Beijing Day 7 - Summer Palace, Olympic Park, Wudakou shopping mall
to the *Summer Palace* today ! said to be the best preserved royal garden in China.
there's 2 kind of ticket, one general admission and one with additional 5 scenic spots to visit
we picked the additional one, a total of RM20 for a visit. *Ticket price here*
upon entry, we appeared on top of a bridge
the view from on top of the bridge...
entering scenic spot 1...
The Garden of Harmonious Pleasures
the entrance of the palace where we entered is on the top right of this photo
there's a stairway on the right where u cant see in this image
that's where we entered The Garden of Harmonious Pleasures
this place is so beautiful
never imagined this in the middle of a city
there's so many 'rent a costume' around
and it never occur to me to get a photo until Ed asked us the night before
'have you ? ' and i said no we havent
and he said 'but it's so cheap, you should !'
and then we passed by a booth (you see the red tent on the left of the above image)
priced at only RM5 per person for unlimited photo with their costume..
so i thought.. why not ? it would be a memorable photo haha..
so we dressed up and....
tada....... hehehehe...........
king SJ.. sitting on his throne.... with a funny lamp
i did all the camera settings and then passed it to the lady who would just snap snap snap
this lady wasnt so professional,
there was one earlier on the bridge who would teach the customers how to pose
should have watched more olden style chinese shows
took at different scenes to get our moneys worth
well even if it was just one shot, it was already worth it i guess
but then i regretted not taking way more shots
funny shots at least or something haha
back to our tour
The Suzhou Streets
you can pay for the boat ride as well
drinking our milk tea hehe
this shop sells olden style inner wears hehe
one foreigner with his huge camera paid them for a boat ride
the lake seems endless in the other direction
exploring the different little buildings..
we came across a very interesting shop...
oooo, we saw these on joanne's table
they're cravings on ox bones, with a magnifing glass on top for you to have a better view
they have so many diff types,
the minibooks with bible scriptures are a little more expensive because they are bigger too
the cheapest are priced at RMB 60 (RM30), those are the plain zodiacs and are smaller in size
the 2nd more expensive ones are ones with patterns.. RMB80 (RM40)
the one SJ bought.. he thought for a moment and he decided he wanted one of these
i was tempted too but .. i thought maybe i could get this else where for a cheaper price..
if i see it again, else it's alright not to own one
SJ said i could just carve my name on his ox bone so we dont have to get 2 instead
so we picked one...
we picked the great wall of china since we visited there on this particular trip and had a great time there
SJ's name is written on top of my name
and after a while, SJ decided that he wanna buy these pretty gifts for his family
he picked the ones with their zodiac and the uncle carves it
the more expensive one was the one carved on the mini book, RMB100 (RM50)
SJ got ours with the egg, an additional RMB20
they're really crafty, the uncle said he'd give us free eggs for the additional eggs SJ bought..
4 pieces... but when we paid, he said he only give 2 free eggs >:(
we spent about 2 hours and said we have to move on
we didnt even have a map, and we were clueless... not too far after that
we found some people selling the map
quite exp, i think RM10.. but we kinda need it =S
cause we dont know where to go and this place is huge !
goodness............ this place so crazily big !!!!!!!!
we've only completed 5% !
the man guided and pointed us to the spots we paid for
cause that's where we should be visiting since we had already paid
one of them was way up the hill !!
temple along the hill
and we've reached the peak !
look how high we are !
and it's an amazing view..
in the middle of beijing city...
Longevity Hill
view from another angle
studying the map
so large ! no way we can finish this
The Pagoda of Buddhist Incense
looking at the view before we climb all the way down there
yes we have to .....
climb climb climb
side view image .. we're at the top peak of the temple now
woooo dont fall
wood carvings
love it's colour and carvings...
the details are amazing..
every inch of it
poor pheonix
RAAAa... poor dragon
i think people were touching them a little too much
until the gold fades...
seee the claw and gold teeth ? there're many people who MUST rub them when they pass by
Army tree.. it's real
SJ trying to show muscles but fail
more lucky gold knobs haha
(but how come our share never go up?!?!)
he says this is toby.. and pats it haha...
we've reach the bottom where Kunming Lake is
long corridoor beside the Kunming Lake
took a long walk, good thing the weather was good and windy
love the green lily pads
SJ's shirt goes well in this photo haha
snacks ?
entered another gallery
their royal clothings
and then The Grand Stage,
theater area, entertaiment for the royals
music...
dance and performances... we were in time to catch the show
the empty stage
we continued to explore
i forgot what this is but it's half lion, half .. hmm actually i cant remember
isnt this place huge and wonderful with so many different scnery ?
finally, a person who knew how to take a proper photo
feet hehe....
the final stop was Wenchang Gallery
well not final like we finished the whole place, but final for us
plastic sheets to stop the aircond from escaping
no phtos allowed in the gallery except this stolen shot =S
that was the last, we didnt bother to cover the other parts.. it was already almost evening
outside the summer palace, we exit on a different place
this is starbucks...
and then i spotted mcds ! yayyy
cause i really wanted to try their spicy wings and i havent gotten the chance to
SJ making a bloated face haha...
nice drawings on the wall at the subway
goodness their subway transfer..
you'd have to walk quite a distance at time
there is one station in particular we all hate
20 minutes walk to change a train @#$@#%#$^#
we're visiting the olympic park next..
see the last lamp post you can spot ? we walked much furthur than that
(cause the damn subway is all the other way on that side and we didnt know it was THAT far)
we kept walking and walking and walking like there's no ending
weird grass sign that says
"the grass is smiling at you, lease detour"
beijing especially in the city parts are VERY dusty
very very very, if it's windy, you find lots of dust in your eyes
at times, it's so dusty you can even look right at the sun, i'm serious
olympics = muscle man
' muscle muscle please appear '
tada.... haha should show Ed this photo
see how dusty this is
(i had to edit the photo cause it was so bad)
and out of no where there's this mickey mouse that was trying to act cute
kept sticking his finger in his mouth and never remove it
haha... silly things i make SJ do
luckly he's sporting =P
mickey sees what we're doing ahhaha
spot the long kite behind us ?
see that building far behind ? we're going there too..
it's IBM building and SJ's got some stuff he has to pass to some colleague of his upon request
at the olympic shop
little coloured balls i have no idea what they're for
cute shirt
making our way to IBM office, it's furthur than it appears
punch it
flick it
anyway we walked torwards the building, only to discovered that in tehe end..
there was a fence that separated the olympic park and the other buildings...
and you had to walk to the end of the lamppost shown earlier in the photo to get out
so he called for his friend to walk over to the fence haha...
we wanted to climb over but there was a police guarding there =S
while waited, i admired the flowers
beautiful flowers...
a whole bunch of them...
told SJ to go inside to take a photo
and then he pointed out to me some large earth worms..
changed my mind (i wanted to go inside too)
different kind of flowers on another side
oh and guess what i saw ?
dandilions !!! but only like 10 of these...
i wonder....
oooooooo... but photo failed, try again
1,2,3
haha.. and i did this to all 10 flowers
Sj said they're going to curse me
and after that, i kept tripping.. well almost fell..
SJ said it was the flower curse cause i never trip before this
hehe.... see er've walked out of the olympic park and still no subway to be seen !!!
we're on the high way now !!!
the weird thing is that..
this subway was in the middle of the high way !
i kept asking SJ to ask for directions, but they really did point this way
we went back to wudakou...
and walked around hua lian shopping mall
even though we stayed near by, we never actually walked inside of this shopping mall yet
(besides having si chuan lunch)
this shop in particular is a hobby shop,
they sold so many things i have never seen before
among the items, one of it was a glass carving machine SJ wanted to get
you could carve your name on the glass or wood or anywhere..
it'd like like you sandblast the glass...
they didnt have example of woods being carved.. it was more for glass
other funny bunnies
art painted banner bby kids
we went to the arcade
and yay.. they have gomax here !
there's so many drinks i wanted to try
i always like yogurt drinks... but there's a whole lot of other choices that tempts me too
lucky there' s SJ to read me the menu
Sj plays some game while we wait for our drink
i ordered the mocha tiramisu
and truth to be told...
their coffee / milk tea here arent very strong...
they're somewhat blend and after this, i only order non milk drinks
(except those in supermarket)
we went back and had instant noodles with vegetables i bought the other day at the market
and fruits... lots of fruits !
*More photos here*