Singapore to Beijing, Day 0 and Day 1

Wah, the long awaited SQ flight to Beijing on 4th June had finally come! We boarded the flight at 430pm, and it took off at 510pm. The plane was small! The entertainment on board the flight was more than that of Cathay Pacific. Some of the movies were however same. But the good thing was that the movies could be "played", "paused", "re-wind" or "forward". Cathay couldn't. A disappointment was that the food on SQ wasn't that great as Cathay's. As my brother and I were seated at the last seats, we didn't get our choice of food. Anyway, both of the choices weren't great. Bleah.

It was a 5hr 35 min flight to Beijing. When we alighted, we walked from the our last seats, then the whole of the economy seats, business class seats, first class seats and I saw the cockpit! Wah! Admire the pilots man! They could fly such big monsters!!

My dad's chauffeur was already there waiting at Starbucks to fetch us! He was holding the sign "Embassy House". He is 43, seemed an honest man, a bit "bao4 ya2", and tall (about 1.8m I guess). Eventually, when he talked to us while driving, he was no doubt a good man. And a safe and careful driver too! The roads in Beijing is similar to that of Taiwan's, less the number of scooters. They also drive on the left hand side.

We reached Embassy House, went in through the 360 deg turning glass door, took the lift to 28th floor, opened the door and were delighted to see our Daddy waiting for us in the apartment. The apartment was huge! Even bigger than my S'pore house! We bathed and ate some beef flavoured instant noodles cooked by my younger brother. (He rarely cooks for others. How honoured I am.) After everything, it was already 1am! We unpacked and settled down, and was already 130am. Time to rest for the day!

We woke up at 9am. Daddy cooked us beef porridge!!! Yummy!! First time he cooks porridge for breakfast for us!! The smooth fragrant gluey porridge was nice with pepper, ginger, sesame oil, coriander and spring onions!!

We then changed and took the lift down. Our chauffeur was already patiently waiting at the doorstep. He then took us to Kong Zi Temple. Entrance fee RMB$10. The place used to be an examination hall for scholars in the past. Some historical moments. Addy: Bei3 Jing1 Shi4 Dong1 Cheng2 Qu1 Guo2 Zhi3 Jian1 Jie1 13 Hao4. Webbie: http://www.confucius-bj.org.cn. The webbie for the capital museum: http://www.beijingmuseum.org.cn.

We then went to a restaurant for Peking Duck!! Name of restaurant: Quan2 Ju4 De2. Webbie: http://www.quanjude.com.cn. Addy: Bei3 Jing1 Qian2 Men2 Xi1 Da4 Jie1 14 Hao4. Quanjude was established in 1864 (3rd year of Tongzhi, Qing Dynasty), having a history over 140 years. There are 2 methods of making Peking duck - one is to put the duck over charcoal fire and another one is to hang the ducks in a big pot where it would be roasted by the high heat rather than the fire. This restaurant uses the latter method. When we stepped into the restaurant, we were greeted by 3 waitresses who bowed at the same time. We took the lift up to the 4th floor where the restaurant was. We ordered 1 Peking duck, some stir-fried duck intestines and a pot of dang gui black chicken soup. The Peking duck was cut up by a "shifu", separating the skin and the meat. It was to be eaten together with steamed flour skin. It was HEAVENLY!!!!! 5 stars!!! The skin was so properly roasted that the colour was evenly toned; when you bite into it, the juice from the fats under the layer of skin gave out this nice aroma, super delicious; adding the crisps of the skin. ARHHHH!!!!! Peking duck! The duck we ate was numbered 1,150,091,535 since its opening in 1864.

The chauffeur drove us around some alleys that were still un-renovated from the past like a few hundred years ago. The alleys were small, the doors had a stepover, and the walls were dilapilated. I wonder how the people still can stay inside them! Some renovated them and turned them into shops. We also drove past some walls ("wei2 qiang2") that used to block off enemy attacks in the past. Our chauffeur said it is now left with 1/4 of the whole wall due to construction of roads and buildings. The 3/4 of the walls were knocked down in the 1960s. Then we went to Asia's largest Shopping Mall. It was really HUGE, but there were only a few people. The shops were selling mostly branded stuff. We just window-shopped. We went to the basement and there was a big supermarket, equivalent to Carrefour. We bought some very cute little dumplings there!


Courtesy from my Mum's hand...

Compare and contrast between the original-sized and the mini one!

We had twin steamboat for dinner. The restaurant was small, and because it was raining, the interior was a bit dirty, plus the China people had really bad hygiene habits. Eeeks. I sat down unwillingly, and Daddy ordered food. "Ma la" and chicken soup "yuan yang huo guo". The "ma la" was a brand new experience. From all the "ma la" steamboat I've eaten, they are only a little spicy. The one I ate today can't be compared to anything!!! It gave the feeling of NUMBNESS!!! A little touch of the soup on the lips and tongue, you will feel a thousand ants nimbering!!! However, I did not like this feeling at all. I switched to cook in the chicken soup side. Haha. The food wasn't good. Not worth eating.

We returned to our apartment and changed immediately into our swimming costumes. We took the lift to the 2nd storey where the club was. It was big, equipped with swimming pool, pool table, table tennis and gym! There was also jacuzzi and suana in the swimming pool's toilet. I taught my mother how to swim. Lesson 1: kicking and hands' motion with float. She did ok la. Haha. Then we went for suana and jacuzzi. Relaxing man!! We bathed and went up back to our apartment and ate some rice dumplings again.

I slept at 2am.