I kisses And Cabled The Great Wall Of China !

Yes, I have to admit I did kiss the Great Wall of China ! Not once but twice. It was in my wish list to visit the Great Wall of China for many years. And I am glad that I finally made it. I did promise my self that if I do reach or step onto this particular wonder of the world, I will give the wall a kiss. And I did !
And I would like to thank Mr. Daniel Li the manager from beijing-tour.com for providing me the entire free tour for package A and B. So that solve some of the questions I receive by email why I am promoting beijing-tour.com . But that is not the 'cabled' I mean to the Great Wall.
I bought a hiking stick during my previous trip in Hangzhou last February for this purpose. I brought the hiking stick along to the Great Wall but didn't actually has the opportunity to use it due to some reasons. Instead, we took the 'cable car' to reach the 8Th tower. Well, at least I walked 2 towers down and 2 towers up. That is exhausting enough. That's the 'cable' I mean.
OK, lets start from the beginning. After the Ming Tombs visit, we proceed to The Badaling Great Wall. We had lunch at the base of the mountains. There were 7 of us. One elderly couple (very strong and energetic to climb the Great Wall) from the US, a younger couple also from the US where the husband is a soldier who just came back from the Somalia and another business couple from the Philippines. Lunch is provided in the tour package which comprises of 8 to 9 Chinese dishes and free flow of drinks.
After lunch, we proceed to the cable car station and off we go to the top. As easy as that. Even though the place is crowded, we needn't need to Que for the cable car as they came very fast. We have the option to choose to walk up or to take the cable car. But seeing the lengthy climb with so many people, I think we make the right decision to take the cable car up and down. Anyway tickets for the cable car is not included in the tour package. So we have to buy our own tickets. However, we have a good lady tour guide, Ms Jennifer Tuan who speaks fluent English and doesn't mind handling all these ticketing for us.
The view of the Badaling Great Wall is magnificent and beautiful. You just can't stop clicking your camera the moment you are at the base until you reach the 8Th tower. I am so sorry I can't express them in words except by posting more photos. The weather was perfectly fine at that time and there are so many people walking with you. Believe me, every angle of photos you take have it's own beauty. It's wonderful ! No wonder it's declare by the UNESCO as the Seven Wonders of The World.
The Great Wall is one place in Beijing that I will re-visit if were to be back there visiting. Perhaps the next time will be on a winter season and we'll walk up. Well, I post more photos down and no more words for your viewing. I'm not good in words but the picture it selves says a thousand and one words.. Have a pleasant evening..

The Ming Dynasty Tombs, Beijing

The moment I have been waiting for have finally arrived, after waiting for years. Yes, I always wanted to go to the Great Wall of China. It's today, but not right now, because I have an appointment with tour-beijing.com . Mr Laoli the manager with tour-beijing.com have arranged for me Tour A. Details as below:

Tour A: Badaling Great Wall and Ming Tombs One Day Tour
Departure: Daily
Duration: 1 day
Starts at: 07.30 am
Ends at: 06.00 pm
Starting point: Your Hotel
Ending point: Your Hotel
We speak: English

Tour Itinerary: Pick up at your hotel between 7:30am and 8:30. Then drive to Changling--- one of the Tombs of thirteen Emperors of Ming Dynasty with 500 year history are about 50 kilometres to the north of Beijing. After lunch. the drive to Badaling Great Wall takes about 40 minutes. Badaling section is the most famous and best-preserved wall. It lies 100 KM away at the northwest of Beijing. If you want to get to the highest point and have a bird eye¡¯s view of this section of the great wall, cable car is a good choice ( optional ). After the tour, transferred back to your hotel. After picking us from our respective hotels, it took us another hour by coach to reach the Ming Dynasty Tombs at Changling. Photo: Silk Burning Stove, Changling tombAccording to Wikepedia: The Ming Dynasty Tombs (Chinese: 明朝十三陵; pinyin: Míng cháo shí sān líng; lit. Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty) are located some 50 kilometers due north of urban Beijing at a specially selected site. The site was chosen by the third Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle (1402–1424), who moved the capital of China from Nanjing to the present location of Beijing. The Ming tombs of the 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty were located on the southern slope of Mount Taishou (originally Mount Huangtu). He is credited with envisioning the layout of the ancient city of Beijing as well as a number of landmarks and monuments located therein. After the construction of the Imperial Palace (the Forbidden City) in 1420, the Yongle Emperor selected his burial site and created his own mausoleum.

From the Yongle Emperor onwards, 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors were buried in this area. The tombs of the first two Ming Emperors are located near Nanjing (the capital city during their reigns). Emperor Jingtai was also not buried here, as the Emperor Tianshun had denied Jingtai an imperial burial, but was instead buried west of Beijing. The last Chongzhen Emperor, who hanged himself in April 1644, named Si Ling by the Qing emperor, was the last to be buried here, but on a much smaller scale than his predecessors. During the Ming dynasty the tombs were off limits to commoners, but in 1644 Li Zicheng's army ransacked and set many of the tombs on fire before advancing and capturing Beijing in April of that year.Photo: The book of facts explaining the past Emperor. kindly click the picture to enlarge.

Frankly speaking, I was more interested in visiting the Great Wall. As such I didn't pay much attention to the tour guide this time. The Ming Dynasty Tombs offer more historical stories rather than just scenery.
And here is the gate where you don't walk through to visit the tombs, but you have to walk through to get out. The belief is that you don't walk to the tombs, but when you walk out, you have to walk together with the rest of the entourage saying aloud 'wo hui lai le' meaning 'I am back'. literally it means you are back to the real world now. The ladies will step with the right leg first and the guys with the left leg first. Well, at least you know some ancient Chinese custom. Belief it or not, it's up to you..My next posting is the Badaling Great Wall of China ! Do drop by to join me on my Great Wall tour coming soon..
Good Night (11.50 PM)

Exotic Food @ Wang Fujing Street

After the tour, I took a stroll down the street where there were a lot of people gathered along the snack street. I was hungry too as it was approaching dinner time. What a coincidence, food is available right in front. I crossed the road straight away approaching where there are most people. Most of the visitors there are almost 99% tourist comprises of Malaysian, Singaporean, Chinese from other province and westerners. There are mostly barbecue sticks and fried meat in stick form. An I get closer, I was amaze as they not only offer the normal food such as mutton, chicken, beef, shrimp and eels. They also have a lot of exotic food such as scorpions, centipede, beetles and so much more.
The stalls selling those food are offering almost the same items and stretch almost to about 500 meters afar. I was surprised to see most of the tourist carrying and walking along eating those food, and I wonder what they are eating as they seems to enjoy them.
Since I was so hungry, I started buying the drinks to satisfy my stomach needs. Later I walk down to the very end of the row, and walk back to where I started. I couldn't make my decision which to eat. I do agree that there is the fear factor in me in trying out those exotic food.
After considering and reconsidering, and watching those people enjoying themselves with their own food, I make up my mind in buying one of the sticks. I spent 10 yuan for a stick of eel meat.
The eel meat doesn't taste bad, except that the 'thing' in my mouth doesn't make me feel good. I find it hard to swallow them into my stomach. As such I decided to keep them in a better place, right happened to be in front of me, the dustbin.
Then later I start to move around walking from one end again and return doing my job, clicking here and there with my camera.
I made a second attempt without much hesitation on my next stop since I was still hungry. This time I bought a stick of fried scrimp. I am sure this must be easy for me as they are common food. After a bite of it, I straight away head to the dustbin. This time, it's the taste. It really taste like plastic and tasteless. I think they must have kept the food for along time and re-fried them over and over again. It's tough like leather. That cost me 20 yuan !
There are even star fish. I purposely post lots of photos in today's posting as I want to let the photos tell it's own stories with it's own words.
Temptation to try eating them are there especially if you come a long way like me, and they do looks delicious and fresh.
Try to see closer at each photos, there are worm cocoons, water beetles, Centipede, snake meat, sheep penis, star fish, octopus, longhorn beetles and some of them I don't even know what they are called or what they are.
After walking to the very end of the snack street, I reach the junction of Wang Fujing Street. Take a turn on the right is the pedestrian/walking street. This is another famous street among visiting tourist. This evening the weather is cooling almost 26 degree Centigrade. So, it is comfortable for a street walk.
I walk to the first stall along the street to have a tuna sandwich and a bottle of China's Tsingtao beer. A bottle of small size of Tsingtao beer cost 10 yuan. It is very common for the people there to drink direct from the bottle. No glass is provided.
I walked around Wang Fujing street until night falls. It's a lovely street with lots of foreigners and I enjoy going through the street window shopping and watching the crowded people shopping around. They have a lot of things to see, most of them different from where I come from. Probably the reason I was enjoying myself with my camera along is the cold weather and cool wind blowing.Wang Fujing located in Dongcheng district in Beijing is the most famous Walking Street in Beijing among domestic and foreign tourist. If you are visiting Beijing, this is a must visit place during the evening or as a free and easy tour. And there is a subway station over at this street if you intent to come over or are staying further or outside of Dongcheng district. Just take the Metro subway train. And the next subway station after Wang Fujing is Tian'anmen.
Wang Fujing is as interesting during day time and after sunset. When dusk come, the buildings starts to brighten up with colourful neon's. And the street gets even crowded during night time. And I think that's because most of the tourist are already back from their daily tour, and are on shopping spree and looking for souvenirs.
At night time, I can feel that spring is still around in Beijing. There are people still putting on sweater and long sleeve shirts.
In China, every walking street is a typical China Town. They have lots of lanterns with big Chinese signboard and architecture everywhere. They looks the same in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou and Tianjin. I think they look the same or quite similar too in other countries as well. That struck my mind posting the question why there are China Town all over the world ? We have a few in Malaysia. The most well know one is the 'Petaling Street'.
I sat and walk along the street relaxing until almost 9 pm, then I decided to walk my way back to my hotel which is not far away.

Summer Palace

Summer Palace is our last stop for the daily tour 'Package B' with tour-beijing.com . Before I came to this place, my impression of Summer Palace is a huge complex for the former emperor of China. Yes everything in China, specifically Beijing is so huge. That include the park, highway, shopping mall, tourist spot and buildings. Probably compare to the place where I come from. So, I was expecting some huge palace like the Forbidden City. However upon reaching and actually seeing the vast scenery, I immediately recall my previous visit to China, the West Lake of Hangzhou.
But the West Lake or Xihu is much larger. You need at least 5 to6 days to complete the entire tour around West Lake. From what I heard from the tour guide, the lake at the Summer palace is man made. That's the difference between it and the West Lake in Hangzhou. However, if you don't have the time to visit West lake, the Summer Palace would be as an exciting place to visit and for taking pictures. And you can take a day to complete the tour if you have the time. As for us, we took about 2 hours as we are running out of time.
To shorten our time, we took the Dragon boat to reach the other end of the lake. That cost us 5 yuan per person which is not in our tour package.
According to Wikipedia:
The Summer Palace or Yihe yuan (traditional Chinese: 頤和園; simplified Chinese: 颐和园; pinyin: Yíhé Yuán; literally "Gardens of Nurtured Harmony") is a palace in Beijing, China. The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water. The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometers was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. In its compact 70,000 square meters of building space, one finds a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures.
The Summer Palace started out life as the Garden of Clear Ripples (traditional Chinese: 清漪園; simplified Chinese: 清漪园; pinyin: Qīngyī Yuán) in 1750 (Reign Year 15 of Emperor Qianlong). Artisans reproduced the garden architecture styles of various palaces in China. Kunming Lake was created by extending an existing body of water to imitate the West Lake in Hangzhou. The palace complex suffered two major attacks--during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860 (with the Old Summer Palace also ransacked at the same time), and during the Boxer Rebellion, in an attack by the eight allied powers in 1900. The garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. In 1888, it was given the current name, Yihe Yuan. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace.
In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value." It is a popular tourist destination but also serves as a recreational park. To read more, please click 'here'.Many buildings in China including the ancient and the new one has statue as the guardian. They believe that the statue has some kind of power that bring good luck and protection from some form of evil things. And the statue comes in different size and form such as Crane, Lion, Dragon and etc. Mostly are made of Bronze, jade and stone.

Photo: The Long Walkway with Chinese ancient architecture and bright colours.

Photo: The ever lasting boat made of marble, that will never sink.

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Temple of Heaven

After lunch, we proceed to Temple Of Heaven which is within the city center. It is a big complex which was formerly visited by the emperor of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayers to Heaven for good harvest.

More details about the origin of Temple of Heaven can be obtain "here"
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Tian'anmen Square

Not all days are sunny day. Today, we did not get to see the blue sky over at Tian'anmen. It rain all day. Even our English tour guide, Ms. Jennifer Tuan who used a blue umbrella as a flag to lead us confused us as there were too many blue umbrellas around today. The weather is too unpredictable in Beijing lately. However, the rain never hinder our spirit or touring Beijing at all. Tian'anmen square has it's own beauty when it rains.
Tian'anmen Square is two gates to the front of the Forbidden City. From Forbidden City, we walked to Tian'anmen Square. There were a lot of policemen and army personnel around guarding at the square area in plain clothes and uniforms. You can easily notice them as most of them were carrying umbrellas (even on a hot sunny day) and wearing rain coats.
According to Wikipedia:
Tiananmen Square (simplified Chinese: 天安门广场; traditional Chinese: 天安門廣場; pinyin: Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng) is the large plaza near the centre of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen (literally, Gate of Heavenly Peace) which sits to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. It has great cultural significance as a symbol because it was the site of several key events in Chinese history (See below: Events).The square covers 40.5 hectares (100 acres),^[1] which makes it the largest open-urban square in the world.
Click 'here' to read more..
At the square, you can easily walk to other famous buildings around such as the old rail way station building, Zhengyangmen gate, Monument to the People's Heroes, Mausoleum of Mao Zedong and the Great Hall of The People.

Photo: The Great Hall Of The People

Photo: Zhengyangmen Gate

Photo: The Old Railway Station
Today's tour were made possible by tour-beijing.com. To see more of daily tours by tour-beijing, kindly click on the icon below.

Forbidden City

After so many posting, I only reach my third day in Beijing today.
This morning, I have an appointment with tour-beijing dot com to visit a few places in Beijing. The package is called Tour B, which comprises of Forbidden City, Temple Of Heaven and Summer Palace which cost US$20.00 per head. And today's posting is only part of Tour B. I will post more photos on Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace on some other day.
This is a daily tour package which I have booked on-line before my departure. The tour price include:
1. Pick-up service from the hotel.
2. Air-conditioned tour bus.
3. Entrance tickets of the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace.
4. English Speaking Tour Guide.
5. Lunch.
Taken From Wikipedia:
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.
Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms^[1] and covers 720,000 square metres (7,800,000 square feet). The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture,^[2] and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987,^[2] and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
Since 1925, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artifacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Part of the museum's former collection is now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Civil War. For more click 'here'.

The weather was fine when we left our hotel. So I didn't bring along the umbrella which I brought along from Malaysia. Unfortunately, it started to rain when we arrive our destination. The disposable rain coat which I carried along (Made In China) was so fragile that it tear off before I can even put it on. As such I need to buy another umbrella which cost me RMB10.
Well it rain the whole day today..
The complex is really huge and I need I need half day to complete the tour. However, we skip many places and takes only two hours to finish the tour.
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Flowers Of Beijing

Photos taken along the walkway opposite the Tian'anmen Square.

Photo's taken at the People's Park near the Bird's Nest Olympic 2008 stadium and the Water Cube Stadium in Beijing.

Please click 'here' to see my posting on my Beijing / Tianjin Tour.