Day 5:
Good morning!
Today starts early again.
We all know that the food delivery service in China is tip top experience so today we decided to order breakfast and eat in the room! Went to the lobby to collect our food.
We are having Man Ling porridge. Not sure is this a popular restaurant, we just eat what WY order! Haha!
Usually back in Singapore, the porridge might not be filled up to the rim! And there, the bowl is so full and no spill at all after the journey from the restaurant to our hotel!
After breakfast, head out and here we are for today's important itinerary! Can you guess where we are?
Taking the shelter train.
There are many different parts and we are at Ba Da Ling ( 八达岭) section as this is one of the closest sections that is near Beijing.
Operating Hours: Not sure...
The crowd again...
Queuing below the cable car that we are taking later.
The queuing game (again...) starts now!
30mins of queuing and moving, we reached the front of this restaurant, and we decided to buy some food to eat while queuing.
Bought some pancakes to help us through the queuing game!
Time checked: 1hr and we are so near yet so far... still queuing outside under the hot sun...
We are nearrrr (to the air conditional)!
We are finally queuing indoor and with air condition after another 25mins of queuing.
Oh ya, the cutting queue games here are very strong too! And it's quite obvious that they are not local Beijing people but from other part of China.
And finally gotten our cable car ticket!
Same day return ticket are selling at 140￥ (=SG$28.50)
Time checked: 1hr 45mins and it's our turn soon.
Boarding the cable car now. The queuing was not as bad as I thought! Maybe because we are well trained in Shanghai Disneyland and we know to counter the people who cuts queue (you just have to block them from having chance to cut you).
Looking down from the cable car and the queue is still ongoing!
Very nice people sitting with us in the same cable car helped us to take a group photo
Yes, this sign is a big hint where we are heading to!
Following the crowd.
Yes! Finally! Here we are at Great Wall of China! What's coming to Beijing without visiting the famous Great Wall of China, right?
The place is spectacular! It's so long that you can even see the ending!
Do you know? The Great Wall of China was built over 2000 years! This is a place that always appear in our history class and finally we see it with our own eyes and not from textbook or pictures!
Look at the crowd! Please be very very very careful when you are walking up or down the steep slope of the Great Wall of China because some people will push! We got push a few times while walking!
Reach the highest point and ending point of this section.
Anyway, it's not possible to take picture without people photobomb so we must as well take picture with the crowd.
Now, trying to walk down again.
We found a quieter corner with lesser photobomber!
And we are lucky to finally have a moment to ourselves with no photobombers!
We quickly snap a few shots before the crowd found this empty corner!
Tick off one of my bucket list!
Ok, now I have been to the Great Wall of China, and will I come again? Hmm.. most likely I will not come again because it's too crowded.
Going back down.
Lunch time! Very late for lunch and we are starving!
We are having mini lobster (小龙虾) at this Hu Da Restaurant No.3 outlet (胡大饭馆簋街三店)!
Operating Hours: Not sure...
OH YESSSS! Our mala mini lobster is here! Smell soooo good!
We ordered the garlic mini lobster too.
Cauliflower.
Spicy boiled fish (水煮鱼).
Fried rice.
The mala mini lobster is addictive! Haha! If you are someone who can eat spicy food, try this place!
Next, we went for foot massage to heal our feet for all queueing we did today!
We are at Hua Xia Liang Zi (华夏良子), I can't remember which outlet am I at now, but it's a massage chain so if you want to try their massage, you can just see if there is any nearby you.
Very big place with many rooms.
While massaging, we can still watch TV!
As usual, using herb to wash our feet first.
This masseur is good!
Last activity of the day is KTV at Chun K (纯K)!
Operating Hours: Not sure...
The price list.
Rooms are big and clean.
There is a vintage look standing microphone here!
In this KTV, you can order food from them too and they taste good! Eating almost same as our lunch, La Zi Ji and spicy boiled fish and some others.
Drinks menu.
And the alcoholic had to drink of course.
Back to hotel and oops! Another parcel arrives our door...
Anyway, Good night!
Day 6:
Good morning!
Today's breakfast will be at the Starbucks behind our hotel!
I really need coffee but there isn't much coffee choice in China so Starbucks is like the comfort coffee that I can find here.
After breakfast, here we are at a very crowded place again...
And this time round is the Summer Palace.
Operating Hours: Peak season (1st April to 31st October) 6am - 7pm (Monday to Sunday)
Nonpeak season (1st November to 31st March) 6.30am - 6pm (Monday to Sunday)
Website: https://www.summerpalace-china.com/
Prices for the ticket.
Gotten our ticket from the ticket counter at 30￥ (=SG$6.10).
So many people until I don't know how to take a nice picture of the palace...
The crowd...
By the way, here's a tip on how to know the history/story behind everything you saw, secretly walk together with a tour group (look for the flags). Plus point if you could understand mandarin because there is a lot of Chinese tour groups here so you can listen to one group and move on to another group. The tour guide is very detailed on the history part and some tour guides explain in the fun way, not your history teacher kind of explaining! Haha!
Only way to take picture without human heads, zoom in.
Empty here because this is the back.
Welfie at the empty space!
Look at the colours on the pillar! So beautiful!
Some lotus pond? We lost the tour groups, so we are not sure what pond is this for. Haha
This is with a modern glass door, so I assume this has modify into an office or something?
Fake door?
Found another tour to listen! (no choice, they don't have guided tour using a device like the European museum...)
Sometimes we are so engrossed, we stand so near them... Haha! Luckily the tour guide never kicks us away!
Not sure where is this but since it's locked up, I assume the things inside is protected from visitor.
Following the crowd.
The crowd in this Long Corridor (长廊) is one thing but the pillar is so nice! All hand painted!
The pillar on the Long Corridor!
Many people chilling at the Long Corridor.
Another pond. Why so green?
Of course, must take picture here.
Look at this! I love the painting!
How to take picture with no people photobombing?
Block them with our face!
Saw a little boy wearing the emperor outfit, taking picture at the photo station.
Another part of the Long Corridor.
There is restaurant inside, in case people/tour groups need food.
These bridges always appear in Chinese ancient drama!
Last picture and off we go!
Here we are at San Li Tun Soho (三里屯 Soho).
Address: China, 工体北路8号
First thing first is have our lunch.
Walk into one of the malls to see what we can eat there.
We just walk around and randomly picked this place. I don't even know which one is the name of the restaurant. Haha!
Appetizer.
Basically, this place sell black bean sauce noodle (炸酱面). This is the Chinese style of black bean sauce unlike Korean's Jajjangmyeong.
A different type of noodle.
After lunch, dessert time at this Whale (鲸).
What should we try?
and their sea salt ice cream to try.
Not forgetting our drinks.
So ice cream and drinks taste quite normal, no need purposely find it if you didn't see any.
Walk over to San Li Tun Tai Koo Li (三里屯太古里) and its shopping time!
Went to Uniqlo and they still have the Uniqlo X Kaw tee shirt! Everyone is limited to a certain quantity to buy. It's sold out in Singapore, so we decided to grab one here!
Went into this very big Adidas!
This place sells many different types of cookies. I am not a cookie eater so only Teresa got herself some cookies here.
Happily discussing what they have purchase in the spin of 2hrs of shopping.
Obviously, they are very happy with their purchase today!
(I got only that Uniqlo tee shirt!)
Having Heytea again while we give our feet a rest.
Time for dinner! And we are having dinner at Hai Di Lao (海底捞)!
The waiting area in this Hai Di Lao is big and the layout is like we are waiting for some performance in Disneyland!
What so special about Hai Di Lao since we have that in Singapore?
This! It's robot operated! When you place order, the robot will help to pick from here.
The wait was fast actually, and the place is HUGE!
So just now we got robot to pick our order and there will be a robot that will delivery your food to you!
Although its robot operated restaurant, but we know it's not possible to be fully robot operated so we do still have staff to serve us.
Let's dig in!
But photo first, before the food is gone.
Anyway, the Hai Di Lao here is definitely cheaper as compared to Singapore but here, the choice of meat is very limited beside beef. No problem for beef eater but for someone who don't take beef like me, it's kind of sad. If I didn't remember wrongly, there is only 2 or 3 choices of chicken.
After dinner, almost 11am already so time to head back to hotel and rest.
Good night!
Day 7:
Good morning and it's our last day in China!
Today's breakfast will be the local breakfast place we found behind our hotel, call the Scholar breakfast (状元早餐) (direct translation from Chinese so might not be the real English name for the restaurant)!
Basically, what we do is pick a tray, take what we want, pay, and enjoy!
Picking what we want.
My breakfast on the go! Taste is ok only, nothing special.
Last important tourist spot before bidding goodbye to the city!
Look at the amount of people wanting to get in... We are not even at the gate yet!
So here we are at Tian An Men (天安门). This is where the famous Forbidden City (紫禁城) is located at!
Address: W95W+FXQ, Dongcheng, China, 100051
Operating Hours: Nonpeak season (1st November to 31st March) 8.30am - 3.30pm (Monday to Sunday)
Peak Season (1st April to 31st October) 8.30am - 4pm (Monday to Sunday)
Ticket: Nonpeak season @ 40￥ (=SG$8.10)
Peak season @ 60￥(=SG$12.20)
Website: https://www.dpm.org.cn/Home.html
If you have watch Chinese ancient drama or movie, then this place is not an unfamiliar place to you.
Forbidden City is in fact a very famous imperial palace that people would love to visit when they are in Beijing.
Forbidden City housed 24 emperors, from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty and now is under charge by the Palace Museum (故宫博物馆).
The crowd...
And this time round we booked a guided tour so we no need eavesdrop other tour! Haha!
While the tour guide looking for other members, we busy taking welfie!
This place is BIG! And the amount of people in here is crazy too!
Do you know? The Forbidden City is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. They are also declared as a World Heritage site.
Photo expectation VS
Reality!
So many people photobombing!
Beautiful painting on the pillar!
Here we are at the Hall of Preserving Harmony (保和殿).
Let's continue exploring the place!
The Qian Qing Men (乾清门).
Trying my best to take the beautiful architect without human blocking.
The inside! Look like I'm in a Chinese drama now!
Pardon me for not putting down the history of all the place because I'm definitely not your history study friend, I totally can't remember what the tour guide says (because she said a lot...oops!)
There is a door under all the rocks.
This is a very famous walkway that appear a lot in Chinese historic drama!
Next, we are at the Palace of Celestial Favour, Cheng Qian Gong (承乾宫).
Now, without me explaining, here is the history of this place! Not sure if this history explanation board is place at every spot, but so far, I only see this here (maybe the rest is block by the crowd?).
And here is the Jin Ren Gong (景仁宫) and it's now a museum.
Inside here is now the exhibition of the pottery that the emperors and family used before.
They also show different part of the world that has some of the pottery.
If you watch the Chinese drama, Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧宫略), this place is not a unfamiliar place.
This is the famous Palace of Prolonging Happiness, Yanxi Gong (延禧宫). Although the reality of this palace is very much different from the drama due to the fact that this place was burnt in 1845, they tried to rebuild in 1909 with the touch of westernize structure, but due to the state's reducing finances, in year 1911, they stop the rebuilding and was forced to discontinue the work.
This is why today; we can only see the half-built palace.
You can read the history from here.
Last picture with the palace before we go!
Off we go.
Photo again while waiting for our DiDi.
We went to Oriental Plaza which is located next to our hotel to have our lunch before we head off to the airport.
Tan Yu (探鱼) for lunch! We had this is Sanya too!
We have Tan Yu in Singapore too but it's always long queue and the price is much higher back home.
Our fish is here!
Last meal in China...
And our other dishes.
Collected our luggage at the hotel and time to say goodbye to China!
Shanghai & Beijing, you have been good except for the hot weather and cut queue culture!
All ready to go back home!
Look! It's a double decker aircraft and we are sitting at the upper deck! It's my first time seeing and taking this kind of aircraft!
Dinner time on flight!
Bye for now! Stay tune for the next trip!
