Travel: China - Beijing

After a long break I finally got back to continue my entry on my amazing Mongolia-China trip in June. You can read my previous entries here: 1, 2 and 3. Basically, after we flew back from Dalanzadgad to Ulannbaatar, we spent 1 day roaming the streets of the capital before taking the legendary Siberian Express to Beijing. It took us around 2 days and had 2 - 3 stops in between excluding the customs at Er Lian. 

Things to note: Do bring your own food like cup noodles/buy at the first 2 stops because they have very limited selections on board. But they do provide hot water so that's great! Make sure you know roughly when the train is stopping because you can't go to the toilet 0.5h before and after the train stops and move off.

They stopped at the customs for like hours (I don't even know how long) and we were not allowed to leave the train, I mean obviously right. So you will really have to tahan if you're that urgent.

Ray and I were on the top deck and Jy on the bottom one with a middle-age lady from Holland. She looks kind of hippie. Nice auntie though, she's got the Mom kind of feel (she was knitting) lol. 

The view was obviously breath-taking. Not as good as those that we saw while we were at Gobi but different. Full of trees and mountains, occasionally some horses and cows will be sighted. 

Once we reached Beijing...ok let's change to chinese 哈哈

一到北京我才真正体会到什么是‘人山人海’。都还没踏出火车站，我们已经被四面八方涌上来的人群挤得喘不过气来。幸好我紧紧拉着R的手，更庆幸的是JY当时的棉花棒头让我们容易在人海中找到她。

当我们终于挤出火车站时才发现要搭计程车是不容易的。所以，我们索性搭地铁反正我们的宿舍离天安门站不远。再说，北京的地铁费非常廉价，到处都可以搭，挺方便的。

你猜猜看我们先吃的第一餐是什么？

北京烤鸭

我们没去那些有名的餐馆，只是随便进了一间靠近我们宿舍的餐馆。

可能太油了，我们三个人没有吃完。在去天安门的路上他们两个发现一间臭头腐店就决定买一包来试试。你看到我站得远远的就猜到我不喜欢臭豆腐的味道了。新加坡也有卖，但是我就是不喜欢。真的很臭。我还记得年头和R去台北的时候被他逼着吃了一口臭豆腐，那一小块豆腐放进我嘴里之后真的让我非常作呕。我灌了一瓶500ml的水还是无法把那残留在我嘴里的味道除去。我想这和老外不喜欢榴梿的味道是一样的道理吧。

旅客3重拍4重拍5重拍。哈哈哈！

我们三个无知的旅客想要轻松地穿着夹脚拖走遍北京结果被路上的尘埃‘袭击’了我们的双脚。以下画面很噁心，不宜有洁癖的人观赏。

第二天早上我两和JY分头出去因为我们还会留在中国多几天所以不急。

睡到爽了以后我们才去了一趟故宫。不过，排队进去就已经排了1.5小时而且天气真的很热。

Alright, I give up. It has been a long time since I wrote in chinese and it's taking a hell lot of time to type the things out. 

This was the tank that they used to store water in case a fire broke out. Having seen everything on television really makes this trip so much more memorable and fun. I was happy I took CH1101E when I was in NUS and also because of my own interests in the Qing Dynasty, I read up quite a bit about them. It all started from 还珠格格which used to be my favourite show. Once in a while I will still go back to watching it. It's just so interesting and funny. Then came 金枝慾孽, 步步惊心，甄嬛传,宫锁心玉and the latest one was 兰陵王 (this is not from the same time but whatever). All these shows allowed me to understand the culture a little bit more. Although they might not be the best representation of what had happened in the past, they were interesting enough to make me want to know more.

I was really amazed by how people in the past were able to craft and build such intricate designs on the ceilings. The palace was actually built during the Ming Dynasty but when the Manchus took over, they did not change the capital but stayed on in Beijing. I guess they wanted to be closer to the Han.

After walking for about 2-3 hours under the scorching sun, we gave up. After a while, everything just looks the same already. We headed out for some 炸酱面 which was really good. Looking at the pictures make me want to eat it. Awww....