Sunday, November 19, 2006

Gigantic Metallic Christmas Tree

Building the Christmas Tree in Central... Half metallic, half plastic...

Building the Outdoor Christmas Tree in Central

Where's the REAL tree??

Friday, November 03, 2006

Other Miscellaneous Beijing Sites

Here's a couple more that I went to during my trip in Beijing,...
Forbidden Palace (Please don't ask me why I had my hands on the Red wall ... Everyone was doing it, so I just took a pose and had my friend take a shot!)
Forbidden City Follow the leader

Yep, here's my electronic tour guide. I'm not sure if I was happy because I had it, or if it was because I was holding it upside down when the picture was taken...
My tour guide My tour guide

Mao's Mausoleum. Look at all the lines! I've never seen people so cooperative before!
Outside Mao Look at THAT line!

Temple of Heaven:
Temple of.... Heaven I think.
No you dimwit... You're not supposed to take a picture of the concrete! You're supposed to take a picture of the greenery!
Temple of Heaven Park Temple of Heaven Park
I'm King of the World! (Well at least near the center of the world, based on Chinese tale on the Temple of Heaven....)
Temple of Heaven Park
Xiang Shan Park:
XiangShan (concrete version)
Really nice Starbucks branch near Bei hai park
Starbucks Beijing

ROCK!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Da Wall

One of the main reasons why I wanted to go to Beijing for my vacation: The Great Wall.

Not just any great wall. Last time I headed off to Beijing I went to the tourist spot section, which was the Badaling section. That was cramped with people, and the wall itself was restored to the point of ... well... I can't think of a better adjective at the moment, but lets just say it wasn't all that authentic as I wanted it to be.

I wanted to see the "guts" of the Great Wall.. something that's unrestored, where you would imagine soldiers hanging about, and invaders marching up to attack fortifications. I suppose I have had too much of warcraft and strategy games. But I wasn't disappointed when I went to Chien Kou.

My friend and I had to take an hour's bus to get to the town proper nearest to the unrestored sections of the Great Wall, and we were given the choice between Simatai and Chien Kou. In the end, we chose the latter and had to take also an hour's worth of ride to the base of the wall.

In fact, it wasn't the base of the wall , but the base of the moutain that had the section of the wall. An hours' climb up on steep slopes and a lot of hiking, with the aid of a trusty old sturdy branch my friend and I picked up (likely from previous hikers who were kind enough to leave them for hikers like us), we reached the top ... and what a sight to behold. The steep climb was so worth it, and so was the trip! Take a look and see what we had to go through, and what we saw on top!

Base of the mountain:

Wall wall

Up there! First fortification! Awesome sights!
Wall At the Top! Wall At the Top!

Second fortification:
Da Wall

Whoa.. can you imagine climbing up there?
Wall At the Top!

My best berserker Orc impression:
Trying my best Orc Berserker face

Cool... awesome sights!
Da Wall Da Wall

If this kind of mountain top scenery isn't up to standards, I don't what what will!
Da Wall

Just because of the this, the trip was sooo worth it!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

XiangShan Park

One of the two reasons why I wanted to go to Beijing for my vacation! Xiang Shan park is one of the places I wanted to go to so I can see autumn at its best. Most people head off to Japan and Korea for this, but I opted for the cheaper alternative....

In fact, its not so bad at all. It also helped that my friend and I found a hike path on our way down the mountain... It had much better sceneries and sights than the concrete paths provided by the park itself.... Can you tell I like nature a lot? especially trees. I'd like to name one of my future kids, "Oak". My boyfriend said its a bad idea... but... really. I don't think so. I wonder if my kid will kill me for naming him that.
XiangShan Park XiangShan Park
XiangShan Park XiangShan Park
XiangShan Park XiangShan Park

The Beijing Food Post

Egg pancake with crispy fried (something) and sweet and hot sauce filling..

Big spring roll with veggies ... 2RMB
Street Food (Two Bucks)
Tons of Nuts!
Nuts!
Sticky rice with red dates...really heavy stuff. 4 RMB.
Street Food (Four Bucks)
Caramellized.... fruit. Sorry, cant remember the fruit.
Street Food
"Taiwanese" sausages ... 3RMB
Street Food (Three Bucks)
Noodles... sliced and diced! 5RMB
Noodles Noodles
Noodles (5!)
Street Lamb Skewer .. 2RMB
Lamb Skewer (2!)
Fried tofu with sweet fermented sauce - 3RMB
Tofu ... Something. (3!)
Some japanese chain store selling octopus balls. My colleagues seem to recognize it, I don't. But I bought one and ate it anyway also.
Gorging...?
Porridge for the morning.. sorry, no price.
Porriage and preserved Veggies
All time Beijing favorite! The street yogurt, for 1.5 RMB!
Awesome Yogurt!!! (1.5)
Lunch is served after climbing the Great Wall at Chien Kou!
Lunch after the Wall Lunch after the Wall Lunch after the Wall

Nothing beats a fancy, upscale vacation than having a vacation filled with good street food. AWESOME!