Beijing is a place that you can DIY. There are few pointers tho. Make sure the hotel that you are staying is near to a subway station. Most of the tourist attraction is accessible by Beijing Subway and I mean they are really convenient cos the train stop right at those places.

We stayed at The Westin Chaoyang. The Liangmahe station is right outside our Hotel. And I mean they are really right outside. So convenient can die! Each trip cost RMB2 (RM1) no matter where you go. This is the most affordable public transport ever. Trains arrive every 3 minutes interval. However, be prepared with the horrendous passengers even during mid day working hours. Sometimes I wonder if they don’t have to work.

Our first stop is to visit the Forbidden City. We get down from Tian’anmen. We didn’t quite expect to see the crowd like this 🙁 . Inside the Forbidden City is worst!

My 4 year old after seeing Chairman Mao’s picture and she said, “Mummy! I know this place.”

“How did you know?”

“Yes, this one is pai-pai (prayer) wan.”

LOL! She could either mean that the picture is someone who has deceased or the place is a temple. But dem crappy la. I don’t understand why or what purpose does it serve to have the picture doing there.

It is impossible to stop and take a good photo cos these people kept on walking and they will just bump you from the back. Very irritating thing would be people walking past through your camera cos they just couldn’t care less. These are the two that that I have to bear throughout my stay in Beijing. The common sight would be people spitting and also blowing their nose on the floor. *sigh…. Sometimes I saw young boy doing that too. *double sigh….

We was at Forbidden City for less than an hour before turning back.

This is the entrance and exit to Forbidden City. Opposite is Tian’anmen Square. We decided to give it a miss cos it is just a square with lots and lots of people (don’t know what they do/see there).

We was told that during summer, local will flock to the square to fly some kite there. Should be a very beautiful sight. Note the long queue that is forming out there making a bee line to the entrance?

You know what, most local kids have rosy cheek but I doubt that is frost bite. Still, they look super cute! We took the train back to the hotel and decided to look for food. We just walk blindly and came to this frozen river.

Finally we found a row of eateries and decided to try the most uncommon food. Something that we don’t get to eat back home.

These are handmade oven bake bread equivalent to our Foochow kompiang minus the crunchy texture. Make a slit on the centre and you can choose between pork or duck breast meat. The pork belly was cook in lots of herbs that tasted like bak kut teh, diced together with fresh green chilies. I prefer the duck breast meat version. The meat was so tender and they basically melt in your mouth! They was so good, we had 4 pcs of the bread. Very satisfying lunch!

Dinner was at some unknown place organized by Daddy’s company.

Cold dish – Fresh turnip with blueberry jam

Purely vegetarian dish. They are fried tofu and the top is seaweed that makes them looks like fish fingers. Gravy was pumpkin cream. Very ho chiak lor!

I’m a Flexitarian so I kinda skip this dish. Beef is not my liking.

The restaurant provide some shows too like Chinese acrobats, magic show, etc… the one that caught my attention was Changing Mask. This is my first time watching it. I have heard a lot about Changing Mask and finally had the chance to see one.

Very entertaining as that man is able to change mask in a quick 2 seconds. Must be some trick la.

After dinner, we went to the Bird’s Nest.

The weather at night was about -2C and the strong wind does not spare us any mercy. I was well clothe but the other guys was yelling at me asking me to be quick. Pe.lea.se.la!

The Water Cube at night.

I go about snapping and chatting and when I turn around, the Water Cube is gone! Awesome isn’t it? They switched off the lights and now I have both pictures taken with and without lights.

Shot this pix while walking back to the car park. The reflection on the lamp post looks like fireworks in the river.

That wrapped up for Day 1.  Time to sit back and relax while enjoying my favourite Korean drama on the 48″ flatscreen and what’s more?  It was mounted on plasma mount!   Cool yea? Watch out this space for Day 2.

p/s:  There are more photos in my Facebook or even more more photos in my laptop.  Who’s interested to see la?