(no subject)
Took a short break.. in beijing for the past weekend till later.
the trip was supposedly on thurs then till today, but something cropped up before. so 4 become 3, and thurs became fri.
took a flight from changzhou to beijing.. small airport with 2 couters and 1 exit.. seriously.. smaller than a bus terminal. stayed at trader's hotel the night before.
reached beijing at about 12noon.. took a short rest before going to the tian'an men square. quite a nice place at night.. and we were just in time for the flag lowering ceremony. had a good dinner at 后海. basically a chill out place.. the place is filled with singers and they are quite good.. temp starts to dip after 5.. so from 13deg it goes all the way to 4deg at night. the hotel is not bad.. for about rmb800, which is about SGD160 for 3 nights. so i had my own room for 3 days, 1 queen bed with shower. free internet access.. and the thing is.. it's clean.
2nd day was to the forbidden city. a magnificent place to go to... nice architecture. get to see the power of an emperor and also how they lived. the handicrafts of china is really something everyone should see to believe.. the utter intricate details they did on jadite and gold. the whole day was practically in the forbidden city. got back to hotel and just rested while the other 2 US friends went for dinner with another colleague from US.
3rd day, was great wall and 十三陵. the latter is the tomb for emperors in the ming dynasty. we just went to the biggest tomb, which is the first emperor as usual, the buildings are very grand and magnificent. the precision of building a straight axis for 500 years ago wasnt that simple. and it's for all the buildings. next was the great wall of china. actually great wall of china wasn't anything big or nice.. it's just amazing how the built it.. we went up the highest pt, 888m above sea level. and the view as very good.. coz we can see how the wall extends out to the smaller hills beside and just keeps people wondering how they even did it.
4th day, i'm alone.. coz the US friends went back to respective cities. went for breakfast early in the morning and then went back to sleep before waking up at 11am and started packing my stuffs.. after that, went to the temple of heaven. another majestic place. 500 years old and still standing strong. the whole place is freaking big, with 60k of trees, and 35k of them are over 100 years old.. many of those trees are above 300 years old. took me 2 hours to just complete the area. it was nice though.. walking alone.. enjoying the cold breeze. it was nice also hearing many singaporeans speaking around the temple of heaven. makes me feel at home again..
after temple of heaven, went to XiDan area for starbucks and also my lunch. quite a nice place to slack... it's like 8 buidlings of shopping, 4 on each side, but there are overhead bridges connecting the 8 buildings around.. after which, walked another 2 train stations before coming back to the hotel.
food and transportation is very cheap.. one can get a decent meal for RMB10 compared to suzhou and shanghai RMB20. bus is 50cents or RMB1, for sz and sh, it's 2, 3, 4 or 5 and train, is RMB2 for any number of stops.. something for sg to learn.
another 2 more hours i'm going back to suzhou. this will be a 9 hours plus train ride. first time taking a train with bed in my life. this is a very good experience for me..
the trip was supposedly on thurs then till today, but something cropped up before. so 4 become 3, and thurs became fri.
took a flight from changzhou to beijing.. small airport with 2 couters and 1 exit.. seriously.. smaller than a bus terminal. stayed at trader's hotel the night before.
reached beijing at about 12noon.. took a short rest before going to the tian'an men square. quite a nice place at night.. and we were just in time for the flag lowering ceremony. had a good dinner at 后海. basically a chill out place.. the place is filled with singers and they are quite good.. temp starts to dip after 5.. so from 13deg it goes all the way to 4deg at night. the hotel is not bad.. for about rmb800, which is about SGD160 for 3 nights. so i had my own room for 3 days, 1 queen bed with shower. free internet access.. and the thing is.. it's clean.
2nd day was to the forbidden city. a magnificent place to go to... nice architecture. get to see the power of an emperor and also how they lived. the handicrafts of china is really something everyone should see to believe.. the utter intricate details they did on jadite and gold. the whole day was practically in the forbidden city. got back to hotel and just rested while the other 2 US friends went for dinner with another colleague from US.
3rd day, was great wall and 十三陵. the latter is the tomb for emperors in the ming dynasty. we just went to the biggest tomb, which is the first emperor as usual, the buildings are very grand and magnificent. the precision of building a straight axis for 500 years ago wasnt that simple. and it's for all the buildings. next was the great wall of china. actually great wall of china wasn't anything big or nice.. it's just amazing how the built it.. we went up the highest pt, 888m above sea level. and the view as very good.. coz we can see how the wall extends out to the smaller hills beside and just keeps people wondering how they even did it.
4th day, i'm alone.. coz the US friends went back to respective cities. went for breakfast early in the morning and then went back to sleep before waking up at 11am and started packing my stuffs.. after that, went to the temple of heaven. another majestic place. 500 years old and still standing strong. the whole place is freaking big, with 60k of trees, and 35k of them are over 100 years old.. many of those trees are above 300 years old. took me 2 hours to just complete the area. it was nice though.. walking alone.. enjoying the cold breeze. it was nice also hearing many singaporeans speaking around the temple of heaven. makes me feel at home again..
after temple of heaven, went to XiDan area for starbucks and also my lunch. quite a nice place to slack... it's like 8 buidlings of shopping, 4 on each side, but there are overhead bridges connecting the 8 buildings around.. after which, walked another 2 train stations before coming back to the hotel.
food and transportation is very cheap.. one can get a decent meal for RMB10 compared to suzhou and shanghai RMB20. bus is 50cents or RMB1, for sz and sh, it's 2, 3, 4 or 5 and train, is RMB2 for any number of stops.. something for sg to learn.
another 2 more hours i'm going back to suzhou. this will be a 9 hours plus train ride. first time taking a train with bed in my life. this is a very good experience for me..