. Drats.
Mum was not impressed so we went to get her some McD fries. Check out her expression. I now know where Isaac got his evil look from.
I also treated myself to something - Pineapple Pie!!! Much more exotic than boring old apple pie, right?
Not bad.
Can you spot the walls of the Forbidden City?
Saw this kid with a funny but common haircut while walking to the entrance.
Ahhh how I have missed thee,
I now know where Asians got their squatting skills from... not to mention the practice from squatting when using their toilets.
Street vendor selling 冰糖葫芦 (bing tang hu lu) - candied haw fruits. Always a welcome and familiar sight because they are a constant prop in the tv series we watched while growing up.
It was a scorchingly hot and humid day. The place was packed as well because it was a Sunday so we made the wise decision to return the next day instead. We then took a private tour of the areas around the Palace. The areas surrounding the Palace were highly concentrated with goverment administrative/legislative offices as it is meant to be the 龍脈 (dragon's vein) of China - something to do with feng shui as decades of royalty lived there and dragon signifies royalty for Chinese.
I think this was the Chinese equivalent to No 10 Downing Street.
While these buildings all look grey and miserable, they all belong to Ministers or super-rich businessmen.
This was the police headquarters I think.
After that, we went and visited 紀曉嵐 (Ji Xiao Lan)'s residence.
Ji Xiao Lan was a scholar from the Qing Dynasty and made famous because of the collection of books he wrote. The tour guide said that it would take a person his whole life to read the complete works if he started from a very young age.
His study:
The tour ended with a drink of special tea and dates because Ji Xiao Lan lived a long and healthy life despite being a chronic smoker because his daily diet consisted of this tea and dates. Mum bought some dates too.
We continued on with a tour of the 胡同 (hutongs) on the backs of quaint rickshaws pulled by drivers.
Hutongs are a type of narrow streets alleys. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of 四合院 (shi her yuan), traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. Since the mid-20th century, the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings.
We caught a glimpse of a shi her yuan under construction.
There are no indoor plumbing in the shi her yuans so the residents have to use the numerous public toilets dotted around the hutongs. One of the business vendors obviously decided that the entrance to a toilet was an appropriate place to store excess beverages stock. Bottoms up!
We had to use the facilities at some stage during the tour. Dum dum dum *sinister music* ..
There are no doors separating each stall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*busy thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't raised in this kind of environment*
Our tour guide pointed out this building to us - it used to be a 妓院 aka gentleman's club.
The famous courtesan Li Shi Shi lived in this room. Apart from the obvious, courtesans also performed music and arts such as poetry to please dignitaries and intellectuals.
Because it was tiring business pulling people around, the rickshaw drivers need to be substituted with new ones so we took a break at this 客棧 (guest inn). Apparently some famous general took refuge here and some famous courtesan (yes, another one) saved him from the enemies.
Our new driver.
After that, we went back to the malls around our hotel. Some bronze statues around the pedestrian mall.
Lunch was at a korean restaurant. Pitiful sides. I miss Auckland's restaurants!
We then did our obligatory supermarket run. Check out the exxy fruits:
Cute chocolates:
Funny Oreo flavours:
Dinner was at a famous Peking duck place.
I spotted an Esquires while on the way to the restaurant. Wooooo felt homesick for NZ for a nanosecond.
The restaurant had received many accolades, including a note from Tony Blair saying it was excellent.
The decor was impressive.
The ducks were roasted in the middle platform for everyone to admire.
Even the cutlery rest was duck-shaped. Heheh.
Dish 1: Fancy smancy tofu. Cold and the tofu was smashed and mixed with fish I think. It was very pretty, tasted alright.
Dish 2: Spinach, thousand-year old egg soup. This was quite nice but I love spinach. Mum no likey.
Dish 3: Squirrel fish - I still can't see how it resembles a squirrel. Basically, a deep fried sweet and sour fish with pinenuts. Szechuan Remuera's version is nicer.
Instead of the usual pancakes, we were also given a hollowed out bun (kompia-like) each.
Conclusion: Skin was thick, duck was tasteless. China people do not know what good food is supposed to taste like. A lesson, we did not learn, over and over again. You will see.
Fruits presented with dry ice - to justify the exxxxxxxxxy prices.
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