THE CHINA BEIJING EXPERIENCE (MAY 2014)
PreludeExchange rate is about S$1 to 5 yuan. Spent around S$800 per person for air flight (total: S$3492). Tour agency this time is Dynasty travel .
Day 1:
Singapore to Beijing
SQ810, took 5.5 hours from T3 to T3
Reached at around 12 MN
Tour guide - 李军
Driver- 許師傅
Your group- 12 people. Our family of 4, one mother/daughter, one family of six.
Tour bus rather small. Mini bus. Took to Hilton Double Tree hotel. Supposed to be 5 star hotel but I don't think so. No bathtub. Toilet small. Room number 462 (and 460).
Slept at 3am.
Day 2:
Beijing to Tianjin to Beijing
Morning call at 8am. Had breakfast -predominantly Chinese. Not much varieties.
Set off at 9am.
Reached Tianjin at 12pm.
Shopped in this dept store selling local products- 龙须糖，fried pancake, and 狗不里包子，which is actually pork bun.
Lunch at the restaurant there. Squeeze 12 people into 10 people table! Food sucky. Tomato soup not bad.
Travelled to 民族文化村 to take photos. Then to this Italian style place for more photo. Then walked a fairly long distance to the train station to take to Beijing south 武淸站. Fastest speed 300 km/h. Around 15 minutes.
Then walked to Florentia village- selling branded outlet stuff. Didn't buy anything.
Walked a long distance to take tour bus to dinner. Nice ambience but poor service. Similar food as lunch. Tomato soup.
Day 3
Beijing
Morning call 6am, set off at 7.30am.
One stop- 天安门广场Tian an men square, on the left is the Parliament House, on the right is 毛泽东 tomb. Took a group photo here.
Further down is 故宫紫禁城. A lot of people. Various 宫. Biggest stone lion. From the place where the emperor had the morning session, to where he slept, changed clothes etc. We are not allowed to enter the 宫, so can only take photo from outside. Very squeezy!
Lunch at 全聚德烤鴨. The duck is nice, especially the skin. The meat is tender, so it is wrapped together with the skin, unless Singapore one where we only eat the wrapped skin.
Next is 天坛公园. Where the emperor prays to heaven. The centre door is also close, as it is meant for the gods to use.
秀水街 is the next destination, something like heeren which can be bargained. We didn't buy anything there, except eating KFC, which is supposedly to be more tender. Spent 2 hours here.
Watched an acrobatic show after that at 东图影剧院.
Dinner at 功德林, which served vegetarian. Not bad, probably one of the best so far. Quite salty.
Day 4
Beijing
Set off 7.30am.
First visit a jade shop, bought a jade bracelet (4200 yuan), with free gift of jade pillow (300yuan), and bought some souvenir - glass ball with names written in it (60 yuan per ball x 4).
Next is 万里长城Great Wall of China.不到黄诚非好汉. Walked a segment (one stop) to the 8号烽火台. Took a lot of photo here. The steps were rather steep and it was indeed breathtaking.
Next is visit to 景泰蓝workshop. Supposedly famous in Beijing, where the president of China will give presents to other countries' visitor made of this material. Had our lunch there as well, the specialty dish being 雜醬面.
Next is 十三陵, which is the Ming tomb of 13 late emperors. We only had a glimpse (model) of the first tomb, which belongs to Yong Le emperor (zhu de). The building is made of 金丝楠木, which was rather durable and strong. This place also housed some jades for us to view, eg: pendants worn by empress and emperor, ink well, etc.
Next is 东华门market, 王副井 where we bought and ate some roadside food (prawn and intestines), and some local products from a shop.
Dinner was at a restaurant, specialty was crispy chicken.
Last stop was at 紅劇場 to watch gong fu show.
Day 5
Beijing - Chengde
First stop to 同仁堂, which is famous for "curing the incurable". This main branch is located near the 东华门market.
Next is 烟袋钭街, which we walked along and led us to 银锭桥 and 什刹海洒吧街.
Next is Trishaw ride to tour along 胡同, and it brought us to 四合院. The house is small and cosy and they shared a common toilet. The pavement is rather narrow but the riders are skillful enough to ride along. This particular family also allowed us to visit his rooms etc. Have to pay the rider 10 yuan for tips.
Next is lunch, followed by a visit to the summer palace (義和园), where we took a boat ride and walked around. This is about 慈禧 and how she ruled during that era. It also housed the eunuch's place 李连英.
Next is a visit to the silk factory, where we are "forced" to buy something from them. The tour guide gained quite a lot of commission from this.
Next is 3.5 hours drive to 承德. We were received by another tour guide from Chengde 赵小姐。And we had our dinner - 热河八旗风味.
Checked into our hotel 乾阳酒店, 4 stars. No wifi, room ok. Bed a bit hard. Room 7215 and 7216.
Day 6
Chengde - Beijing
Breakfast at 7am, set off at 7.45am.
First stop was Chenghuang temple (城隍庙). Shanghai also has one but the difference is the rooftop of this one is black whereas Shanghai one is yellow. This is quite small. We are not supposed to step on the 門檻 as it symbolizes the god's shoulder; we can't point at the statues but must use the whole palm. Cannot anyhow say things.
Along the journey, there are some mountains. One looks like a Buddha face, one looks like a wooden club (棒槌山). The next stop is 避暑山庄, which is big and used to be a place for kangxi, yongzheng and qianlong emperors to rest and relax. Cixi also spent some time here. Here got the longest 城墻, the shortest river 熱河.
So all in all, we spent about 4 hours touring Chengde, and 6 hours traveling to and fro. Not really worth the trip I think.
Reached Beijing at 3plus pm, and we spent 1.5 hours at a shopping mall (Yazhou). Bought a t-shirt and some souvenirs.
At 5.30pm, we went for foot massage beside the old national stadium, for around 50 minutes. As usual, the masseur kept talking crap during the massage. Tip is 20 yuan.
Dinner is 皇家宫廷宴. Place looks grand, but food is similar.
Checked in same hotel at 9plus, room 1135 and 1138.
Day 7
Beijing
Set off at 8am. First stop is visit to tea house. Famous for their 普洱茶, cost like 200 yuan for a block. Expensive one cost 500 yuan. Looks dark red and taste like red date. It's the only tea that can be kept in fridge and drink cold; it's also the only tea which is more expensive when more ancient (like wine). The salesgirl kept cutting price/offered to give free tea. She introduced 4 different types – xue tea (snow), tian qi something, one more then pu er. Of different prices in ascending order.
Next stop is 前門大街. A street for shopping. From it also leads to 大柵欄, a place for shopping as well (mainly clothes and local products).
Lunch is at 金钱豹buffet, international style.
After that, we go to watch 老北京動起來 at the expo to watch a moving painting.
Walking a distance later, we reach 鳥巢 and took photos.
Visited a supposedly Pearl factory, but ended up buying jade pendant. Somehow it appeared to be a conspiracy and plot. Got introduced by the son of the boss 岩洪. It all began when we didn’t show much interest, then this man came along and tried to explain pearl, but he began by saying that he doesn’t know much but hope that we will give him face to stay and listen for a while, appearing innocent. Then he said he knew jade more and started to talk about it, and brought us to this VIP room to look at jades. Then introduced us this jade pendant with the initial price of 8280 Yuan and he cut to 1200?!! Very disbelieving. A search in the internet revealed that this could well be a scam. http://heimu.wanjingchina.com/bencandy.php?fid=3&aid=30951#
Dinner is 餃子店.
Proceed to Beijing international airport terminal 3 (apparently the largest airport in the world), SQ803 at 0115h, reached at 0735h next day 18 May 2014.
After-thoughts
Fulfilled the goals of visiting Great Wall, Tian An Men, Zhi Jing Cheng.
Gained some knowledge: eg- how to know whether the jade is real or not (colour – the lighter /translucent, the better; sound – the light tinkle the better; use the tip of tougue to taste for 30 second, real one will be a bit bitter due to dissolution of minerals; put a drop of water on it, it will not spread). Myth wise, both fake and real jade, when tied by a strand of hair, the hair will not burn (due to lack of oxygen between the hair and “jade”)
How to differentiate real from fake pearls – real: they are of slightly different sizes; when rubbed against each other, there will be some powder formed but no scratches. Fake ones usually have same sizes, and no powder and may have scratches.
A lot of scam and 老千in China. Must be careful. Must take care of the gullible ones.
Know a fair bit of Chinese history.
