It was winter. But IT DIDN'T SNOW. :( At least not in my time there. I have never seen snow in my life, so I was pretty disappointed.

Bei Jing was quite a modern city. My mom and I signed up for a tour group, which we later found out consists of the tour guide, the driver, me, my mom and maybe my imaginary friends. Everything was in Chinese. I COULD understand, but I didn't wanna speak the language. I remember how Michelle used to laugh at my weird accent of speaking Chinese during tuition, so I decided I would use it minimally. I bet the tour guide thought I was austistic, cause I only spoke about maybe 15 sentences to her throughout the 3 days she spent with us.

The first thing that I learnt about Bei Jing is that apart from the airport, ALL the toilets were squatting toilets. And that some of the people there DO NOT close their doors when they pee. Or shit. I remember walking into this mall's toilet. And it was very dimly lit. There was only 2 lights in a toilet with more than 10 cubicles. So only 3-4 cubicles actually had light shining on them. I decided to choose those that were bright enough, and I walked to one where the door was open. I was about to step inside, when I saw this middle-aged woman squatting there! And I think she was shitting, because after I finished peeing in another toilet, she was still there. Yeah, I was SO disturbed.

The second thing that struck me was that Bei Jing-ers ate insects. I was walking on Wang Fu Jing street and I saw a couple of vendors selling scorpions, beetles, worms and even STARFISH! All that went through my mind was "!!!!!!!".


Anyway, here's what I did in BeiJing!

On the first day, we went to visit the Forbidden City, Tian An Men Square, several parks and other historical sites. We also rode the trishaw and went to watch 杂技, a chinese circus performance. PHOTOS!

^My mom and I at the FORBIDDEN CITY

^Lunch. These were all the food we COULDN'T finish.

^I think this is the Bei Hai park. Either that or Jing Shan park.

^STARBUCKS!!!

^This guy blows candy into shapes of animals. He calls himself an ARTIST. :)

^ My mom and I took a ride in the trishaw!

^The circus performance. There was a guy in that big bowl which the girl was twirling with her legs o.O
The whole performance was WICKED. The girls there bend as if they had no spines.

On the second day, we went to Wang Fu Jing street! Ate the Peking Duck for lunch. Also, we visited the Temple of Heaven, another park, and walked abit at Hong Qiao mall. At night, we watched The Legend of Chun Yi, a Martial Arts performance.

^Wang Fu Jing street. It is also the place where insects are for sale. As FOOD.

^The park...

^Me and my mom at the Peking Duck restaurant

^Stairway to Heaven~

^Temple of Heaven! Where the Emperor used to pray to the celestial gods.

^At the park, this woman was doing the ribbon dance!

^Also at the park, where all the older folks spend their leisure time dancing!
I want my life to be like that when I retire. It's like they have no more worries anymore and are having the time of their lives. NO MORE REGRETZ.

^The martial arts performance. The monks can balance themselves on arrows and break wood and metal with their heads! The storyline was real cheesy though xD

On the third day, we visited the Jade factory. Then, we went to climb the GREAT WALL OF CHINA. I sorta expected it to be more magnificent though. From where I was, it didn't look that long. I couldn't see past the hill. But still, it was awesome to see one of the wonders of the world. Next, we went to eat.... ALOT. 11 dishes for 2 people. DO THEY THINK WE ARE PIGS! After that, we went to the Summer Palace, where I walked into the lake which was ice :)

^A woman carving the Jade


^The Great Wall of China!
^I absolutely LOVE their English.

^The 11-course lunch. This was taken AFTER we have eaten till our stomachs were ready to explode.

^To tell you the truth, I was walking on thin ice. xD
I wouldn't recommend playing icebreakers. Hehe.

^This is the tour guide. Her name's 小红.

^At the road to the Summer Palace

On the fourth day, I met up with MAVIS! :D:D:D
We went to eat KFC and went to Xi Dan mall together. :)


And that's the end of my Bei Jing travel journal!
Flew back to Singapore and was real grateful for all the sitting toilets.
Overall, this trip was an educational one. Although I couldn't absorb half of what was told to me, I learnt some pretty interesting stuff and also the Bei Jing way of life.