Summer 2008 - Part 2: Beijing
July 24th, 2008 -- Posted in travel | 2 Comments »After the birthday bash for dad in Guangzhou, we flew off the next day to our next destination of the summer trip. Beijing is a much bigger and more interesting city, so I will have to break it into separate posts in part 2 and 3.
WARNING: This is going to be a LONG post and a modem burner.
DAY FOUR 北京
We arrived Beijing close to evening. Just nice to catch the low summer sun around the city landscape. It was much warmer here in Beijing.
Flags and signs for the Olympics are everywhere. Too bad we won’t be staying to watch any of the events. It’s nice to witness how a city prepares for the big event though.
While Guangzhou is more commonly favored as the Gourmet Town, Beijing is called the 中华文化之城 Cultural City of China. Other than the historical side of the city, it is slowly sprouting the modern side with new architectural marvels.
One of these much acclaimed architectural marvels is the new Linked Hybrid building, which was still in construction. Too bad it’s too early to see the finished work just yet. Perhaps the next time.
We couldn’t get any good room on time so we stayed at a local budget hotel called 如家 Home Inn. Not too bad for RMB 300/night. Clean and no-frill. (When I mean ‘no-frill’, I really mean ‘no service’... the service level somewhere in the bottomless pit.) No breakfast included but it doesn’t really matter. The in-house breakfast sucks. Their coffee tasted like dishwater. Other than that, I like it for the location. Home Inn chain has like 30 over hotels around Beijing city area. Really convenient.
We caught more landscape in the evening sun while heading out for dinner. Reminds me of summer evenings back in Boston but this is definitely different. Dinner was at this Sichuan restaurant close by called 沸腾鱼乡 Fei Teng Yu Xiang. The specialty dish is the sliced fish in 麻辣 mala (numbing spicy) oil. If you like spicy, you’d have to try one of these and you’d know a new meaning of ‘spicy’.
A great meal is never complete without a good smoke… mmmmm.
After dinner, we took off to 王府井 Wangfu Jing (supposedly named after a famous water well belonging to a Wang family). It’s a popular shopping street, for both locals and tourists. It’s a HUGE and WIDE street with a good mix of old and modern architecture. You will find modern retail stores like the Nike flagship store here, along with large chinese style emporiums and narrow eatery streets.
Then we called it a night. Phew… that was a lot of walking in the big streets of Beijing, but nothing compares with what we experienced the next day.
One night in Beijing… 我留下许多情
DAY FIVE 北京
The city sure looked different in day light. We passed Wangfu Jing again the next morning en route Tian’anmen before the weather turned greyish, but it didn’t stop us.
Check out the weird morning runner in his boxers. Beijing in a potential breeding ground for oddities.
While waiting for the rain to soften, we had a good dose of caffeine at Starbucks in 东方新天地 The Malls at Oriental Plaza. It’s no wonder why people need so much caffeine here.
The rain didn’t quite stop, but as mentioned it didn’t stop us. We braved through the drizzle walking from Wangfu Jing to 天安门 Tian’anmen. I apologize, but I’ve to overuse the same term… it’s HUGE!
The sheer size of the 天安门广场 Tian’anmen Square makes me wonder how the country can afford such space when the city gets so congested.
Within a short walking distance (an understatement), we came to yet another architectural marvel… the 国家大剧院 National Centre for the Performing Arts, also known as Beijing Opera House or simply The Egg. While we couldn’t see the building at night, which looks much MUCH better, the size and shape of the structure is enough to blow us away. These photos aren’t doing justice to the actual thing.
A night scene pic taken off the internet.
By the time we got here, we were hungry. We must have burned out all the calorie intake from all the walking. Time for lunch!
Lunch was at 全聚德 Quan Ju De.
不到长城非好汉，不吃烤鸭真遗憾
A trip to Beijing is never complete without seeing the Great Wall or a meal of Peking Duck.
Our #2 mission (eating Peking Duck) is accomplished! Mission #1 accomplished was timsum in Guangzhou.
After this satisfying meal, we embarked upon the most important part of our Beijing journey… inside the 故宫 Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City is basically a huge palace compound surrounded by a rectangular shaped high walls, separating the space and life of the palace from the outside world. Hence the name. Our visit to the Forbidden City followed the same alphabetical order from A to H as shown in the map. The Meridian Gate (A) is the outer gate while the inner gate is called the Gate of Supreme (B). The center of the Forbidden City holds the three main halls of the outer palace… the Hall of Supreme Harmony
The Hall of Heavenly Peace (F) and the Hall of the Terrestrial Peace (G), also known as the halls of the inner palace, are the living quarters of the emporers. The surrounding compounds around this area are the living quarters of his family and concubines.
Finally, before approaching the north end gate is the emporer’s own backyard… the Imperial Garden (H).
Two hours and many blisters later, we exited the palace compound at the north gate. It was hard to get a cab around the busy road outside the north gate, so we took a bus to the nearest place we knew… back to Wangfu Jing.
We didn’t quite dare to take one of these motor-tricycles taxis. Another street sleeper. Short siesta seems like a common sight around here.
Rain… and more rain. When we reached Wangfu Jing, we didn’t hesitate crashing into Häagen-Dazs® for some ice-cream. Yummmm…
All the walking in the heat and rain finally killed my Nike Wildwood sneakers I was wearing. The foam at the sole gave way and disintegrated… Won’t last for another day. So I bought a new pair of Premium Dunk Mid 
And finally dinner… supposedly a light one after all the other meals of rich food. It’s a Mongolian style mutton house. So much for a ‘light’ meal.
Tomorrow we storm the Olympic Stadiums!
