Friday, December 09, 2011
Beijing. Day 1 (or Day 2 by itinerary reckoning)
Today we go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City!
We landed past midnight in Beijing and was greeted by the local guide. We were immediately hustled to our hotel and I reckon it was at least 0230 before we started getting ready to sleep. Morning call was supposed to be at 0700 but my father couldn't sleep and eventually my mum joined him and I couldn't sleep by 0600. Cranky start to the day.
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Today we go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City!
We landed past midnight in Beijing and was greeted by the local guide. We were immediately hustled to our hotel and I reckon it was at least 0230 before we started getting ready to sleep. Morning call was supposed to be at 0700 but my father couldn't sleep and eventually my mum joined him and I couldn't sleep by 0600. Cranky start to the day.
I was hoping to get a photo of the sculpture near the Mao Ze Dong mausoleum at Tiananmen, but unfortunately our group didn't go near there. That's the problem with 
group tours. Haiz.
group tours. Haiz.This is the sculpture that I wanted to get a pic of. This is not my pic. :(
So we went through the Tiananmen Square, and then into the Forbidden City. There is so much history to be learnt in Beijing. It's a great place to be, just maybe not in winter lol. Temperatures are between 5 and -5 degrees and it's quite dry as compared to Singapore where it is more humid.
One of the things that left a deep impression on me the first time I visited the Forbidden City 10 years ago where the large cauldrons that had multiple scratch marks on them. They used to be coated in gold but when the western powers came into China, they scratched away the gold just as they took away whatever treasures that could be removed.
A visit to the Forbidden City is one that reminds you of the grandeur of old and the weakness of a nation that led to trampling by others.
In the afternoon we went to Yiheyuan, the Summer Palace. This is where the Emperor would spend most of the hot days in Beijing. Nice place. We also saw the area where Guangxu lived, it's quite sad actually. Being an Emperor but under house arrest. His personal space was not larger than a 3 rm HDB since the side house in his Siheyuan were blocked off by Cixi.
There is a wall of bricks just behind the door.
Following that we had dinner. Our guide kept emphasising how we would be having a variety of food throughout our trip and that we are not used to the Northern tastebuds so they have specially instructed the restaurants to use less oil and less salt. Oh dearie me. I'm no typical modern Singaporean. I'm still of the era where we live by oil and die by salt.
At night we watched a performance called 金面皇朝 (Golden Mask Dynasty). Not bad, it was quite nice except that the theatre itself was cold and we had to keep our down jackets on... so I have no clue whatsoever how the performers were able to perform in that temperature! Plus they had a huge flooding scene where the entire stage flooded, so I tell you.. all those performers are considered heroes and heroines!
So we went through the Tiananmen Square, and then into the Forbidden City. There is so much history to be learnt in Beijing. It's a great place to be, just maybe not in winter lol. Temperatures are between 5 and -5 degrees and it's quite dry as compared to Singapore where it is more humid.
One of the things that left a deep impression on me the first time I visited the Forbidden City 10 years ago where the large cauldrons that had multiple scratch marks on them. They used to be coated in gold but when the western powers came into China, they scratched away the gold just as they took away whatever treasures that could be removed.
A visit to the Forbidden City is one that reminds you of the grandeur of old and the weakness of a nation that led to trampling by others.
In the afternoon we went to Yiheyuan, the Summer Palace. This is where the Emperor would spend most of the hot days in Beijing. Nice place. We also saw the area where Guangxu lived, it's quite sad actually. Being an Emperor but under house arrest. His personal space was not larger than a 3 rm HDB since the side house in his Siheyuan were blocked off by Cixi.
There is a wall of bricks just behind the door.
Following that we had dinner. Our guide kept emphasising how we would be having a variety of food throughout our trip and that we are not used to the Northern tastebuds so they have specially instructed the restaurants to use less oil and less salt. Oh dearie me. I'm no typical modern Singaporean. I'm still of the era where we live by oil and die by salt.
At night we watched a performance called 金面皇朝 (Golden Mask Dynasty). Not bad, it was quite nice except that the theatre itself was cold and we had to keep our down jackets on... so I have no clue whatsoever how the performers were able to perform in that temperature! Plus they had a huge flooding scene where the entire stage flooded, so I tell you.. all those performers are considered heroes and heroines!
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