Day 3, Beijing, Cloudy and Foggy

We woke up very early this morning - 615am! Lucky me, Mum made us breakfast - toast, bread with kaya and hard-boiled egg and coffee. But I gave my egg to my younger brother. Better start eating less, getting REALLY fat!!!

Then we got ready and went downstairs. Our chauffeur was already there waiting for us. We sent our Daddy off to work first, then drove to the outskirts of Beijing towards the Ju4 Yong1 Guan1 gate of the Great Wall of China. We need to pay entrance fees. RMB$20. Every tourist attraction in China need entrance fees. And they are not cheap. Back to the story, we climbed up the steep steps to a higher level to take some photos. It was really scary when we descended. History of this gate: Juyongguan was an important pass of the great wall. In 1961, the state council announced it as the first state preservation unit of cultural relics. In 1987, UNESCO classified it as the world cultural heritage. Juyongguan being built originally during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.) came into being till Han dynasty. It acted as a link for the great wall during the northern and southern dynasties (420-589 A.D.). The extant Juyongguan was built in 1368 during the Ming dynasty. In 1993, "Ming tombs special districts" reconstructed Juyongguan thoroughly and returned its original appearance. As Juyongguan is a famous landscape combined with natural scenery and humane crafts, it was famous for its "piling green up Juyong" during Jin dynasty (1190-1195 A.D.) and was called the leader of the "eight scenes of Yanjing".

Next we proceeded to the Ba1 Da2 Ling2 gate entrance into the Great Wall. This time the entrance was RMB$60!! Cauz! It was all the way up, climbing further and further up to the next fortress. The weather was foggy and the pictures did not really come out clear. Somemore, the cold wind was blowing over the mountains and standing on top of the mountain, it was kind of unbearibly cold. I did not go all the way up cos' my legs were going nua and the height was frightening me. My 2 brothers did, they went all the way to the top and very far away. My mum and I waited in a fortress somewhere below. These China men and women were really unhygenic loh. One woman just spat on the flow and a stupid old man farted in front of me with his butt facing me!!! URGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the toilet ah, machiam like never cleaned for 10 years!!! Luckily the toilets now have doors. It used to be doorless, and everyone could peep in. YUCKS!

We waited for my brothers for about an hour before seeing them coming back. Hunger was killing us. We went to a restaurant there and ordered "za2 jiang4 mian4" and "shui2 jiao4". They were terrible. Eeeks. So we didn't finish the food and our hunger was only temporarily suppressed.

We next proceeded to "shi2 san1 ling2". Entrance fees RMB$60. Dingling is the first imperial tomb excavated so far in accordance with the state's plan since the founding of the PRC. It is the joint tomb of the 13th Zhu Yijun (Wu3 Di4) of the Ming dynastry and his 2 empresses (Xiao4 Duan1 and Xiao4 Ling2). The construction of this tomb was 1584. In July 1957, the underground palace was successfully opened up. Thus Dingling Museum was established on the site in 1959.

The underground palace was 27 metres below ground level. The coffins in the palace were all replicas. How to worth the money? But I realy admire the workers that build these infrastructures in the past. *claps claps claps*

*Hunger never left us* It was already 330pm. We proceeded back to the city. Our chauffuer brought us to a place where peoply fly and sell kites there. The wind was really good to fly kites. We tested out a few and bought 2. We also bought the strings, said to be composite of wire and nylon that could last up to 10 years. Cost RMB$90. Think that was quite good buy.

520pm. Finally time to fetch our Daddy off from work. Drove past the land where Olympiads 2008 will be held. A very big piece of land under construction! Our chauffeur said that a good thing about China is that, once they decided to do something, they will do it whole-heartedly. I guess the 2008 Olympiads will be great!

We then went for dinner near our apartment. We had Peking duck, cai xin, lian hua stir-fried beef, suan la pork bites, suan chu peanuts and 2 bottles of their home-made beer. WAH! Super beer. Total cost RMB$200. Damn cheap!! But the Peking duck wasn't as good as 2 days before. Not xiang. But acceptable for the price. We tucked in like we never did before. While we were about to pay the bills, it rained very heavily!! There were "bing1 bao4"!!! But not big big ones. They were small, about 0.5cm by 0.5cm. When the rain got smaller, we walked briskly back to our apartment which was like 5 mins away. We didn't go exercise today. Too tired to go le.

CP hasn't sent me the Taiwan/HK photos yet. Does it really take so long to upload and send to me? Getting really fed up.