One Night in Beijing...

I reached Beijing at around 9plus in the morning and took a taxi to the hotel. Since I will be here for only a night, I decided to stay in a room that is rather small and cost like less than S$30. After all, I only need a bed to sleep in for the night. :P

The first impression that Beijing gave me was that it is not as congested when compared to Shanghai. The roads are wider, the air is definitely very bad because it is hazy no matter where I look. Traffic in Beijing don't seem quite as bad as it is in Shanghai but from what I heard, they are still having the alternate days driving ruling in order to reduce pollution.

I made a trip up to 八达岭 which is part of the Great Wall of China. It was really very wow! It is really amazing how did they build this up so many many years ago. As I was too lazy to climb up there from the bottom, I took the cable car up to the top and went downwards! Haha...　I know that's cheating. :P I spent 3+ hours up there before I decided to leave the place.

I went to this wholesale center called 秀水市场　after that and I realised that Beijinese can speak English very well! You can hear them speaking fluently English to those Ang Mo tourists there. This is something that I did not notice in Shanghai when I was at their wholesale center. I saw a fan there that I thought is quite funny... Oh the proud Chinese... Lol...

I actually wanted to try the Peking Duck from this restaurant called 全聚德 which was recommended to me by a taxi driver. I went all the way to 前门 for it but left without eating... Partly because there are lots of people there and another part is because the minimum order for the Peking Duck is half a duck! There's no way I can finish half a duck by myself so bo bian I left Beijing without eating my Peking Duck! :( But I did buy some Peking Duck to bring back to Singapore. Must 安慰 myself a bit mah. :P

As I was still pretty early, I took Beijing's MRT to 王府井 which is sort of equivalent to Singapore's Orchard Road. Wah liao... The whole street is full of Li Ning's boutique lor. I find that his shop is a copy of both Nike and Adidas. The logo is a modified version of Nike's and the slogan, Adidas!

I explored the nearby streets and came across this street called 东华门美食坊. I was hoping that I can find something interesting for dinner since I did not get to eat my Peking Duck. One thing I realised after being to Shanghai and Beijing is that people in China loves to eat things on sticks. You can find all sorts of perculiar things that they put on sticks and eat either fried or just cooked. Fruits which are put on sticks and eaten just that way or made into 冰糖葫芦, or weird stuff such as silk worms, seahorses, starfish and etc.

I lost my appetite when I saw these... Yucks!

I went back to the hotel without my dinner. Lost all my appetite. I have no idea how did some people eat these. Yucks!